Garden Progress: Quince bushes

Here's what my quince bushes look like right now:

But I planted these bushes hoping that in a couple of years (or less!) I will be able to harvest them and make jam like this:

Or plov like I ate in Central Asia:

image from here

Sew Special: Bucket Hats

I made reversible bucket hats for the cousins birthday party using this free Oliver and S Pattern. All of the Lisette patterns are awesome and this was no exception, clear instructions, great illustrations. Only trouble was that I should have made a size large (instead of medium) for the 4 year olds.

 I should mention that the birthday boy was having a pirate theme birthday party. Here are the two sides of his reversible hat:

And for Cousin B, here are the two sides of her hat:

Homeschooling Summary for last week

We focused on food last week.  On Monday we made a banner and put food clippings into one of 3 categories: Always, Sometimes, and Never. I noticed that the kids understand in theory that desserts and fatty foods are "sometimes" foods.  But to them "sometimes" means several times throughout the day.

Food banner showing what we should eat sometimes

Desserts were the kids favorite food group

On Wednesday we tried to understand the proportions of foods that they should be eating, based on the new-ish (2011) USDA food plate.  Again, the main message was trying to help them understand that half of what they eat should be fruits and veggies - not cookies!

Unfortunately, we did not do much more than continue our writing practice on the side this week so I will skip the table for now.

Reuse Recipe: Cracker crumbs, cookie crumbs, cake crumbs

This post is about never buying a package of graham cracker crumbs or pre-made graham cracker pie crust again. Have you ever noticed that pile of crumbs at the bottom of your package of saltines and felt a twinge of regret at throwing it away? Or had the last 1/3 of a package of cookies, cakes, or pretzels, go so stale that no one wants to eat it?  That is what my "crumb bag" is for. In mine this month (I keep it in the freezer) I had some extra cinnamon crumble topping from a pie, about 6-8 saltines, some bits of a cake that had gone stale, and some crumbs from the bottom of a bag of cereal --sounds yummy so far, right?

I poured the contents into the food processor and ground them up.  It did not amount to the 2 cups requested by the pie crust recipe, so I added about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs.

Then I added 1/2 c. butter and  about 3/4 cup of coconut and pressed it into the glass pie pan. It made pretty nice thick-ish crust about 1/4 inch.

I was in the mood for cheesecake, but I only had about half a package of cream cheese left from making bagels more than a week ago -- so once again, I improvised.  Interested?
Here is how that came together:

•  Half a package of cream cheese
• the driest (topmost) parts of a Costco size sour cream tub to approximately equal the other half of the cream cheese package
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 large tablespoons of flour (for thickening)
• Zest and juice of one lemon
• (It probably could have also used a dash of salt)

I poured it in my improvised pie crust, popped it in the oven at 350F for 30 minutes and crossed my fingers.  I was honestly surprised that it turned out great! Like cheese cake, but slightly milder. Lovely.

Recommended Reading: The Snow Child

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is the book that I mentioned being almost done with last week.  This book starts out gloomy, like the grey winter scenery of its Alaskan setting. And then it gradually brightens, not because the setting has changed, but rather the perspective of the main character, Mabel, has changed. The prose is smooth and soulful. I thoroughly enjoyed the story for itself, but the icing on the cake was the integral reference to the Russian fairytale "Snegurochka".  That's all I'll say, since I know some of you know the snegurochka story already and I don't want to spoil it for you!

Garden Progress: Salsa Plants

 This week I purchased some starts from the local farmer's market: Heirloom tomatoes (Cherokee purple, pineapple, amish paste), Basic tomatoes (early girl and better boy), and Peppers (red, orange, green bell, jalepeno), and a few others for fun (eggplant, thai basil, and lemongrass).
 I know it would be cheaper to start these from seed, but the only place in my house where I get that kind of light in February is the living room or my bedroom. After trying to grow them on the back porch for the last 3 years with little or no success, I think this option is better for the heat loving varieties.

Sew Special: Slipcover is finally done

Here it is.

 Matching the plaid worked well in some places, and not so well in others.

 This is the first time I have done a slipcover with a gathered skirt. It works well for this style - kind of English country.

And for the grandmas - here is the cute little baby trying to wiggle his way into the picture:

Homeschooling Summary for Last Week

This week we did Joy School and babysat the cousins again. Big sister A has been independently interested in using her new found letter writing skills to create notes on her drawings. It is good writing practice and we try to consider the phonics of what she is spelling at that time as well. Big sister A has also been helping brother M with his shapes and colors. It is cute to see her playing flashcards with him. Baby S is sitting up!

plastic dishes are so much fun pull out all over the floor

For science this week we talked about vibrations and air making sounds and made kazoos.  This activity was not a great success. The kids were much more interested in decorating their kazoos than experimenting with them.

On Wednesday, we talked about bees - where they live, what they do, and then made diagrams of their body parts. The kiddos enjoyed this activity, especially cousin B.  She is a great little scientist.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Reading	X	X	X	X	X
Writing	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice
Math	X	X	X	X	X
Science	Kuzoo (vibrations)	X	Life of bees	X	X
History/Geography	X	X	X	X	X

Recommended Reading: Carrots Love Tomatoes

Honestly, I have been putting off writing this post because I am almost finished with another book, but I don't want to review it until I am done. A good ending some times makes the story.  Anyway, since it is putting me even more behind than usual I've decided to post about another book that I have been reading all this week. It's called Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte. I used it last season too. I love it.  My style of gardening is called "Potager" - see the Homestead Revival blog for a good definition.  I plant things all mixed in together to make it look prettier, to make the best possible use of space, and as a form of organic pest control. There is a wall of mint surrounding my cauliflower and broccoli, for example, and its job is to discourage slugs and other pests from attacking my plants. Marigolds help my tomatoes and cucumbers stay healthy (bugs dislike their smell) and so on. This lovely book is my guide to which kinds of plants are buddies, acquaintances, and bitter rivals. This is not the only book on this topic, but it's a good one. It is fairly comprehensive including most veggies, herbs, fruit trees, and wild plants (although I did not see lemon grass in this edition).

Reuse Recipes: Brown Rice Baby Food

homemade brown rice baby food

This is not a true reuse recipe, more like an "alternate use" recipe. For my 2 other babies, I followed the pediatrician's guide to starting solids. First, rice cereal mixed with breast milk. I bought the box of gerber rice cereal, but made the rest of my baby food purees myself. This time around I started thinking - - I have lots of rice, and even unprocessed brown rice. Why can't I use that instead?  So I did.  I ground it up with some oats in my hand grinder.

It made a nice fine flour. Then I mixed it with warm breast milk.

 It seemed grainy so I cooked it and it became nice and thick, just like porridge! Baby S enjoyed it heartily.

I had such a hard time getting a clear picture of him. He would not stay still!

Garden Progress: Rain Loving Plants

We are having such a wonderful cool rainy spring here in Maryland. My plants are loving it.

budding blackberry bushes

cauliflower getting bigger

Kale is coming!

Peas climbing

And the popcorn that we planted last week has already sprouted!

popcorn sprouting

Sew Special: Best Beginner Skirt Ever

Megan Nielson's Kelly Skirt 

I mentioned tracing and cutting out this skirt pattern 2 weeks ago here.  I had hig hopes for it. And now can confirm - it was one of the easiest and most well illustrated patterns that I have ever used. It would be great for a beginner.  I am no longer surprised that the pattern is usually sold out.  The size S was a good fit as per the pattern measurements. My favorite part is that all of the seams are neatly finished -- meaning that each step is hemmed and topstitched so that very few raw edges are exposed. I cut the pattern with pinking shears since I do not have a serger. Also did you notice the pockets? I love them -- so practical!
 The skirt is a flattering shape too. I think I will make another short one and a longer color block one for summer. Then maybe a plaid wooly one for winter? The possibilities are endless. My only modification on this first try was to lengthen the skit by about 1.5 inches to bring it to knee length.

Home Schooling Summary for this week

More fun with the cousins.  This week we had a very rainy day and did some "studies" on rain and what it is made out of as well as the water cycle.

Examining the rain drops that we caught outside

Experimenting with the properties of water

Another day we made "wind catchers" which turned out to be just right for playing outside on May Day.

Last week we made these "fossils", but it took awhile for our clay soil to dry out with all the rain that we had. Here are our archaeologists examining their fossils this week.

shell fossil

We also had a field trip for Joy School this week, which I forgot to bring my camera to. So bummed about that!  It was the "Transportation Day Fair" and they had all kinds of vehicles that the kids could climb in.  They had a digger, a fire truck, a moving truck, a limousine, a huge crane, motorcycles, a horse, and a school bus. A. was afraid to climb into some of them, but M. was happy to try them all out. 

Then one more field trip to round off our busy week - we went to a Horse Show!  I am considering taking some riding lessons at this farm and so we wanted to check it out. 

Baby S with his improvised "hat" - I didn't realize that the show would be outside

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Reading	Letter flash cards	Letter flash cards	X	X	Letter flash cards
Writing	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice	Letter tracing practice
Math	Mazes	X	Connect the number dots	Mazes	X
Science	Rain/water experiments	X	Fossils 2 and wind	X	X
History/Geography	X	X	X	X	X