Big Universe, Small World... ©2013-2020

Why do most days seem like whirlwinds? Today, we had to take the child for an MRI of his knee so we will have more information for his surgical consult (2nd one) later this week. I suppose we could have chalked it up to a sick day from schooling, but we seem to school where ever we go anymore. There is so much to learn out there...what did I do before we homeschooled him. I seem to talk to him so much these days, more than I did before. Everything is there in front of us to explore. We take more side roads and more backroads now. We stop to explore more now. So, we schooled on the go today. More preAlgera integer equations today. We will finish this chapter this week, in only three days...1 chapter in three days...today he was +, -, *, and / integers with parenthetical sets and absolute values mixed in...tomorrow will be more of the same and plugging the variable into the equations as well... We took him to a museum in town and walked the historical/original buildings an...

Everyday I am messing something up...yet, God's grace is ever present in my life. Lisa Harper describes a life of a woman who feels she is 'spiritually clumsy' at times. I can so agree with that comment, as it resembles and represents me many days of any given week. Stumbling into Grace  is a book written by Lisa Harper in which she writes her poignantly truthful life tales about living the Christian life as a woman who still is human. This book is advertised as a part diary and part devotional. It is a good starting point for a woman to use as a devotional supplement or journal supplement. When Thomas Nelson sent me this book to review, I was skeptical and hopeful at the same time. How can any one person recognize at any time what it is like to be in the shoes I wear daily and to continually have to lift oneself up again to be a Christian and walk the Christian walk. Lisa Harper is able to demonstrate that she is a person of likeness in Stumbling into Grace . What I recog...

A few months ago a new neighbor moved in next door. At first I have to admit that I wondered about these people. Since then, we have gotten to know the woman and her child pretty well...and my opinion has changed. And as usual, I am learning to notice that my first impression is not always a good one and that I need to be more careful of the opinions I form before knowing everything. I am writing this today, because of something that happened to my new neighbor this week and it makes me embarrassed of my neighborhood. My neighbor, Kathy (name changed to convey anonymity) is a single mother of a teenage daughter with a baby. She is running the household by herself while still raising her youngest child, and helping her child with the grandchild. In previous posts, I wrote about the neighbor's dog who dug up my grapevines and other garden items...and would bound across my yard after a butterfly and so forth. This dog can scale his backyard fence in a matter of minutes...and for so...

I always feel like we are wrapping up things in the homeschool world - like we always have these piece of lessons left unfinished to wrap up. This week we made homemade soda. It is an agave syrup, juice, sports concoction. In my opinion, it tastes like a mixture of Sprite and Mountain Dew. It was kind of neat to make it on our own and drink some. :) We also made homemade whipped cream for a peach pound cake I made last night for dessert. He thought it was neat to have it instead of the store bought version of whipped cream. I think we might make some herbed cheese again this week, as that went well last week and everyone liked it. It is now all gone. We are making more sun-dried tomatoes right now. They are delish. We also discovered last week that we really do not care for the taste of tomatillos raw, but sun-dried they have quite a nice flavor to them. We will have to add some to our garden line up next year to be able to dry and use for tasty treats! making whipped cream!! ...

                                                                 

 twist pineapple top off of fruit  shred off bottom leaves to find hidden roots  roots are becoming exposed  you can see the roots are the bottom of the pineapple top...because it is part of the bromeliad family, it will never have a deep or long stem this was one planted about 6 months ago same plant as above, showing new growth in the middle of the leaves this one was planted about 4 months ago and seems to thriving well...the leaves are getting longer and it has new growth as well... pineapple number 3 planted about 4 months ago or so, also very healthy. We will plant the other one in soil in a day or so. It is in a cup of water now, not that it really needs to be. I keep forgetting to plant it and so it waits. It is supposed to take like two or three years for it to grow a full pineapple from the top of an old pineapple. 

Sunday Recipe How To!! Peel potatoes from the garden and dice. (Put the peels in a side bowl to feed to the chickens !!) Scrape and trim carrots from the garden and dice to bite size. (Put the trimmings in a side bowl to feed to the chickens!!) Peel and cut up onions. These were from a friend's house. (Put the peels in a side bowl to feed to the chickens !!) Peel and mince garlic. This is also from a friend's personal collection. (Put the peels in a side bowl to feed to the chickens!!) Cut up the red cabbage...compliments of Publix. (Put the discarded pieces in a side bowl to feed to the chickens!!) Cut up tomatoes from the garden. We cut the parts of the skins off thick to set aside to make sun-dried tomatoes later. The parts for the casserole is the tomato insides. Thus, the chickens get none of the tomatoes. Shred some cheese . Peel and grind/shred a bit of fresh ginger root. Add leftover cheese made the other afternoon. Wash an...

Changes don't come easy, but some are being made in our lives just the same... We are composting now. We are raising chickens to be more organic. I am recycling everything in sight.  We are novice gardeners of the raised bed design.    We are doing container gardening within the house, as well. We are homeschooling. We are going camping now, by choice, not by Boy Scout design.  And some things remain the same. Christ comes first.  Disabilities advocacy and special education consulting remain at the top of the vocation list.  Snorkeling should be done as often as possible.