Menu Monday, September 16

Jeff & Heather

This weekend, our amazing nephew, Jeff, marries his sweetheart.  We are so fortunate that this wedding is close enough for us to attend the festivities!  Congratulations Jeff & Heather!

Breakfast (a combination of these items): Eggs (we've been doing a lot of scrambles that include various veggies like fresh-from-the-garden zucchini, kale, onion, etc.); bacon or sausage; avocado; fruit/berries; vanilla chia seed pudding
Lunch:  Leftovers or mostly-raw-wraps
Mid-Afternoon Snack:  Kefir smoothies
Dinner:

• Monday: Tacos; salad; rice
• Tuesday: Vegetable beef soup; sprouted-wheat biscuits; garden salad
• Wednesday: Chicken fried steak; mashed potatoes; carrot salad; sauteed zucchini medley
• Thursday:  Hamburger patties; rice pilaf; root vegetable slaw
• Friday: Grilled fresh fish; red potatoes; best-ever broccoli;  Caesar salad; homemade ice cream
• Saturday: Our nephew's wedding!
• Sunday: Ham; Gratin Dauphinois; green beans with slivered almonds; beet salad

Menu Monday, September 9

Last week, our family went camping to Eastern Washington.  It's become a time-honored tradition in our home-schooling house to go camping the first week that everyone else is in school. It's great because the campground is quiet.  But don't fool yourself...there are kids around!  It's amazing how many home school families do the same thing!

Breakfast (a combination of these items): Eggs (we've been doing a lot of scrambles that include various veggies like fresh-from-the-garden zucchini, kale, onion, etc.); bacon or sausage; avocado; fruit/berries; vanilla chia seed pudding
Lunch:  Leftovers or mostly-raw-wraps
Mid-Afternoon Snack:  Kefir smoothies
Dinner:

• Monday: Pork chops; red potatoes; creamed spinach
• Tuesday:  Chicken piccata; brown rice; Caesar salad
• Wednesday: Mexican rice bowls
• Thursday: Homemade pizza; garden salad
• Friday: Grilled fresh fish; best-ever broccoli;  Caesar salad; homemade ice cream
• Saturday:  Hamburger patties; roasted potato wedges; garden salad
• Sunday: Braised roast beef & vegetables; garden salad; leftover ice cream

Our School Curriculum

Just in case you are a home-schooling mom and are struggling to decide what curriculum to use, I am writing this post for you.  Our children are 12 and 10, or the grade equivalent of 7th and 5th grade.


Of course, every child is different and I would encourage you to choose work that is appropriate for your child's education level, not his/her age and the grade level he/she "should" be in.

(If you are thinking about homeschooling, you may want to read this book.)

Bible	Foundations
Math	Saxon
Spelling	Christian Liberty Press (7th grader) Sequential Spelling  (5th grader)
History	Christian Liberty Press
Penmanship	Handwriting Without Tears
Reading	Sonlight’s reading list
Spanish	Speaking Spanish with Miss Mason and François (7th grader)
Language Arts	Creative Writing & 4 research papers (7th grader) Explode the Code (Book 7 & 8 – 5th grader)
Science	Apologia
Art	See the Light DVD’s, Year 1

In addition, they will be doing State Fact Sheets for all 50 states and compiling them in a notebook.

As my little gems aren't so little anymore, I am encouraging them to do as much work independently as possible.  Not only is my goal that they learn, but that they learn how to learn on their own. 

One last thing.  If you try something and it doesn't "work" for you and/or your student(s), try something different.  My goal is to make learning an enjoyable process and to hopefully instill in each of my children the joy of learning.

Here's to a great school year!

Homemade Ice Cream

Photo credit

In July, I posted my Bing Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream recipe which included my base recipe for homemade ice cream.  The base recipe is so good, though, that I thought it should have it's own post.  So if you haven't tried it yet, you gotta give it a whirl.

What I love about this recipe is that you can end up with different consistencies of ice cream, just by choosing a different way of incorporating milk or cream to the custard before freezing.  So, with this recipe you can make your choice of ice milk, custard-style ice cream, or "slow churned" ice cream.

Oh, and if you are looking for a good ice cream maker, after much research, this is the one we settled on:



Homemade Ice Cream

• 1-1/2 C milk, preferably raw, whole milk from pastured cows
• 4 egg yolks from pastured hens
• 1-1/2 C cream or milk, preferably raw from pastured cows
• 1/4 C Grade B maple syrup
• pinch sea salt
• 1 T good quality vanilla extract

1. In a mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-yellow in color.
2. Pour the milk into a saucepan and scald it (bring slowly up to boiling point). 
3. By spoonfuls, gradually add the hot milk to the egg yolks, stirring constantly. 
4. Pour the hot milk/egg yolk mixture into saucepan.  Gently heat over low while stirring constantly until the custard thickens.  When you can see a film form over the back of your spoon it's time to remove the saucepan from the heat.  (DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL.  Maximum temp is about 165 degrees.)  This should take around 10-15 minutes.  So when I say low heat, I mean low heat.
5. Cool. 
6. Add maple syrup, sea salt, vanilla extract.  Stir to combine.  
7. Refrigerate until chilled.  (About 4 hours.)

 Depending on the finished product you like best, you can do 1 of 3 things:

1. Ice milk:  Add remaining milk to the cooled custard.  Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker, following manufacturer's instructions on adding in any fruit, chocolate pieces, or nuts.
2. Thick, custard-like ice cream:   Add remaining cream to the cooled custard.  Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker, following manufacturer's instructions on adding in any fruit, chocolate pieces, or nuts.
3. Lighter-fluffier"slow-churned" ice cream:  Whip the cream until it is like whipped cream.  Gently fold it into the cooled custard.  Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker, following manufacturer's instructions on adding in any fruit, chocolate pieces, or nuts.  (This is my favorite!)