First Veggies

This is the first time in years I've tried to grow veggies. I've only ever managed to get a few green onions to grow. So I was pleased to see a large zucchini, some basil, some parsley and tomato in the garden. I love to puree zucchini and put it in the freezer for slipping into chili or casseroles, but I hate to pay a fortune for it at the store. I grew these from seed, so I've already broke even.

Chicken Mummy, pt I

So now that we're not homeschooling, we have time for some of those fun homeschool projects we could never get around to when we were homeschooling.

Behold, the mummification of King Kluck:




He's been sitting on my counter lilke that for 5 days. We can't smell him, but he looks a little wet. Could it be time to change his salt already? I really didn't want to do that until trash day, iykwim. On the other hand, I don't want him rotting away and ruining our mummy project. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Mia's really only interested in decorating his sarcophagus.

Where do people find the time

to homeschool. We homeschooled for 1.5 school years. It was fun and fruitful when we were actually schooling, but things were always coming up. The main problem was/is my toddler. She is, shall we say, very active. It was one thing when she napped twice a day, but when she went to one nap, our uninterrupted school time dropped precipitously. If we missed a day due to relatives visiting, illness, doctor appointment etc., we had a hard time making it up.

Then, in October of last year, my mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor while on vacation and had emergency brain surgery in Kalispell, MT. So a solid three weeks of being hysterical with worry and flying back and forth from Kalispell made me despair of ever getting anywhere with school.

I remembered a school I'd checked out when Mia was 4 or 5, but she hadn't been ready for a full day program. But she's matured a lot in the intervening years and they had an opening, so she started in January. It's a small school with about 18 first through sixth graders in one classroom. There is one teacher and one aide for the 18 kids, so she gets a lot of individual attention and can work at her level in each subject without leaving the classroom. The public school wanted to pull her out of class several times a week for this and that. The school preserves many of the things I liked about homeschooling, but stuff actually gets done.

Craft Hell

They're supposed to be cats:
Yes, cats. We've always lacked craft skills around here, but alas, Mia is now old enough to notice how much these don't look like cats.

Thought you were having a bad day?

Who knows? Could be the start of a new trend.