Home Schooling Summary for last week

The kiddos are mostly all over the flu/coughing sickness. We all went to the pediatrician on Monday and she said their lungs were clear and they had no secondary infections. Now I only hear an occasional dry cough from them and even the runny noses seem to have cleared with the saline sprays.  I, on the other hand, have been feeling awful STILL with a low fever (100.8), chills, fatigue and of course the yucky cough...  I have been taking a nap every day with baby S. Needless to say, not a lot of planned schooling has been happening, just reading books together, and in big sister A's case writing stories in her bare books.   

Thank goodness for the chicks! We take several field trips each day to visit them and observe their craziness.

 They are in the big coat closet (cleared of stuff) downstairs -- another of hubby's brilliant ideas.  I am very happy with the arrangement because we can keep their dust contained.

Daddy and the big kids went to Customer Appreciation Day at Brewsters Ice Cream. They had FREE waffle cones (huge) for everyone who showed up in their PJs.  That was no problem for our family since we have been wearing nothing but jammies for the last 2 weeks.

 Little brother S was not sure he liked daddy's pistachio.

Garden Progress: Growing a little too tall

And the verdict is -- yup the window thing is not really working.  This window is better than last years, but we need a grow light. The seedlings are alive, but all on the tall and lanky side.  I transplanted a few to the deeper container, but then have been too wimpy and sick to do the rest. Maybe this week I will be feeling better and transplant more.

 

Chicks Week 2

This first group of pictures is from the start of week 2. They grow so amazingly fast!  They all started to get their wing feathers -- Felicity's are the most prominent because of her coloring.

Sheeba with Dottie just behind

Dottie and Sheeba on her right

 They are also doing a lot more scratching -- in other words, kicking the bedding everywhere and digging their food out of the feeder and spreading it all over the ground

this shot shows all their little wing feathers growing in 

 Since they were making such a mess of their food I gradually raised it up on a brick.  I don't think the gradual lift was really necessary, but Sally is pretty small relative to the others and I wanted to make sure that she could reach.

Yesterday I found Ducky perched on top of the waterer. Today when I checked on them she was perched on the food dish. I guess her wing feathers are working.  Time for a cover on the brooder box.

Here are some pictures from today -- you'll see how much they grew in the 5 days since the first set of pics.

Check out Ducky's feathers

View from the front

View from the back

 Meanwhile little Sally still looks cute and fuzzy. Although if you look closely she has her wing feathers and tail feathers coming out the back

The brooding hen pose. They looked like they might want to start roosting on something so I put a wooden slat in there to see if they would perch and so far they are just jumping over it.

Dottie with a lot more wing and tail feathers

 Lots of feathers -- here they are all huddled in the corner because I turned off their warmer light to take the pics.

The No Shopping Month

I am teaching a class on Saturday at The Emergency Preparedness Fair about the whys and hows of the "no shopping month". And I thought it might be nice to vet some of my materials here on the blog. 
Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Photo from Ricks Picks

What is a "no shopping month"?

It is as simple as it sounds - no grocery or other purchases for one month.

What is the purpose of it? (For my class I am focusing on not grocery shopping for a month)

• Use and rotate existing short-term food storage -- we try to have 3 months of short-term food storage on hand. Eating from it for a month helps me see what kinds of things our family actually wants to eat and helps us rotate through stock-on-hand rather than wasting anything. Also, I am not good at keeping inventory lists of what we have, but the "no shopping month" forces me to really dig in and get to know what I have on my pantry and freezer shelves.
• Store what we like -- as above, forcing ourselves to eat from storage is the ultimate test of how much we need and what types of foods. We realized, for example, that we need about twice as much canned, dried, and frozen fruit when we are not out buying fresh fruit every week or two.
• Save $ -- not grocery shopping for a month saves money because you make fewer impulse purchases and use up things that have been hanging out in the freezer or that might have otherwise gone to waste. For example, I have lots of frozen kale, squash, and mincemeat pie filling in the freezer from the summer garden's bounty. I do a much better job incorporating those into our meals when I have fewer options to work with. 

Caveat: I usually use some of the money saved from not shopping to improve and restock the pantry/freezer storage the next month.

• Change our habits -- This is the big bonus of the no shopping month.  It is forced frugality for a month that then leads to a natural change in perspective. You appreciate what you have more, treat your resources more respectfully, and end up with a more frugal attitude than when you started.  For the last 3 years we have done a "no shopping month" in January. It is a nice reset after treating ourselves over the holidays and a good way to get ourselves on track for the new year's spending goals.

Does it work?

We have done this about 5-6 times now with varying levels of success. Here are a few suggestions to help anyone interested in trying this get off to a good start:

1. Cover the basics -- Before I start a "no shopping month" I go through a little mental list of  things that I must have on hand. I made the chart below to try to illustrate the way that I conceptualize this. The basic ingredients are listed in the upper left column of my chart. If I have those things then I know that I can make all the things listed in the right column. And with each additional set of "add-ins" my list of meal options grows. Make sense?

For example, before the "no shopping month" starts I make sure that I have about 4 dozen eggs on hand (or chickens laying), otherwise I know will not be able to make it through the month -- too many things require eggs. I have tried.

2. Make things from scratch - If you know that you cannot live without pop-tarts for a month, then you could plan to have 10 boxes of them in your short-term storage at all times OR you could just wait until you are really craving them and make the yummy homemade version in The Homemade Pantry. Honestly, for the no-shopping month to work well requires some cooking from scratch. For example, you can buy bread from the store and keep it in the freezer, but it really is so much yummier and cheaper to just make a loaf every few days.

There are some great books out there to help with this.

3. Get creative - I am going to ask the students in my class to play a game to illustrate this point.  They will each get an index card with 5 ingredients plus they can use any of the basic ingredient list and then they need to list as many things as they can think of to make with what they have. Whoever can think of the most creative menu ideas wins. Ready Go!

I think this is my favorite part of the no shopping month. It forces me to make substitutions and get creative with my cooking. And of course, if all else fails you can search for recipes by ingredient.

4. Reward Yourselves - I should have listed a Costco size bag of chocolate chips in my basic ingredients category.  I always keep a few treats squirreled away for the end of the month when things get boring and repetitive. Like a package of pepperoni for pizza night the last week.  It helps us get through the last 10 days with flare.

5. Food storage Wish List & Restock - The wish list and restocking are critical for the next “no shopping month” and improving the short term storage overall. Every time I WISH I had some ingredient or other, I add it to my Food Storage Wish List. Usually, things on my wish list are kinda quirky. I would not have thought of having a case of coconut milk or a pound of frozen ginger root in my food storage, but during a recent month of no shopping I craved so many things that I could have made with those two additions.  The wish list also helps me know what things to buy more of -- the stores are depleted after using them for a month. I try to note all the things that need to be restocked and how many I would like.

The Chicks are Here!

On Monday afternoon, despite 9 inches of newly fallen snow, coughing fits, and concerns about spreading this terrible illness, we set out for the local feed store to pick out our baby chicks. And boy am I glad that we did. From the moment we spotted the rows of pens to this very minute, the "chickies", as we have been calling them, have been a constant source of wonder and entertainment. These chipper new additions have made our continued sickness and quarantine bearable. 

We set up our brooder in a large cardboard box in the basement.  The red lamp is supposed to help them be nice to each other (not peck each other).

They all run and huddle together in one corner when the kids come over to look at them. If the big kids stand there quietly then the chickies slowly go back to pecking at their food and exploring their house. 

And now let's take a closer look. Today was the first day that we were allowed to hold them. Only big sister A actually "held" her chickie. The others just petted their heads while I held them.  Let me introduce you first to big sister A's chickie (the one in the foreground with pretty eyeliner) -- Felicity is her name. She is an Araucana and will lay blue eggs. 

Felicity is a feisty girl.  She runs fast through the brooder and pecked me when I tried to pick her up. Here she is below standing up to "Ducky".  Ducky is a Buff Orpington.  We agreed to name her Ducky because she looks like a little duckling among the chicks. She is slightly larger and has golden yellow fuzz and an orange beak.

This black hooded girl is "Sheeba". She is a black Australorp. I think she is brave and independent. Usually, she is the first one to come out of the huddle in the corner after the kids quiet down. 

Dottie is a shy girl. She is the grey one in the middle here. She is a Golden Laced Wyandotte.  

 Here is Dottie looking toward the camera. And on the far right is brother M's bird that he decided should either be called "Max" or "Sally".  Sally is a light yellow almost white, but is the same kind as big sister A's Felicity -- Araucana. I am hoping that Sally will be grey or white when she is grown, while Felicity will probably be a reddish brown.

Only one thing to report this week

I thought about taking a picture of the dining room table covered with tea cups and bits of honey, or the living room floor with books and blankets, but neither seemed to adequately summarize this week. Nor do I want to share pictures of daughter A with her eyes puffy and nose snuffly. I will just point the finger at this bad bad virus and say "It's all your fault!"

Let me start by saying all the kiddos had their flu shots, but I think big sister A must not have sniffed hers in well enough.  She was sick by the time we got home from NY on Tuesday with a fever and hacking cough.  By Wednesday afternoon when I called hubby at work to tell him I was feeling rotten he told me that he was too and would be home soon. Little brother M and S both have had some mild symptoms, a bit of fever and a bit of cough, but not like the rest of us. It's been yucky. I am glad that we could just excuse ourselves from everything we had planned and quarantine ourselves for the last 5 days. We are over the worst for sure, but all still struggling with  lingering hacking coughs.
We hope to venture out briefly on monday though -- that is chicken day!

Vacationing in Corning, NY

On Friday we drove up to spend the weekend at my dad's house in Corning, NY. My grandma (Goomie) lives there now so we got a lot of family time in during the 4 days we were there.
Even in a rush -- as below -- my dad always takes great pictures. He took the ones of me in my newly sewn dresses from earlier this week too.

And then a few with my camera. Little brother S is obsessed with balls and shoes right now.

Eating cupcakes is getting to be a tradition at Grandpop's house.

I remember my dad lifting weights every morning when I was a kid and he's still doing it! Here is our morning weight lifting practice.

Even with all that weight lifting we still had a lot of wiggles and so took the kids out to the local playground. It was cold and muddy.  Big sister A did not listen to directions and put her foot through some ice into a rather large 6 inch deep puddle. Lesson learned, I hope.

Home Schooling Summary for Last Week

I have not been doing a good job of capturing some of the kids' activities on camera. For the last 5 weeks big sister A has been taking a "play acting" class. She made friends with 2 of the girls now and I think it has been a great class for socializing as well as performing in front of a small group.

They are preparing a play based on the book called Mr. Tiger Goes Wild.

We did a really fun math activity this week -- connect the dots -- but "by 2's".  She said them aloud as she was drawing them.  A much less boring way to learn to count by 2's.

Little brother M is anxious to do his "school work" too and I have been reaching for A's old pre-school workbooks more and more.  Is he really old enough to start learning his letters and numbers?! Time seems to be passing way too quickly.

 Making silly faces for the camera:

Big sister A has been doing this gymnastics class for about 8 months now. It is ridiculous trying to photograph her from the parent observation deck upstairs, but a blurry action photo is better than nothing, right Grandmas?
They have 3 large trampolines and a tumble track trampoline.

Here she is getting ready to do the rings. This class is co-ed so they do some "boy" equipment which is cool. After the 5 year old class they split them up by genders so they can focus more on the various types of equipment.

On Thursday, I taught a little class about being a missionary in Russia to the youth at church (ages 12-17). It was a lot of work to prepare, but I had tons of fun doing it.
Here are some "doors". I asked them to choose which one they wanted to "knock on"  and then I had photos behind each door of people I knew from Russia. I told a story with each picture.

We did not have a lot of time so I decorated the entrance to our classroom with pictures of Russia and Russian culture so they could get a quick 60 second overview.

I served them tea and  cookies like a good Russian hostess. Of course, I also had to make them try "dirt" (xalva). We practiced some other missionary skills while we drank it.

 And we talked about ways that Russian culture and Mormonism are in sync using some of the examples on display (ie. preparedness, self sufficiency, christianity, emphasis on education, patriotism, and word of wisdom.)

On Friday at the nature center they read and discussed My Spring Robin.

We walked outside to look for robins. I learned the difference between a blue bird and a robin - which are easier to confuse than you would think.  We saw a couple blue birds, but no robins.
Then the kids made a craft with their foot print:

 You can tell by the size of the feet (or the blurriness) whose is whose. Big sister A colored hers all by herself and the teacher was very impressed. She also wrote some information about the bird. I had to help the boys do the coloring on theirs.