Day One

Ernie opened her first grade curriculum last night- Calvert sure knows how to get kids excited! The box had manuals, workbooks, reading books, an inflatable globe, pencils…everything! Ernie declared that we’d start school in the morning, so that’s just what we did. It took a little over an hour, and she loved it. LOVED.

I’ll be modifying the curriculum a bit, to match her level- she reads the scriptures fluently, so the “Tam Cat sat on mat” stories are a bit simplistic. She was supposed to read to me about Tam Cat, but instead I read it to her and had her spell it out in the chalk board.

I’m excited to get a jump on the school year, and give ourselves a buffer for play days during the year- there are enough lessons for 9 solid months.

Monday Mornings

Monday mornings are always catch up mornings. Is it the same at your house?

Turnip Harvest

This has been a super cold, rainy Spring.  My weeds are four feet tall, and my spinach won’t grow.  Oh, and my broccoli BOLTED.  Life’s not fair in the garden sometimes.

I harvested my spring crop of turnips.  Actually, I noticed they’d made an impenetrable thicket so I started to thin out the largest turnips…and then went King Kong on them and uprooted the entire patch.  It’s easier this way.

I quartered the roots and sauteed them in butter, then threw in the green with more butter, salt, garlic, pepper, and a bit of water and let them steam a bit.  A little sugar and apple cider vinegar finished them off nicely, and they were fantastic on top of whole wheat pasta with feta cheese.

Green Smoothie

Frozen mango,banana, pineapple, and strawberries. Orange-flavored fiber. “Green Machine” drink mix from TJ’s. Soy milk. Lots of spinach. The little girl and I drank seconds and thirds. The big girl alternated between saying she wasn’t hungry, wasn’t thirsty, wanted more toast, and couldn’t possibly drink it until she had a straw….couldn’t drink it till after it melted…,did she mention she wasn’t hungry? Could she have some more bread with butter and sugar please?

Next time I’ll get the frozen strawberries, instead of the lighter-colored tropical fruit mix. Somehow brown smoothies are more palatable than green?

(The greenest smoothie we’ve made so far had apple, spinach, and home-canned figs. It looked like grass clippings!)

First Garlic

The top was brown so I yanked it up. The bulb doesn’t look finished to me… What do you think? All the other garlics are still totally green- I saw slug damage at the base of the stalk, I think that’s what made this one die off early. The bulb is pungent, though! I think I’ll fry it up with the rest of the broccoli tomorrow for my lunch. Yum!

Raisin Math with the Cousins

Quick math lesson on a play day! Ernie did problems on the board, Ming Wai made raisin flowers, and Mimi had a contest with herself to see how many helpings she could eat!