Not music to a mother’s ears: “We’re playing every man for himself wrestling.”
Where do they get this stuff from? (No, not TV.)
I swear, I think boys are born with the word wrestling already in their vocabulary. Complete with an undying desire to engage in it.
I saw a lovely piece of crochet lace and decided to look into how it was made. I discovered that particular style is called “filet crochet.”
It turns out that it is rather simple to do and, best of all, inexpensive.
I had $6 left on the Michael’s gift card that my parents-in-law gave me for Christmas, and I was able to buy every thing I needed to get started with that.
The Beginner’s Guide to Filet Crochet was $3.50, but I used a 40%-off coupon, so it was only $2.10. The string was only $1.99, as was the steel hook. Total cost: $6.08 + tax. (Okay, so I had to chip in a bit.)
There is enough string there to make a few practice pieces and a complete project.
And the only expense for future projects will be the string.
Not bad!
Here is my first practice piece. It is not crooked, that is the angle of the couch cushion that it is on. It actually came out pretty well for my first try.
The other night, Bob and I were discussing where else in the United States we would want to live.
We concluded that we are too New England to really live anywhere else.
In my case, I might even be too Vermont to live any where else.
Where else could I get away with my staple wardrobe of ankle-length skirts (with long johns underneath) and hiking boots?
Last week, I was reading a blog entry about Fighting the Frump and there was an outfit described as “Tornado of Ugly” that I would totally wear, except, my skirt would go to my ankles and I would have on hiking boots.
Worse still, the “approved” outfit is something that I would not wear in a million years.
I am all for fighting the frump, which is why I wear long, comfy skirts, instead of sweat pants or pajamas, but I will not wear (what I consider) uncomfortable clothes or shoes to accomplish it.
I like my style. I look like I am kind of dressed up, but I am comfortable enough to go take a nap. (Like that would ever happen!)
But I will admit, that it might be difficult to pull this style off in many other parts of the country.
Luckily, we don’t mind staying right here in Vermont, where people talk fast and appreciate a dry, witty sense of humor.
And now, to showcase my abysmal photo editing skills, or lack there of, I present to you: a tornado of Vermont mama awesomeness.
That picture leaves much to be desired, but you get the idea.
I moved my new homeschooling blog, South Meadow Homeschool Academy for Boys, to the domain southmeadowacademy.com. It was a subdirectory of this domain.
You will need to update your feed.
I also added a handy graphic in the sidebar, so you can get there quickly from here.
I tried that cream of chicken soup substitute and the recipe came out tasty, but I do not have anything to compare it to. I don’t cook with cream of chicken soup, so I can’t tell you how it measures up.
I can, however, share the recipe I made up last night using the substitute.
Slow Cooker Chicken Yumminess
1 potato, diced
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced or sliced
1 stalk celery, diced, or some celery salt, which is what I used.
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut up into 1″ chunks
1 recipe Cream of Chicken Soup Substitute
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
Instructions:
Place the root vegetables in the bottom of your slow cooker. Place chicken on top. Pour cream of chicken soup and chicken broth over top, with herbs.
Cook on low 6-7 hours, or until chicken is cooked and veggies are tender.
Stir well, mix in peas and heat through.
Serve over noodles or biscuits. My favorite biscuit recipe comes from King Arthur flour.
Tips:
Turn off the slow cooker and let mixture cool a bit, stirring occasionally, to thicken the sauce before serving.
When you assemble the ingredients, take the peas out of the freezer and put them in the refrigerator to thaw, so they will be ready when you need them.
You can add the herbs to the cream of chicken soup substitute when you make that.
When muffins need a little extra incentive to leave the pan, the tempting thing to do is grab a butter knife and go around the edges to loosen them.
This usually does the trick, but it also leaves scratches on the pan.
My tip is to use a rubber spatula instead. Make sure it is heat-proof, or it can melt.
I even have a small rubber spatula to loosen goodies from my mini muffin pan.
While I am at it, I have to recommend the cooking spray with flour (Pam for Baking). It works like a charm for baked goods. They come right out of the pan.
That works for me. I hope you find it useful, too.
For more Works-for-Me Wednesday tips, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer, where Shannon is recovering from her trip to Africa.
There are a lot of the slow cooker recipes in my cookbooks that require cream of chicken soup. There is one that I really want to try with some boneless breast that I have, but I do not usually buy cream of chicken soup.
I looked around for a cream of chicken soup substitute and found a recipe on About.com: Southern Food.
I’ll let you know how it turns out. I am going to try it tomorrow night.
Things still haven’t returned to normal around here. It seems that we are getting yet another bug that is making everyone tired - more like exhausted. There are some accompanying cold symptoms, but the exhaustion is really taking a toll on everyone.
Winter - ya gotta love it!
If you don’t already read Rocks In My Dryer (What!? You don’t read Rocks In My Dryer??), you must head over there and read Shannon’s blogging from Uganda with Compassion International.
Wow.
That is all I can say.
I have long struggled with how much I wanted this blog to focus on homeschooling.
Sometimes I talk about how I feel about homeschooling, or homeschool-related issues, but this blog is not about the actual act of homeschooling. How to, how we do it, resources, etc.
And I really don’t want it to be.
So, I decided to make a blog dedicated to our homeschool adventure.
Introducing, South Meadow Homeschool Academy (for boys), my new site that is all about the art of homeschooling.
There is not much there yet, but I did have fun writing profiles of our “students” this afternoon.
I look forward to having a place to share my homeschool stuff.
