Thursday, September 1, 2011

Some of this, that and George Washington

It's September. I can't believe it's September. Shouldn't be like April or something? This year has flown by. And frankly, I am not ready for the holidays quite yet. Maybe it's because we have had such a stinkin' hot summer. I still need a little time to enjoy the green trees and flowers...say in the upper 70's. 

Anyhoo. My complaining won't do a thing about it. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love fall. And I will enjoy the cooler weather. I just wish summer would have been a bit more bearable. Speaking of 'bearable'...That is how our new school year is going thus far. I haven't found my groove yet. And next week Josiah starts swimming lessons and his Y class and then the week after that we had a PE class twice a week at a local University. I need to get my act together...you know...menus planned, lessons planned, laundry done and you don't even want to know how long it's been since I've cleaned the bathroom.  Some things are just better left unspoken. Or unwritten.

I had grand plans to share with you my menu choices last week. Somewhere about Wednesday I got distracted. I was doing a project for church and had my noise in my laptop for other reasons.  I did take a picture of one of our meals...I think another night we had leftovers and then another night we were at my mom's. A typical busy week for a typically busy family! I did take a picture of Taco Night. We love Taco Night.

I don't always do Tacos the same way. My favorite recipe to make (when I am feeling especially domestic) is a Lime Chicken Taco with Homemade Flour Tortillas (made with lard) and Refried Black Beans. My "I't's been one of those days" tacos are a box of crunchy tacos with a little ground beef and cheese.

These Tacos are just in between. I seared corn tortillas and filled the tacos with a little ground beef and crumbled queso cheese. Then I made a pico de gallo (of sorts) with red and yellow tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro and banana peppers (yeah, I know...but I'm allergic to jalapenos and this is what I had).One of my favorite slaws is just a simple oil, vinegar and a little salt and pepper. It's a good foil for all the other flavors.



I thought I'd share a little bit of some of our 'school' happenings this past week. For one, I got this cool pencil for Josiah at our little library store. They had them for 1/2 price. It's not really practical...no eraser. But's sure a lot of fun.



I think this dolphin is adorable. They had a few other sea creatures. I would have bought the whole set, but I can get kind of crazy with school supplies and I had to limit myself. I'm kind of obsessed with school supplies. I even used to color-coordinate my gel pens, notebooks and post-its in college. Yep. I was that student. But nobody thought I was too crazy...hey. I was an early education major. Everybody in my class used to compare smelly markers.



We have started off the year studying Colonial Times (and eventually the Revolutionary War) with a great product from Homeschool In The Woods (love them!). One of the first lessons is to create your own archaeological dig based on a real-life dig of George Washington's childhood home, Ferry Farm.  Don't you love Josiah's hat? Given our project (archaeological digs), I thought for sure he would come with his Indiana Jones costume on..he has the whole set up.


We created a 'dig site' using a empty 2-liter bottle cut across the top and marked each layer. Then Josiah filled the bottle with items from his room. The idea was that if archaeologists went on a dig in Josiah's room 200 years from now what items might they find. He then  had to photograph each item and catalogue it.



Why it's the man himself! What's a dig without Indiana Jones?


And Mr. Army Man? We have 100's of these little guys. They are a bugger to step on.


Fancy meeting you here! Wait. Is George Lucas around?


 Broccoli. Celery. Gotta Be. Veggie Tales.


We also checked out this very cool book from the Library. It begun when we were looking at Pictures from the dig at Ferry Farm. When I explained to Josiah that this was George Washington's childhood home, he said, "I've been there." Ooops. We have been to George Washington Carver's childhood home a number of times. And while Josiah is knows that George Washington was the first president of the United States he also thought he was born in Diamond Grove, Missouri, was a scientist and was African American. We had to do a little Biography reading. At least we've covered the Explorers and I can assume he knows that the Christopher Columbus wasn't also film director. At least I hope so.


So anybody got any good plans for Labor Day? Not us. It's been ages since we've been invited to a good ole Labor Day BBQ (I'm not hinting or anything). The Studly Muffin is off work and we are going to do some projects on the house that need doing. In other words...the "Honey Do" list is in full affect that day.

Oh! Almost forgot! I had my yearly echo cardiogram this week. And everything looks great. My heart is functioning normally. I will explain to those of you who aren't aware of my life story that about 12 years ago I went into full congestive heart failure. I got better. 5 years ago I went into failure again. Heart Failure is never a good thing, but it was made more puzzling because I was 27 when it happened the first time and 34 when it happened the next. My doc told me that I will probably have to be on medicine for the rest of my life. I don't want to go into what goes through my head from time to time. It is important for me to stay positive and to enjoy the life I've been given. I am so grateful. God has been so faithful to me...I am blessed beyond measure!

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