Recommended Reading/Reference: The Garden Primer

The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch is a book that I bought last year towards the end of the gardening season. This book is of biblical proportions --820 pages, and is an encyclopedia of garden care. It has been super helpful already this Spring and I expect that I will continue to refer to it. It is the kind of information that I read and think, "yes, right, sweet potatoes need x,y,z fertilizer and potatoes need c,d,e, but then by the time I get to that step I forget and have to go back and read that section again.
It is organized by veggies, fruits, shrubs, lawn care, common pest problems, etc. and it has an excellent index. The book contains 2-3 page entries on most common veggies, herbs, and fruits: how to grow them, common pests, soil preferences, etc. The only problem that I have been having with it is that I have decided to grow some "unusual" things this year, like huckleberries and honeyberries, which are not found in the index. Also lemon balm is not mentioned. I guess even 820 pages can only cover so many plants!

Reuse Recipe: Oatmeal

A note on reuse recipes: I have realized after writing these for 4 months now that I want them to be real -- not ideas that I researched just to blog about.  I try to write about something that I actually used this week. Meanwhile, I am also continuing to use the old faithful reuse recipes that I shared way back in January and February. Like just this evening I made another batch of leftover fruit juice pops from the can of peaches that we had with dinner. It has become part of my routine and I am happy with that.

Oatmeal is another staple in our family. I confess - I don't really like it! Kids and hubby do though, so that's fine. When a bowl full is left in the pot and I don't want to finish it off (per usual).  I put it in the fridge for later use.  My go-to oatmeal reuse method is to make pancakes the next day.  They are so yummy. Much more yummy than oatmeal in my humble opinion. I like to improvise my pancakes so that they are not too dry -- the method goes something like this:

1. Put leftover oatmeal/cold cereal in the pancake bowl
2. Add 2-3 eggs -stir
3. Melt 2-4 Tablespoons butter in the pan you are going to use for frying. Meanwhile add 1-2 Cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 Tablespoons sugar, and a pinch or 2 of salt to the pancake bowl.  Stir.  
4. Add the now melted butter from your pan to the pancake bowl. Now the pan is all greased and ready for you.
5. Assess the mixture's consistency and add milk until it reaches your preferred pancake consistency. I like mine kinda runny. Half way between American pancakes and crepes.
6. 

Giant Oatmeal Pancake

7. Pour into the pan to make a "giant" pancake

8. Your kids will gobble it right up!

Garden Progress: Sprouting

The milk jug starters are working well so far.

Opening the first set of milk jug starters

Success!

Also a new edible joined our landscaping this week: Bay Laurel. No need to buy any bay leaves from now on.  It is a perennial, but only in zones 8-10, and will have to come in for the winter so I potted it. 

Bay Leaf Shrub

Sew Special: Tracing a Pattern

 

Kelly Skirt by Megan Nielson

 I have had this little lovely awaiting my attention for more than a month now.   This pattern is so popular that it is almost always sold out.  It is also MUCH more expensive (18$) than I would normally spend on a pattern. However,  I have been itching to try one of Megan's famous patterns and a friend was considering using it for her bridesmaids, so I decided to go ahead and buy it.

Here are some of the variations that I intend to try.

From here

From here

Since the pattern was so expensive, I decided to trace off the size and style that I think I want. It takes some extra time, but it keeps the pattern in perfect condition.  I hope to use this pattern for many future skirts.

There are many wonderful seamstresses who have discussed tracing patterns on their blogs.  I recommend this one from A Fashionable Stitch. A truly great sewing blog.

Materials needed for tracing a pattern (with links):

1. Clear plastic ruler - 2x18"
2. Medical Exam Paper
3. Mechanical pencil
4. Pattern weights

 I got the pattern pieces traced and cut and the fabric all cut out for my first try.  Now on to the sewing!

Home Schooling Summary for Last Week and This Week

Et Viola! A whole week has run by already. We've been having tons of fun with our cousins who just moved close by as well as doing our usual Joy School & Home School stuff.

Some great new discoveries last week: MathStart stories!
We found these books at our local library.  Daughter A and son M both love reading - these are fun stories that include math concepts. A says that "Double the Ducks" is her favorite one.

We have also read and enjoyed several others:

Probably Pistachio

Coyotes All Around

The Greatest Gymnast of All

I expect we'll be getting others from the library over the next weeks/months as well.

We also enjoyed some fun activities from this book:

The Encyclopedia of Infant and Toddler Activities

Nothing like good CLEAN fun -- soap sculptures

Soap Sculptures

Cut-up and glue back together a calendar - counting and days of the week

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Reading	X	Joy School	X	Bob Books 1-4	Bob Books 5-6
Writing	X	X	X	X	Letter tracing practice
Math	Math Stories	Math stories	Math Stories	Math stories	Puzzles
Science	Life cycle of a frog	X	Soap sculptures	X	X
History/Geography	X	X	X	X	X

This week we continued to enjoy the Math Stories and incorporated some great new resources that a friend from church passed along to me. Her kids are 3-4 years older than ours.
She had some phonics flash cards which made a nice change of pace from the "train game" which daughter A is all played out on. They also gave us these great dry erase toys that help kids practice writing their letters and also practice the pre-letter type lines and curves. Even 2 year old M likes to try his hand at those.

Writing practice

Fun times with the cousins:

Baking with kids

cinnamon buns to be 

yummy results

This week's Joy School theme was imagination and creativity. Since I hosted this week, I was able to take some pictures. We had lots of fun dressing up, doing dramatizations of fairy tales, pretending to fly on a space ship and having a picnic.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Reading	Word puzzles	Word puzzles	Word puzzles	Word puzzles	Letter flash cards
Writing	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice
Math	Math Stories	Math stories	Math Stories	mazes	X
Science	X	X	Fossils 1	Ground hogs	X
History/Geography	X	X	X	X	X

Reuse Recipes: Lovely Bones

I can't believe that I have not already covered this topic.  I was telling some friends this weekend about the chicken stock I made and they were unaware that you could boil just the bones, not the whole chicken, to make stock.  Why yes, yes you can. In fact it is super healthy and is called "bone broth" in some recipes.  It is supposed to be a cure all, like chicken soup. Plus it is so easy.

My favorite way to do it is this -

1. Bake an organic fryer (if you are going to use all the parts of it including its marrow, better make sure it was kindly raised). I like to put a couple onions or lemons in the cavity to make it taste nice.  Note: that is a good reuse for the rinds/flesh of freshly squeezed lemons too!

   

   photo from: whatscookingamerica.net

2. Make a nice meal or two with all the meat that you can pull off the bones.  For example, Hawaiian haystacks was what we used it for this week.
3. Dump the carcass, skin, etc into the crock pot. Cover with water. Let it simmer on low overnight.
4. Turn off the crockpot and let it cool off enough that you can touch it without burning yourself. Don't open the lid during the cooling process or you will let bacteria in. 
   
5. Place a colander in a larger bowl and dump out the contents of the crock pot.  Set the broth aside and examine the bones. Pull off all the pieces of meat that you missed and put into the bowl with the broth or set aside for another meal.  I always think that I did a very good job cleaning the meat off and am then shocked by the amount that I can get off the carcass/bones once it's been boiled. 
6. Place broth in usable size freezer storage containers and label for the next time you are making soup or a recipe that calls for chicken broth. It will keep in the freezer for 3-6 months with good flavor.

Recommended Reading: The Once and Future King

I stumbled on this book while in the children's section of the library.  I am not sure why I never read it as a child. The Sword in the Stone is the first book of a series called The Once and Future King by T.H. White. It is a beautifully written version of the first part of the King Arthur story -- the education of the "Wart".  It is a light hearted adventure story. I have enjoyed reading it and highly recommend it. All the characters are charming and Mr. White's descriptions make me feel like I am cozy friends with each one.  I can't wait until my kiddos are old enough to read this one.

Garden Progress: Direct Sow Seeds

This week in the garden: weeding and seeding.  I am a little late planting some of these things, but here is the list of things that were direct seeded this week:

1. Kale
2. Collards
3. Fennel
4. Lettuce mix
5. 2 kinds of beets
6. French Sorrel - I am really excited about this one.  It is a perennial lettuce.  Hopefully it will be a decorative and edible border around the bed where I have my blackberries and expect to soon plant my honey berry bushes. 

This project was not very photogenic.  Just plain old dirt neatly covering some seeds... so here is a vintage find, which daughter A could not wait to get home and put on. Here she is dancing around in it. Just needs some cowboy boots to look like a Texan, right mom?  Sooo cute!

Sew Special: A Baby Wrap

This was a quick and easy project.  My SIL has several cloth baby wraps and let me try hers.  It is more comfy than the bjorn for my growing (read: heavy) boy and I think a bit more functional. So I decided to sew my own version of the cloth baby wrap.  Here we are testing it out:

homemade baby wrap test #1

 You are supposed to have a "spotter" as you practice using these wraps. Turns out that is a very important tip.  We were trying to learn how to do this by following videos on You Tube. We laughed a lot and got a bit frustrated too.  The phrase trying to do something "with two hands tied behind your back" comes to mind. You can see how uncertain baby S looks about these practice attempts. We eventually realised that it needs to be up a bit higher and cross over around baby's shoulders.  We will definitely need to keep practicing!

How-to make a baby wrap:  

1. Buy 5 yards of a sturdy woven fabric, not stretchy (that's a different kind of wrap).  I bought my fabric at ikea.  I have already mentioned before that I love the quality of their fabric, plus it's yarn dyed, so same on both sides.  And best of all - it is 60" wide, which means you can make TWO 30" wide wraps, one for you and one to give to a friend/sister/baby shower gift etc.  Apparently, they are normally 80-100$ each. I made 2 for about 42$.
2. Cut the fabric into two 5 yard long by 30" wide pieces.  Taper each end to a 60 degree angle, so that the whole piece is a parallelogram, something like this:
   
3. Finish the raw edges.  (aka geometry lesson) I found it easiest to fold over a half inch of fabric and sew a 1/4" seam, then fold over another 1/2 inch and edge stich along the fold.  I did the two shortest sides first (B-C and A-D) and then the long edges.  At the corners, I trimmed off the excess that the fold-over caused at C and A (making a straight edge from D-C and B-A again). Then I folded corners C and A toward the middle as I rolled in for the half inch seams along the long edges. ..  Sorry I should have taken more pics. If there is much interest I will do a step-by-step example next time that I make one. :) 

Home Schooling Summary for this week

This was an outdoors type week. We did a lot of fun science activities, crafts and play dates, but not much reading or math.
We had a bird theme one day this week. We watched youtube videos of eggs hatching, visited a nest out in one of our bushes, and pretended to be birds and each make a nest. Making the nest was a big hit. The key is to put the materials in different places around the house. Then have the "birds" build their bowls of playdough in the their "tree" and make them "fly" back and forth from the materials' locations to the place where they built their nests.

Bird Nest Craft

 Both this nest building and the dirt dissecting activity below come from a great book called Everything for Spring: a Complete Activity Book for Teachers of Young Children.

The kids also had a fun time "building" a tunnel/bridge for cars to shoot down.

Physics lesson for kiddos

Another day we had a seed theme.  We watched a funny youtube cartoon video about a seed growing into a tree, we visited trees, examined our seedlings in the milk jugs, and dissected a clod of dirt. The older kids were able to diagram the clod of dirt we dissected.  This activity was a bit messy, but very fun. There were a lot of squeals when we found tiny potato bugs, but no fear whatsoever about the big pink worm. 

Spring science activity

Dissecting dirt

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Reading	X	X	Vowel bingo	Gymnastics	X
Writing	X	X	X	X
Math	X	Mazes	X	X	Tea Party
Science	Nest building, Egg hatching	X	Dissecting & diagraming Dirt	X	X
History/Geography	X	X	Tree art, Examining buds	X	X

Recommended Reading: An Everlasting Meal

Five stars for An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler.
 If you care about cooking at all, you must read this book.  Eat before you sit down to read it though, or better yet while you are reading it, otherwise you won't get very far before you want to rummage around in your kitchen. I am only half way through, but I keep wanting to run into the kitchen and try the things that she describes.
I am glad that I started reading it at the beginning of my gardening season too. There are so many lovely (and simple) recipes for garden produce and ideas for my favorite topic - not wasting any part of the food. And it is largely vegetarian, which I am not, but try to lean that way.

Reuse Recipe: Old T-shirts

Aaron's company gives him a couple new polo shirts for every season. He has been with Terpsys for 8 years. Needless to say, he has accumulated a closet full of polo shirts and some of the shirts are worn out.  Aaron also had a collection of T-shirts that he weeded through for me. Instead of donating them, I decided to make them into pants and shorts for the kiddos.  I've been working on this recycling task little-by-little for quite awhile. Some T-shirts make really cool pants.

Recycled T-shirt Pants - some of my favorites

If you want an awesome and FREE kid pant/short pattern - try this one at MADE. Her blog is full of amazing sewing projects.

I am gearing up for summer now that the weather has turned warm. That means it is time to do "The Great Clothes Sort": pull-out the summer clothes boxes, see what still fits and what we need more of etc.  I imagine that I will be making 8-10 more pairs of T-shirt shorts soon.

Garden Progress: Blossoms Popping

The fruit trees all blossomed in the warm weather this week.

Peach tree

We also found some spring surprises.  Things that were planted last fall, but came up this spring.

Lettuce and Parsley

a rogue carrot which must have over wintered or something?