For the Love of Books...

"Reading one book is like eating one potato chip."  Diane Duane

I'm a reader of a variety of genres.  From time to time, I post on Facebook for book suggestions or take a suggestion from goodreads.com.  The library is my friend, and I giggle a little inside when any of the librarians say, "Hi, Mrs. H!  There's a book on the hold shelf for you."  Yep, they know me by name.  I have even considered greatly the possibility of working in library services once I'm ready to enter the workforce on a consistent basis.

I have two challenges for myself:

1.  To read the books I have on my bookshelf.

2.  To re-read (or read for the first time) some of the classics.

A little-known fact:  my associate's degree is in literature.  I started college as an English and secondary education major.  After I shifted gears in my education, I completed this degree before moving on.  I chose to read and write a lengthy paper on Anna Karenina when I was a junior or senior in high school, which my teacher thought might be a bit insane.  A majority of my classes the first couple of years in college were literature-based, including a class entirely on Emily Dickinson.  (Loved it!!)

Shockingly, my husband and I share one bookcase.  While I love to read, I rarely re-read.  Hundreds of books are listed on my "to read" list, so why re-read a book?  Again, this is why I love the library!  (I also like book trading websites, like bookmooch.com.)  

To achieve goal #1, I am making an effort to read one book on my shelf in between every library book I read.  Once I read it, I place the book on half.com to sell or on bookmooch.com to trade.  The only books I keep have to be special to me or ones that I reference often.  For example, I hold onto books like Too Small to Ignore by Dr. Wess Stafford.  A couple of pages buried inside this book are often read when I share about Haiti.  Another example is my signed copy of Confessions of a Prairie Bitch from when I met Alison Arngrim (Nellie Olson from Little House on the Prairie).  Two very opposite books, but again, ones that show my variety of interests.  

For goal #2, I pop onto goodreads.com to see what they recommend for me in the genre of "classics" based on my previous reviews.  This summer I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, and I am so glad I did!  There was so much I missed as a teenager, and my perspective as a 30-something is so different.  A couple of days ago I finished The Color Purple.  I definitely don't rank it with Too Kill a Mockingbird, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading it.

Books are an escape, sometimes a guilty pleasure.  Rarely do I find them a waste of time.

Strolling Through the Woods...

Stress sucks.  A lot of situations are adding to my stress overload, so Jack and I took a walk to capture the amazingly beautiful fall colors on Sunday.  (I say "amazingly" because I really thought that after the drought the leaves would just turn brown.)

Jack and I (and occasionally a kiddo, too) traditionally talk a picture-taking hike for each season change.  A perk to living in the woods is there is plenty to photograph.  Plus, Jack makes a great walking partner.  He usually stays about 10 feet ahead of me and will continuously look back if I'm not keeping up as much as he would like.

In the above picture, he was waiting for me as I stepped off the road to take some other landscape shots of some yellow and orange trees. I love my pup...

Grocery Shopping

If you're like me, grocery shopping can be burdensome.  It's even more difficult if you can't manage to make it to the store alone!

A few years ago, our pay schedule changed to monthly instead of bi-weekly.  At that time, I made a planning and shopping shift and decided to menu plan and grocery shop for a month at a time.  (Mind you, I still get produce during the month through our co-op, and I have to stop for milk.)  It was hard at first, but now it is my normal routine.

One of the tools I found online while I was doing this was a master shopping list (http://simplemom.net/tools/downloads/).  I have tweaked my version to add the things I buy regularly (and need to remember to pick up), using her format, but it has saved me a ton of time.

Piecing Together a Puzzle

If you are someone who has ever tried to plan a time to get together with me, you probably have heard me say that working my schedule is like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle.

The kids are on the bus, I have an appointment at 9:00 (which means laundry, organizing, cleaning, etc. can be dealt with for a couple of hours beforehand), I can fit in a quick lunch on this date before the kids get home from school and still have time to run to the library, the bank, and the store, before coming home to fix dinner and get whichever child off to practice before coming home again and needing to wind down and make sure everything is ready for the next day.

I am not the only one.  Were you nodding your head in understanding as you read that description?  Were you wishing I had given an example on one of my work days (because those are even trickier)?

This time of the year is always the worst for me.  The school year starts, and the calendar is pretty fresh.  No major commitments out of the ordinary.  Then daughter #1 asks, "Can I play volleyball?" and daughter #2 asks, "Can I run cross country?"  Another child needs "cab service" to do this or that, etc.  Since we have a one sport per child per season rule and practices and games/meets do not conflict, we say, "yes."

Something happens in my brain at the end of summer/early fall when I feel invincible.  I am not.

I will come back up for air mid-October, just in time for the holidays.  :)

Menu Challenge

What a week!  I feel far more normal today, which is partially due to getting back into a routine now that school has started...although I could do without the super early mornings!!

Dinner tonight was minus my baby, since he was invited to go see the Cards game tonight.  With just the kids and me, I decided to just throw a bag of chicken tenders in the oven that I didn't realize was in the freezer.  (Gotta love surprises!)  Along with that, I fixed broccoli and noodles to use up a partial box of pasta and the bunch of broccoli that came in the produce basket this week.  That is one of my favorite things to eat.

A friend shared this link through Facebook a few weeks ago for single ingredient banana "ice cream," and I've really been wanting to try it: http://userealbutter.com/2010/08/12/single-ingredient-ice-cream-recipe/.  In the last co-op pick-up, I ended up with two bunches of bananas that went from green to overly ripe very quickly (I'm sure due to the heatwave we've had and the hot temps inside the house).  I went ahead and sliced them and flash froze them for a later date.  Today was the later date.

I made a very small batch of just plain banana, a bit larger batch with peanut butter, and the rest with cocoa and peanut butter.  All of my kids loved it (chocolate/peanut butter got the most votes), and my daughter said, "This is the bomb diggity!  Can I have more?"  One of my daughters doesn't like peanut butter or chocolate, but the banana was just too plain for her.  I think next time I might see what the consistency turns out like with strawberries or another fruit added.  Great solution for too many bananas!  (I get tired of freezing bananas for muffins at a later date.)  And a great solution for the three of us who are lactose-intolerant and want something frozen and creamy!

Veggies, Veggies, Veggies

This month is an odd meal month for us, mostly because of my hurried planning at the end of July.  I have another week's worth of menus in my plan for August, but obviously that won't cover us unless I either do more shopping or get creative.  As of right now, I'm choosing creativity.

For a few years now, I have participated in Community Helpings Co-op for our fruits and veggies (and a few other fun extras from time to time).  Monday was pick-up day, so I have a box worth of produce to implement into the menu.

Tonight I decided to make some pepperoni roll-ups for dinner, but I knew that with five of us at the table I needed more.  I had two jumbo (and I mean jumbo) carrots that I cut into sticks for my less creative (and more picky) eaters, and for the rest of us, I created this:

I had a partial box of whole wheat couscous in the cabinet, so I cooked that as instructed.  (This particular recipe used one cup of uncooked couscous, which yields about two cups when cooked.)  In a small skillet, I heated olive oil and added one peeled and diced sweet potatoes and a few slices of onion (which I also diced).  After the potatoes were tender, I added two leaves of collard greens that had been chopped and cooked for just a minute or so.  I also sprinkled the veggies with Emeril's Essence (a staple in my spice cabinet).  When done, I stirred this into the couscous, and I served some crumbled feta cheese on the side for any takers.  

Even my non-sweet-potato-liking husband liked this recipe, and my daughters asked me to make another batch so they could pack it in their school lunches for tomorrow.  For someone who had never cooked with greens in the past, I have found that I can throw them into a lot of different dishes.

Next up for some night this week: tackling the quinoa in the cabinet.  :)

Unit Study: Winter Olympics

For the 2010 Winter Olympics, the St. Louis County Library held a unit study as part of their Homeschool Exploration program.  It was a great time of learning about Canada, doing science and math experiments, and learning more about the sports in the Winter Olympics.  We came home and did a lapbook on the subject.

Coloring Pages:  http://homeschooling.about.com/od/freeprintables/ss/olympiccolor_all.htm
One of the fun things about the coloring pages is that you can add facts about the sports for older kids.  Have them do some research on the rules of the event, who is competing, etc.  This is very easy to make age-appropriate.

Mascots:  Look up the mascots for that year's Olympics.  The kids can make a mini book in their lapbook that shows the mascots and their meaning or significance to the host country.

Olympic Medal Chart:  http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/olympic_medal_chart.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/olympic_printables.htm&h=306&w=240&sz=20&tbnid=ZvjHPbRyXPpITM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=71&zoom=1&usg=__uLyRm70KhNG5-NVbyOfZL9LLVps=&docid=0lO1wVJZRyxz5M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Un4oUJPaAsWC2gX04oDYBA&ved=0CGoQ9QEwAA&dur=3092
I loved this idea of choosing 5 countries (or however many you choose) to follow during the Olympics.  This is great for a chart-making lesson!

Metrics:  This is a great time to do some conversions to metric for kids old enough to do so.

Both www.homeschooling.about.com and www.ActivityVillage.co.uk have some great printables to add to your activities, like word searches, craft ideas, snacks, etc.

This is a FUN unit study during an Olympic year!  Implement all aspects of your lessons (math, science, language arts, history (influential people, etc.), p.e.) into this and have fun!!