Welcome Back, School Self

My school year self and my summer self are two completely different selves.

And ne'er the twain shall meet...

My summer self is all about long bike rides, easy dinners, afternoon naps, sunshine, outdoors, late nights followed by late-ish mornings, and lots of (fluff and stuff) reading.

My school year self includes making bread, getting up early and going to bed early, playing the piano and cleaning my house. Oh, and school. Teaching, supervising, correcting.

I become one with the dining room table.

(Which, incidentally, is a gorgeous, new model this year. A huge, dark finished cherry, built by the Amish.)

While I always regret the end of the hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer, and I am always excited for the new school year. Each new school year has so much potential learning wrapped up in it's genesis.

This year we are on our fifth year of comprehensive world history, and we are studying 500 AD to 1500 AD-collectively known as the Middle Ages or Medieval Period.

I'm quite surprised at how much history is actually contained in this thousand year period. And once again I am thrilled to be embarking on this new study adventure. 

Our lecture series are titled The Middle Ages, Turning Points of Medieval History, Great Minds of Medieval History, and the Story of Medieval England.

The reading lists are a good mix of contemporary and ancient writings, fiction and non, poetry and biography. I found some new (to us) authors, that I'm hoping will be readable. Especially since I've committed to reading the entire list this year. Whew! Here's what we're looking at...

Magna Carta
Norman Conquest
Beowulf
Canterbury Tales

Sir Gawain
War of the Roses

The Plantagenets
Robert the Bruce
Wealth & Poverty of Nations
Story of King Arthur

King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table
Robin Hood

Ivanhoe 

Plutarch (*we only got halfway through last year)

There is other great fiction available on the Plantagenets and the Tudors, by Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth George, but none of it is terribly suitable for my kids' reading list. Lots of history novelized, but also lots of garbage, because they weren't the most stellar group of people.

Also new for this year is art class! I signed up all four of the offspring for a realistic drawing class. They had their first week last week, and they each loved it. My goal is to get the more artistic ones some guidance, and to expose the less artistic ones to the enjoyment of art.

All four kids are doing Spanish again this year, but we are mixing things up a bit. BMV is continuing on to level four. E & E are going back to level one. BMV has a decent grasp of Spanish. I think the other two will benefit by the review of the earlier levels.

And now for a bunch of (non-school) randomness (because if I push it off to another post, you likely won't read it for months...)

-We are settling in to our new routine. Early to bed and early to rise...

I've not gotten up before 6:00 all summer, but my alarm is now set to 5:20. For the fall months, I'm hoping to swim a couple mornings, and the other couple mornings we will run after drinking coffee (and waking up).

-We had our annual schedule evaluation and determined what was staying and what wasn't, based on the needs of and objectives for our family.

5th grade

-Elsie is still loving reading, and horses, and riding her bike. She sprouted a lot of freckles this summer. She is sweet and vinegary in turns. Can anyone say prepubescent hormones??? She has been cooking with me, which she really enjoys.

-We are hoping to volunteer at Gilda's Club, but we will not be regularly attending our support groups any more. Meredith is doing fantastically well, and we feel we have moved a bit beyond cancer survival mode. We are so very thankful about that. No cancer in her at all, for over a year! Almost 8 months past treatment! She is doing so well, as are the rest of us.

Meres got new glasses last week, because she power washed the old pair with the hose while she was watering my plants. I'm hoping this pair has a better track record.

And, also, her hair...it is so thick, and wavy, and close to 3" long. Miracle grow is what I've been applying this summer....

1st grade-she pulled the tooth yesterday-just in time for photos...

-My oldest took driver's training in August. Which means he has hours and hours of driving to rack up. We've survived over two hours of driving in the past week (hours in city driving takes much longer to accumulate than country driving. Especially when home schooling is also involved. We stay home a lot.)

sophomore-I had to stand on a bench for this head shot. Next year he is kneeling.

-The boys will be attending a Bible study this fall. Ironically enough, the Bible study began almost 20 years ago, when a couple asked my husband to disciple their teenage son. It grew over the years, even meeting in our house as newlyweds, and then my husband asked an older gentleman to help lead it. Another year or two went by and my husband stepped out of the Bible study altogether. But, how wonderful that now our boys get to benefit from this study that has been continuously going for so long! Fun fact, BMV actually attended the Bible Study way back when he was a baby and toddler. What goes around comes around...

8th grade

-Thursday nights are going to be our official "date" night. It has kind of been our date night over the past year or so, but with Gilda's Club and other commitments, we'd often miss out. Now we are making it a priority.

-We also are determined to break in our new table by showing hospitality. Planned, and spur of the moment. I've been wanting a bigger table for years so that I could fit more people around my table. Now we have it, and now we are planning to pack them in.

-We are starting a dinner club. I've also been wanting to do a dinner club for years, and it's finally going to happen. We are gathering with 3 other couples, meeting once a season. Our debut dinner will be in October. I'm quite excited!

-I loved this thought when I read it last week...

"Giving someone a book is like giving someone a piece of your soul. You may not have written it, but in reading it and experiencing it, a book has become a part of you. Passing it onto someone else is, in a way, like passing on that piece of yourself, too. Whether it be your interests, your dreams, your fears, your opinions, or your inspirations, you are giving someone so much more than paper and ink when you give them a book."

This so resonated with me. I don't give away many titles, nor do I recommend many books. I wonder if people will judge me on my book tastes? (she thinks that is funny???) Or if the book is as good as I think it is? Or will people know that it's okay chew the meat and spit out the bones? 

To like a book enough to give it away shows your vulnerabilities. At least, I think so.

-All four kids grew over the summer, but particularly the 3 youngest. Meres grew 2-1/2 inches since her well child visit in May. Elsie's jeans were an inch or two too short, the other day. And Ethan is just growing. I don't know how much, but I know it is happening.

And, on that note, I'll wrap this up. 

Happy September!

All the Randomness, Plus My Hummus Recipe

Occasionally I've got a lot on my mind. Well, actually, I always have a lot on my mind. Sometimes each of those a lots is not big enough to merit it's own post, but is worth cobbling into a random post. So, here it goes...

1. Hair. I got my hair cut this week. I saw some pictures of myself from the party weekend, and I was quite horrified. Being the efficient soul that I am, I love a mostly wash and wear do. I was being super spiritual the past few months (snort), going even to the lengths of reading my Bible while blow drying my hair. Two birds with one stone, and all that. (in all honesty, I figured it was better to be reading the Bible first thing, than to be on FB. It got my day started off on a good foot. And I usually finished my daily reading while the kids were eating breakfast-after I was done with my hair.)

The effect I was going for was care-free. The pictures instead highlighted more of a don't care vibe. Which was not what I was looking for, because, I do in fact care. I care enough to spend about 5 minutes, and that is about it....

Anyway,  I went to a salon-salon on Monday and got my hair cut and styled. The girl was awesome. She chopped the locks, and then showed me how to dry and style the coif for maximum oomph. Moral of the story...reading your Bible while drying your hair is a no-no. Hair drying requires full attention to make it work right. She showed me how to partition my hair, and dry in layers. And, believe it or not, I've got the routine down to about 5-6 minutes. Which works. My new do involves less bang, shorter hair, lots of layers, embracing the gray, and going big. I love it.

Also, I have to be back in the salon on Monday for Meres, and I'm slightly afraid that the hair-stylist is going to look and my hair and secretly think..."well, that's ONE interpretation of that hair style."

2. Painting. It's spring. Which means that it is time for Mr. Hippie's annual Bible study weekend. Which also means that we once again have a distinguished guest from the British Isles staying with us for a few nights. Which is quite the motivator when it comes to cleaning and house projects. Not that the guest cares. But I care. So, we've done some hole patching and painting in our upstairs landing. And the bathrooms will be getting a thorough scrub down before Wednesday (well, probably ON Wednesday).

Since Brian will be gone for three days, I'm not packing away the paint brushes after the landing is done. They will get a good rinsing in preparation for painting the kitchen this week. We've lived in this house for over 10 years, and the kitchen is the one room that has not been repainted. I patch painted once or twice, but it has needed to be completely redone since the tile was put in last year.

Brian put new trim around the doorways, and sanded down the window casing. I'm going to paint the walls and ceiling this next week, and the trim if I get around to it. (I don't want to work too hard while he is away...) I will do the trim in early May if I don't get it done this week.

I will be painting the currently pink ceiling a nice cream color. And the currently terra cotta walls will be a shade called "spiced berry." It reminds me of a burgundy leaning more to red than purple, with a hint of cinnamon brown. It is a dark color, and I think it will look fabulous! I love dark paint colors. The light ceiling and white cabinets will keep everything nice and bright. I might splurge and get buffed silver or bronze plate covers. We will see...

I am very excited. There is nothing like a fresh coat of paint to make everything look new and fresh!

3. Reading. Guys! Meres has finished reading Dick and Jane!!! Whoot-whoot! My goal with each of my kids has been to have them reading by the end of kindergarten. But, I reach Christmas each year, and they are just starting word families, and I wonder if each particular kid is going to be the one who upsets my goals.

Thankfully, not a single one of them has. Meres has made tons of progress on her reading. Her comprehension seems quite good. She tends to guess at words (according to what she is seeing in the pictures), but she is starting to memorize more and more words, and so they just flow out as she is reading.

We will start the BJU first grade readers this Monday, and just work through all of them, keeping on throughout the summer.

What is really thrilling to me is seeing her sitting on the couch with books. She is trying to sound out words, and she is thinking. She loves reading and books, and that makes me smile.

4. School. We have 5 weeks of regular school left, plus one week devoted entirely to fun school. We are all super excited about this fact!!! Me, no less than the kids. Our fun school week will be taken up with finishing our history and art lectures for the year, plus doing double duty on biology to get it close to done, and we will finish our ancient Rome maps and make timelines.

The kids have been doing biology and they are on the dissection module. They are not exactly enjoying it, but at least they are learning-I think.

5. Hummus. I have been making a batch of hummus every week for over a month. It is such a healthy snack, and we all love it. We love it so much that I made four batches for Meres' end of treatment party and I came home with only about 1-1/2 cups of hummus. That's it. I was surprised. I like hummus, and I know other people like my hummus. But, I had no idea that people liked it that much. The BFF thinks I should make and sell it. One of my article club friends thinks I could call it Vampire Slayer hummus, because of the garlicky goodness of it. We shall see, we shall see.

I was sure I had shared this recipe on here. I always send people to my blog for the recipe. But, I guess I never have. Oops. So, here it is....

Hummus
Prep time: 15 minutes
2 (15 oz) cans garbanzo beans
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup tahini paste
2 lemons, juiced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp salt

-Drain beans, saving the liquid from one can.
-Add olive oil, tahini paste, garlic, 1/4 cup lemon juice, salt and cumin to the blender, then add beans. Pour 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid in the blender on top of the beans, and pulse until smooth. Add more liquid as necessary to get the thick dip effect.
-Taste and add more lemon juice to get desired lemony flavor.
-The key to good hummus is blending it enough. Even when all the big chunks are gone, blend it more. It will always look gritty, but if it is gritty in your mouth, blend more. And add more liquid as needed. Hummus thickens when it is refrigerated.
-Makes about 4 cups of hummus.

Have a great weekend!

Where We've Been, Where We're Headed

Oh.my.word!

It's been almost 2-1/2 months since I've last written here.

School starts tomorrow, and I'm not sure I'm ready. To be perfectly honest, I feel somewhat gipped out of a summer.

We've had a summer to beat all summers. It whipped past in it's urgency. It was survival mode, not thrive mode. Not survival of the fittest, because I sure wouldn't call us the fittest, though we have survived.

Thus far.

By the skin of our teeth. And the grace of God.

A highlight of the summer was hanging out for an entire week with my parents, siblings (8 of us!), spouses (5!), nieces and nephews (12 total, including my kids! Ages ranging from 14 to almost 2.). We borrowed some friends' house in near the beach. We divided bedrooms and living spaces and crammed us all in. We laughed, and ate, and played games, and hung at the beach, and talked, and had a really good time.

Mom and Dad with the grandkids

It was great.

We determined to spend this week together while my mom is still pretty healthy and strong. If you remember, she was diagnosed with ALS at the end of last year. She is doing okay. She is slowly going down hill.

We hired the photographer to document our family. (By the way, all photo credits in this post belong to Josh Rexford. He did an amazing job for my family. Check him out if you live in The Mitten.) We are going to cherish these photos forever.

Time and opportunities are not something you can get back. Once gone, they've slipped past forever.

My parents

If you can remember way back to the last time I wrote, I had mentioned that I had torn my LCL. I was finding out that day what our game plan was going to be.

Well, not only had I torn the LCL, but I also had torn my biceps femoral tendon off the bone in two different places. Talk about a spectacular injury.

The game plan was surgery, on June 29. I have a glorious 6" scar on the outside of my knee, and a graft of some sort inside my knee. I'm not too eager to delve much farther into who or what provided said graft for my healing and wholeness...

The healing process is a long one. I ended up being on crutches for 7-1/2 weeks. I was in a brace for just under 11 weeks-all told. I even got to wear all the way to high heaven compression stockings for the first 2 weeks after surgery. Day and night. Through several of the hottest days of summer. #notMyFavoriteThingEver

I felt free as a bird when I could finally lose my crutches. I can carry things again! Let me tell you, that is a key skill set as a mom. 

I will not run for 6 months from surgery, but I am riding a stationary bike, and using other gym equipment to strengthen my quad muscles and hips and calves and all the other things that have gone to pot in this non-triathlon summer.

I am so thankful for the progress I have made.

Brian and I celebrated our 15th anniversary earlier this month. I am so thankful to have this man to lead me and our family. To partner with me on this road of life. To be my best friend and my lover. He has really stepped up to the plate (and beyond) this summer. As chief cook and bottle washer, nurse, and bread winner. I love him and appreciate him so.

And our kids...

BMV is 14 and will be a freshman (shut up!) starting tomorrow! He is at least 6' tall-taller than me. He is still wearing braces and is still geeked about all things Star Wars and Lego. He has been plunking around on the piano this summer-picking out tunes by ear. He has some peach fuzz coating his chin, and is growing into a man. I really can't believe it.

Freckles is 12, and will be in 7th grade this year. He is an introvert. He paces in our front yard on the berm. Just thinking. I have no idea what about. He loves to visit our local military antique/surplus store. He wore his sailor hat non-stop for months, but I think he has given that up. I think...

Elsie, Elsie. This girl. She is 9, and will be in 4th grade this fall. She loves to read. She read at least 30 books this summer. She almost always is my first kid awake in the morning, and she will be tucked in with a book. She is not a night owl. She is the first one to fall asleep each night. The phrase still waters run deep describes her pretty well. She does not demand attention (unlike a certain someone in our family), but she needs it. And she needs hugs. 

And then Meres. What to say?

Two days before my knee surgery, Meredith was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, pediatric eye cancer. It is a condition that starts in the womb, but then takes a few years to manifest itself-though generally by age 5.

July 11, she had an enucleation of her left eye. (eyeball and optic nerve removed). She currently has a coral globe in her eye that is attached to muscle, with a place holder lens over it. She has been fitted for a prosthetic lens, which will be painted to match her other eye, and will track with her other eye also. She will get this beautiful new eye in another week and a half.

Meredith had an MRI the week of her enucleation. We know from that that all the cancer is out of her head. Her eye socket, right eye and brain are all gloriously clear of cancer.

We also know from 2 pathology reports, that the cancer went up her optic nerve a bit, and quite deep into her eyeball. These 2 circumstances make her more likely to get cancer again somewhere else in her body.

Which is why we made the terribly hard decision to do prophylactic (preventative) chemotherapy.

She will go through 6 treatments (the first of which is already completed!), each running 2 simultaneous days, and about 4 weeks apart. If all goes well, we will be done after the new year.

It is a fairly mild thing, but it is still chemo. And there still are side effects. Nausea, jaw pain, low blood counts.

We are hopeful. The prognosis is 95% no return rate. That is really good. We are choosing to rest in hope. And rest in the grace given for today, and today's joys and challenges.

Pray for Meredith's complete healing.

You know, I love this photo of my siblings and our kids. It is full of joy. Sunshine. Life. 

This has not been an easy summer, and I can't imagine that it is going to be an easy fall. But, once again I'm brought back to our priorities.

God. Marriage. Our kids. Everything else.

And, how can we glorify God through these relationships today? 

I love this photo too. I love my mom. I am so blessed to be her daughter, and to have her example.

Life this fall is going to be pretty bare bones. We are healing. So, we will be doing school, and therapy (physical and chemo-), and blood draws, and I will be cooking (because it is creative and it heals my soul), and we will be attending cancer support groups. All of us.

I will not be cleaning my house. Well, at least not more than a lick and a promise. I have hired on my cleaning team to come every other week for a while. 

We will be digging into Ancient Rome. From the pre-Republic days down to its fall. Whoot-whoot! I am so excited about this! I love learning, and I love teaching. We have lectures on Ancient Roman history, famous Romans, and the Roman emperors. Towards the end of the year we will do a series comparing Greece and Rome. And our fine arts this year is actually focusing on how to look at and appreciate art. 

The boys, in particular, have quite the reading lists. Augustine. Ovid. Gibbons. Josephus. Cicero. Virgil. It is going to be so interesting! At least, I think so. =)

Well, this a nutshell of where we've been and where we're headed. Hopefully I will have time in the near future to write more-about school and maybe about this whole cancer journey and about the faithfulness of God and the love of His people.

But for now, know that the Barefoot Hippies are still here. 

First Day of School

As most of you know, I am a home schooling mom. As anyone who follows me on FB or read my last Friday's post knows, I'm not thrilled that school is back in session already.

Where, oh where, have the past 3-1/2 months gone? I know, I know. Most teachers don't get 3-1/2 months off school. I need 3-1/2 months to recover from the last year, relax, and then get re-enthused for the new year.

Maybe I need 4 months. 'Cause I was having a hard time getting my enthusiasm on.

Labor Day I bit the bullet. And it was just the impetus I needed to get excited! (read in an excited voice!)

I threw away old papers. And broken crayons. And old school books. I emptied out the drawers and my beautiful corner hutch cupboards. And then I sorted new books, and made nice and neat stacks in the hutch.

Somewhere between the bags going out of the house, and the orderliness happening in the house, I started getting anticipatory. In a good way.

I sat down with Mr. Hippie and looked at our new curriculum, and I ordered two books to fill in a gap in our history curriculum. They should arrive sometime before or after my wine shipment this week. The one will ease the arrival of the other.

I jest....

We are doing a lot of things the same way as the past 2 years. We are, of necessity, shaking some things up.

We are still doing fun Friday school. I believe in the power of ending the school week on a positive note. We are still only schooling 3 kids. We are still emphasizing the core triumvirate of reading, writing and history. You thought I was going to say math? Ha! 

We do math too. Monday through Thursday.

Freckles and LC are both doing math, spelling, grammar and handwriting every day.

All four kids have a 30 minute reading time in the mornings also. I have a partial reading list assembled. I have to do more research on appropriate books that fit our historical time period, but we are diving right in on some of the books. BMV and LC are both reading independently. Freckles is reading to Meres. I feel like he needs the aloud practice and she needs the listening practice.

We are switching some things up. BMV is now a middle schooler. He's in that really awkward, smelly stage, but that really has nothing to do with school.

Being in 7th grade, he is no longer doing spelling or grammar. Instead, I have purchased a new writing program for him. It is a 2 year course that focuses on creative writing. We'll pick up high school level grammar again in high school.

BMV is also doing an online typing course and math.

Another change-which ties in with the middle school concept-is that we will all be learning Spanish this year. I bought a course through Fluenz. It sounds good. I still have to figure out what foreign language study is going to look like for all of us. We will start Spanish next week.

A third change is that we are doing Science every day. I bought the Apologia General Science course with the student notebooks. It looks involved, but each assignment is supposed to only take 30-60 minutes per day. LC will join the boys for the daily readings and any experiments. Both boys will do their notebook work on top of that.

I do heavily emphasize history, and Friday fun school is based on historical time periods. Last year we studied from 1600 to 1800 AD. This year we are moving back several thousand years. We will be studying ancient history up to Alexander the Great. (we will not be touching on any Greek history. That will be next year.)

So, basically, last year we studied 200 years. This year we are studying 3500 years. It will be lightening fast, but I think it is doable. I have our syllabus mapped out. We'll listen to lectures and read what we can, and make a many layered timeline and read the Epic of Gilgamesh. It will all be epic. Possibly.

I also am going to introduce a poet and poem every month for the kids to memorize. These will probably have little to do with our subject matter, though if I can find poems to tie in, I will. I am toying around with doing some ancient style art-like cave paintings and Egyptians writing. (I'd spell it, but I have no.idea.)

Anyway, that's what our year looks like from this end. I'm sure I will be updating where we are at as we go along.

Happy First Day of School! And, we survived our first day of school....

Ode to Summer

Oh let it never end...

Well, I guess that doesn't exactly sum up my feelings about summer. I do want it to end. When it is supposed to end. Officially on September 20th, and unofficially on September 2.

But not before.

I am all for living in and embracing the current season. Not wishing for the next one. (The exception to the rule would be winter to spring. I start hoping for spring about January 1.) I will do minimal planning, if necessary, but that is about it. (My school books are ordered and my curriculum is set. It is all ready for me, when I am ready for it. I've planned a trip to Spain in February, but I am not stewing more over it right now. I'll leave that dreaming and planning for later.)

My dreams and posts and Pinterest boards are not filled with sweaters and boots and scarves and apple cider and donuts and soups and school supplies.

I'm still in the throws of salads and grilling, shorts and bathing suits, naps and beaches and outdoor concerts.

Maybe it is because I am a home school mom, and thus my kids are with me 24/7/365, but the start of school is not something I am counting down the days to in excitement.

School doesn't mean freedom for me. It means teaching schoolwork for hours everyday. It means less time for running and biking and swimming. It means more schedule. And more nonnegotiable scheduled activities.

I do look forward to the start of school for the basic fact that I am excited about our module for Friday school. (Ancient history before Alexander the Great)

Fall means crisper temperatures (love), but it also means shorter days. Which I really don't like. I like light. From 5:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night. I feel myself withering as the darkness gets longer and the days get shorter. The best thing about Christmas is that the days start getting longer from then on out.

Fall really is my favorite season. It has been for a long time.

But, I am not wishing for fall. I am loving summer. I am enjoying reading tons of books. I think I have read at least a novel a week for the past 6-7 weeks.

On Tuesday evenings in during the summer, our family attends an outdoor concert series. We meet up with the BFF and her family, bring a picnic and listen to great (or sometimes mediocre) music. Last night Freckles was counting up the remaining concerts (2), and said with a sigh, "that means summer is almost over."

I get you, bud!

But, while it may be almost over, we still have an entire summer month to live. To live in the present. To not worry about the changes or schedule of fall. To not overly and eagerly anticipate the changes or schedule of fall.

An entire month to stay up late reading books. To catch fireflies and swim in lakes. To be bored and to rest. To celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. To can tomatoes and peaches. To just be.

What will you do (or not do) to really live in summer this last month of summer 2014?

Life Lately with Chicken Broccoli Casserole

-The working title for this post has been "some recipe". I finally changed it today. Obviously I was not at my most inspired earlier this week.

-You may have noticed that I have cut back to posting about 4 times a week. It really has not been an intentional and deliberate decision. I am just finding that between life and working, 4 is what I can handle these days. I am going to try to make it a specific day-not as much random. But, I think it will be a good thing for this space right now.

-Running. We are in the midst of training for our longest race of the year. May 10 marks the third time I will run our local 25K (15-1/2 miles). I have been running 4 days a week and it has been good. Hard, but definitely good. My favorite runs are on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I get up at 5:40 to drink coffee with Mr. Hippie, and then we hit the road by 6:30. I love seeing the moon hanging in the sky and then the sun rise. So gorgeous.

-I am dropping off my bike today for a spring tune-up. I am really excited about feeling the wind and sun on my face again. I feel like I am in a cocoon when I am riding. Just me and the sun, zippin' along.

-I have been reading Emily Freeman's A Million Little Ways. I am enjoying it, though she actually spoke a lot of its ideas at a conference I went to a year and a half ago. I have several heavy hitting books on my nightstand right now. I am wondering if I should space them out with some pulp fiction or just get busy and read.

-We have 3 weeks left of school! Yes, I am excited! It is always a debate in my mind whether to take spring break or not. And then it is a struggle to get re-motivated after spring break. But, we are motivated-to finish and finish strong. I am really happy with how this year went and I am looking forward to spending some time, probably in July, mapping out next year's plan.

this is the sight that greets me at the end of each of my working days. School work to be corrected....

-She Plans Dinner...I have 20 subscribers. I am very thankful for each of them, and I am praying for many more. I have started running some ads, hoping to gain more exposure. I am enjoying planning new menus and finding/testing new recipes. I am excited to see where this all leads. I have been working at least 2 Thursdays a month. This is enough time to keep me on top of what needs done, though I am also sneaking in working hours on other days of the week.

-I have decided that Panera Bread may be the official unofficial office of bloggers, but personally, I prefer the library. It is quiet, free, and way.less.crowded.

She Plans Dinner...use to coupon code SPRING to save $5 off any plan!

-Life has been busy, but I also feel like some of the stress from the major issues of the winter are is seeping away. People are paying up accounts for my husband's roofing business, and he has tons of new work. She Plans Dinner is launched and most of the technical stuff has been figured out. The weather is warmer and sunnier and the trees are filling out. Hope has sprung as well as spring.

-The biggest concern of my winter is still a concern. God is still refining. Me and others around me. Sometimes something new comes up and it feels like the wound has been re-opened and probed. But, mostly, healing and growth is happening.

-I am planning and dreaming about grilling and salads for summer, but we are still in the middle of soups and casseroles at our house.

I tried this recipe a couple weeks ago. It is easy and tasty. Definitely in the Classic Comfort category.

Chicken Broccoli Casserole
6 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, cooked and cubed
1-16 ounce bag broccoli
3 cups cooked rice
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup mayo
1 tsp curry (or 1 tsp chopped chipotle pepper in abobo sauce)
1 tsp lemon juice
1-2 cups grated cheddar cheese
bread crumbs

-To cook chicken, you can either cube the breasts and sauté until cooked through. Or you can place the whole breasts in a microwave safe container, cover with plastic wrap (vented on the corner) and microwave for 12-15 minutes or until cooked through.
-Bring broccoli to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes-until crisp tender.
-Use leftover rice or steam a new batch.
-Layer cooked rice, chicken and broccoli in a 9x13" baking dish.
-Make a sauce of the soups, mayo, curry powder, and lemon juice. Pour over the top of the broccoli and chicken.
-Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and top with the bread crumbs.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

What have you been up to?

   

Ways to Make Your Kids Smarter Over the Summer

Last week was our last home school post until August, but I decided to take up the topic of learning for one more week.

I mentioned on Friday that I read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell last week, and I found it fascinating. He made many, many interesting points. One of those points had to do with summer learning.

To nutshell it...when students from upper, lower, and middle class families are tested at the end of the school year, the range of increased knowledge throughout the year is pretty narrow. When students from upper, middle and lower class families are tested at the beginning of the school year, the gap is much larger.

Why?

The upper and middle classes avail their children of learning opportunities through out the summer. The attend camps and classes and they grow in knowledge. Lower classes tend to spend their summer vacations free and breezy. No learning. Unable to afford classes, tutoring or camps, they spend their times idyllically in play. Children from lower classes in society tend to either gain very little knowledge over the summer months and sometimes they even move backwards. They forget what they have learned.

I'd guess that is why there has been a surge of free child care/summer programs for lower income brackets over the past while. This allows for some structured learning which keeps the backwards digression in check.

I have no idea what income demographics are represented by you, my blog readers. But, hey, I can almost guarantee that not a single one of us wants our kids to be stupider in three months than they are right at this moment. Right?!


The goal is to promote learning opportunities in order to minimize forgetting opportunities. While still getting a break in. Because, let me tell you, the Barefoot Hippie Girl is all about summer break. How can we promote structured and unstructured learning opportunities for our kids over the summer months?

-Read. Have your readers read independently, and read to both your non readers and readers alike. Sign up for your local library's summer reading program if they have one. Assign books for your kids to read, or let them choose. Just read a lot.

We have our literary lunch hour. (half hour, actually) We are still working through Harry Potter and Team of Rivals (Abraham Lincoln). We are reading Team of Rivals M-Th, until we finish it. It is still leftover from our school year studies, so it is a priority this summer.

-Limit screen time. Whether television or movies or the Wii, set a limit. My goal is to keep my kids' movie watching to less than an hour per day. Somedays they don't watch anything-which I think is an awesome thing. And personally, I'd like to unplug the Wii for the summer months. It is a great activity when we must be cooped up for the winter, but in the summer I want my kids playing outside.

-Sign up for classes. Swimming, sports, science, camps. Learning is learning. Maybe all learning isn't created equal, but...

-Visit zoos and museums and national monuments. Not just to be entertained or for something to do, but read the placards and learn new things.

-Use some of the apps recommended in last week's home school posts. (some of the ladies had great ideas) I am using iPad apps to keep my various children up to snuff on math skills this summer. They are learning math facts while playing games.

-Do a "bridge" booklet. Barnes and Nobles sells books to use over summer break. They offer books spanning successive grades from K-1 and on. These booklets keep the students sharp on math, reading, grammar and spelling skills. I think each lesson is designed to only take 10-20 minutes per day.
-Borrow a page from Junie B. Jones' book, and have your kids journal. Ask specific questions for them to answer or simply have them write what they have been up to.

-Hands on. Summer is the time to do things. Science experiments are perfect for the summer. Grow stuff. Explode stuff. Record phases of the moon, or sunrise/sunset times. Draw and sketch. Catch bugs and study them. The sky is the limit.

Learning doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to crowd out the laziness of summer. It can be fun, and it is profitable.

What are you learning goals for your kids this summer? How are you implementing them?