What's Cookin'

My friend Kelly shared this great recipe. I tweaked it a bit to fit our tastes and it is absolutely delicious. I use home-grown zucchini, onion, pepper, garlic and herbs to use up some of our garden bounty. It's so easy, but the finished product could pass for gourmet restaurant fare. 

Zucchini Soup

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large stockpot. Coarsely chop several large zucchini (I use giants I find hidden in the garden), 2 large onions, a sweet red bell pepper, and a couple of cloves of garlic. Add them to the pot.  Toss in a handful of baby carrots. Saute everything for a few minutes, until the onion starts to turn translucent.

Remove any tough stems from a handful of herbs and toss them in. I use a big batch of sweet basil, English thyme, and rosemary. The house smells so good!

Add 3 cups of chicken broth and simmer until everything is soft. Remove from heat and add 4 ounces of cream cheese.  Add salt and pepper to taste. I love to use fresh ground pepper.

Puree in a blender until completely smooth. I have an ancient hand-held blender stick gadget, so I puree it right in the pot so I don't have to wash the blender.  

Garnish with a sprig of rosemary. Super simple and delish!

Sunday Thought

"God makes three requests

 of His children:

Do the best you can, where you are,

 with what you have, now."

~ African-American Proverb

Texas State History Museum

We had the opportunity to visit the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, and we had a blast! What a fun and exciting way to learn the history of our state. 

We started the morning with an exciting 4-D experience in the Texas Spirit Theatre. Then we moved on through 3 floors of interactive timelines, huge maps, and life-sized heroes.  Along the way there were mini movies that all brought Texas history to life. 

For a very special treat, we lunched at the Story of Texas Cafe in the museum, then spent the afternoon finishing up the story of our amazing state. We just had one day for our field trip this time, but we could have easily spent two days soaking it all up.

They don't allow photos inside the museum, but I snapped a few before we entered.  We can't wait to go back.

Bright Idea

In the past 6 years of home schooling I've tried lots of tools, tips, and techniques to help me keep our work on track, stay organized, and work efficiently. I've looked for something inexpensive, completely customizable, easy to use, intuitive, and perfectly suited to our family, our schedule, my teaching style, and the learning styles of all 3 of my kids. Is that asking too much? Perhaps, because I've never found such a thing. 

Until now.

In August I signed up for a trial period to use the CM Organizer from Simply Charlotte Mason and I am hooked. This has been life-changing for this home school mom, friends! 

The monthly fee kept me from trying the CM Organizer when I first discovered it. Boy, was that a mistake. It costs $9.95 per month.  Note to frugal self: some things are totally worth 10 bucks. 

The CM Organizer truly is completely customizable. I set it up for our family at the start, and now I can organize all our books and curricula according to each child, or each subject, or each day. I can lump together all the things we study as a family, or I can see each item that each child works on independently, right down to the page they are on. I can easily schedule any of the 1500 resources they have already entered into the system at any time. Or I can enter a limitless number of my own selected resources for school. The CM Organizer saves all that info for me and lets me manipulate anything into our school schedules any time I want to. Now that's customization.

I will admit that when I took my trial run with the CM Organizer, for a fleeting moment I thought it was just going to take too much time to set it up. After all, I'm a busy mama, you know? But after a reality check, I realized that with several hours of uninterrupted time (that means Daddy took the kids outside to play one Saturday and no one was allowed back in for popscicles or bandaids) I was able to get the bones of the system ready to go for our family. 

Since the initial set-up, I usually spend about one hour per week adding resources, checking off our progress, or tweaking the CM Organizer.  What a difference! I used to spend about 45 minutes per night with a giant stack of books and notepads, writing out lesson plans and assignment sheets for the next day. In addition, every couple of weeks I used to have to sit down, spread everything out again, and review where we were in our big picture plan. Then I had to readjust everything because we were ahead in some subjects and behind in others. Then I had to figure out and write down what was coming up in the next couple of weeks. Then I had to put all my plans into a notebook and constantly shuffle, mark off, add to, etc. Well, not anymore. The CM Organizer keeps my books and other resources in a queue, so when we finish one the next one pops up in our plan. Genius!  I LOVE not have having that late evening chore of planning and organizing our resources staring me in the face every night. 

Just like anything new, you have to use it a bit to learn how to do it quickly. But once you figure it out it becomes very quick and efficient. It took me a couple of weeks of using it to really get the hang of it, and now I'm very fast at updating our progress or entering new goals or new resources. 

One of the best features of the CM Organizer is that it keeps track of everything we do. I love that! I can instantly create reports that show all we've done for the week, or the month, or the school year, or the calendar year, or for a fixed range of dates. I knew our children were learning well, but I never realized how much material we cover here at Pecan Bluff Home School! I can also print reports for just one student, or for any combination of students, or for the whole family. They can be detailed reports or summaries. Now that the CM Organizer is keeping track of everything for me, I can check our reports any time, and my poor brain doesn't have to keep track of it all anymore. The CM Organizer does it for me. 

I also love the fact that the CM Organizer helps me keep on track with ordering library books that we'll be needing. With the CM Organizer I know what books we have scheduled for each child and for our family, so I go to our library online and put in requests for the books we need. Then we pick them up at all once and I have the books exactly when we need them. Viola!

Perhaps the best feature of using the CM Organizer is how much it's cut down on my paper load. I'll bet I'm not the only home school mom with this problem ~ we have trouble taming the paper creature. Between my notes and lists and schedules, the kids school papers, their art creations, mail, coupons, and other general paper detritus, I constantly battle paper piles. But the CM Organizer tames much of that for me, because my planning lists and daily checklists and assignment sheets are no longer floating around our school/living room.  The CM Organizer is keeping track of it all for me. Freedom!

Can you tell I love this tool? I don't work for the company or anything. I just wanted to share this because it has changed the way I teach this year, and it is such a blessing for our family. If you are a literature-loving home school family like us, this might be just the answer for you, too. 

Friday Funnies

We have a sacred evening routine in our home. Supper together, baths, Family Devotional Time, then hugs and kisses for Mama.  Then my wonderful husband herds the whole crew into the boys room for a read-aloud book and I have a few kid-free moments to fold laundry or make a phone call or just collapse into an exhausted heap. After Daddy reads, the kids get about 10 minutes independent reading time in their beds before it's lights out.

Last night during their independent reading time the house was quiet and I was working in the room across the hall from the boys. I heard some quiet talking turn into a heated discussion, so I tuned in.

"But it's time to turn the lights out now! I'm tired!" youngest whined at his brother. He snapped the lamp off and plunged the room into darkness.

Middle son replied with "Hey! Turn the light back on! I'm not ready yet. I'm still reading my turtle book."

Youngest stated emphatically, "Look. I'm NOT nocturnal!" Then I heard the lamp switch off again.

Middle son didn't even argue with that one. How could he?

Opportunity

It's ragweed season around Pecan Bluff, so Benadryl is first on the grocery list. We walked down aisle 15, Eldest pushing the cart and the two little guys walking behind me holding on to my shirt. That system keeps us all together, and I like having my hands free for coupon sorting and list scratching.

We all turned when an elderly lady on a scooter rolled down the aisle behind us, ranting loudly at the store employee who was trying to help her.  It was obvious she had some type of mental challenges in addition to having no teeth.  But when she got even with us she stopped the scooter and she stopped her fussing. My children often have that affect on elderly people. 

She pulled up closely, jabbered and smiled, and reached out to my middle son. He looked up at me quickly and I nodded to him and smiled, so he reached out and took her hand. She just beamed and talked sweet jibberish to him as he patted her wrinkled hand. He smiled understandingly, then we all patted her and said, "God bless you." She rolled up the aisle grinning, and caught up with the store employee who was bent down searching for something along the bottom shelf.

We gathered up the pills and potions that we hoped would stop our itching and sneezing, scratched them off the list, then continued our shopping. As we neared the elderly lady at the end of the aisle, I realized she was terribly agitated again, and the store clerk seemed at her wits end. The lady was fussing and waving her arms, and the clerk was snapping impatiently back to her. I looked at them and smiled, trying to encourage the young employee to have patience and show proper respect. The clerk didn't notice me at all, but the lady did. 

She reached her arms out to me and looked imploringly in my eyes. She sputtered some frustrated jibberish that I didn't understand. I stepped over close to her, bent down, and patted her hand to calm her. 

"Can I help you find something, Ma'am?" I asked. Here in the south, it's still a compliment to be called Ma'am. I think the world would be better if everyone taught their kids to say it. But that's another post.

"Oil. Oil! You know...ov oil. You know. For skin. For scars. You need.... for skin. Ov oil!" she said.  The frustrated clerk was still squatting there holding out a variety of bottles containing everything from castor oil to baby oil. She shrugged her shoulders at me. I listened carefully again and then it dawned on me.

"Olive oil! She needs olive oil!" I said, gleeful that I'd figured it out. The elderly lady smiled hugely, slapped her knee and said, "Yes! Yes! Fank you. Fank you. Fank you."

"Can you please take her to the baking aisle to get some olive oil?" I asked the employee, "or would you like me to take her?" The employee looked at me, rolled her eyes, then shrugged and sauntered off to finish the task half-heartedly.  I hugged the elderly lady and she thanked me some more, patting my hand and squeezing my arm. 

After she wheeled away, I walked back to the kids where they waited. 

"Bless her heart," I said under my breath as we started up the next aisle. Then I thought how sad it was that that young employee hadn't been taught to show proper respect and patience to her elders. What a shame. 

I turned to the kids, "I'm so thankful you kids care about people and that you respect your elders. Your kindness brought glory to God just now."

Eldest looked at me sideways. 

"How come people always ask us for help?" she quizzed.

I thought about it a moment. She was right. It happens every time we are in the store. "I'm not sure," I said. "But I'm so thankful God keeps giving us great chances to practice!" 

Inspiring

Need an inspiring read? Meet this family, and see how they are making a difference in the lives of orphans. Scroll down on that page to see some pix of her beautiful daughter. Just look at what love can do. And be moved.

Daddy Don's Birthday

We celebrated my Daddy's 66th Birthday a few weeks ago. He's a down-to-earth man who enjoys all the simple things in life, so this was his kind of celebration.

Lots of family. Giggling kids. Big spread of food from the land~ our own beef, fresh herb salad with vine-ripened tomatoes, baked zucchini, and this gorgeous butternut squash bread that Eldest and I whipped up. We topped the evening off with a big slab of Gram's world-famous pecan pie made with our farm-fresh pecans. There was lots of laughter and fun, and it was the perfect way to celebrate our Daddy Don.

I am so blessed to have my parents, and I just love seeing my children enjoy them now. What a blessing for all. Happy, happy birthday Daddy!

My Daddy and Eldest

My Daddy and Middle Son

My Daddy and Youngest Son

Gram and Daddy Don and the boys placing the candles

Youngest can't believe they're going to light them all!

Should we get out the fire extinguisher?

Look at those flames!

He did it ~ with a little help!

Now, get those candles out and let's eat!

Adoption Update

After being gone all week I came home to lots of emails asking for an adoption update. So I guess passing that 6 month mark on our waiting ticker pushed some of you over the edge, too, huh? I thought it was just me.

We have done all the paperwork, and now we are waiting to be matched with a child. Since we have not been matched with a child yet, we do not have her picture, we do not know how old she is, and we do not know anything else about her. We aren't holding out on you, we just don't know which little girl God has chosen for our family yet. 

When waiting to be matched with a child you can wait patiently, or you can have a fit. Either way, you will be matched when you are matched. Since I've been through this a few times before, I understand that it doesn't make things happen any faster if I have a fit. So, I'm waiting patiently.

We consider it our job right now to earnestly pray for her. We pray that she is not hungry, and that God protects her  and keeps her safe until every legal and governmental hoop is jumped through and we can bring her home. We are also still waiting to hear back from three grant applications to help us meet adoption fees, so we continue to pray for those, as well. 

Thanks for the warm thoughts and hopeful thinking. Please keep praying for our little one while she waits. And please pray for all the millions of orphaned children all over the world who never get to feel the safety and comfort of a forever family. 

You'll hear the shouts from Texas when we do get our match! We can't wait to share her with you all.