That’s me!

So when a home schooling friend offered me over 1000 home school books and resources for FREE – I was almost giddy!

So what does one do with boxes and boxes and boxes of books?

First you spend hours pouring through every box, touching each and every book and resource. This takes hours because you get distracting and start reading them.

Then you make big piles of the books that you cannot live without and try to fit them on your already full bookshelves.

Meanwhile – your children are also going through each and every box, touching each and every book  and also have large piles of books that they cannot live without – because you trained them from a young age to love books – especially when they are free.

Then you take the many, many, many boxes of books that still remain – and lay them all out neatly in the basement. All over the basement – as in – you must rearrange the basement to make room for them all.
Then you call your homeschooling friends and invite them over for a book party – an “everything is free so please fill as many boxes as you wish and take them to live at your house” book party.

Would you believe they went through each and every box and touched each and every resource and made big piles of books that they just could not live without?

And then their children did the same thing.

After a wonderful afternoon  they took their boxes of books and stuffed in the van with all the children and are probably – right at this very minute – trying to fit them on already full bookshelves.

How do I know this?

Because I’m a bibliophile. It’s what we do.

I interrupt your regularly scheduled school day to bring you this special report.

Last night while we slept – it snowed.
Six inches of wet sticky snow.

And although you may think that it’s really quite exciting and even somewhat pretty, I must bring a touch of reality to your morning.

The heavy snow has knocked down the electric fence and all the cows are all out.

While you were drinking your hot chocolate for breakfast – they were walking across downed wire and eating the hay bales set aside for their winter consumption.

Please drop whatever you are doing and immediately put on your winter coats, snow boots, gloves and hats.

You will find them still in the tubs in the basement where we put them last spring -because your mother somehow missed the 6 inches of snow in the forecast last night and was not prepared.

Then report to the back pasture for a morning of adventure.

We’ll call it PE.

Thank you,

Your mother

I’m becoming a habitual offender!

At least this time I brought the kids with me!

We met up with several other home school moms and their kiddos at a local park to enjoy one of the last wonderful days of fall.

While the kids played and played and played -

The moms sat and talked – catching up on life, sharing ideas, and just soaking up the sunshine.

Our biggest entertainment -

Watching the babies be cute.

It was one of those “easy” kind of days that makes me so glad to be home schooling.

I’m thinking the kids were kind of glad, too!

I knew this would happen eventually and I must admit that I even dreaded it a little – but it was a surprisingly blessed event.

But really – how could it be anything else?

After months of prayer and seeking what God would have him do, Matt decided the first of August to apply for Summit Semester – an intensive 3 month study program in the mountains of Colorado fashioned after Francis Schaeffer’s L’Abri in Switzerland.

After a whirlwind of applications, references and interviews – he was accepted and the money he needed was provided.

In the span of 3 weeks, God opened the door and Matt was so excited to walk through!

We had very little time to figure out how to get him out there, what to pack (just how many bars of soap does one need for 3 months – assuming you actually shower?), and how to tie up the loose ends (like Matt’s on-line business.)

But in the end all the details worked themselves out.

He took off this morning, heading west on the adventure of a lifetime!

Will we miss him? Oh yes. We already do – although his siblings are in heated discussions about who gets his room!

But we are so excited for him!

What will he do when the three months are over? Good question. I wish I knew the answer. But God didn’t give Matt a 5-year plan – just enough light for the next step.

But then – that’s all we really need.

Just walking in faith – one step at a time.

Go with God son. We’re proud of you. And we’re praying.

Our first born has successfully been graduated, celebrated, and appreciated.

And this mom is exhausted – but oh -  so proud and happy!!

That’s one graduation down – just four more to go!

Everybody’s been asking me if I’m ready for the big day.

Ready?

Well – the house is clean, the food is prepped, the invitations are sent, the cap and gown are pressed and we have several house projects completed in anticipation of the after-graduation party.

But am I ready?

Hmmm…good question.

Is it ever possible to be ready for major life changes? Was I ready when Matt was born? When we sat down at the kitchen table and started school? When he started driving?

Yet – at this point – after all the planning and preparations – I think I’m ready to just get it done and get back to normal.

But wait – that’s the problem isn’t it.

After tomorrow our “normal” will be different.

At the end of the summer there will be only be four students sitting around our table doing school.

My first-born will be out of the nest.

And it’s that thought – dear friends – that leaves me in a puddle.

When my sister Teresa graduated her oldest – she would burst into tears whenever anyone even said the word graduation.

I used to tease her about it.

Silly me.

I guess it’s my turn now.

Somebody please pass me the tissues – ready or not – here we go!

And no – Butter Buns is not her real name – it’s her nickname and she came by it quite honestly. A few years ago her daddy was calling her his little “honey buns” until one day at lunch her mommy served her honey on her biscuits.

She took one bite and declared that she didn’t like honey, she liked butter on her buns. And what’s more – she didn’t want to be called “honey buns” anymore – from then on she wanted to be called “Butter Buns”!

We’ve been more than happy to oblige!

She’s still keeping us in stitches with her creativity!

While we were there over the weekend, she proudly displayed some recent inventions and I just had to get a picture to share them.

Introducing the original Butter Buns Cold Belt -

During a rather nasty cold – complete with a very runny nose – she designed this one-of-a-kind belt. Made out of cardboard, this unique accessory offers a full box of Kleenex on one side with a handy empty box to hold used tissues on the other.

The loop between the two is to hold the Vaseline to put on her very sore nose after blowing.

Who would have thought?

Then there’s the Butter Buns Personal Fan -

When a family friend gave her a used hand held mixer with just one beater, she immediately saw potential.

A little cardboard and duct tape later – she had her very own personal fan! She even discovered  that she needed to bend the blades to better create a breeze.

Let me tell you – this is one kid who is going far in this world!

Just wait – someday you’ll see the Butter Buns brand in a store near you!

Oh – and did I tell you she’s only seven?!

Okay – pick yourselves up now.

For those of you who know me well – you know that I don’t like to start school until at least after Labor Day.  I want a really long – very s t r e t c h e d out summer.

Yet – here we are starting school in the middle of August – before even the public schools have started.

What’s up with that?

Well…usually I’m up to my eyebrows in veggies to can and freeze right now, but this year the garden is really behind.

And…for years we didn’t have air conditioning and it was just too hot to even think – let alone do math.

But…mostly we started early because we have something really exciting planned.

I mean really exciting!

Are you ready for this?

In September, we’re going on a massive 10 day trip out west – with all five kids – and we’ll be camping.

That’s right – all seven of us for 10 days – camping.

But not in this RV – no, that would be too easy. It has a kitchen and an indoor bathroom.

No, that’s not us. We’ll be the ones driving a 15 year old suburban pulling a 35 year old pop-up camper.

Think Brady Bunch.

We’ll see the Tetons, Yellowstone and the Black Hills while enjoying the comfort and lack of indoor plumbing of a 35 year old Starcraft pop-up. It sleeps eight, is very clean and most importantly – it’s free.

Did you notice that I called this a “trip” not a vacation? A vacation happens when you stay in hotels and eat in restaurants and don’t have children with you.

No – this is most definitely a trip – an epic adventure that will go down in the annuls of family history.

It will be a major memory making event and the excitement is building!

But for now, we have an entire week of school under our belts. Then in a few weeks – when everyone else is doing math problems and diagramming sentences – we’ll be hiking in the Tetons and watching Old Faithful.

Just one more reason to love home schooling!

RV picture courtesy of Michael Gil.

Bananagrams!

It was one of the gifts opened at our recent big double birthday bash – and I think we’ve played it almost every day since!

It comes in a cool cloth banana pouch which is filled with little alphabet tiles. The goal is to take your tiles and use them all to make your own connecting words.

One niece described it as “speed Scrabble.” I would call it addicting!

You don’t take turns, so there’s no waiting for another player.

It’s fast.

It’s intense.

And it’s educational (but please don’t tell! )

A sure win in my book!

Papa and I always experiment with one new item in our garden every year. Several years ago we tried sweet potatoes and they’ve become a “regular”!

The first year we trembled at the price of the purchased plants! Then we found out that we could grow our own plants by “rooting” a store bought sweet potato.

Every year in late February, we purchase a sweet potato or yam from the produce department at our local grocery store.

Then we stick toothpicks into the sides of the potato to hold it up above a container of water -a recycled jar works just fine.

We try to find the top or the part that was connected to the vine. The opposite end should go into the water.

We keep the water level up to the top of container and watch for roots from the part under the water. It won’t be long before we see some sprouts growing on the part above the water.

We let those green sprouts grow to about 3 or 4 inches long before we pinch them off the potato and put them in a container of water. They will make roots.

Once they have made some roots, we plant these in small pots until they can be planted in the garden.

Meanwhile , the potato in the water will keep making new sprouts. One potato should easily give us a dozen plants.

When the soil is warm enough, and all danger of frost is gone, we plant each plant on top of a mound of soil about 6 inches tall. (This gives the potato space to grow without having to dig a foot deep in the fall!) The plant will vine and the vines will root where they touch the soil. To prevent this from happening mulch mounds with newspaper or simply lift the vines often.

You can dig potatoes whenever you “feel” under the vine on top of the mound and discover a potato big enough to eat! We wait until the first frost. (Sweet potatoes will not tolerate a frost!)  We dig them carefully and lay them out to dry. If you have a cool place to store them – they will keep for several months.

In our modern houses without root cellars, sweet potatoes are not the best keepers for eating fresh all winter, but they do freeze well. We try to keep them as long as we can, then freeze the rest.

To cook a sweet potato, scrub it, prick it with fork, and bake in a 350 degree oven until soft when squeezed. Let them cool until you can handle them to peel off the skins.

Place the sweet potatoes in freezer bags or containers, label and freeze. Just thaw and use in your favorite sweet potato recipes.

Or you can cook them in the microwave. Just scrub, prick skin and place in microwave. Bake for 5 min on high and check for softness. Continue baking until they are soft, checking every 3 minutes. Peel and serve or freeze.

Our favorite way to enjoy fresh sweet potatoes is to eat them warm from the oven with Cinnamon/Honey Butter

Cinnamon/Honey Butter:

2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Mix together. This stores well in the refrigerator for several weeks. This is really good on toast and squash, too!

Until next time!

Nana Shirley