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

Rice Pancakes from Kenya

If you are looking for a gluten free recipe this is a pretty good one. We weren't needing gluten free but when we study a country we try to find recipes from there and this one is from Kenya. I didn't follow the recipe perfectly but I am sure it was fairly authentic:) This recipe came from the book, Cooking the African Way. One thing I was surprised about as we found recipe's for this study they often used more than twice the amount of oil that I would for a similar dish. It wasn't just this book either, although we mainly just tried this books recipes. They turned out a very pretty pancake :) Here is the recipe: 1 Tablespoon yeast 1 cup warm water 1 cup sugar (decreased it by just over half and they were still quite sweet) 2 3/4 cups rice flour 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon 1/4 cup canned coconut milk (I used whole milk, since I didn't have this. I also increased this to make up for the decrease in oil ) 1/2 cup vegetable oil ( used 1/4 cup or less of canola) 1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, sugar, cardamon and a dash of salt. Add warm water, oil and coconut milk and mix well. It should be the consistency of pancake batter. If you need more water add just a little at a time, until batter runs slowly from the spoon. 2. Cover bowl with a towel and set in a warm place for about an hour or until mixture nearly doubles in size. 3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium high heat for 1 minute. 4. Pour 1/2 cup of batter into pan and spread with a spoon to form a pancake the size of a saucer. Cover pan and cook for about 1-2 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom. Flip over with spatula and cook on the other side another minute or until golden brown. Repeat with remaining batter adding more oil to pan as necessary. 5. Serve hot with a bit of jam. This makes about 10 pancakes. Happy frying, ~Anna

Making Aprons

Margaret and I designed a couple of aprons this week. We have some friends getting married tomorrow. They are older and have established homes so I didn't figure they needed the things someone just beginning would need. Last week, after much contemplation by Margaret, I decided matching aprons, hot pads and a scone mix would be just what they needed, that I could do. Because Cindy's left side doesn't function I thought it might be handy to not need to tie the back of her apron. So I crisscrossed straps from bib top to waist on either side. I like the way it turned out I just hope it fits her ok. She is a little smaller than I am so I think we are good. I haven't been sewing as much as I would like to. My list is getting quite long with the items that need sewn. So I am really happy this actually got done. It was a lot of fun to work with the girls on this to.

Khufu's Tomb

Up high on the Giza strip looking down on Pharaoh Khufu's pyramid:

Actually you can't look down on his pyramid because it is the tallest structure around! In fact, it was the tallest in the world until the Eiffel Tower was built in 1887.

The original pyramid of Khufu was built about 4,550 years ago. Harrison just built this one last week.

~Anna

P.S. Isn't it kinda cute how Gregory took this picture through another magnetics? I like the effect it has.

Supper time Jokes

Last night at the dinner table we had quite the comedians. Beatrice started because there was salad dressing on the table with

What made the tomato red?

~because he saw the salad dressing!

Knock, knock,

Who is there?

~lettuce

Lettuce who?

~lettuce in it's cold out here!

Nahum, Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?

~He didn't have enough guts!

Harrison, Why did the headless Horseman cross the road?

~to get to the cemetery!

Travis, Why is there a fence around a graveyard?

~because people are dieing to get in!

One last one,

What time is it when the clock strikes 13?

~time to get the clock fixed!

Oh, there was a plethora of lovely ones that have slipped my memory but you get the picture. It was an entertaining meal!

May all your dining experiences be as fun,

~Anna