Nov 2009
Crocker Pot Recipes
20/11/09 07:25 Filed in: Cooking and Recipes
Here is a really awesome site with lots of great crock recipes. Sorry for the formatting issue with it being really long between sets, but my publisher wouldn’t let me fix it. Recipes are good, though! Here is a link to 2 of my favorite crock books, too:
Crock Pot - Beef
Crock Pot - Pork
Crock Pot - Fish & Seafood
Crock Pot - Soup, Stew & Chili
Crock Pot - Barbeque
Crock Pot - Side Dishes
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Crock Pot - Beef
Crock Pot - Pork
Crock Pot - Fish & Seafood
Crock Pot - Soup, Stew & Chili
Crock Pot - Barbeque
Crock Pot - Side Dishes
| Aztec Black Beans |
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Beginning an Earthbox garden
19/11/09 16:05 Filed in: Gardening
I am not a professional gardener... not even a novice! This is my first year of gardening, and it was both a success and a disaster. I will chronicle my garden here.
I read Square Foot Gardening, which I think is THE best gardening book for beginners. The author has some very sound advice and planning for an easy garden. The idea of doing it in a small space with minimal fuss is perfect for beginners, small gardens, children, elderly, etc. Why did I not do square foot gardening in the end? Because I didn’t have a space in my small yard with the right sun to make the beds, and because my DH wanted me to do something that could be easily moved. So I did more research.
What did I go with? Earthboxes. WOW! They are THE container gardening system, hands down. And they have a forum to discuss and read about gardening in the boxes and in general. The Earthbox people are also very supportive of student gardens. www.earthbox.com is the website. I decided to get one of the student packages. I received 12 boxes and a classroom guide for teaching about the benefits and impact of gardening, as well as charts and papers for charting your garden results. It is cool! 12 boxes? Very ambitious, I know. But if you know me, I never do anything small.
OK! So the boxes come. What’s so special about them? Look at my pictures:
This is a picture of the box itself. You can buy soil already in it but I decided to mix my own. It is very expensive with the soil, around $70. I thought I could save a little by mixing my own soil. This was fun, but tiring, and ended up being my garden’s downfall... which I tell about later. Notice the really cool hole at the bottom left. There is a tube that sticks up and you water from underneath, by filling the box with water through the tube. This conserves water and helps you go longer between waters, and it also gets the water right to the roots.
So, I started seeding as soon as I ordered my boxes. What a disaster!!!
This is a seed starter kit I got at Wal-Mart... I think it is called Jiffy.
This was my garden plan for starting seed so I would know which seeds were which.
My sprouts became very long and leggy, and they fell over. The best I can gather is that I did not have a sunny enough spot for them to come up in. It seemed there was no where to put them in my house or outside that was not either dark or fully sunny and neither was right. I gave up and put my seeds right into the ground, because by now it is April.
Okay, the picture below is my cantaloupe and herbs. Basil and Rosemary did pretty good. Chives and dill, not good. They died. In the front of the cantaloupe, I put broccoli.
My strawberries. I had 3 boxes of berries. They kept sending out runners like CRAZY! There is a debate about cutting them; I finally cut them because they were trying to grow all over the yard. BUT, they say the first year strawberry crop is not that great. I had a few berries, not many. Most were eaten by bugs before I could get to them.
Here are all my boxes lined up against the fence. I also put in stakes and mesh for the vines to grow on. And I marked a number on the back of each box in a silver paint pen. This way I could keep a record of what I grew in each box for each year.
I also used 2 Topsy Turvy bags for a tomato and pepper. I am not really impressed with them. They fell apart at the end of the season. I did get fruit from both plants and they had no disease or pests, but my tomatoes and peppers in the Earthbox were fine, too.
After just a few weeks, my plants were looking fabulous!!!
Here is my cantaloupe, going crazy. You know, I only had one cantaloupe form on the whole thing? I had tons of buds, then they would die. NO BEES! That was my problem. I never saw a single bee. So, too late, I went out with a cotton swab and pollinated myself. You can actually tell the difference in female and male cantaloupe: females have the bud behind them (you can Google for pics). Then I got one cantaloupe. You are supposed to do it quickly, and some people even paint or mark their buds so they know which ones they pollinated. WILD!!!
My strawberries.. .looking great. *** The tubes (see previous pictures) for watering into are very low to the box, and I have a bad back. Standing over the box to water was killing me, so my wonderful hubby went to Lowe’s and got long PVC pipe and cut it down to a height I wouldn’t have to stoop over. COOL! Notice how everything looks fine for now, growing like it should, but then disaster struck me in several ways.
My tomato, overflowing everywhere. It was huge! I tried several things to stake it because the stores were out of the Ultimate Tomato Cage and had little success. Finally, I got the cages, and I really like them. Re-usable, pretty cheap, hold up nicely. Oh, and also easy to store after you put your beds down in the winter.
My cantaloupe, left, and zucchini, on the right. The plants took over and I couldn’t tell one from the other. They also tried to envelop my tomato.
Our first cuke, a Palace King.
Here is the salad I made from it. Tomatoes, sprouted lentils, cucumber, dressing, on a bed of spinach. It was delightful, and my inspiration to keep on gardening.
Okay, so what happened to ruin my awesome garden. 3 things happened: drought, it got hot really, really fast, and I made a HUGE boo boo in my soil mixture. We had a few veggies, but then my plants all started dying.
The drought and the heat sucked the life out of my plants. It got very hot here in Baton Rouge really early in the year, and the lack of rain and intense heat were horrible to many gardens. Since it was my first year in Baton Rouge, I thought the spring was normal, until I went to the farmer’s market. Everything seemed smaller. I planned a trip to a local fig farm, but when I went to the market and saw the tiny figs with no flavor at all, we skipped it. I wanted to make my own fig preserves, but that will have to wait for another year.
And what was the soil boo boo? Well, I mixed my soil in a plastic container:
See the lime in the picture... very BAD! I was using a mix of vermiculite, perlite, peat moss and dolomite (garden lime). I got the recipe from one of the most famous Earthbox users on the Earthbox forum. 70% peat moss, 20% vermiculite, 10% perlite, and 2 cups of dolomite. That sounded perfect to me! I got to work mixing. But each plastic container was only a third of the Earthbox size. So instead of having 2 cups of dolomite per box, I now had 6 cups! Not good, let me tell you. Of course, I was mostly done filling my Earthboxes before I realized this grave error. Now I had committed all that time and money into the mix, and I really didn’t want to throw it all away. So, I put some of each box into the remaining boxes and left out the rest of the lime. It was not a very good solution. My plants started out pretty good, but they ended up pretty lame. My tomato plants got big but not big tomatoes, my peppers were sad and tasted even sadder, and my cucumber and cantaloupe hated the lime. They grew, blossomed, then died off from the roots up.
So, I will post again about my plans for next year and my assessment of the Earthbox, Square Foot Garden, and Topsy Turvy.
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I read Square Foot Gardening, which I think is THE best gardening book for beginners. The author has some very sound advice and planning for an easy garden. The idea of doing it in a small space with minimal fuss is perfect for beginners, small gardens, children, elderly, etc. Why did I not do square foot gardening in the end? Because I didn’t have a space in my small yard with the right sun to make the beds, and because my DH wanted me to do something that could be easily moved. So I did more research.
What did I go with? Earthboxes. WOW! They are THE container gardening system, hands down. And they have a forum to discuss and read about gardening in the boxes and in general. The Earthbox people are also very supportive of student gardens. www.earthbox.com is the website. I decided to get one of the student packages. I received 12 boxes and a classroom guide for teaching about the benefits and impact of gardening, as well as charts and papers for charting your garden results. It is cool! 12 boxes? Very ambitious, I know. But if you know me, I never do anything small.
OK! So the boxes come. What’s so special about them? Look at my pictures:
This is a picture of the box itself. You can buy soil already in it but I decided to mix my own. It is very expensive with the soil, around $70. I thought I could save a little by mixing my own soil. This was fun, but tiring, and ended up being my garden’s downfall... which I tell about later. Notice the really cool hole at the bottom left. There is a tube that sticks up and you water from underneath, by filling the box with water through the tube. This conserves water and helps you go longer between waters, and it also gets the water right to the roots.
So, I started seeding as soon as I ordered my boxes. What a disaster!!!
This is a seed starter kit I got at Wal-Mart... I think it is called Jiffy.
This was my garden plan for starting seed so I would know which seeds were which.
My sprouts became very long and leggy, and they fell over. The best I can gather is that I did not have a sunny enough spot for them to come up in. It seemed there was no where to put them in my house or outside that was not either dark or fully sunny and neither was right. I gave up and put my seeds right into the ground, because by now it is April.
Okay, the picture below is my cantaloupe and herbs. Basil and Rosemary did pretty good. Chives and dill, not good. They died. In the front of the cantaloupe, I put broccoli.
My strawberries. I had 3 boxes of berries. They kept sending out runners like CRAZY! There is a debate about cutting them; I finally cut them because they were trying to grow all over the yard. BUT, they say the first year strawberry crop is not that great. I had a few berries, not many. Most were eaten by bugs before I could get to them.
Here are all my boxes lined up against the fence. I also put in stakes and mesh for the vines to grow on. And I marked a number on the back of each box in a silver paint pen. This way I could keep a record of what I grew in each box for each year.
I also used 2 Topsy Turvy bags for a tomato and pepper. I am not really impressed with them. They fell apart at the end of the season. I did get fruit from both plants and they had no disease or pests, but my tomatoes and peppers in the Earthbox were fine, too.
After just a few weeks, my plants were looking fabulous!!!
Here is my cantaloupe, going crazy. You know, I only had one cantaloupe form on the whole thing? I had tons of buds, then they would die. NO BEES! That was my problem. I never saw a single bee. So, too late, I went out with a cotton swab and pollinated myself. You can actually tell the difference in female and male cantaloupe: females have the bud behind them (you can Google for pics). Then I got one cantaloupe. You are supposed to do it quickly, and some people even paint or mark their buds so they know which ones they pollinated. WILD!!!
My strawberries.. .looking great. *** The tubes (see previous pictures) for watering into are very low to the box, and I have a bad back. Standing over the box to water was killing me, so my wonderful hubby went to Lowe’s and got long PVC pipe and cut it down to a height I wouldn’t have to stoop over. COOL! Notice how everything looks fine for now, growing like it should, but then disaster struck me in several ways.
My tomato, overflowing everywhere. It was huge! I tried several things to stake it because the stores were out of the Ultimate Tomato Cage and had little success. Finally, I got the cages, and I really like them. Re-usable, pretty cheap, hold up nicely. Oh, and also easy to store after you put your beds down in the winter.
My cantaloupe, left, and zucchini, on the right. The plants took over and I couldn’t tell one from the other. They also tried to envelop my tomato.
Our first cuke, a Palace King.
Here is the salad I made from it. Tomatoes, sprouted lentils, cucumber, dressing, on a bed of spinach. It was delightful, and my inspiration to keep on gardening.
Okay, so what happened to ruin my awesome garden. 3 things happened: drought, it got hot really, really fast, and I made a HUGE boo boo in my soil mixture. We had a few veggies, but then my plants all started dying.
The drought and the heat sucked the life out of my plants. It got very hot here in Baton Rouge really early in the year, and the lack of rain and intense heat were horrible to many gardens. Since it was my first year in Baton Rouge, I thought the spring was normal, until I went to the farmer’s market. Everything seemed smaller. I planned a trip to a local fig farm, but when I went to the market and saw the tiny figs with no flavor at all, we skipped it. I wanted to make my own fig preserves, but that will have to wait for another year.
And what was the soil boo boo? Well, I mixed my soil in a plastic container:
See the lime in the picture... very BAD! I was using a mix of vermiculite, perlite, peat moss and dolomite (garden lime). I got the recipe from one of the most famous Earthbox users on the Earthbox forum. 70% peat moss, 20% vermiculite, 10% perlite, and 2 cups of dolomite. That sounded perfect to me! I got to work mixing. But each plastic container was only a third of the Earthbox size. So instead of having 2 cups of dolomite per box, I now had 6 cups! Not good, let me tell you. Of course, I was mostly done filling my Earthboxes before I realized this grave error. Now I had committed all that time and money into the mix, and I really didn’t want to throw it all away. So, I put some of each box into the remaining boxes and left out the rest of the lime. It was not a very good solution. My plants started out pretty good, but they ended up pretty lame. My tomato plants got big but not big tomatoes, my peppers were sad and tasted even sadder, and my cucumber and cantaloupe hated the lime. They grew, blossomed, then died off from the roots up.
So, I will post again about my plans for next year and my assessment of the Earthbox, Square Foot Garden, and Topsy Turvy.
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Awesome Unit Studies: Amanda Bennett
Some of us use an all-in-one curriculum, some of us forge our own paths, some of us use a combination of the 2. I like doing unit studies for 3 reasons: the intense study of 1 major topic creates a long-term knowledge much more than memorizing facts and figures. Reason 2: how will your children learn in college and in real life? They’ll study things in pockets and packages of information. And 3: they make learning so much fun!!!
Personally, I am not very good at creating unit studies. I can research info and give the kids a direction with websites and library books, but what makes a unit study awesome: devoting the time to it. I have very little precious time. So, who do I turn to for unit studies? One source is Amanda Bennett. She has studies for a wide range of ages, grades, and interests. Sign up for her email list and get cool specials that you won’t want to miss. I have her photography unit study, journal, birthday unit study, and others. They are truly worth the money, especially if you have more than 1 child. Check her out!
http://www.unitstudy.com/
Feel free to leave comments about what you use for unit studies and your sources for inspiration. You are welcome here!
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Personally, I am not very good at creating unit studies. I can research info and give the kids a direction with websites and library books, but what makes a unit study awesome: devoting the time to it. I have very little precious time. So, who do I turn to for unit studies? One source is Amanda Bennett. She has studies for a wide range of ages, grades, and interests. Sign up for her email list and get cool specials that you won’t want to miss. I have her photography unit study, journal, birthday unit study, and others. They are truly worth the money, especially if you have more than 1 child. Check her out!
http://www.unitstudy.com/
Feel free to leave comments about what you use for unit studies and your sources for inspiration. You are welcome here!
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Another family member
This is the newest member of our crazy family! His name is Colonel Shepherd. We have been looking for a companion for our insane German Shepherd female for a while. She is very energetic. We say she either in trouble or about to be in trouble. Sunai, which is Hindi for “to listen,” is about 1.5 years old. She loves to wrestle and play tag, so we looked for a pal for her. And here he is! A rescue group in Mississippi found him at the animal shelter and took him in. They called him “Scooby,” which I think is not very appropriate for a Shepherd.
Anyway, we met at a dog park and they liked each other, and we brought him home... on Halloween. We decided to name him Colonel Shepherd. We watch a TV show called Stargate Atlantis and the main character on it is an Air Force pilot named Colonel John Shepherd. We figure since our new pup, who is probably about 3 years old, is a German Shepherd, the name fits well.
What kind of personality does he have? SO SWEET! He is about 90 pounds and he has these monsterous paws and a huge block head, but he just leans on you and wants to be petted and loved on. He will put his head in your lap and let you pet him forever, he’ll lean on you and then melt on the floor to be petted some more. Very obedient and wanting to make his master happy. Not much prey drive for balls and tug of war, but he likes to wrestle with Sunai. They play forever in the back yard wrestling and then chasing each other around the yard. He is great!
Colonel had heartworm and he just got over his treatment. Otherwise he is in great shape. I can’t imagine why someone would give up such a sweet dog. I will try to get some video of him and post it as soon as I can. Oh, and a picture of my female:
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COOL SITE!!! Legistalker
14/11/09 19:35 Filed in: Websites | Homeschooling the High Schooler
Now, we have an awesome opportunity to keep up with our legislators in one easy place! This is really cool for your children who are keeping track of their congressmen and senators in government class.
The paragraphs below are from the East Baton Rouge Parish Library Blog:
Legistalker is a wonderful site for keeping track of members of Congress and the Senate. The site accumulates references to politicians that appear in news stories, on YouTube, also their twitter feeds and the appearance of their names on bills. Click the headline to go straight to the original full story.
Legistalker is easy to use and you can add specific politicians to your ‘watch list’ so you don’t have to search for them each time. You can also subscribe to RSS feeds for automatic updates. It’s a great way to stay informed! Read More...
Signs of the times...
12/11/09 20:27 Filed in: Homeschooling
This happened in NC. What blows my mind is the last part... that teachers have been giving incentives to children for brining in school supplies like hand sanitizer and Kleenex. What in the world does this crazy world think when we will spend money on new cars, eating out, and cable TV, and our kids have no money for school supplies and they have to bribe people to get necessary funds and materials? Shouldn’t school come first? On the flip side... I will admit to the occasional bribe myself: “finish your math and we can have a bowl of ice cream.” Does that compare to grade adjustments for money?
District nixes cash-for-grades fundraiser
BY LYNN BONNER - STAFF WRITER
Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school tried selling grades.
However, the fundraiser came to an abrupt halt today after a story in The News & Observer raised concerns about the practice of selling grades.
Wayne County school administrators stopped the fundraiser, issuing a statement this morning.
"Yesterday afternoon, the district administration met with [Rosewood Middle School principal] Mrs. Shepherd and directed the the following actions be taken: (1) the fundraiser will be immediately stopped; (2) no extra grade credit will be issued that may have resulted from donations; and (3) beginning Novermber 12, all donations will be returned."
A $20 donation to Rosewood Middle School would have gotten a student 20 test points - 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise a B to an A, or a failing grade to a D.
Susie Shepherd, the principal, said a parent advisory council came up with the idea, and she endorsed it. She said the council was looking for a new way to raise money.
"Last year they did chocolates, and it didn't generate anything," Shepherd said.
Shepherd rejected the suggestion that the school is selling grades. Extra points on two tests won't make a difference in a student's final grade, she said.
It's wrong to think that "one particular grade could change the entire focus of nine weeks," Shepherd said.
State education officials, who typically shy from talking about grading at individual schools, were not pleased to hear of Rosewood's effort.
Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction, said she understands that schools are struggling in the recession.
Tight state and local budgets have put extra pressure on schools to raise their own money. Teachers giving extra test credit to students who bring in classroom supplies is a longstanding practice at some schools.
Carmen Zepp, a Raleigh parent, said there should be policies against offering students test credit for anything other than what they've learned.
Zepp objected this year when her daughter's social studies teacher at Knightdale High School had students bring to school tissues and hand sanitizer. The supplies counted for 25 percent of a "supply check" grade.
"It's awful," Zepp said. "It's indicative of the fact that our schools don't have enough money. They can't get tissues or hand sanitizer or whatever without bribery. And that's pretty sad."
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District nixes cash-for-grades fundraiser
BY LYNN BONNER - STAFF WRITER
Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school tried selling grades.
However, the fundraiser came to an abrupt halt today after a story in The News & Observer raised concerns about the practice of selling grades.
Wayne County school administrators stopped the fundraiser, issuing a statement this morning.
"Yesterday afternoon, the district administration met with [Rosewood Middle School principal] Mrs. Shepherd and directed the the following actions be taken: (1) the fundraiser will be immediately stopped; (2) no extra grade credit will be issued that may have resulted from donations; and (3) beginning Novermber 12, all donations will be returned."
A $20 donation to Rosewood Middle School would have gotten a student 20 test points - 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise a B to an A, or a failing grade to a D.
Susie Shepherd, the principal, said a parent advisory council came up with the idea, and she endorsed it. She said the council was looking for a new way to raise money.
"Last year they did chocolates, and it didn't generate anything," Shepherd said.
Shepherd rejected the suggestion that the school is selling grades. Extra points on two tests won't make a difference in a student's final grade, she said.
It's wrong to think that "one particular grade could change the entire focus of nine weeks," Shepherd said.
State education officials, who typically shy from talking about grading at individual schools, were not pleased to hear of Rosewood's effort.
Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for the state Department of Public Instruction, said she understands that schools are struggling in the recession.
Tight state and local budgets have put extra pressure on schools to raise their own money. Teachers giving extra test credit to students who bring in classroom supplies is a longstanding practice at some schools.
Carmen Zepp, a Raleigh parent, said there should be policies against offering students test credit for anything other than what they've learned.
Zepp objected this year when her daughter's social studies teacher at Knightdale High School had students bring to school tissues and hand sanitizer. The supplies counted for 25 percent of a "supply check" grade.
"It's awful," Zepp said. "It's indicative of the fact that our schools don't have enough money. They can't get tissues or hand sanitizer or whatever without bribery. And that's pretty sad."
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Recipe: Sweet Potato Brownies... Super Yummy!
12/11/09 17:22 Filed in: Cooking and Recipes
Here is a wonderful recipe for sweet potato brownies. I know, sweet potatoes and brownies in one? Is it even legal? They are delicious, and they are good for you... as much as a brownie can be. They cook to the most gorgeous blonde color. Give them a try and let me know what you think!
Sweet Potato Brownies
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Sweet Potato Brownies
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Rain Barrels!
We bought 2 rain barrels at the recycling truckload sale sponsored by our city’s recycling center. They sold rain barrels and compost bins at a fraction of the cost we would buy them at. We think they are very attractive and they were easy to put in. DH had Veteran’s Day off, but we put him to work on honey-do projects. He cut the gutters down and put the barrels on a concrete pad so they won’t get hit by the weed-whacker. They look so awesome! Now, we have to wait for rain!!! I’ll be interested to see how much water pressure there is in the barrel.
Why in the world did we put in barrels? 1 main reason: hurricanes. Sometimes we get hit by hurricanes and we wanted a source of water if ours gets knocked out. We won’t drink this water, but use it for our toilets, and washing dishes; things like that. When there is no storm coming, I’ll use the water to water our lawn and garden. It will save a little money on our water bill, which is always good.
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Have hot dogs changed shape?
11/11/09 07:23 Filed in: Personal
I saw this at Albertson’s. Did I miss something? Am I supposed to cut my hot dogs to lay flat?
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Bible Kids!!!
Here are my Bible Kids! They had a theme night in Awana called Bible Character and they were supposed to dress up as a Bible Character. So, Madison and I got a pattern and went to work. I’m not sure how much money it saved my sewing our own costumes, because it wasn’t super-cheap. If I had thought it out more, I probably could have saved a little more money.
Madison is Mary, and Roman is a Roman citizen. His name is HANDSOMUS MAXIMUS! We died laughing at that one!
We have a section in our school called Skill Time and the kids work on a skill for 6 weeks at a time. They are required to show me progress on the skill. Last 6 weeks it was skateboarding, and they have improved tremendously. This 6 weeks, Madison is sewing, and Roman is learning to play the Flutophone. Noah is working on an animated video parody of Veggie Tales. It is really funny. ANYWAY...
The costumes were done right at 6pm on Wednesday night, 5 minutes before we left for church. SHEW! We cut it pretty close. But they were the best dressed kids there, and it made me feel good that I had spent time with them and making something for them. It was stressful because it was last minute (my fault) but fun and we learned a lot. Now Madison is working on a bath robe.
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Items you can COMPOST
What can you compost? Well, we purchased a compost bin called an Earth Machine this past weekend, and I learned about what you can and can’t compost. The list for what you can NOT compost is so much smaller:
Items you SHOULD NOT put in the compost pile:
1. dog or cat poo
2. meat and bones
3. large quantities of milk, cheese, and other dairy products
Items you CAN compost:
1. Used tissues: like Kleenex, yes it sounds gross, but you can recycle a used tissue!!! We have a lot of that around my house.
2. Chicken and bird poo
3. Cage cleanings from birds and hamsters
4. Vegetable matter from kitchen (chop into pieces if possible), including banana peel, other peelings, apple cores, and unusable veggie pieces, fruit cores and peelings including rinds, potato peelings (my daughter says to “be mindful of your peelings,” for all you Star Wars fans out there).
5. Freezer burned veggies and fruit
6. Veggies that have gone bad in your fridge
7. Paper and shredded paper
8. Hair and pet hair
9. Small pieces of light fabric (cut into small pieces)
10. Bread
11. Canned veggies gone bad
12. Cardboard and newspaper in small pieces
13. Tea bags and coffee grounds
14. Egg shells
15. Paper Napkins and towels
16. Post-it notes (be sure to use it first by writing something romantic to your spouse and sticking it to his mirror)
17. Wood chips
18. Lint from dryer, dust bunnies, etc.
19. Popcorn, corn cobs (need to be cut into small pieces or they take a long time to decompose)
20. Fish (in small amounts or you may attract critters)
21. The collection of stuff from your vacuum and hand vac. You may have to cut up the bag if you use one, but of course, we ALL have a Dyson, right?
21. spices, herbs and garden clippings
22. waste from a home brewery or wine kit
23. Invitations to office parties
24. Ashes from wood fires
25. Sawdust
26. Houseplants and trimmings
27. Pasta, cooked or not
28. Jello
29. Lime or limestone, fish meal, blood meal, dolomite
30. Water and materials from your aquarium (not rocks)
31. Old flower arrangements
32. Potato chips
33. Leftovers from dinner like rice, veggies, bread. NO MEAT or BONES!
34. Old cereal. You can even compost that soggy stuff your kids never eat, but only a little milk, not a lot of milk.
35. Nut shells, like peanut or walnut, etc.
36. Electric razor trimmings (now you have no excuse to shave your legs in winter, ladies)
37. Toenail and finger clippings, if you feel the desire.
38. Shrimp shells... and for you bayou folks, CRAWFISH shells (personally, I’d put the whole nasty crawfish in there, but I’m not a bayou native).
39. Pie crusts
40. Leftover hot grains like oatmeal, bran, Grape Nuts, Scottish oatmeal, etc.
41. My children suggested composting their chore list, but I reminded them that I may have to compost their allowance. No deal.
42. Mac and cheese (this sounds blasphemous around our house).
43. All the receipts you hide from your spouse.
44. Soil
45. Leaves, small sticks and grass clippings
Like all things in life, balance is the key to compost. Dry leaves and green grass should be balanced out so they compost well together. Not too much paper. You can get lots more info on composting at your local extension office, or Google composting.
We already recycle in our home. Our city has a program to pick up paper, metal, plastic and glass. There are a few things we decided to do after we bought the composter to “reduce our footprint.” We bought a second trash can for the bathroom to put tissue and cotton swabs in to compost. Other trash goes in the regular can. My children, being the apples that did not fall far from my tree, immediately asked if they were supposed to wipe and throw the TP into the compost can. Uh, no. Since I’m six feet tall, I leave a pretty big footprint as it is, but I will only go so far. I placed a kitchen pail under the sink and already I have filled it 2 or 3 times. It’s amazing how much we toss that can be composted; most are veggies peelings, eggs, kleenex, and paper napkins. My pail directions said to place a piece of paper in the bottom of the pail so everything slides out. It works.
Like everything else, this will take some time getting used to. But I think our world is worth it.
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Earth Machine Composting
This weekend, our recycling center for Baton Rouge held a compost bin truckload sale. Earth Machines are neat plastic containers that hold tons of compost-able materials. They run about $100 online, but at this sale, we got them for $30. They also have a compost turner to stir your compost, and a kitchen pail for your kitchen scraps. I’ve been waiting over a year for this sale, and there was a bonus, 55 gallon rain barrels for $50! We had some rain barrels but they were quite ugly and we never installed them. These are very attractive and they have a large screen on them to allow rain in and bugs out.
But, back to the composter. Why did I want one? I wanted to have a compost pile, because I am getting into gardening. Compost makes sense and is great for my garden. I have the materials on hand, why put them in a landfill? So, I bought 2 bins, figuring I’ll use them both. My daughter helped me install them and rake the back yard. We have a small yard, but we filled them both up (before wetting the compost). Here are some pictures:
My small backyard and the grass that is dying. They put sod on top of a clay bed, and the rain has eroded all the sod and soil away. Now we have a dusty or muddy mess.
You can see my Earth Box garden in the back. have 12 boxes that I planted in for the first time this year. It did not go really well because we had a horrible drought and it got blistering hot early, which damaged my tender plants. Next year will be better, or I will be re-locating my boxes. It was a perfect spot for them in my small yard because we have a drainage ditch across the back forty (feet) of our yard, and they were on the other side of it.
Compost girl! She put them together, staked them down, and also raked and filled them with me. She was so awesome!
My bins installed. I wanted to find a place out of the way, convenient to dump household waste in, but a place that had good drainage. Can’t ut your bin in a mudhole! We think we found a good spot.
This is one of the bins after I wet it and turned it. I think it is about 2/3 full. I have dry leaves, green thatch grass, and some household materials in the bin. I turned it, wet it, and sealed it up! Now we need some hot weather! LOL! I’ll post a list of things you can compost soon. What do you think?
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But, back to the composter. Why did I want one? I wanted to have a compost pile, because I am getting into gardening. Compost makes sense and is great for my garden. I have the materials on hand, why put them in a landfill? So, I bought 2 bins, figuring I’ll use them both. My daughter helped me install them and rake the back yard. We have a small yard, but we filled them both up (before wetting the compost). Here are some pictures:
My small backyard and the grass that is dying. They put sod on top of a clay bed, and the rain has eroded all the sod and soil away. Now we have a dusty or muddy mess. You can see my Earth Box garden in the back. have 12 boxes that I planted in for the first time this year. It did not go really well because we had a horrible drought and it got blistering hot early, which damaged my tender plants. Next year will be better, or I will be re-locating my boxes. It was a perfect spot for them in my small yard because we have a drainage ditch across the back forty (feet) of our yard, and they were on the other side of it. Compost girl! She put them together, staked them down, and also raked and filled them with me. She was so awesome! My bins installed. I wanted to find a place out of the way, convenient to dump household waste in, but a place that had good drainage. Can’t ut your bin in a mudhole! We think we found a good spot. This is one of the bins after I wet it and turned it. I think it is about 2/3 full. I have dry leaves, green thatch grass, and some household materials in the bin. I turned it, wet it, and sealed it up! Now we need some hot weather! LOL! I’ll post a list of things you can compost soon. What do you think?blog comments powered by Disqus
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Book review: DRIVE
09/11/09 14:56 Filed in: Parenting | Book Reviews (non homeschooling) | Homeschooling | Homeschooling the High Schooler
Book review: Drive: 9 ways to Motivate Your Kids to Achieve by Janine Caffery
This is an awesome book! I borrowed it from the local library, and there is a link to Amazon if you need it. This book is about re-evalutating how you parent your children, in order to create children who not only want to move out and be adults one day, but who also have a motivation to succeed at life (not necessarily in financial terms).
The book begins by giving a history of Ms. Caffrey’s background and why she is qualified to write such a book. Then it goes into the state of our culture, and how we have raised a generation of children who have no drive or motivation. Isn’t that the truth? Her basic premise is that we have raised children who never feel discomfort and so they do not feel any need to get out of the nest. They are content to sit around and do nothing. She brings to light much of the plight of parents and illustrates exactly what we are doing to create these problems in our children. What an eye opener!!!
Next, there is a survey to pinpoint exactly where you are at parenting a child who has drive. I did pretty good, but knew there were some things I would need to work on to help my children succeed.
The book then goes into detail about 9 different strategies you can use to develop motivation in your children. I really woke up to these. I won’t go into detail about the strategies, because you owe it to yourself and your children to read this book.
Here is an excerpt from Oprahselects: Drive: 9 ways to Motivate Your Kids to Achieve by Janine Walker Caffrey
The quality of drive provides the momentum for a person to dream and achieve, creating a unique, independent life. Without it, a person is like a rudderless boat, drifting around a flat lake. In Drive, nationally renowned educator Dr. Janine Caffrey shows how to inspire your children and develop this vital characteristic. How do I get my child excited about learning? To enroll in a good college? To move out of the house? To create his own life? Designed to assist parents, educators, and counselors to get kids of all ages off the couch and into the world, Drive outlines nine specific steps proven to beat boredom and foster self-motivation and resourcefulness. Filled with quizzes, anecdotes, and practical strategies, Drive helps parents turn “Generation Me” into “Generation Move.”
Bottom line: what did I learn and work on changing?
1. Assignments in school take precedent over appointments whenever possible. I often get into the habit of running a few errands when I’m at an appointment, which takes away valuable school time. I make excuses about already being out, and about how bad traffic is after school, and then I’m upset when the kids don’t finish school! It is an easy trap for us.
2. Punishment should be swift, severe and complete. I often threaten until I turn purple, and then punish so much that it messes up all our lives. “You’re grounded forever!” Well, that was practical. I now understand to punish completely and not to take away something for a long period of time.
3. Let my kids fail. I want to catch them and heal them and protect them, and I have not let them fail enough. I watched my son cook quesadillas for the first time last week, and he made a mess and flipped one and saw the consequences of it being flipped too fast. He stomped around mad, but he corrected it himself. Sounds silly now, but at the time, I wanted to rush in and take over.
4. More let my kids fail, sort of. I try to teach the kids critical thinking, rather than giving them the answer, but I may have not succeeded so well with the 3rd child. Myself, as well as the older kids, easily step in and give him the answers. He now says, “How do I do this?’ handing you the paper and watching you do it for him. It is insidious, and I need to be more aware and let him think problems through rather than giving him the answer.
5. Allow my children to make more daily decisions. Give them more freedom to mess up and choose their own path, even if it is an inconvenience.
And I’m not even finished with the book!!! Seriously, I also learned to apply it to my marriage: don’t rush in to do something for your spouse just to help them out. Step back and let them do it themselves occasionally. They will be blessed by it.
I have a long way to go, but every day is an opportunity!
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Writing Book Reports for High Schoolers
06/11/09 12:26 Filed in: Homeschooling | Websites
Do your children do lots of reports? In our homeschool, we often use reports as a way to measure work done as well as comprehension. They are a great way to improve writing skills and prepare for college. Here’s my plan for essay and report writing:
Start out young ones with easy book reports. Not every single book, but several throughout the year. I aim for 4-6 which is really about 1 every other month. I keep a list of books they’ve read, which helps them to see how many books they’re reading. This has been a great encouragement to my youngest, who thinks he can’t read very well. When he sees he’s read 50 books, he is excited and wants to read more. But back to book reports: they should be simple and easy to write. Require that your children answer in complete sentences. I have posted a sample of a book report form I made up for my elementary aged children under the heading File Sharing on my webpage. You are welcome to have it and reproduce it all you want.
Another thing I have my children work through is outlining books. There are a couple of really great ones available that we have used and the kids enjoyed doing. Here are some links to them. If you can outline, it makes it easy to assemble a quick essay or paper.
My last book report form is for around middle school. You can use it in 5th or 6th grade if your child can handle the writing. It is a leading form that they fill out step by step. When they are done, they will have enough information to write a good book report from the material they wrote. I use it as a rough draft for their report, then they go back and write a final draft. It works great! Again, you are free to download it and use it as much as you’d like. It is under the File Sharing page and it’s called Advanced Book Report Form.
Now, my son is in 8th grade and he is working on a high school level. I am counting all work I consider high school level and I am in the process of making my own writing and revising checklist. I have yet to find a really awesome, solid checklist, so I’m making one up. I found one site that has a pretty good checklist for essays: http://grammar.about.com/od/correctingerrors/a/editchecklist.htm and another one for writing book reports: http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreporths.html. When I get a good checklist together for writing and revising, I’ll post it here.
Thanks for reading! You’re welcome to leave comments and let me know what you think or give me your advice about this subject.
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Start out young ones with easy book reports. Not every single book, but several throughout the year. I aim for 4-6 which is really about 1 every other month. I keep a list of books they’ve read, which helps them to see how many books they’re reading. This has been a great encouragement to my youngest, who thinks he can’t read very well. When he sees he’s read 50 books, he is excited and wants to read more. But back to book reports: they should be simple and easy to write. Require that your children answer in complete sentences. I have posted a sample of a book report form I made up for my elementary aged children under the heading File Sharing on my webpage. You are welcome to have it and reproduce it all you want.
Another thing I have my children work through is outlining books. There are a couple of really great ones available that we have used and the kids enjoyed doing. Here are some links to them. If you can outline, it makes it easy to assemble a quick essay or paper.
My last book report form is for around middle school. You can use it in 5th or 6th grade if your child can handle the writing. It is a leading form that they fill out step by step. When they are done, they will have enough information to write a good book report from the material they wrote. I use it as a rough draft for their report, then they go back and write a final draft. It works great! Again, you are free to download it and use it as much as you’d like. It is under the File Sharing page and it’s called Advanced Book Report Form.
Now, my son is in 8th grade and he is working on a high school level. I am counting all work I consider high school level and I am in the process of making my own writing and revising checklist. I have yet to find a really awesome, solid checklist, so I’m making one up. I found one site that has a pretty good checklist for essays: http://grammar.about.com/od/correctingerrors/a/editchecklist.htm and another one for writing book reports: http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreporths.html. When I get a good checklist together for writing and revising, I’ll post it here.
Thanks for reading! You’re welcome to leave comments and let me know what you think or give me your advice about this subject.
Read More...
