Why I Enjoy Homeschooling

1. When Travis is home we are able to do something fun as a family or just he and the kids. Being flexible is very important for Travis' job. If we sent them away from home they might only see their Daddy every week or so.

2. Playing games with a purpose. Climbing Mount Everest allows them to know what mountain climbers go through and some facts about the mountain. Chinese Checkers is cultural. Playing games is not really a favorite past time of mine but I think it provides a great bonding time so multi-purposing my time is really nice.

3. Home school kids are not as bound by age limits in their friendships. Gregory's best friend right now is 13 years old. 4. When the days are sunny and it is beautiful weather we take a walk and enjoy the changes of spring. The mallards appear to have set up housekeeping on Ames Lake. The snails were huge sitting on the lily pad stumps from last year. Without all the greenery on the plants you could see them. We never have before. It was pretty cool to me. 5. When time is running out and Beatrice hasn't gotten all of her school work done, then her mini teachers kick in and get the job done. Computer time can't start until all of the school work is completed. I like seeing my kids helping each other. 6. Gregory wanted a story read. Harrison was doing his schoolwork but he happily read his little brother a story and the girls gathered round. Sweet fellowship is fun to watch.

7. When our schoolwork is too frustrating, we can take the rest of the day off to do less stressful activities. When a new morning breaks and we are rested we will likely have no problem with the previously frustrating material. 8. When the opportunity presents itself for an exciting adventure we aren't bound by predetermined time tables.

(the macho team from the Hurricane 2009, they came to almost the exact weight limit)

9. I am learning so many neat things that I must have forgotten since my school days.

10. We get to eat the product of our research and labors from the countries we are learning about. 11. Great grandparents are the recipients of more letters than would likely happen if the kids were away all day at a different school.

This is not a complete list, I am sure, but, some of the reasons I do homeschool.

Enjoy your day.

~Anna

Springtime

In one week you can really see a difference in our greenery. We have gotten two nice rains and everything looks so much nicer! I love new buds on all the trees.

There is just one week between the taking of these two train pictures.

Now that Spring has Sprung I am enjoying grazing around our yard for edible plants. There isn't too much out there yet but I have managed to insert dandelion greens into two meals so far, with a bit of red clover leaves for good measure. Harrison and Margaret try to say they don't like greens, but truly they do. Especially when they are in a nice rice Pilauf or in Kabab Masala. The Shepherd's purse are growing nicely. They are really good cooked until tender and add a few beaten eggs and salt and pepper. Cook until set. Yummy stuff.Spring is when my Birthday is. This is my terimisu cake Margaret made for me. This is also yummy stuff! We had it for our morning tea. She couldn't wait any longer to see how it turned out. All week, until yesterday, she was trying to get everyone to vote on the type of cake to make and never could she get one hundred percent vote for her choice so yesterday she just went ahead and baked it without consulting the rest of the clan.

Our Weekend

We just got done with a lovely few days up in Bemidji. It was very peaceful and fun, not exactly relaxing since we probably stayed up later than we needed most nights but we did have a really good time.

I think this is such a homey picture. I love it!

Abner the goat is glad we have all gone home though since somehow he was harnessed up and expected to give many children rides in the wheelchair chariot Dad and Luke rigged up for him. I guess he didn't pull his weight this past fall so now he had to do it this spring! He was given regular rewards of grain to keep him moving. See, Margaret is carrying his rewards bucket. These guys played many games together. Most of the games needed helmets and leather gloves. Jaten thinks Grandpa's rendition of Jesus Loves Me is the very best. And now it is time to say goodnight with one last big smile.

~Anna

You can see more of our weekend pictures here.

Our Week, so far

This week we have had sweet, surprise visitors around our place. At three months this one is not afraid of strangers and is perfectly happy to give lots of sweet smiles.

Margaret can't take enough pictures of Jaten.

We got to take our first bike ride of the year on Wednesday to play at the park. It was down right hot out on March 31st! Such pleasant weather to be out and about! I made gluten/dairy free rumpledoodles for snacks this week. They turned out quite good although a bit dryer than they would normally be. I used rice and corn for the flour.

The lizard liked seeing the warm sunshine, just like us.

This morning I sent my eldest and Nic off on a ride with Travis at 3:30 am to sneak a ride. I expect them home in a couple hours. I hope they have made fun new memories. It ended up they needed to sit in the car quite awhile waiting for things to get organised in the office so I am hopeful they didn't have too much down time, but with their active imaginations it was probably just fine!

Talk to you later,

~Anna

The Lost and found Story

Tuesday of this week was very beautiful. Through the morning we had a lot of going in and out of the house. For gym I had the kids jump rope up and down the drive way and they instituted their own breaks from schoolwork and would swing. It was also a tempting day for Henry to take his own walk, evidently.

I didn't miss him until around noon I noticed I hadn't seen him for awhile. I called, checked for him outside. Not there. Oh well he'll be back soon. So then all through the afternoon we regularly called for him and checked at the back door but no return. By supper time I thought I had better do something a little more proactive in searching for him as I didn't want to tell Travis about this without being able to report that I had tried. So my children plus several of their friends and I took a long walk all around our community. We looked through the woods, we looked in all the ditches, we looked along the train tracks and around all of the houses. He wasn't anywhere. We were certain some one else had wanted a somewhat sweet puppy and Dognapped him. Henry wouldn't purposely leave us!

Wednesday morning I called (and listened to long messages about how to find your lost pet) the humane society and the animal control in St Paul to see if they had a dog like Henry. None. Nothing resembling him at either place. We looked at all the pictures on line of found pets in our area. Nothing there either. Thursday I filed a lost pet form on a couple sites on line and then got through to Animal control again. They had a terrier that was brought in on 3/23 from our area, I ought to come look at him. After spending an extra 15 minutes looking for this place I finally found it and went in to look at this dog. It was Henry! After filling out the proper papers and proving that he was current on his rabies and was neutered I was allowed to take him home, after I paid more than he is worth for their efforts.

Honestly you think you are about to really get some things done and something silly comes up to take all of your time. And I had to sweep the floor way more often because there was no one around to clean up after Gregory's messy eating habits!

May your Dog always stay where he belongs!

~Anna

James Herriot

For the last year, or maybe more the kids and I have been reading these books in the evenings when Travis is not home. (He always reads when he is home). I started them because Margaret has often thought that she would like to be a vet, and because I had fond memories of them. I think she has grown out of that ambition but none of us grew tired of this series. For me they work best as read a loud books since he does throw in quite a bit of rough language that I would prefer my children not reading. Aside from the language it is a very wholesome story of life as a vet in Darrowby England before, during and after World War II. There were many evenings that at least one of the chapters had Harrison and I laughing pretty hard. And several had me in tears (but that is pretty easy).

They make for an excellent animal anatomy science class I am sure. We certainly know more about labor and delivery of cows, sheep and pigs then we ever did before these books.

I know this series of books was made into a video series at one time. Sometime soon I want to check them out from our library and see if they are very good viewing.

Happy Reading!

~Anna

Birthday Greetings to my Father!

This is a pretty wonderful guy and to him I say Happy Birthday!!

Love you,

~Anna

Signs of Spring

I suppose we will get some more snow here before the winter is actually over but, today the sun was warm and bright. It sure did feel like spring was here! With such encouraging weather we got busy with some much needed cleaning. We aired out all the snow boots and cleaned them up to put away until next winter. They'll just wear their mud boots from here on out. I am waiting a bit longer to wash all the mittens and snow pants. I don't like repeating myself, that much.

With the lovely weather we also had some bare chested conquistadors around the backyard! ~Anna

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY aunt MARTHA! LOVE,MARGARET.

Happy Birthday Martha, Love, Harrison

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Martha, Beatrice

Happy birthday AUNTIE MARTHA! Gregory

May Your year be grand and your day be great. We Love you Martha!

~Anna

Black Irish Ginger Cake

In preparation for Saint Patrick's Day we had this cake for supper tonight. It was a hit with everyone. We had 5 unexpected guest and everyone of them asked for seconds or thirds, too. I got the recipe from here but as is my style I did change it in a few ways. 1/2 cup butter, melted 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses 3 cup whole wheat flour 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon cloves 1 teaspoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup fresh hot strong black coffee Preheat oven to 350* F. Grease 9 inch round cake pan or a 9x13 cake pan and set aside. Cream together the butter, sugar and molasses until smooth. Beat in the eggs, add the flour, spices, and salt. Dissolve the Baking soda in the coffee, then add to the batter. Beat vigorously until well blended. Scrape the batter into prepared pan and bake for 40 -60 minutes, or until tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Excellent served with: 8 oz whipping cream whipped with 1 teaspoon coffee granules and 1 Tablespoon sugar. Why don't you try it today and tell me if your family likes it as much as mine did. ~Anna

Projects

I was given some time last week so I thought I had better get something done with it. So I painted the upstairs bathroom green and the girls' dressers I sanded down, glued a few loose corners and then painted.

It didn't take me long to tell you what I did, but it took me several days to get the jobs done.

All I wanted to do was read a book I had started on the weekend. I like to read but I don't like to wait to finish the book. If I enjoy it I have a hard time doing my other responsibilities. I would like to just see how the book ends. I am still waiting to see how this book ends as I have only made it half way through it and I read more than I didn't read as I was riding to Bemidji this past weekend and most of the way home. Oh well someday in the next month I will finish it. In general I guess I prefer books that are for fun that aren't 1168 pages long. I am just to slow of a reader.

Well I am off to read,

~Anna

I did it!

I have not

been able to

give blood very

often the past

year or two.

My hemoglobin

just keeps being

a point or two to low. But today I had an appointment to try again at 12:45. I had almost decided I would like it if it was still to low this time because things just kept coming up that I wanted or needed to do TOdaY. But I wanted to give it my best shot. So, yesterday I worked hard at eating beef. This morning I had a Tablespoon full of blackstrap molasses and various other things that are supposed to help

build up iron.

It worked!

I was able

to Give

My blood

For some one.

That made

Me feel

Good!

Now I am off to bed so I can make more.

~Anna

Touring

This past Friday we

went on a field trip

with our home school group

that got a little long

But still we had fun. Learning about the United States Post Office.

~Anna

Our Day, It was a good one

Our Family was hit by an awful stomach flu bug for about seven days this past week. It wasn't fun. But I am really enjoying having everyone healthy yesterday and today! We were finally productive people again. It felt good to get our schoolwork finished in one day and sleep all night long. Since it felt so good to get going I thought I would share it with you all.

This morning we,

put together puzzles,

did all of our lessons in the assignment book,

everyone took a turn practicing math skills on the computer,

We got our instruments practiced, and

We made a batch of pizza pockets. We baked one half and froze the other half for another day.

This afternoon, we went to the Como Zoo to look at our relatives. No actually we don't know anyone there. We went to check out the African livestock since we just finished studying that continent. I also always want to check out the sunken garden and see what is on display for the season. It was amaryllises and Asiatic lilies, plus lots of other fillers. The perfume was incredible from all of them. Very pleasant, not at all offensive like some flowers can be.

On the way home I swung by Rainbow to get the good deals for the week in groceries. I like to go on Wednesday because they double up to 5 coupons on that day. Well somehow I hit the jackpot and it doubled 8 of my coupons! Bringing my savings to 51% rather than whatever it would have been. I guess that paid for my buying each person an ice cream treat that was in the discount cooler for on the way home.

This evening I then taught 18 first through sixth graders a class reviewing Gideon. That may have been a few to many for that class. I am glad I will just be doing 1-2 the rest of the quarter.

I like Pretzels, Do You?

Last year just before Easter I was doing some blog browsing and learned from different places that pretzels are a traditional easter treat. I had never heard that before and I thought the stories to come up with that were quite interesting. The main one I remember was, Monks a long, long time ago would give pretzels to children to tell them the story Jesus hanging on the cross. Who knows if that is true but I enjoy trying to make things I have never made before, so I found a recipe and tried it. We like it and here it is for you to try. By coincedence the friend's house we shared our Easter dinner at last year served large chocolate covered pretzels as an afterdinner snack . So I shared my new found knowledge with her, she had, had no idea she was keeping a long held tradition :) Without further ado I give you my Pretzel recipe: 1/2 cup warm water 1 teaspoon honey 1 cup milk- warm 1Tablespoon brown suagr 1 Tablespoon yeast 3 cups whole wheat 1 cup all purpose flour 1 1/4 teaspoons salt Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and knead until dough is elastic. Add a little more flour if needed. Let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. 8 cups water 4 Tablespoons baking soda Bring water to a boil in a large pot and add baking soda. On a lightly oiled work surface, divide dough into 12 even peices. With your palms roll each piece into a long rope about 20 inches. Shape into pretzel shape by curving each end toward the center and overlapping them. Secure each end by pressing firmly. Place shaped pretzels in boiling water and let boil one or two at a time for about 30 seconds. Remove from water with a slatted spoon that drains well. Place on greased or lined baking sheets. Repeat process until all pretzels have been boiled. Brush tops of pretzels with: 1 egg white beaten with 1 Tablespoon water Sprinkle tops with salt and parmesan cheese, or cinnamon & sugar (our family favorite), or just plain old coarse salt. Bake in a 450* oven for 12 -14 minutes or until golden brown.

So whether you wish to make them as a tradition or just because you like to feed your family very yummy foods you really ought to try my pretzel recipe!

~Anna