Keeping It Simple

This is sort of a lighthearted post, but I am going to start by saying that all those in Paris and the World are in my prayers. There are never words when something so unspeakable happens. As it has been pointed out, it happens far more often that we usually hear about in places that are more obscure to most of us. I'm going to continue with this planned post as most of us still have "normal life" to attend to and families to feed amidst this very stressful backdrop. To keep myself accountable, I was going to keep up posting about my crusade to eat at home. I have failed the last few weeks, but the resolve to eat at home has not! The great thing is that on the days when resolve wanes in me, my husband picks it up. He is often the one to encourage me that he can stop by and pick up an ingredient I forgot, or to step in and create a dish himself. He chose make us a Lasagna last week- for me, that is a more involved dinner than I will take on a week day. Rather than...

The one where we get back on the horse... Since beginning this self-imposed challenge (about 5 or 6 weeks ago) to plan, make, and eat meals at home, I have been fighting this silly cold/cough. Two trips to urgent care ('cause after hours is when I would finally cry "uncle!") and a recent trip to my doctor, a round of steroids, a round of antibiotics, and lots of over the counter medication later, I'm just now on the mend. More on that in a minute... Monday and Tuesday we had the best home cooked meals ever! They were home cooked by someone else!! On Monday , we had dinner with my daughter and her husband. They put together a lovely baked potato bar that included this absolutely lovely gluten and meat free chili - but don't make it for those reasons. It was just darned good! Tuesday , another daughter and her husband invited us over for dinner (we could work this system for a while ;)). Our son-in-law's family is Greek and he knows how to cook up som...

Still at it! So much of success is attitude and planning. It is easy when we are tired and out anyway, to just pick up some quick food. It is much easier to keep a "can do" attitude when you have planned for the week's meals! This week: We reran Orange Chicken from Danielle Walker's Against All Grain cookbook. My boys love to eat this one leftover for lunch. Our first try at making Spaghetti with Shallots and Brussel Sprouts from Jenny Rosenstrach's Dinner the playbook  was a huge success. This is a seriously good yet quick and easy meal. I also baked some potatoes with our Sunday dinner to use with leftovers. We had a lovely dinners this week using our roasted chicken (previous post), orange chicken, and spaghetti.  To mix things up we added bell peppers to our chicken to make chicken quesadillas. We also used our leftovers to stuff bake potatoes. For our weekend meals: Saturday we entertained four grandchildren (ages 6, 4, 1, and 1), so we had ho...

These are a few of the hurdles we are dealing with for getting family dinners up and running. #1- Schedule. I have mentioned that Mark plays football, so he is at practice every day until 6 p.m. (home around 7). Assuming Mark is the only one who has an evening activity and we have no other obligations that evening, it is doable. But this school year started with a flurry of "other obligations"! #2- What to eat. I prefer no meat. In my ideal world we would all be vegan, but no one in my family is completely on board with that. The up side is that my family loves most of the vegan dishes I make, but they like meat too. #3- Gluten Free. My daughter can not have any gluten. It is always a bummer if she calls and asks if she can stop by for dinner and we are already making pasta (we have started keeping gluten free pasta on hand), but even the meatballs I make have gluten in them. To address #1- my motto is "just do it". It does not have to be pretty. Just mak...

We are holding fast our commitment to prepare and eat dinner at home. We are trying to work the timing such that if we have to take shifts, they are fairly close together in time and we sit with whichever child is eating at the odd time while he eats. It's sort of funny- at different times, especially when our family was younger, there was no question of eating dinner at home all togethe r. In that haze that distance memory permits, those dinners times were idyllic. I'm going to come right out and confess that it's not really coming together that way now, but I'm going to stick the motto that " practice makes perfect ". We are a family of just 3 BIG kids + parents + grandma (on some days) - dinners should be time of peaceful conversation and sharing moments from our day. Eh. Sometimes, not so much. With or without those sought after peaceful moments, we have managed to accomplish our goal of eating at home whenever possible (even if we have to stretch o...

The need to find (re-find) our dinner groove has been going on for a while. For Mother's Day, I requested an afternoon at home to cook! Not just me- for the family to make and dine on a bonafide, sit down, lick your fingers good meal. I went to Patty's blog to pick up some inspiration. Her What's For Dinner Sunday posts always make me want to cook! So there you have it-  Mac and Cheese    Roasted Broccoli    Sheet Cake Since then, with the May/June craziness of plays, graduations, first communions, weddings, ... and then the summer craziness with Mark starting football that was every.single.day. until 5:00 p.m. plus the 30 minutes to an hour it takes to drive home (we do carpool thank goodness!), to now with the beginning of the school year craziness full with outside classes, hosted co op classes, football every.single.day. until 6 with the same stinkin' drive, we have been at loss on how to get this dinner thing off the ground. I guess it must ha...

on our homeschooling journey. Months ago, probably when lots of end of the year homeschool year posts were going around, I took a second to write this down. It sat in drafts for while, but thought I share these scattered thoughts! :)  If you have read this blog, you will have heard some of this already in various posts. Of course, these are my thoughts about my homeschooling experience. Although I use the pronoun "you", I realize that not every item will be true for every homeschool. #1- Stuff will swallow you whole. Keep a minimum of books and supplies on hand. #2- Go for quality over quantity every time (in time and materials). #3- Real books beat textbooks hands down. I appreciate the real books I have invested in (and often find great bargains at used curriculum sales) but most textbooks got/get less use. #4- If you do use textbooks, you don't have to beat your children with them (metaphorically speaking). I use them as a resource or we read them toget...

We had lovely lunch with our Spanish and Art co op kids and teachers-  The picture above includes all but two of the students, past and present, who have attended our little co op Spanish. At one time all of Senorita Joyce's students were shorter that than she is!  The kids love their Art teacher, Mr. Green. He seems to handle their shaningans very well! What happens in art class, stays in art class... 

As I end our 23rd year of homeschooling, I am struggling with what homeschooling looks like in our home now. I confess it does not match my ideal! But, I know that our homeschool has had different seasons and this is just one of them. Although, I suspect it might be the season that brings us through to the end.  I have always maintained, and still do to some extent, that to have a successful homeschool, you have to be home . My ideal has always been to be home for 4 out of the 5 school days of the week. I have settled for 3 out of 5 many years. But those days are gone, and I am struggling with that.  My three boys have knocked me out of my comfort zone and taken our homeschool on the road.   Smee, A.K.A. James, has been bitten by the theater bug. He participates in a fairly low key program, but that is one day a week gone driving to and from theater. Sometimes one of the older boys comes with me to work on school, or I can sit in the car and conference c...

For a few brief months, I decided  got lazy and stopped filling out my calendar. I deluded myself into thinking that I would remember Orthodontic appointments that are scheduled weeks if not months out (thank goodness for reminder calls). But after double booking an evening with two very important events, I decided I had better get back to using my calendar. We are up and running: This is command central.  The calendar is filled out (I made sure to put appointments, with reminders set, in my iPhone calendar).  School calendars that are printed and laminated are just above the calendar- this allows me to see at a glance what Paul's schedule is and double check dates as they come up (Paul belongs to an ISP as well as an on campus Friday school).  Paul's volleyball schedule is printed out and in a magnetic clip above the calendar as well. There are pens, pencils, scissors, note cards, and paper in the white basket next to the calendar....

Each week around here is pretty much looking the same.  Monday:  We host a Geometry class of 4 high schoolers- not taught by me. I only host. We have 2 students in a general math class immediately following the geometry class. My sister is here with her kids so we take turns watching little ones and working on school with those who are not in geometry or math at the time. This Monday was special because it was my birthday- there is not a picture to be had! It was pretty much business as usual except that Frank took the day off of work. We began the day by going to mass and out to breakfast (lovely!), and we did a little shopping to refresh our kitchen ware (some of our old stuff is from our wedding over 30 years ago!). The above mentioned activities proceeded as usual, but we ended the day at a very nice restaurant that we had never eaten at before- they had crab cakes to die for. Tuesday:  Tuesday morning was Theater Fun Class for James and his cousins. I just...

Teaching Children With Special Learning Needs Special needs can take many forms- from profound disabilities to learning delays. No matter the end of the spectrum, it is something that has to be faced. And, if you have a child with special needs, you probably spend a good deal of time facing the situation. There is a quote by Leo Buscaglia that goes something like - "My experience of my experience is my experience of my experience, and your experience of your experience is your experience of your experience". I love that- don't tell me you "know" because you don't. You may understand. You may have compassion. But none of us knows exactly what the other is going through. Okay, so this is the disclaimer. I have my opinion. It is not necessarily a correct opinion for everyone. But this is on my mind, so I am going to share from my experience : If there is a dyslexia blog or resource that I hear about, I am there. I love the support and information ...

Successes-  Did not let the house fall apart- we did what I call "hold the line". You know, no progress was made, but we did not backslide. Not Successes- I am bound and determined that things shall move forward around here. Not so much this week. On to next week!! Day by Day:  Monday:  We host Geometry class here each week (taught by my daughter- you can look her business up at "Ralston Tutoring"). Paul, my 16 year old, and 3 additional homeschool students meet here each week to muddle through Geometry. Actually, they are all doing very well! We also host a general math class of just 2 students including my son, Mark, after Geometry. During this time, at least 2 of my daughter's kids hang out while their mom is teaching- occasionally all 4 of them are here. These are "Monday" pictures- not all from this Monday,  but I like to give a visual. :)  Tuesday: This is "Theater Fun" day. I head out with James...