Close call

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We have angels watching over us. We know that. It is not everyday that this even comes to your attention however. It came to ours this week. We were just winding down for the night and Allen happened to walk past the one window in the front of the house that faces the paddock. Good thing too because just as he did he saw first sparks, then flames, shooting up some feet from the ground.

The prospect of fire on the prairie strikes fear into one’s heart, especially this time of year. The first year we were out here we watched a March fire burn through several properties in a matter of minutes. For whatever reason we were all pretty collected, though you do some fast figuring. Do we have time to get the animals out of the barn? How long til it would hit the house? What if it goes east first and blocks the drive?

Fortunately none of those questions needed an answer this time. Allen was able to get right out to the little fire and between him stomping and the providential location – right near the water tank, right after evening chores so it was soggy, and no wind this night – there was no escalation. Turns out the cord to the tank heater fried and began to light up. It was such a blessing that we were home, such a blessing that the kids made a mess with the water buckets this night.

Still it was sobering and reminded us to go over our evacuation plan and do an exterior electrical safety check.

Feeding the family

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It has been a long time since I shared these links and wanted to throw it out there again.

Most of us moms are curious to know what is a reasonable food budget. A good place to start is the USDA Food Costs site. For comparison, the average food stamp budget comes to about $3/day/person. The general conclusion from those participating in Food Stamp Challenges that this is too low. It IS possible for a stay at home mom to feed her family for not too terribly much more than that however. If we follow the guidelines below we can feed ten for about $100/mo/person supplementing with farmstead milk and the occasional wild game. (this includes paper and cleaning products) If you have a garden you can do even better.

Hillbilly Housewife has a ton of resources to help pinch grocery pennies. Especially helpful are the $45 and $70 dollar emergency menus. While you wouldn’t want to eat that way forever they come in handy in when you find yourself in a tight spot.

The Thousand Calorie menu recipes are some of the best imo.

This article claims to feed a family on $30. My guess is most of the “meals” would not satiate and you would need to combine a few to make a whole meal.

This link has a lot of good tips which we tend to employ here as well –

*stock up on inexpensive produce like potatoes, carrots, cabbage. Ditto inexpensive cuts of meat. (the crockpot is a huge help here)

*NEVER eat out. While my husband must eat out while traveling we as a family eat out only as a special treat for birthdays or the like. Even when we don’t go to restaurants a big food budget leak is running into Walmart for snacks or drinks while we are out. Plan ahead – pack snacks and drinks before you leave home.

*Don’t buy beverages. Water is free. Tea is cheaply made at home and provides antioxidants.

*If your budget is tight I would still add a multivitamin, even a generic formulation. Cheap protection.

As promised here is another week of vegetarian meal plans:

Day 1:
Yogurt and blueberries/zucchini bread
black bean soup, tortilla chips, corn
Tuna casserole, green beans, pickles

Day 2:
Corn muffins, oranges, cocoa
bean burritos, veggies and guacamole
Broccoli/cranberry/mayo salad, scalloped potatoes

Day 3:
granola and milk (with nuts and dried fruit)
PB and J, apples
Pilaf with a Purpose (Jane Brody – contains pintos, brown rice, and thin spaghetti) cauliflower

Day 4:
Apple cinnamon oatmeal, yogurt smoothies
leftover pilaf, cauliflower soup
scallops with red pepper and linguini, peas

Day 5:
waffles, strawberries
tuna sandwiches, celery, popcorn
black bean haystacks (beans on rice with taco toppings) baby carrots

Day 6:
Pumpkin muffins, Oranges, eggs
hummus, crackers, cucmbers, V8
chop suey vegs and brown rice, chow mein noodles

Day 7:
Cornmeal mush, bananas, nuts
tomato soup, grilled cheese, peas
quiche, 7 layer veg salad, french bread

The Berry Hat

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I have the best friends in the world. I am pretty certain of that. Rebecca, these photos are long overdue but I wanted to show how adorable Tess looks as a strawberry baby now that we finally are getting them transferred to
the new machine. Thank you for your gift – both the handcraft and the friendship. : )

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A Plain Life

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One of my favorite reads in recent weeks has been a reread of Scott Savage’s A Plain Life. It was published in 2000 so it couldn’t have been just all that long since I read it the first time but there was a lot to chew on. Scott and his wife Mary Ann walked away from an yuppie urban existence to embrace a Quaker lifestyle as a result of their “pursuit of a more meaningful life together and the spiritual gifts… uncovered along the way.” He tells the story of their journey in the context of his physical journey, by foot, from their small town in Ohio to the DMV in Columbus where he deposited his driver’s license. His reasons for doing so, particularly since the day he arrived was the day the license was due to expire anyway were personal rather than practical and articulated as he walked.

The first read for me was a bit of vicarious thrill. Here was a family thumbing their noses at public perception of progress to seek a simpler, saner life of less power (both physical and social) and more connectedness. The second go ’round reveals a broader message, even for a woman like myself who spends a fair amount of time in a 15 passenger van. He poses thoughtful questions about relationships, authenticity, and offers nonjudgemental reflections on the range of personal responses to such challenges.

The writing easily moves between humor and concern. Introspection mixes with the reality of negotiating a horse and buggy in a zoom-zoom world. I could have written his description of themselves at the journey’s beginning:

MaryAnn and I had always shared a great unhappiness with modern American culture. We couldn’t find a comfortable place for ourselves amid the shallowness and cynicism masquerading as coolness and irony many of our 20-something peers bought into. We also didn’t like the sheer ugliness of modern life. We both valued old: old houses, old forests, old neighborhoods, old people. The more close we got to old the better we could compare it to the new. And something about the new, in the most pervasive way, didn’t feel right.

Nope it doesn’t. Though of course, ultimately our response to that pervasive problem of ugliness in all its literal and figurative incarnations will be as unique as each of us is.

M is for Mothers

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M is for Me and My Mama
ASL M and Mom
M template and tracer pages.  You can make your M a Mountain here.

Drumroll Please!  I have waited halfway through the alphabet to share these.  A Mini Office is a must have for early childhood through early elementary grades.  We LOVE them!  I will talk more about this next week as well. Teachers use minioffices to teach and review the essential skills for these levels such as the colors, shapes, phonograms, left/right, phone number/address, etc We have adapted the minioffice to our notebooks to make them more practical for home use. We didn’t think poster board stood a chance honestly. ; ) Check out these links. This lifesaver project costs you only printing and binder materials. Afterwards you need no longer fret over missing some essential skill. When you begin your learning time flip through the pages like a game and talk about them.

 

M is for Math and the Mathsmarts series from Stuart Murphy. (he cooperated so well in the name dept didn’t he?) The books are grouped by levels and introduce various topics like time telling, more/less, even/odd, etc in a very elementary manner. You can try Circus Shapes this week to review shapes.

Another favorite concept author is Bruce Macmillan. He uses photography to illustrate his topics such as The Alphabet Symphony and What the Classroom Mouse Saw

One of my favorite math resources for this age group is Mathematics Their Way.  Mary Barrata Lorton is a hero of mine. You can ck out the blackline masters for the program here. Some great ideas for this week would be the More and Less cards

We’re Making Breakfast for Mother

Does a Kangaroo have a Mother Too?

Are You My Mother?

Lyle Finds His Mother  (my kids remind me that I should have introduced Lyle last week as well – my bad)

Is Your Mama a LLama?

If you give a Moose a Muffin – not a mom but still an M

My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Mother Goose – Every child should be familiar with these rhymes and we try to introduce new ones each week. If you haven’t purchased an anthology you might wish to this week. DLTK has activities here.

Science – animal babies and their mothers.  Match pairs of pictures of babies with their mama’s and learn the proper names.  This is a fun drill to practice that skill.

Magnets – Magnet Discovery Bottle

Art:

Marble Painting – tape a sheet of paper to the bottom of a large flat box. Dip marbles in cups of paint, drop them into the box and tip the box gently side to side.

Felt mittens – if you are interested in a "real" craft you could trace pairs of fleece or felt and lace them together.  I am told 100% wool felt works best for sewing through.

Memories – Create an All About Me book  such as these

Songs:
Five Little Monkeys

Five Little Monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the Dr and the Dr said
No more monkey business jumping on the bed.

Tomie De Paola’s Mother Goose anthology is very nice.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Saints/Bible stories:
Miracles of Jesus
and
Mary, Mother of Jesus Two more favorites by Tomie

ahhhhh

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That is the sound of a happy woman. : ) We are the new owners of a Mac and couldn’t be happier so far. After umpteen years of battling with pc’s this is blessed relief. I wish we had taken the plunge sooner.

This lent, like most of our lents, has been full of unexpected challenges and redirection. The children and Allen are plugging along with their meatless season. I had to return to the diet my Dr prescribed for me. Guess he knew what he was doing. I have an uncommon form of arthritis that responds to little else but a no-starch diet. Long story. Its related to a starch loving bacteria which is molecularly similar to the genetic blood marker for the disease. Odd. Apparently vegetarianism is not for everyone at any rate. Spent a week not movin’ well. : / All is much better now and we are getting back to normal. Whatever that is.

Allen’s grandfather passed away and he is planning to attend the memorial service. A blessing for the man but nevertheless sad for those left behind. We are hitting the point in life where mortality is impossible to avoid. Our day will come and if the speed with which recent years have passed is any indication it will likely surprise us. I remember reading once that most likely one of us (in a marriage) will eventually be burying the other. It is a sobering reality. Makes you look at each day a little differently. (go send your husband a love letter!)

The children have been making good progress in school. They are loving the Story of the World Volume II and seem to be retaining the stories remarkably well. They have made lovely notebook pages and narrations which I will upload as soon as I can figure out the new printer/scanner. Not millions of them, but some very nice work. I am very pleased with the care they have taken. We also picked up some Spectrum workbooks for one of them and I am as happy with those now as I have been in the past. Cheap, effective, user friendly. The writing series seems to have exercises very similar to those we have seen in Calvert School’s curriculum. They have been a good addition to our program, leading the writer from elementary categorizing exercises to graphic organizers to topic sentences etc rather painlessly.

I haven’t been online much but that has been alright too. There has been lots of time to read, both with the children and on my own. I realized that had fallen by the wayside – relaxed, kicked back reading replaced by snatches of online articles. This has provided a good balance. I hope to share some bits and pieces of that in coming days. Balance is a good thing.

M is nearly ready to publish. Expect that Funschool entry this week.

What else? Lots more and nothing more I suppose – the minutia that makes up our lives and commands our attention from day to day. Daily chores interspersed with the occasional major speedbump. Waking up with resolve and vision, falling into a well-earned sleep at day’s end. Hopefully the new machines and continued organizing and decluttering will translate into more crafting soon. That is one weak link here. It has been a very hands off many months art-wise and it is taking a toll on my morale. It is definitely time to make something. Meantime I can honestly say we have had many restful moments together tucked in between the rest of it all and cherish them more than I can say. I hope the same is true for you. : )

Ok off to start the day and will try to share more before long. God bless.