dinner fail

Actual comments from my family during supper tonight:

".... what's in the potatoes?"

"This is a 'floss' meal."

"The gristle's actually not too bad."

"So... when are we having pizza?"

"I'm gonna top this off with a bowl of cereal."


I concede that the meat was undercooked. My ravenous family, unwilling to delay supper any further, pulled the fresh beef brisket from the oven, sliced it and served it before it had cooked to fork-tenderness. In that case, c'est la vie--you get what you get.

Stolen bras recovered, but no bust made :: WRAL.com

Best headline I've read in a while. Don't really care about the story! lolStolen bras recovered, but no bust made :: WRAL.com

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towanda

With the soon advent of The Rain (this event in the Pac NW gets its own capital letters), A. decided today was "strip the garden day."

We betook ourselves to our garden plot, which, once The Rain comes, will become a large field of chocolate pudding, hazardous to muck boots and small children. We lost a child out there once. (We did eventually retrieve her.) So the goal was clear: harvest the harvestable. Strip the bushes of the remaining zucchini and crookneck squash. Uproot the carrots. Harvest every tomato 2" or greater in diameter; they'll ripen off the vine.

We brought three buckets and one box for corn and squash. We ended up borrowing two more buckets and using a laundry basket.

We are blessed, pressed down, shaken together and running over with tomatoes.

I beseech you, send me recipes. I only like fried green tomatoes in small batches. There's only so much relish and jam I can make.

A's job now is to find a way to set these tomatoes up so they do not go to waste while I determine what to do with them!

What would you do?

begorrah

Something I've never noodled out before is the relative merits and deficiencies of bond weights of paper. Apparently 20 lb paper messes up our laser printer; 24 lb does not.

I am supposed to remember this from an apparent tragic occurrence in my distant past: 20 lb paper messes up the printer, and it's a pain to fix. I only remember this dimly. However, I strongly remember that someone in the family likes really really bright white paper.

I NEVER BUY THE PAPER for the printer. Until last night. When I failed to purchase the correct kind. It's mighty bright though.

Here's a linky that tells me about paper and weights. The metric system has us beaten all to smithereens when it comes to understanding this.

Now that I've been enlightened both as to my terrible memory AND how paper bond weight works, I will gather together the shreds of my tattered pride at coming in $1 under my budget, go and exchange the paper for the PROPER weight (24!!!), ENSURE that it also is bright enough, and peace will reign.

Or maybe not, now that I've posted this.
I sure feel better though.

scenes from P-town

My most recent wedding cake. The mother of the groom is a good friend of mine; I was honored to be asked to make this. The bride is German, so when you cut into the cake, it's layered to look like the German flag: from top to bottom, it's chocolate, strawberry, and lemon. Satin Ice fondant covering the cake-- (SOOO much better than Wilton. I will never put that rancid W stuff on any cake ever. again.)--and homemade fondant pearls. Gorgeous! Ahem. If I do say so.






















We have a wee bunny that creeps out at dusk to nibble on the grass. But can I actually OWN a rabbit as a pet? Oh no! It would eat things in A's backyard! I guess the wild ones get a pass for cuteness.














My daughter celebrated her 11th birthday at Tiffany's Skate Inn.
















"Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me....!"

Here's the wee kitten that followed D home from the park. He was adopted by our neighbor and renamed Mr. Darcy. Unfortunately, with such a name, he started to adopt the corresponding antisocial tendencies and an utter disdain for the other plebian cats in the home, so Mr. Darcy had to be removed to another relative's home, to live in proper isolation and splendor.








My garlic turned blue when I made dill pickles. I bought it fresh, but it still turned blue~!




















S won first prize at the Puyallup Fair for her squash that looks like a duck tucking its head under its wing. Notice D in the background? And these are S's new glasses. She likes to look at The Doctor, so why not look LIKE The Doctor, as well?













Below is what my darling husband did while kids and I trekked to California and back: ripped up carpet and put down laminate flooring in the entryway, dining room, and kitchen. SO much nicer to clean; so much better acoustically for the piano.



And that's a wrap.

(No, get it? See? there in the corner?......never mind.)

movin' on up to the east side (well, kent, anyway)

When, in the course of family events, it becomes necessary for a homeschooling family to dissolve the scholastic bonds which have connected them with one another, and to assume, among the other taxpayers of the school district, the separate and equal station to which the laws of compulsory education in Washington State and our Sovereign God (to whom every parent answers) entitle them, a decent respect to my three faithful blog readers requires that I should declare the causes that impelled us, a completely homeschooling family for eight years, to make this decision.

........ahhh, I'm too tired to keep going in Declaration Style.

The previous year of homeschooling/virtual schooling was extremely clarifying for us as a family. The lessons I learned are as follows, in no particular order:
1) The Washington Virtual Academy has blossomed from being a family supportive alternative learning experience to full-blown bureaucracy and top-heavy management; unhelpful, inefficient office staff; and progress-based education rather than mastery-based education (which runs contrary to their parent company, k12).
2) Columbia Virtual Academy is much more relaxed - I set the learning goals, and I can use k12 at the pace I choose to. I am not demoted to being called a "learning coach" as in the other virtual academy. I do all the teaching work - why should I be just a "coach"? It's nitpicky, I know, but it's a subtle undermining of my authority.
3) I spent too much time sorting out sorties, sending the boxers back to their respective corners, and putting myself in time out, rather than actual teaching.
4) Testosterone is a powerful thing.
5) Our church is small. Boys are few. My son has no Christian friends his age. Friendly neighbor kids, but definitely "pre-Christian," if you will.

So back in June, we explored the options for putting D. into school. Seventh grade seemed like a logical time to make a switch, if one were to be made. He is now attending a Christian school in Kent, associated with a church whose pastor is a friend of A's from college.

Get this: D's class? All boys, except for one girl. School uniforms, check. Homework every night, check. Four different teachers to learn to relate to. Papers to try to organize and keep track of. Lessons to learn outside of home. I'm loving it.

I am not loving the (early) morning commute on 167. But that too has its benefits... I can listen to some really good, thought-provoking Bible teaching on the way home in the car.

I am loving having one kid to teach (using k12, enrolled in Columbia Virtual Academy). This way there's only two fallen creatures and their attendant sin problems to deal with, instead of three. :) We're on top, on track, and getting things done.

So we are now half-homeschooling, half-schooling.

I'm exhausted, but it's just fatigue, not stress. I'm excited because of all the possibilities that have just opened up for everyone in my family. I'm grateful for the Lord's provision for D's school tuition; for S's school fund that pays for TYC and violin lessons, and for the general fun time of life that my halflings are now entering into.

But it's after 10 p.m. - I'm about to turn into a pumpkin. Bedtime is 9:30 or 10 because the day starts at 6 am now. I know, I know, welcome back to the real world, right? :)

"put that thing back where it came from, or so help me...!"

So apparently my son was "followed" by a kitten at the park today. It's a wee thing, so I'm sure it didn't follow him very far before it got picked up. Fuzzy and grey. I'm not holding out any hope for the kids, but it's coming on night soon so I guess it can spend one night here. Not like we don't have other animals around. Just not many mammals!

Tomorrow: Pierce County Humane Society.