Oh, the specialness.

Just this afternoon The Equuschick was thinking to herself, now that she's pushed and shoved and whipped and spurred herself towards an organized beginning of 2007, she needs a new tote bag to carry books in when she goes places. She was accustomed to do so in the past, but all of her tote bags eventually gave up the ghost under the weight of The Equuschick's various tomes. (The weenies.)

And this evening,what should happen but that the FYB should waltz into the living room with pride and announce that he had something for The Equuschick. It proved to be a tote bag he had made himself (with the assistance of JennyanyDots) out of scrap material with an equestrian background. And yes, the two books she is currently reading fit just perfectly.

The Equuschick, lacking both skill and interest in anything that requires the use of needle and thread, finds herself the beneficiary of a younger brother with an unusual, but highly commendable, newly found hobby.

Birthday Parties

Here is a birthday post after my own heart.

I could have written it myself. We've done more elaborate- but usually I regret it.

News and Views

Politics as usual (more on the background behind the usual COLA increase not going through in Congress)

Political free speech at risk, again (or is that still).

Chinese leader visits the Sudan.

When nothing else is taboo, where will the avant gaurde go? Lars Walker has a thought. He hopes he's wrong.

Let's hope the internet makes it harder and harder for politicians to get away with memory hole tactics.

I know somebody like this, and he's actually a very likable guy. He's not really deliberately deceptive. He just really likes people and he likes people to know he likes them and appreciates them. Fortunately, the person I know like this is not a politician.

I know this comes across as a blog from the right, and it's true enough that many (thought not all) of my standards and convictions are more compatible with the alleged philosophy of the right than the left- but what I think my views are my genuine beliefs, whereas most politicians, left and right, are just politicians. That's not a nice thing to say about them. But they don't do nice things.

The new book on Justice Thomas looks interesting- it seems things were not really what his detractors thought... no surprise to me. Patterico also posts on it.

Thirty years from now, maybe compassionate Christians should start adopting Chinese geriatric patients.

Lebanon's future?

As the Democrats open hearings on Global Warming, let us not forget that in the seventies climate fearmongers were forecasting massive global cooling, an ice age, even, by the year 2000. That's a terrific article, by the way. I hope you click through and read it. Has many applications. And in conjunction you might be surprised to read what President Bush has previously said about this topic.

A small village contemporary with Stonehenge has been found about two miles from the site. Looks interesting.

If there were more people like this speaking out from within Islam, I'd feel more optimistic about the future of the world.

As it is, I'm cynical about all kinds of things (hey, I'm an INTP, and it's our destiny), and feel this is rather ominous.

I meant to link to this a couple of weeks ago. Fjordman's essays are always worthwhile, but they are also long enough that they really merit a post all their own. Highly recommended reading- the link above is a brief history of multiculturalism.

This probably shouldn't be as funny as it is, but I just can't resist laughing at Joe Biden who compliments Barak Obama for being, well, clean.

Remember this story the next time somebody tells you about how the terrorists are just freedom fighters.

Women of the Bible

A while back I read that one religion's holy book, I think it was the Book of Mormon, mentions only two women by name.

According to this website there are around 188 women in the Christian Bible- it's hard to be exact because this website includes a few who are not named by name (widows, as in The Widow of Nain, for instance), but also counts names like Mary only twice (Mary, and Mary the Mother of Jesus). If you click on the names you can see how many different people that name referred to (there are, for example, six women called Mary in the Bible)

Share Your Passions

In addition to what you do specifically with and for your children, and as part of what you do with and for them, you should keep up as much as possible with your own reading and thinking- use books on tape (or an iPod if you're a modern young mother), visit the wonderful Librivox, check tapes out from your library- whatever it takes, if it's possible. There are seasons where you will be eating standing up just to stay awake.

What have you always wanted to know more about, but never had to time to learn? Study it! Talk about it as much as you can with your little ones, or at least in front of them.

I've long been interested in marine life. Years ago when we lived near a beach, I started a seashell collection, cataloged and labeled with the latin names- and I included my little ones (then just 2 little ones, ages 1 and 3) as much as they wanted to be included. I saw no reason they couldn't learn the names of seashells just as easily as the letters of the alphabet, and the seashell names were more meaningful to them, too. I picked up a few extra shells on the beach for them to sort in whatever categories seemed good to them, or just to arrange in patterns that pleased them (I think the Equuschick gave hers names and personalities, and that was fine, too). My fancy collection was really a very mundane and ordinary one, and I kept it mostly in egg cartons and divided fruit boxes from the grocery store.

At different times in my life I've suddenly been interested in the works of a specific poet. I read everything I could find on that poet, and I included his or her poems in our nightly bedtime reading. I vastly preferred it to many of the little kiddie poems you might find in the twaddle section of the library. I love Mother Goose, but I'm not very fond of Curious George. I figure that there's no reason reading aloud to my children has to mean torture for me, and if I think it's a dreadful book, I say so (and refuse to read it more than once). At 3 y.o. the FYG had been read aloud to from JOhn Donne, Jane Austen, Psalms, the poems of Keats, Matthew Arnold, and Emily Dickenson, as well as Dr. Seuss, the Lobels, and Goodnight Moon. As an infant the FYB listened to Faust, Kempis, Mother Goose, and Milne read aloud, all with equanimity. Babies do not care, really, what they love most is usually the rhythmic sound of Mother's voice, so why not pick up your Bible and read aloud a few verses in the morning instead of another boring board book? Or both, if you have some board books as fun as Sandra Boynton's or HElen Oxenbury's.

Those are my tastes. I mention them not to suggest that you duplicate them, but to suggest you learn how to indulge your own in combination with your mothering. Mothers are not generic. We are just as individual as our children. I believe that YOU are your children's mother for a reason. Make the most of the kind of person you are in your parenting.

Being a mother is no reason to submerge the unique individual that you are. I'm not talking about the selfish, feminist 'meet your own needs,' "ME time, drop the kids off hours every day so you can be your own person sort of thinking. I'm talking about sharing who you are with your children and modeling for them an adult who continues to learn, think, study, read. Develop your interests in what is available to you now, study and learn- independently and with your children or spouse, in any area that interests you.

I believe that every homemaker will have specific areas that are her particularly gifted areas. Her interests and her family's circumstances are a unique combination that should be cherished and developed, not squelched as she tries to model herself on a television character with different interests and different circumstances. There is only one June Cleaver, anything else is only the second best, an imitation. You don't have to be Martha Stuart, and indeed, you probably should not try. Look at who you are, who your other family members are, your collective strengths and weaknesses, your interests, and your circumstances- and share your passions and hobbies. The homemaking of a mother with a bent toward literature and music will look different than that of the mother with an interest in organic gardening and math, which will be different to the mother with a background in computers, which will be different to the homemaking of the mother who loves crafting and finds poetry boring.

I think this idea that being a housewife is all about cooking, cleaning, and household management to the exclusion of everything else is a huge mistake. Few of us think we actually hold to that view, but if you are a piano player who feels guilty about taking time to play the piano at home, then I suspect that there is an underlying false assumption about what it means to be the homemaker. If you have a passion for writing but feel guilty when you take time to write, likewise. If you feel guilty about sitting down to read a book, maybe you need to reevaluate those standards. If you love to sketch, but think it's selfish to take time to do that, then I suspect you, too, have a mistaken idea of what we are called to do.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of exercising your own tastes and focusing on your personality strengths in combination with your mothering. Consider _any_ other career- journalism, research, teacher, cashier, scientist, whatever- is there a single job where we expect everyone to perform it in exact duplication of some idealized television clone? Yet too many of us expect this of ourselves. We think _all_ SAHMs should perform their tasks like June Cleaver (if we're Americans). If you're a June Cleaver type, then more power to you. That is how you should perform your mothering and homemaking tasks.

But most of us aren't. Our family members have a right to know who we are as people. Share your passions with your children, and allow them to share their passions with you.
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I read this post over at Dominion Family about a husband sharing his hobby with his progeny. As I read, I was reminded of this post which has been languishing in my saved files for ages. Before that it was part of a letter I wrote to a friend asking for advice.

Kale and Currants

This recipe originally comes by way of The Vegetarian Express Lane cookbook, a cookbook I gave away during a book purge associated with a move. This is one cookbook I wish I had kept.

2 tablespoons of dried currants OR any other tiny bits of dried fruit- craisins, raisins cut in halves or chopped even smaller, teensy slivers of dried mango, whatever. The point is sweet, but in tiny amounts hidden throughout the kale.

1/2 cup hot water (more if the kale seems too chewy, but not so much that there will be extra liquid when you serve it)

2-3 tablespoons diced walnuts (or other nuts)

3 bunches of kale (anywhere from 10-15 cups of torn up kale, see below on how to slice it pretty)

3 tablespoons of olive oil or melted coconut oil

3 minced garlic cloves

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 cup feta cheese or swiss. We've also used jack, because it's so much cheaper..

Soak your dried fruit in 1/4 cup of hot water. Leave it to soak while you carry on with other steps.

Rinse your kale, cut off the stem ends, which are tough, and dry the kale. Lay several leaves in a stack on top of each other, roll tightly like a cigar (into a cigar shape), and then slide with a sharp knife, making long ribbons about one inch wide (or use kitchen shears)

Heat your oil in a large pan. Cook the garlic briefly, and then add the kale, tossing lightly. The greens will wilt quickly (you want to toss it constantly so they wilt evenly), add the salt and pepper, add 1/4 cup of hot water and cover. Leave covered over medium heat for about ten minutes, longer if you want them less chewy.
Remove lid, add currants and the water they've been soaking in, and cook the entire thing, tossing again to evenly distribute the liquid. Add more seasoning if desired. Remove from pan, quickly divide onto individual plates and sprinkle with nuts and cheese. Serve immediately.

This serves from 4-6 as a main dish, 9 as a side dish. It's quite good as a side dish for a baked potato lunch.

I like this verse.

"I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me." - Ps. 3:5

Thus, a simple and prosaic reminder of a profound fact. Sleep is good, but getting enough rest is not what sustains me. God is. He provides every bit of sustenance I need. And He does not fail in His provision of it, either.

Eew. The Equuschick has been updated without her consent.

This is a Pangolin. It is beautiful in a fascinating and rather Dragonesque way, but it is actually a mammal. It is native to Africa and eats termites and is in general a unique little beastie, one of those that suggests to one that God approves of a bizarre imagination.

Moving on.

This is a Klipsringer, Afrikaans for "Rockjumper."

It is a native to Africa, no more than 22 inches high, and when alarmed, it whistles through its very cute nose. The Equuschick recommends further study on the little darlings.

NOTE from the DHM: The pangolin truly is a fascinating little beast, and the DHM feels it isn't quite fair of the Equuschick to tell you to do more research without at least giving you a place to start.
This is nice page of information if you can get beyond the spelling and punctuation errors. The DHM suggests that you do get beyond them, and note instead the pangolin's defense mechanisms and eating habits. Also those scales, what are they made of? Isn't that fascinating?

Before you get too het up about the horrible humans being the only known enemy of the poor pangolin, please note the facts on this page, in particular the words 'essential source of protein.' The DHM would very much hate to see the demise of the pangolin, but if it comes down to the pangolin species and a single human being, she votes for the human. Those deploring the placement of the pangolin on the menu might put their money where their keyboards are and send money to enable the people eating the pangolin to improve their diets.

This is a page specificially dedicated to ancient armour, but they had a discussion here about the pangolin and armour specific to the Benin tribe of Africa which was based on pangolin skin (and in at least one case, made from pangolin scales, complete with picture). I found it fascinating and expect many of our readers (particular some young males we know) would, too.

Enchanted learning has a coloring page.

See a VERY cool picture here.

Note the information on the pangolin's tongue, here. Look where he stores it when not in use. Wow. Note as well another reason man poses a danger to the pangolin, and consider the positive impact Christianity would have in the reduction of this practice.

Happy reading.

Books Read In January

Psalms, three times. This keeps me on track with my goal of reading it 20 times by July.

Thalassa Cruso's Making Vegetables Grow
This was my January book for the TBR challenge. I had intended to write a good review of it and share some notes, but we're most of us feeling puny today and I hear a nap calling my name. Maybe another time. One interesting thing is that Thalassa refers to Ruth Stout (positively) several times, and Ruth Stout is the author of the book I planned to read in February.

Underfoot in Show Business, by Helene Hanff (she of 84 Charing Cross Road fame).

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (a nicely bowdlerized edition)

Lost in a Good Book, by same, likewise bowdlerized.

I think there was a mystery or two, but I'm not certain that was January. It might have been December.

Update: It was Thale's Folly by Dorothy Gilmore, on the day I had my tooth pulled.

Carnival of Frugality is UP

Check it out here. Plenty to see, lots to learn, some to discern (hey, that rhymes!)

Homeschooling Carnival is UP!

Anne, at Palm Tree Pundit, has done a terrific job. Take a gander and make some connections of your own!

News and Views

(It's been a while since we've done one of these posts, and if you're new here and wondering what's the point, this post might explain. The short answer is that this is an exercise for my two high school students to help them created the news journals they are supposed to be adding to each week).

The six larges aid agencies in Darfur are very worried. They suggest a complete collapse of humanitarian aid in this country without drastic measures.

Was a member of the Taliban found with Anthrax? SeeDubya at Junkyard blog wants to know, and he wants to know why more journalists aren't covering the story, if only to debunk it.

Those Common Room Scholars who have been or will shortly be reading a biography of Samuel Johnson (and you know who you are), might enjoy this essay on the man over at Horsefeathers.

This story of CIA intrique, Russian novels, and the publication of the Nobel prize winning Dr. Zhivago is fascinating. Is the idea that the CIA paid to publish and promote the novel more outrageous than the fact that the KGB tried to suppress it and persecuted the author? Should the CIA be in the business of publishing Russian Literature? (Should the CIA be in business?)

The entire history of the 20th century attests to the fanaticism of modernity. And it's incontestable that the belief in progress has taken on the aspect of a faith, with its high priests from Saint Simon to August Comte, not forgetting Victor Hugo. The hideous secular religions of Nazism and communism, with their deadly rituals and mass massacres, were just as gruesome as the worst theocracies - of which they, at least as far as communism goes, considered themselves the radical negation. More people were killed in opposition to God in the 20th century than in the name of God.

From this article, largely addressing the bigotry of equivilancy, as seen by the West's disdainful, sneering treatment of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and insistance on that most racist of practices, Multiculturalism, because "it chains people to their roots," treating them as backward children, incapable of embracing Western values.


More politics of envy. It's a shame. Jealous comparisons just don't make for sound economic policy.

General Petraeus' nomination- Betsy says there's a bit of dissonance there.

The UN does it again. Businesses in business to make a profit are supposedly evil- corporations bad, bad, bad. The UN funnels millions of dollars (intended for the poor) directly past the poor and needy into a dictator's pocket without any oversight to speak of, but I'm reactionary for seeing a problem with continued UN support. Rrrright.

More on Jimmy Carter and his support for terrorists. Sorry, folks. It is what it is.

Interesting:

Muslims worldwide believe Islamic law is compatible with democracy and most admire values championed by the US but doubt Washington is serious about implementing them overseas, according to a poll.

Will we ever escape the sixties?

The internet and television

Oil, Ethanol, and energy sources

Thieves broke in to this man's home and stole computers, Christmas gifts, and personal items. On the computers were hundreds of family photographs. British police were uninterested in investigating this crime. The victim of the crime posted fliers offering a reward for the return of his goods, no questions asked. Guess who stands in greater danger of being arrested? The thieves or the robbed citizen?

On January 20th, London’s mayor Ken Livingstone hosted a debate in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, across the street from Westminster Abbey, on “A World Civilisation or a Clash of Civilisations”. The jumping-off point of the debate was Samuel Huntington’s famous book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The principal speaker besides “Red Ken” was Daniel Pipes, the noted author and a charter member of the Counterjihad.

The media is ignoring this event, but you can see it for yourself and form your own opinions, thanks to the magic of the internet (see that link a few spots up about t.v.) View a segment each day and discuss amongst yourselves.=)

The Declaration of Independence condensed to a space the size of a white blood cell.

Islam in Europe

If you're interested in the Scooter Libby trial (Plamegate), then Just One MInute and Talk Left are covering it.

Schubert

It is unwise to claim he was the greatest composer, but it is the unvarnished truth to say he is loved as no other, and for fairly obvious reasons. There is not a single false note in his music, particularly his chamber music, which ranks alongside that of his hero, Beethoven – who, oddly enough, he didn't know, even though they walked the same streets.

What you hear in Schubert is what you hear in Chekhov's plays and stories: the unfathomable mystery of existence, treated with the pitch-perfect ear of one who understands the fragility of life, and the vulnerability and yearning of each human soul. It is also important to note what you don't hear. There is no bombast, no vanity, no "leading on". The music springs naturally, fountain-like, from an open heart.

Maxim Gorky, grumpy and a tiny bit jealous of Chekhov, complained that "when you mention Anton Pavlovich, people sigh as though a baby deer had just walked into the room". That is how friends regarded Schubert, too, and how generations of music-lovers have responded to his work. Unlike Beethoven, he didn't want to change the world, and yet, in his lyrical way, he scaled the emotional peaks that Ludwig climbed more dramatically.

More here.

Schubert was the AO composer for a term a couple years back.

Liszt said that he was the 'most poetical composer who ever lived,'and by his death at the youthful age of 31 he had 'created over six hundred songs, eight symphonies, operas, masses, chamber works and much beautiful piano music...'

They Don't Make Libraries Like they Used To

This link is for the HG, who told me recently she was amazed at how many library patrons applying for a library card had little or no high school edcuation. Naievely I said that I was with a library card than a high school diploma. She cocked an eyebrow at me and said, "Yes, if they were reading. What they're doing is checking out DVDs, and since we have a limit on how many can be checked out at once, they get cards for the kids, too. They never check out books- just DVDs. Six of them every other day or so." Which leads to the sort of experiences narrated by the author of this author:

I recently spoke with a junior who was stressed about her decreasing ability to focus on anything for longer than two minutes or so. I tried to inspire her by talking about the importance of reading as a way to train the brain. I told her that a good reader develops the same powers of concentration that an athlete or a Buddhist would employ in sport or meditation. "A lot out there is conspiring to distract you," I said.

She rolled her eyes. "That's your opinion about books. It doesn't make it true." To her, the idea that reading might benefit the mind was, well, lame.

Actually, lame would be the word I would apply to that young lady's mind, in a literl sense. Literally, her mind is halt, crippled, maimed, and limps. It does not as it should (and could). This is sad. It brings up another opportunity to use my favorite CM quote about the maimed existance of many of our young people who are devoid of intellectual life.

Some Wages May Not Go Up

Not that this is bad news.

Why is Big Business Bad IF Big Government is Good?

(title corrected)

Have you ever noticed that? Quite often the very same people who will deplore the evil of hegemonic companies, sprawling, grasping corporations spreading their evil capitalistic greed over the face of the earth, are wildly enthusiastic about government encroachment in our lives via increased taxes, regulations, and welfare programs of all sorts.
Not all, but certainly a significant number, of those who insist that it's better to spend three times as much on a pair of shoes so that you are not buying them from the Big Corporation, will also argue in favor of the government imposing confiscatory taxes as a method of enlarging their pet charities.

I was thinking about this after reading this article by Donald J. Boudreaux. It's a thought provoking read:

Because western governments have been fairly (if not universally) adept over the years at supplying "public goods" such as crime control, sewer systems and national defense, many people presume that such successes argue for government to expand into unrelated fields such as health-care provision, retirement planning and running railroads.

But why? Why would an organization whose talents lie in protecting citizens from violent aggressors, both homegrown and foreign, be especially good at operating schools and pension funds?

Why, indeed. Largely, I think, because we have a sense of entitlement out of proportion to what we actually are entitled to have. That sense of entitlement, we delude ourselves into thinking, is compassion, if only we are entitled to other people's money for our pet charity projects. By advocating for larger, more expensive government encroaching into ever more areas it has no place, we can have the self-satisfaction of believing ourselves compassionate and charitable without actually making any major self=sacrifices to support our pet projects.

There are a couple of other reasons, and I especially like the way Mr. Boudreaux wraps those up in his final two paragraphs. It's a short read- why not go over and see for yourself? We'll still be here when you get back.

School Narration

Eothen by Alexander Kinglake

He arrived in Cairo, where the plague was running rampant Before he got to the city gates, though, he was met by a Frenchman who tried to convince him not to go into the city, because then he would be "compromised." But Kinglake was not to be dissuaded, and went to Cairo anyway. All the Europeans living there were convinced that the plague was transmitted through touch, and so shut themselves and their families up in their houses, and let no on go in or out. They believed that the plague could not be transmitted through any kind of metal, water, and a certain kind of rope. They had their servants live outside their houses, and would send them to buy food or whatever was needed. Then the family would draw the provisions up through a window, and soak them in water immediately. Kinglake believed it was foolish superstition, and did not care who he touched. He lived on the street where the funerals would pass by with their hired mourners and wailers. At first there were three or four a day, but by the time he left, it seemed to him that the wailing never stopped from daybreak to noon (the hours for burial).

Drastic Budgeting in the Kitchen

(UPdated to note: there seems to be some confusion about what I was saying here. I am not suggesting it's possible for a family to spend only 30 dollars a month on food. That would not be duplicating the 'experiment' below. I am saying it would be possible to do 30 dollars a person. In fact, in many ways, I think it would be easier, because for our family of nine that would be 270 dollars, so I could spend twenty dollars for a fifty pound bag of oats without breaking the back of my monthly budget. Also, please keep in mind these ideas are intended for those in an urgent situation. We do not live like this all the time. We can and have lived like this when necessity demands. There's nothing hyper-spiritual about eating on 30 dollars a month per person, but there is something very rewarding about living within your means and making your meals stretch to fit your circumstances. There is also, I believe, something righteous about living within your means. Please see the comments for more great ideas, or to leave some more ideas and tips of your own- links to your own blogposts on the topic are welcome).

While looking through this week's recipe carnival, I came across this interesting experiment embarked upon by a blogger:

I decided that I would embark on a 90-day social experiment. In which I only
spend $30/month on food. The only exception will be things that are freely
available to the average person (salt taken from restaurants, ketchup packets
from McDonald's, potluck dinners, etc). Buying in advance is fine, but at the
end of the month, it all has to add up to $30 or less.

It looks very useful- we could probably all get some good tips here, or at least a bit of a spur to do better.

This is an experiment I have had to live by necessity at times (PER PERSON, NOT PER FAMILY). I have at different times over our 24 years of marriage been obliged to feed our family on far less than the maximum allowance of food stamps for a family of our size (currently nine people, if you're new around here). We are not so obliged now, and I won't say we miss the good old days that much, although we do think of them fondly from time to time. We much prefer to look up them fondly as a thing of the past, however, than live them as a current reality. Here are some of the ways we've managed (some of this will be old information to longtime readers, some of it will be new).

Here are some links on eating well on a budget. They come from from an extension office:
Eating Well While Spending Less, Week One

Week Two

Week three

Week Four

Week Five

These links are useful tools, but looking them over, I would suggest that one could cut costs even further by taking these measures:

*Cook your own dried legumes instead of buying canned. This is such a big savings difference that I am surprised to see a site purporting to be about saving money recommending buying canned beans. You can buy one pound of dried beans for less than a can of cooked beans, but the pound of dried beans will make about as much as four cans. It's a significant savings. I cook up a big batch at once and then freeze the cooked legumes in bags containing four cups each. Beans do not store very well in the fridge and when they go bad they smell much worse than rotten meat.

*Don't buy canned soup. You can simply make a thick white sauce or roux, flavoring as desired. You can also boil five potatoes and two onions and cream them for the equivalent of about two undiluted cans of cream soup. There are other fancier recipes, but these two are our staples.

*Make your own bread. Yes, from scratch and not from a mix.

*Make muffins completely from scratch, rather than using the Raisin Bran cereal recipe (this is another one that really surprises me. Muffins are not difficult and they are quite inexpensive. Raisin Bran even on sale, is not 'from scratch.' ) See these previous posts for some muffin recipes:
Graham Gems (and split pea soup from scratch)
Mulberry Muffins (and other Mulberry receipts)
Amish sour cream muffins (I've also frosted these and used them as desserts or birthday treats. I made the frosting from scratch, my friends. It's half the price and twice the amount and ten times better tasting. Takes maybe ten minutes)
Basic muffin recipe from Calumet (from a vintage cookbook)
My great grandmother's recipe (I have it in her handwriting) for a small batch of muffins suitable for one or two people:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sweetener
pinch salt
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1 /2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons shortening or other fat
1 egg, beaten lightly
1/2 cup of milk
she did not share directions, but most muffin recipes are the same- combine dry ingredients, make a well in the center. Combine wet ingredients and pour into well, stirring until just moistened (there should be lumps). Pour into greased muffin tins, about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake at about 400 degrees for ten to fifteen minutes. Add fruit or spices to the batter as desired.

*Eat oatmeal (please, if you love me, do not buy instant oatmeal. If at all possible go to your healthfood store and buy it from the bulk section, or buy it from somebody in a co-op for about fifty cents a pound- and that's the organic stuff) or cornmeal mush for breakfast rather than prepared cereals. I don't like it and I would hate to eat it very often, but if I had a serious budget issue, I would grit my teeth and do what it takes, and if that's cornmeal mush, then that's what I'd do.

*Even scrambled eggs are cheaper than prepared cold cereals- but an omelet will take those eggs further and with more elegance (Use any leftover vegetables you have for the veggies in the recipe linked above).

*Make your own biscuit mix from scratch- this is easy and much cheaper than commercial mixes. You can use it for muffins, coffee cakes, pancakes, and waffles as well.

*Make your own pizza sauce rather than using canned.

*Make your own yogurt (this one may not be for everyone)

Do NOT buy fries. People, that's not even a food. In 24 years of marriage I think I've cooked with tater tots or frozen fries maybe ten times- and half of those had to have been because somebody gave them to us.

Boxed macaroni and cheese really isn't as cheap as you think it is, and the nutritional value is minimal. Likewise, applesauce, jams, and most canned fruits and vegetables. Spend the money on real food. Read your labels. If there is no nutritional value listed, no vitamins or minerals, it goes in the same category as candy bars- a luxury item.

*Make your own sprouts for some extra fresh vegetables in your diet. This link will take you to directions for lentil sprouts. The process is essentially the same for mung bean sprouts, wheatberry sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, and others. I've grown or eaten sprouts from fenugreek (good, but spicy), clover (so-so), Broccoli (good, but I don't have much luck with growing them), sunflower (delicious, my favorite, but much harder to sprout and I mostly botch it).

If your onions or garlic start to sprout, plant them in a pot in the kitchen window. Snip the tops for garnish and an extra taste of flavor for salads and sandwhiches.

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*Add lots of beans, made from scratch- not canned- to your menu
*Add baked potatoes- very filling and inexpensive
*Barley is cheap
*Make lots of soups and homemade bread - make the soups from any bits of leftovers you have, including drained liquids from cooked or canned (if you didn't listen to me) veggies.
*Substitute cottage cheese for Ricotta in many recipes. You can also mix half tofu and half cottage cheese and get the same texture, it’s filling and nutritious and I’ve never had anybody be able to tell a taste difference. check your local prices- some places we've lived tofu has been very inexpensive, other places, not so much.
*Liver is a cheap meat- The More with Less Cookbook has a very good recipe called “My Children Love Liver” I even had a notorious liver hater eat half a plate before he realized he was eating liver!
*Use your grocery sales fliers and shop the sales, building menus around that, instead of sitting down and thinking, "What do I feel like eating?".
*You can get spices cheaper through co-ops and at Mexican grocery stores.
*Drink water, not juice, with every meal
*Buy bags of brown rice instead of bottles, boxes, or jars of white rice.

Of course, one of the difficulties of cooking from scratch when you are poor is that if poverty hit you before you got to the grocery store, you don't have the scratch ingredients on hand and you probably cannot get them. It may be cheaper to bake a batch of bread from scratch in the long term, but if you don't already have flour, yeast, eggs, and sweetener on hand in the short run, that knowledge is of little use to you. Sometimes you just cannot spend five dollars now even when you know it will save you twenty five dollars in a month. And for bread baking to be cost effective, you need to be buying yeast in jars and bags, not little tiny individual packets. You might consider going to muffins and other quick breads for your bread needs for a while.

For that kind of really tight emergency budget I'd choose the cheapest bottom line and the minimal ingredients for the first pay period regardless of what I wanted to eat. If your budget is in that much trouble, you need to be really sacrificing. So that would be cornmeal mush for breakfast, lentil sprouts, beans and rice, and one or two of whatever the cheapest veggies were on sale that week (be sure to find where your grocer puts the mark-downs). That might be potatoes if you are not diabetic. You might be able to spring for one, maybe cheap cut of meat. Perhaps a couple fifty cent sixty-five cent cans of tuna, or maybe one whole chicken (which you will roast, pull the meat from, and then boil the carcass for broth), liver, OR ground beef, even ask the butcher for a bag of 'dog bones' and boil them for soup.

Save the skins from garlic and onions, scrub your carrots well and use the scrapings, use the leaves from celery, buy turnips and beets, cut off the tops and put them in a pie pan of water to grow more greens- all these things, along with every spoonful of leftover food, the liquid from your cooked veggies, the water squeezed from a package of frozen spinach- these all make a nourishing soup together. It could be a little thin, so call it consumme. Bring it to a boil and add a whisked egg for protein.

By the next pay-period you should have saved enough to buy a couple more ingredients-look over your sales fliers and see what will get you the most food for the least money. Sacrifice again, and by the next pay period you should have saved enough to add another ingredient to your kitchen stock. Slowly add in more foods to vary the menu, always checking the sales fliers and marked down items at your grocery store.

Little by little you can improve your diet frugally. Be patient and diligent, carefully looking ahead to the better times. I am not suggesting you live and eat this way permanently. Cornmeal mush every day for a pay-period will not kill you, however, if you are in normal health. Set aside all bitterness and resentment over having to live this way. Such feelings are not productive, and in many cases are an indication of the sense of entitlement behind many budget shortfalls.

And do bookmark The HIllbilly Housewife. She's has put together a remarkable resource for those who need to do some belt tightening in the kitchen, and what I know about budgeting could fit on one page of her site.

Recipe Carnival: Winter Comfort Food

Right Wing Nation hosts the winter comfort food edition here, and it looks excellent.





There are so many delicious looking options I couldn't possibly pick out just a few to share, so be sure to head over there and see it for yourself.


Just because, here's a recipe from my 1945 "500 delicious dishes from Leftovers" cookbook (published by The Culinary Arts Institute):

Baked Bean Croquettes

2 cups baked beans

1 minced oinion

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 egg, beaten

2 Tablespoons

sifted cracker crumbs

Mash the baked beans with a fork (their baked beans must be less liquidy than mine).
Add onion, salt, papper. Stir in well.
Shape into croquettes (Yep, their baked beans are definitely less runny than mine).
Mix egg and water.
Roll croquettes in crumbs, then in egg, in crumbs again, and fry in deep fat (375 degrees) until browned. Drain. Serves 4.

Who Needs Your (Stinking) Approval?

Somebody does, because like the song says, everybody needs somebody sometimes. What the song does not say but should be understood, is that everybody needs somebody to be supportive. If all that somebody did for everybody was sneer, well, who needs that?

It's important not to perform for approval, not to make the approval your goal (unless it's God's approval, or t least the approval of somebody you know has standards you can trust), because then you become the kind of person who can't be herself, who is like a chameleon, shifting your apparent viewpoints and ideas to fit whatever envioronment you are in. You lose your standards and your bearings in such cases.

But veering too far away from being that sort of person makes you the sort of person who walks along with her nose in the air and a chip on her shoulder, alienating people, acting arrogant and being totally insensitive to the situations and people around you.

“Do I need approval?” Answer: yes. Does anybody not need approval? Is there anybody who is content to live his life without so much as a nod from anybody else? Wouldn’t he be, of all men, the most devilishly self-centered? Wouldn’t his supreme solitude be the most hellish? It’s human to want to know that you please somebody.

Sometimes readers of things that I write tell me long afterward that they have thought of writing me a letter, or have written one and discarded it, thinking, “She doesn’t need my approval.” Well, they’re mistaken–for wouldn’t it be a lovely thing to know that a footprint you have left on the trail has, just by being there, heartened somebody else?

From Elisabeth Eliot's Trail to Shandia

Thanks to Barbara at Stray Thoughts for the link.

Connections

We began homeschooling in 1988. Since the very first book I read on Homeschooling was Susan Macaulay's For the Children's Sake, I did begin by including certain 'CM' elements in our homeschooling, but it was many years before I took hold of it with both hands.

Along the way between our start and our full discovery of the riches of a Charlotte Mason education, we did many projects. We studied the colonization of American and built a diorama of the settling of the west on our dining room buffet. We had an egg carton mountain representing the Cumberland Gap, and small covered wagons to the east of that, and totem poles for the northwestern Indians away to the far left side of our buffet. It was lovely. It was elaborate. We spent months adding to it as we studied a new era in history and exploration of NOrth America. Visitors commented on it all the time.
My children do not remember this.

We studied the Middle Ages and had a full feast, complete with drawbridge made from a mattress box, costumes, and a rich collection of books and biographies of the major figures and events of the time. My children do remember the drawbridge and feast. They do not remember the other things.

As I read more of Charlotte Mason we did fewer and fewer projects, and my children actually remembered more and more of what we studied. Not only that, they made connections and found relationships between subjects I would never have thought to bring together in my carefully planned and organized studies of our early homeschooling days.

I really have found that with education, less is more- less of my specially designed projects, more of the child's direct contact with the book itself; less of me dragging in all this extra stuff and forcing my own connections into the reading, more of my children making their own connections in a much more meaningful way; less extra stuff, more of what I believe is *real* learning. When I did all that careful planning and what Miss Mason calls the 'correlation of lessons,' I was the one doing all the work of the mind, and so I was the one doing the most learning. I was feeding my children whirled, pre-prepared mind food, instead of letting them chew on it themselves and make their own connections.

We don't do many involved projects anymore. I don't make worksheets or vocabulary cards for games. I don't create elaborate dioramas (although the children can if they want). Occasionally when we finish a reading I have asked my children to tell me about anyone or anything that the story we just finished reminds them of. Sometimes they tell me they can't think of anything. That's okay. Sometimes they will come up with a connection I would never have thought of- that's really delightful.

Sometimes I don't have to ask. One day about three years ago we went for a long walk
through our woods. On our walk my then 7 and 5 year olds were sharing the connections they were making, and also showing me that studies do serve for delight, and that education is the science of relations.=) Our five year old told me that the woods made him think of Little House in the Big Woods. We found a large tree fallen over a stream outlet, and the top was hollowed out, making a space large enough for two small children to play in. They told me they were Vikings like Harald, only nicer. We found a pile of red fur and one of them wondered if it belonged to Reddy Fox (from one of Thornton Burgess' books). They played Pooh sticks at the bridge. Our five year old found a hollow in the base of the tree and explained to us that this was one of the animal homes with a place for a door in it for animal visitors to knock on (ala Beatrix Potter). IN church this past Sunday the preacher referred to
Genesis 1- as he started reading my 5 y.o. whispered in my ear "He's going to start reading about Adam and Eve!" A little later in the sermon the preacher quoted a verse that my 7 y.o. has been working on- her eyes lit up and she nodded vigorously at me to show she recognized it- another connection made.

During that same time frame, we read the story of William Tell. When I read about Gesler putting the hat up on a pole in the market place and requiring people to bow to it, I asked my children if that reminded them of anything else they'd heard of- and one of them immediately remembered the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being thrown into the furnace for refusing to worship the statue of the king.

Many years before this, young Pipsqueak was about ten or so, and we were sitting in church on morning and the preacher was teaching on a passage about the tongue and the destructive roaring fire it could become. After class, my child said thoughtfully to me, "That kind of reminds me of A Tale of Two Cities." I was rather astonished, and asked what on earth she meant. "Well," she explained, "in the French Revolution people were informing on other people all the time, and if they were mad at a neighbor they might spread lies to get them in trouble. They could get somebody else in a lot of trouble just by something they said without thinking about it. That's pretty destructive."


Charlotte Mason's ideas of short lessons, alternating lesson types (two literature lessons not following quite back to back, but rather alternate so that one part of the brain is getting a rest while the other is working), and free time in the afternoons gives the children the time they need to make those connections. Children need that free time for doing nothing but thinking, pondering, daydreaming. It's just about as important as school and chore time, and I think it is more important than time organized for sports and outside activities.

Sometimes I will follow up a particularly meaty lesson with drawing, a simple craft, or something like sewing on buttons. I think that this gives them time to dwell over the reading more if they are doing something simple with their hands immediately afterward. However it is managed and planned, do be sure the children have free time to think. Doing this will enable the children to make their own connections, and when they do this, the material is really theirs.
------------------------------------
Postscript: I will also add that day in the woods was a particularly lovely day. We _do_ have days when the eyes glaze over, the frowns glower, and the narrations are dull and lifeless, or there are no narrations at all because there was no attentive listening. There is no need to feel discouraged if you have not gotten such feedback yet- sometimes kids are processing information and making connections quietly under the surface and it will come up at surprising times.

Sunday Hymn Post

How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours

How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus I no longer see;
Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flowers,
Have all lost their sweetness to me;
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay.
But when I am happy in Him,
December's as pleasant as May.

His Name yields the richest perfume,
And sweeter than music His voice;
His presence disperses my gloom,
And makes all within me rejoice.
I should, were He always thus nigh,
Have nothing to wish or to fear;
No mortal as happy as I,
My summer would last all the year.

Content with beholding His face,
My all to His pleasure resigned,
No changes of season or place
Would make any change in my mind:
While blessed with a sense of His love,
A palace a toy would appear;
All prisons would palaces prove,
If Jesus would dwell with me there.

Dear Lord, if indeed I am Thine,
If Thou art my sun and my song,
Say, why do I languish and pine?
And why are my winters so long?
O drive these dark clouds from the sky,
Thy soul cheering presence restore;
Or take me unto Thee on high,
Where winter and clouds are no more.

"Minding Animals"

This being the title of a book by Marc Bekoff that caught The Equuschick's eye at the library, cute polar bears being on the cover and everything. And the title caught her fancy, as it is a great philosophy of The Equuschick's that to simply watch an animal with fully absorbed attention, "to mind" an animal, if you will, is an unappreciated and underpracticed activity with rewards of education, experience, and understanding far beyond expectation.

She did not originally intend to check it out however, but only to browse the pages while she waited for the HG to get off work. The Equuschick is fond of animals and believes their intelligence and awareness of what goes on around them to be vastly underestimated, but she is suspicious of the sort of book with a forward by Jane Goodall and reviews on the back proclaiming evolutionary dogma.

But being the sort of person she is, The Equuschick started the introduction and got so interested she pulled out paper and pen started taking the sort of notes The Equuschick takes. These vary from the challenging and probing (because writing her own challenges down argumentatively and responding in kind is the only way she can come to a conclusion on anything) or approving and thoughtful, or sarcastically disdainful when she encounters the Just Plain Silly.

For instance, Jane Goodall provided this little gem, referring to the hunting habits of the Indian tribes of North America, which she seems to approve of.
..."They referred to them as Brothers and Sisters." (They being the animals, of course.) "They hunted for food, but they offered up a prayer of thanks to an animal they had killed. The animals lived wild and free before their death."

The Equuschick, not knowing where to start, has bullet pointed her thoughts.

*In two sentences Jane, you have equated animals with human family members and made known your approval for the hunting, killing, and eating of a brother or sister, provided that after they're dead you say thank-you politely. How bizarre.

*"Wild and free" is, and always has been, Loopy Liberalese for "Half-starved, diseased, and inbred, probably injured, and definitely exposed to the elements in all kinds of weather." How very humane.

The Equuschick is compelled to note that here Jane Goodall probably had in mind the confined and unsanitary conditions that some (but not all) large-scale farmers provide for the animals raised for food. Let us not forget that there is a happy medium to be found between "Wild and Free" and "Confined to a pen so small they cannot move and have to stand in their own waste." But, The Equuschick repeats, she recognizes exceptions and she means no disrespect to any farmers among the Common Room Readers who are providing for their families in ways they see fit.



But Jane Goodall's rare gems of utter nonsense came after a sentence which caught The Equuschick's true attention.

"As he (the author) observes different animal species-and he has had firsthand experience with many- Marc is continually asking himself: what would it BE like to be this coyote, this wolf, this dog?"

And The Equuschick must confess, she has done this herself. She does it every day, and she asks herself this question deliberately and passionately, with great interest. She goes to aquariums and sits down and watches the dolphins, and there are things she wants to know. What is it like to live in a dolphin's world? What is it like to be a dolphin? What do they experience, how much do they understand, and how do they learn to understand it?

It sounds rather silly admittedly, but The Equuschick could spend a happy half-hour in front of a goldfish bowl "minding" the goldfish. What does a goldfish see? How do they see it? In what colours? She wants to KNOW.

When she trains her horse, her dog, her goal always is to see things from their own point of view. You cannot train an animal when you do not see their point of view, and it is impossible to train an animal if you do not even acknowledge that they have one.


And that, you see, is the crux of the issue, and why The Equuschick feels that "minding" an animal is more than just an activity for animal lovers. To learn to mind an animal, you must learn to see things from another point of view. You must admit that such a thing exists. You must step outside yourself and admit the possibility that there could be another opinion. You must take yourself outside of self (always a good character exercise) and ask "What if I wasn't me, and I was the dog instead?"
And it may sound silly, and in some cases, the answer itself may be irrelevant. (It doesn't matter that the dog doesn't like his medicine, he must take it.) But the answer has never been the issue, the important thing is to learn to ask the question.

It is true that science can never empirically prove the range of intelligence, emotion, or awareness of any animal, but it is also true that it has never been proved, or can ever be proved, that they don't have any at all. The intelligence, emotions, opinions, or awareness or lack thereof, of any animal has never been within the range of empirical science.

To be frank with the readers, neither has the intelligence or emotion of The Cherub. Yet no one who has spent an an hour "minding" The Cherub, with a mind all ready open to the possibility of a point of view without a voice, can doubt that The Cherub loves and laughs with the best of them.

If you believe that the only points of view that exist are those spoken in our own tongue, you are a very small-minded person indeed. Step outside yourself please, and meet the world.

Happy Birthday Lewis Carroll and Julius Lester

Happy Birthday!

Julius Lester's personal page is here.

This link will take you to his blog, and today he shares his reflections on his 68th birthday:

But I like being old. Geriatricians classify age 68 as “young old age.” I accept. Please don’t say to me, as some have, “You’re not old,” as if being old is not desirable. I have earned these years, and I cherish them.

I also like his advice to young and hopeful writers.
We have only read these of his many books, and we appreciated all of them:
To Be a Slave
John Henry
Uncle Remus
Tales of Uncle Remus

Mr. Lester shares a birthday with another author: Happy Birthday

Carroll, of course, is the author of the delightful classics Through the Looking Glass and Alice In Wonderland. If you've not tasted the delights of Carrol's delicious nonsense just go straight down the rabbit hole and through the mirror. It's great fun.

LIbrivox's versions of Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland may facilitate your journey into the madcap world of the jabberwockey, Cheshire cat, Mock tortoise, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, white rabbits, the Walrus, and cabbages and kings.

Week 3 of the semester: done

Highlight: Getting good marks on the first part of a research journal turned in for history of Mexico. Paper topic (still waiting to be defined in a more precise manner): the survival of native languages in Mexico, especially when compared with other countries involving colonial powers. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to it.

Low point(s): the grittiness of Spanish homework. Monday: Oral Interviews. Wednesday: In class compositions. Friday: Exam. Ewww. I'm both dreading it all and ready for it to come. It will give me an idea of how I stand in the class.

Totally unrelated to school: This is a movie that I cannot wait to see.
(hm. Maybe it is related to school: British Empire 1783-1960 class :-)

Frugal Cold Weather Clothing

It's Frugal Fridays again at Biblical Womanhood, and there are many useful tips and ideas there (as ever). I decided to repost and update slightly a previous frugal tip post:

The most important thing about keeping warm in the winter is to keep dry. These are basically hillbilly ways to stay dry, but they work.

Children who insist on 'sledding' down a hill without the sled tend to get lots of tears in their snowpants. Duct tape will fix that. As us how we know these things.=)

Missing mittens? Put a sock on each hand, then put a plastic bag over each hand (sandwich bags work for little hands) and another sock over the bag. The layers help with warmth, and the plastic bags keep hands dry. This is a dandy use for all those unmatched socks you might have around the house.

Little baby socks make great mittens for babies- they don't need a separate casing for their thumbs, in fact, their little hands will stay warmer without them.

Plastic grocery bags also help keep feet dry in snowboots that spring a leak. Put on warm socks (two pairs if necessary), then slip your feet into the plastic grocery bag and slip the boots on over that. I have also saved the clear bags from the produce department- they are thinner, so get holes in them quicker, but they also take up less space in the boot. Duct tape will also work to fix leaky winter boots. Tape inside the boot (this works for regular shoes, too).

Even if you intend to buy new boots and mittens, these work as a temporary fix until you get to the store or until payday, whichever period of space you need most.

It's also helpful in some circumstances to have two sets of snowclothes; a decent pair of boots, mittens, and a coat for going out in public, and another set for roughing it out on the homefront. I really don't mind my kidlets sliding down our hills on their personal seats instead of a sled, I think it's a great experience for them. I just mind the destruction to their snowsuits. So if they have a sloppy, duct-taped back up pair of snow-pants, we're all happy.

Incidentally- I watch for snowsuits at thriftshops and yard sales and try to keep a full supply of sizes and colors. Of course, if you don't live in a northern state, this would be silly.=)

Jubilation and Tribulation

We love folk songs. We find them invaluable for many reasons. They're just plain fun. They do give you a sense of history and the times from which they come. They are usually easy to sing. They entertain small children (the HG used them often the summers she's nannied for a family with ten under 11). And they're public domain.

Rick Saenz has made available 80 free folk songs online!!!!

Bonnet Tip Cindy, who wonders if it's an oxymoron to sit around the computer listening to folk music. Maybe, but we're oxymoronic around here, too. We not only listen to it (and sing along) on the computer but we download it to the HG's iPod and bring it along to listen to in the car (we have one of those dohickeys where we can plug it in to the iPod and the car tape player and hear it over the car's speakers).

Folk music is the ancestor of country music of course, which I don't like at all, but the HM does. He doesn't like folk so much. Funny, eh? Some folk music is hilarious, but a lot of it is kind of sad and gloomy, all about falsehearted lovers, treacherous friends, and loved ones taken off by fatal wounds or illnesses. You've heard the one about what happens when you play country music backwards? You get your dog, your job, and your wife back and your pick-up runs like a charm.

That's just the ticket for us right now. Our lives of late would make a dandy folk song. Among the lightest and mildest of our current trials are the fact that we still do not have a vehicle that holds us all, and the fuel pump on the best vehicle we own (actually the HG and Equuschick own it and it has 200,000 miles on it) may be toast, to the tune of five hundred dollars, which is pricey toast. One of the Progeny has some medical tests tomorrow that I am not sanguine about. My doctor now says maybe I didn't just fracture a couple ribs, but possibly also damaged the rib cage area below the collar bone and just may have arthritis that will never go away (I can't slice meat, cut vegetables, knead dough, sweep, or hug the Progeny as tightly as I would like). I have more dental work coming up on Monday and so does the Cherub. Did I mention these are the least of my worries? Well, they aren't the least. They're probably middling.

The least would be things like undone laundry, undusted bookcases, undone school, and whiney attitudes. Not the Progeny's, mine.
The largest, well, they're too large to blog out of my system and they are of the sort that cometh out only with years of prayer and fasting.

And this is why folk music is so much fun. I can walk around humming mournfully to myself (and I can sing most mournfully and pathetically):
Do, do pity my case,
In some lady's garden,
My clothes to wash when I get home,
In some lady's garden.

Do, do pity my case,
In some lady's garden,
My clothes to iron when I get home,
In some lady's garden.

(some background info on that song here, but you have to scroll down to get it)

And then I can ad lib:
Do, do pity my case
in some lady's garden,
No car to drive
so how will I get
to that lady's garden?

Do, do pity my case
in some lady's garden,
I'd rather be there
than in the dentist's chair
yes, in that lady's garden.


I'd listen to one of Rick's choices, but I'm on the downstairs computer with no sound so I can't. And yes, I know, you're wondering why not the Psalms or some rousing hymns to shake me out of my doldrums, and I do those, too.
But the folksongs give me a chance to make fun of my little garden party (of the pity party sort).

So, do, do, pity my case. But not too much. It's probably very bad for my character.

(there won't be much blogging tomorrow- we're off for medical tests)

The Boy Reveals His Math Secret

The boy is pretty good with basic math computation in real life situations. Astonishingly good, to his math impaired Mama. When we play Mexican Train he always adds up his domino points faster than anybody else, and he mutters what sounds like random numbers to me as he does it, but he nearly always gets it right).

But he's not so great at pen and paper work or basic memorization of the facts, and we've been somewhat at a loss to figure out how he can so quickly manipulate numbers in real life when he gets so stressed at memorization of easier numbers. I was trying to help him out with memorization today, and he interrupted me to say, in some distress and agitation:

"But I think memorizing them is harder than what I do."

And then he shared his Byzantine formula:

"If it's a plus ten, then that's easy, you know you just put the number where the ten goes.
But if it's a plus nine, than I have to take away enough from the second number to make a ten out of the first number and then I turn it into a plus ten. And that's easy. If it's a plus eight, that's harder, but I still just turn the eight into a ten by taking away enough from the other number to make the eight into a ten and then I finish it. And if it's a plus seven...."

At which point I had to go take an aspirin. Because I'm just not getting why it's 'easier' to turn every simple one step addition problem into several steps involving assessing the problem, figuring out the difference between the augend and the addend, subtracting that difference from the addend, adding it to the augend, then adding the new problem you've created to reach a final sum.

A Few Sources for News and Commentary

The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) has an email newsletter I find very helpful. Information on subscribing here.

The World and I offers a weekly email subscription to a feature called 'Headlines in Review.' Information here.

The Watcher of Weasels usually leads to more than a few interesting points of view each week.

Cafe Hayek

The ups, downs, and humorous bits of college life

Today I finally picked up my graded final from last semester's Latin American history class. My midterm grade in that class was a 90; my final essay grade was a 97. This is a difference in the right direction.

When I wrote the exam, I knew I was floundering on the first paragraph. My introductory material was bad... and I knew it. So did my TA, apparently. His comment: "You lack a thesis, but OK." Ouch.

By the end of the essay, though, I'd apparently won him over. I was so delighted to read this comment at the end:
"Wow, this essay includes many good points that no one else has mentioned. You haven't used a lot of the standard examples, but your alternative examples are just as good, and you clearly have a thorough understanding of the books. You did not specifically discuss Brazil, so I'll have to take off a little, but otherwise great!"
Before seeing this, I didn't even think that "Wow" or exclamation points were part of this guy's academic vocabulary. Along with the midterm, he also graded multiple quizzes for me through out the semester. I made good grades on them, but his comments were very restrained. I am feeling elated. :)

---
Bad: just the busy-ness of it all. I shouldn't really complain, though, because it is busy-ness that requires me to think and learn.

---
Humor: Seeing a poster that says - "Hunger Strike Callout! Free food!" Oh, the irony.

What sort of a place is Giggleswich Lanken, anyway?

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Honourable Lady Pippinsqueak the Ingenious of Giggleswich Lanken Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Assorted Trifles

I also meant to blog about this before, but everytime I tried Blogger was snarly. (Don't you hate it when people whine a lot about things that aren't very important?)

But My Friend Connie (and she really is a friend- we have only one degree of separation as we share a mutual friend) is making absolutely luscious aprons, and I do mean luscious. I love the strawberry one. I feel all covetous and greedy every time I look at it. YOu should go see and enter the contest.

The Sparrow's Nest is having an anti-procrastination Wednesday. I thought about joining in, but I think I'll think about it later.

I must have a problem with jealousy, because I'm all envious of Amy's bright dog. The donovan dog seems to be rather thick between the ears, and he also runs off when he gets the chance.

Another blog awards program at the lovely Everyday Mommy blog- share your bloggy treasures with others.

The Palm Tree Pundit offers this link to a very interesting story about new discoveries in Rome.

She's hosting this coming Carnival of HOmeschooling and she wants to know "How have you seen what you study and teach in homeschooling relate to other areas? How do you connect your subjects?" See here for more details.

Naomi Joy posted a delicious looking recipe for cinnamon orange pancakes. I think that combination of flavors is one of my very favorites. What are some others, you ask? (You are asking, right?)

Garlic stuffed green olives. Which I am eating right now. They are so expensive but they are so delicious. Mmmmmmmm.

Sesame seeds or oil, garlic, and ginger.

Chocolate and just about anything, but especially chocolate and peanut butter and chocolate and citrus flavors.

Silliness

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Countess Deputyheadmistress the Funereal of Giggleswich Lanken Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Other sweet or silly moments lately:

The Sadie Lady dog is, as we have mentioned, growing older and feebler and it is only a matter of time. She sheds copiously. I mean, buckets of hari every day. I don't understand where it comes from because there's enough hair to make another dog every day. Recently a two year old visitor picked up a fistful of Sadie Lady dog hair off the floor and said, "Oh, broken. Fix it?"

I think that as I typed this a bird committed suicide by flying into my bedroom window.

WE had a Bible study here Tuesday night (a regular occurrence). The HM leads it. There are eight children under the age of 11 who come, and not all are equally, er, calm. So the HM, who is an enthusiastic and energetic story teller, tells the children a Bible story at the beginning of the lesson, then we study a chapter of Ephesians while they color quietly, and if they have been good, he promises them a story afterwards. They are pretty good because his stories are worth listening to. The adults like them too, and two weeks ago one of the men (a neighbor) said he's never heard the story of the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch before! (Acts 8 if you haven't heard of it, either)

AFter the Bible study some of my Progeny, a neighbor lady and I played eight letters in search of a word and we whomped on everybody. It was loud, boisterous, and great fun.

About my husband's energy and enthusiasm- have you seen Over the Hedge? Everybody we know who has seen it says that Hammy reminds them of my husband. And my husband does drink caffeine, and he does think the rest of the world moves very slowly.

I bought some bags of bird seed for the first time this winter. I brought them home and let somebody else unload them from the car. Had it been up to me, it probably would have been another three weeks, at least, before I thought about putting them out, and then it would have taken another two weeks to decide how I was going to do it.

The HM set up a plastic lawn chair with a board across the arms outside our bedroom window, spread seed on a tree trunk outside the kitchen window, and put a board over the corner rails of the deck upstairs with seed scattered across that. He did that in about ten minutes in the wee hours of the morning before he left for work the next morning. I am enjoying the cardinals, juncoes, and house finches and mourning doves. ABove all bird songs I favor most the melodious tune of the western meadowlark, which we do not hear in this state, and the gentle and peaceful cooing of the mourning doves. But these birds are all gluttunous little things. The boy generously replenished my chair bird feeder this morning and the birds had wiped out the store in less than half an hour.

The HG is diligently studying her Spanish and trying to practice it at home. This makes life difficult as I only know about a hundred vocabulary words (two hundred if we count being able to count to 100), and they aren't the same 100 words. We badly need a corrective influence here because recently she made a comment about the snow all over the ground and how pretty it all is, and she learned later that what she had said was that the honey on the ground looked very pretty.

Zeus has been letting Donovan think he was the alpha-male, and we have been concerned about this. Donovan hasn't Zues's upright moral character and we thought the hundred pound Zeus was being a weenie around the light-weight labradoodle pup. But we have discovered that Zeus has his limits. More importantly, so has Donovan. It is rawhide bones. I hadn't bought any for a while by after the obnoxious Donovan ate one of my throw-rugs, one of the FYG's shoes, one of the HG's shoes, and my brand-new from the thrift shop feather duster, I decided enough was enough and bought some bags of rawhide chews. Donovan attempted to help himself to Zeus's chew and found himself a surprised and very a Humble Donovan, a Sad Donovan, a Melancholy Donovan, a Small and Sorry Donovan, an Oh-anybody-but-Zeus-I-am-glad-to-see-you Donovan.
It was quite the funniest thing I have seen in ages. Zeus did not hurt him (he is a gentle giant) but he scared the arrogance out of him for a full 24 hours. He simply knocked him down flat, growled ferociously and shook him a bit with his ever so gentle and drooly lab mouth and walked away. Donovan yelped and raced off to behind behind a girl. He spent the rest of the evening hiding behind the skirts of different Progeny, slinking about along the edges of the walls, and hiding under desks. Zeus lorded it over the Common Room territory with dignity and majesty, planting himself in the center of the room with his bone and every once in a while giving Donovan an intimidating, "You disgust me you silly puppy, and I have a horror of puppies" look, which made the Donovan dog cower more.

A few hours later Donovan slunk his way from shelter to shelter, huddled under my feet and computer desk a moment, and then cautiously approached Zeus, still keeping his distance. It looked for all the world like he was pleading, "May we please be friends, now?" Zeus stood up, walked over to him and turned his cold, frosty, and immovable shoulder to Donovan and looked pointedly into the air. The Donovan dog slunk back under my desk, cowered a moment and then crawled over to Pip, the only one of us who was remotely sympathetic, where he remained the rest of the evening, a sadder but not much wiser dog. We had blessed peace the rest of the evening- no barking, brawling dogs, no impudent little boys throwing their balls over their sisters' heads for the equally impudent puppy to leap over. Donovan was simply too depressed to play.

Donovans never go on being Sad, unfortunately. They get over it with Astonishing Rapidity. I've checked around just to be sure, and everybody says that's what they always get over it with. But if Zeus can make Donovan feel Small and Sad just for five minutes, he shall have done a good deed. I'll buy more rawhide chews every week if that's what it takes.

Postscript to Deliverance from Death

Yesterday blogger was most uncooperative, and I was unable to update this post with an explanatory note to those few readers who may not realize that this it has been 34 years since we legalized the slaughter of unborn babies in every state of the union.

I also wanted to add a link to Carmon's excellent collection of facts and figures:

Since 1973 there have been 47,282,923 abortions.
For every 1,000 live births, there were 306 abortions in 1997 (that’s almost 1 in 4 pregnancies ending in abortion).
There were more than 140,000 second and third trimester abortions in 2000.
In 2000, more children died from abortion than Americans died in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars combined.
Approximately 93% of all induced abortions are done for elective, non-medical reasons.
Abortion ends a pregnancy by destroying and removing the developing child. That baby’s heart has already begun to beat by the time the mother misses her period and begins to wonder if she might be pregnant (about 31 days after the mother’s last menstrual period (LMP). Surgical abortions are usually not performed before seven weeks, or 49 days LMP. By that time, the baby has identifiable arms and legs (day 45) and displays measurable brain waves (about 40 days). During the seventh through the tenth weeks, when the majority of abortions are performed, fingers and genitals appear and the child’s face is recognizably human.

There is more, much more, to read by clicking on the link.

And I wanted to tell you that Cindy was collecting related blogposts in this soberingly titled '34 Years into the Culture of Death' post.

Recommended reading: When Choice Becomes God, by F. LaGard Smith:

"Having elevated personal rights to the high altar of a national religion, it becomes surprisingly easy to offer upon that altar even one’s own offspring as a sacrifice to the great god of Self."

Maimed Existence

Sallie at a Gracious Home got a very strange email recently- so strange that I just have to share the whole thing:

Thank you! I have brought the attention of this web blog to my professor who has been looking for a web site like yours. He is currently doing extensive research on babiesÂ’ brain development. He has partnered with Dr. XXXXXXXX in XXXXXXX who has been working with XXXXXXX whoseÂ….mission is to understand how babiesÂ’ brains develop. As his student assistant I have been searching the internet for a site like this to help him with his research in speech and early childhood development at XXXXXX. We have been looking for someone who deliberately does not expose their child to everyday noise and interactive relationships. We are very interested in conducting integrated tests and knowing when your baby babbles and makes noises to resemble speech and word recognition. We are also wondering if you would be willing to keep your baby in a room away from you in everyday conversation as well as be willing to not have any social interaction with your child for one month. We would be willing to give you one-hundred dollars in form or our grant money as a participant in our study. We will be using your web blog in open forum classroom settings for discussion in the near future and would appreciate any additional information you could provide at this time for further study.
Sincerly,
XXXXXXXX, Psy.D.

The original comment was a reply to Sallie's 'A Quiet Life' post

Which reminded me a little bit of our Counter Cultural post. I still remember the evening many years ago when my children were quietly playing, reading, or coloring. Pip had gotten out a jar of antique buttons and was sorting them out on the living floor, arranging them in patterns. I think Jenny was cutting out paper dolls. The lights were dim, the fire in the woodstove was glowing, candles shone in the corners, there was soft music playing, and a houseguest suddenly shook himself, stood up and said, "People just don't live like this. The twentieth century hasn't gotten to your house yet, it's like 1830 around here," and he took himself off to Hardee's to get a newspaper, some intrusively bright lights, blaring music, and a newspaper, because in our house of several thousand books, dozens of tapes and CDs of an educational nature, and collections to browse through (buttons, antique hymnals, rocksea-shellslls, art books), he claimed that his brain was atrophying and that he was 'starving for stimulation.'

I hear that a lot from people who really mean that they need somebody else to do the work for them. It always reminds me of one of my favorite passages in Charlotte Mason's Towards a Philosophy of Education:
What we have reason to deplore is that after some eight or twelve years' brilliant teaching in school, the cinema show and the football field, polo or golf, satisfy the needs of our former pupils to whatever class they belong. We are filled with compassion when we detect the lifeless hand or leg, the artificial nose or jaw, that many a man has brought home as a consequence of the War. But many of our young men and women go about more seriously maimed than these. They are devoid of intellectual interests, history and poetry are without charm for them, the scientific work of the day is only slightly interesting, their 'job' and the social amenities they can secure are all that their life has for them.

The maimed existence in which a man goes on from day to day without either nourishing or using his intellect, is causing anxiety to those interested in education, who know that after religion it is our chief concern, is, indeed, the necessary handmaid of religion.

What with nine people and three large dogs, life is not as quiet around here as it is at Sallie's house, nor is it as quiet as it used to be. Add to that mix of people and animals the fact that several of my children are music lovers (including opera), three play the piano, one is trying to play a guitar and one is taking violin lessons, and things can get pretty hectic. But we still are given to understand that people just don't live like this anymore, which is why, I suppose, somebody thinks that sort of life should be looked at under a microscope, like a bug.

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Postscript: The possibilities are high that the email at Sallie's blog is a hoax or not entirely as represented. It could be somebody's idea of a joke, or it could be that the letter itself is the actual experiment. Studies as suggested, using human people, have to be approved by a governing board and the rules are much more stringent than they used to be in the days of the Milgram Study. The thing is, hoax or not, somebody thought Sallie's description of a quiet and private life was weird enough to write that comment, and that sort of attitude seems to me to stem from the sort of maimed existence Charlotte wrote about a century ago.

The Boy's Snowman

The arms are in a slightly odd place because The Boy said that every time he put them in the right place, the snowman's head would fall off. Not wanting a decapitated snowman on his hands, he decided the best option was to put them a little bit further down than usual.

Delivering Those Taken Away To Death

Apologies in advance for the rough draft state of this post. I've spent a considerable amount of time on it but the more I edit the longer it gets, and the more difficult it is to limit myself in what I want to say. It's long. It's not the most gracefully written prose I have ever produced. It's not tidy, nor is it sharp and concise. So it is what it is. Please look beyond my imperfections to the heart of this issue.

Proverbs 24:10-12

10 If thou faint in the day of adversity,
thy strength is small.


11 If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death,
and those that are ready to be slain;


12 if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not;
doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it?
And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?
And shall not he render to every man according to his works?


NASB:
10 If you are slack in the day of distress,
Your strength is limited.
11 Deliver those who are being taken away to death,
And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.
12 If you say, “See, we did not know this,”
Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?
And does He not know it who keeps your soul?
And will He not render to man according to his work?

ASV
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10 If thou faint in the day of adversity, Thy strength is small.
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11 Deliver them that are carried away unto death, And those that are ready to be slain see that thou hold back.
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12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew not this; Doth not he that weigheth the hearts consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his work?

Bible in Basic English
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10 If you give way in the day of trouble, your strength is small.
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11 Be the saviour of those who are given up to death, and do not keep back help from those who are slipping to destruction.
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12 If you say, See, we had no knowledge of this: does not the tester of hearts give thought to it? and he who keeps your soul, has he no knowledge of it? and will he not give to every man the reward of his work?

World English Bible:
10 If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.
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11 Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
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12 If you say, "Behold, we didn't know this;" doesn't he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn't he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
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When I was young and Roe V. Wade was made the law of this land and it made open season of the lives of the unborn, most people on the pro-abort side argued, "But it's not a human life. It's just tissue."

If it comes to that, so are you. So am I.

And they asked, "Well, who can say when life really begins,' without ever thinking that they thereby acknowledged they really did not know when life begins and they were snuffing it out anyway.

And the prolife crowd insisted that not only was 'it' truly a baby, but that some day the pro-aborts would have to acknowledge that yes, it was a human being and they would then move the lines of the argument and say it does not matter.

And the people said, nay, that will never happen.

And today the pro-aborts acknowledge that yes, it's a human life, and it does not matter, because a woman must control her own body- even though it isn't her body she's destroying, but another separate person with his own circulatory system, blood type, DNA, and uniquely personal details that cannot ever duplicated again in this world.

I said I remember when abortion was legalized. I remember the arguments. I remember the defenses. I remember the dismissals. Other kids brought reports and posters to school and talked about why abortion was wrong. I wasn't one of them. I remember debates in junior high school where I kept silent (by high school I wasn't such a wallflower). I remember letters to the editor- that others wrote. I remember made for t.v. movies promoting legalized abortion that began and ended with emotional propaganda, with a little bit of emotional manipulation to tie start and finish together.

When I was in the tenth grade I went to the library to answer this question for myself. My parents did not talk to us much about current events, and because of critical remarks I had overheard my father make about a pro-life letter to the editor, I mistakenly believed that my father was pro-choice, which surprised me.

I had been told by Planned Parenthood (invited to speak in both of my high schools, to 'indoctrinate' us, as certainly nobody was ever invited to present the opposing point of view) that the content of the pregnant womb was merely a blob of tissue. I took myself to the public library and pulled out all the medical books I could find and studied up on the development of the fetus. That is when I became staunchly and irreversibly pro-life. The years since then have only added more and more evidence to the now undebatable argument that the 'blob of tissue' in the womb is a separate human being and life really does begin at conception.
Later, years later, I developed some religious reasons, but they were not my first or strongest reasons. Among other things that day in the library I learned that before most women even know they are pregnant the baby is demonstrating all the symptoms of dreaming when it sleeps. Isn't it interesting how the pro-aborts turned this argument on its logical head? Wouldn't you think that before that final act of destruction, you would have to first prove that the baby is not a living being, not the other way around? We afford more protection to corpses before cremation than we do to unborn children.

Some pro-aborts like to argue that conception is an arbitrary point, why not protect all eggs and all sperm as well. That argument, frankly, makes a mockery of any claim to be pro-choice rather than pro-abortion. Before conception, as they are well aware, there's only an egg. Leave it alone, and all that will happen is that the egg will be washed out when ovulation occurs. At conception, the tiny being has _all_ the DNA of a complete human being- leave it alone, and in nine months we'll all get to see what it looks like. But what this child looks like, eye color, fingerprints, retina patterns, the shape of his ears, his blood type- all this and more has already been determined at the moment the sperm and egg combined to make a living, growing, organism. The egg is not growing. It is not capable of change and growth on its own. IT will never be anything but an egg. Likewise for the sperm. It has no future, no separate identity of its own, no matter how much we protect and nurture it- it will never be anything but what it is now unless and until is becomes part of that great dance of life when it meets with the egg and becomes one of us, you, me, one of our children- only the fertilized egg is that unique and precious species, a member of the human race.


I remember that one of the arguments the pro-life side kept making was that once we legalized the killing of unborn children in the womb, we'd lose a sense of awe, respect, and sanctity of life. Once we could kill babies in the womb, they said, we'd accept killing them later and later, long past viability.

Nonsense, said the pro-abortion crowd. That won't happen. But the truth is that abortion has been legal for any reason at any time in the pregnancy since Roe V. Wade.

And then we have people like Gianna Jesson, aborted by saline solution in 1977, delivered alive in the abortion clinic 18 hours later. You can read her testimony before the House in 2000 here. Abortion supporters boycotted her. I've heard her speak on a radio program before. At a confrontation between pro-life and pro-abortion picketers, the pro-choicers were yelling things at this young lady like "Too bad it didn't work. You should have been aborted!" Nice.

These children are also abortion survivors. Here's more about them.

How do pro-choicers reconcile the existence of these human beings with the opinion that the foetus is not a human being? In response to situations like this the pro-aborts have turned to other methods of abortion that make it far more unlikely that a child will survive, making it clearer than before that the goal of abortion is not just to 'end the pregnancy,' as waiting nine months and delivering in the usual fashion will do that. The goal is a dead child. It still doesn't always work. There was a child, I believe in New York, born without an arm because of a botched (legal) abortion. These sorts of mishaps, botched procedures performed by careless and callous doctors, happen more often in abortion clinics than in any other medical facility, and they always will, because the pro-abort crowd is so loudly and firmly in favor of death for the unborn that they resist every attempt to regulate these facilities or the people who work there. They have even attempted to make it legal for this surgery, and only this surgery, to be performed by nonphysicians, making a mockery of their claims that abortion is all about safety and women's health. Of course, those who look beyond what the media tells them, already knew that the stories of back alley abortions and high death rates from back alley butchers before doctors could legally perform abortions are largely mythical. The truth is that before abortion was legal it was largely illegally performed by the same doctors who murdered babies under the full protection of the law after 1973.


And so next, said the pro-lifers, it will be acceptable to kill newborn babies outside the womb if they are disabled.

Ridiculous- said the pro-abortion crowd. It will never happen.

But I also remember the Down's Syndrome baby who also was born with a minor and entirely treatable swallowing problem. It's not an uncommon birth defect, and in a 'normal' child, treatment would be automatic. That baby was starved to death because he was retarded, brain damaged, developmentally disabled- defective.
He wasn't the only one.

Then, said the pro-lifers, we will feel so comfortable with these deaths of convenience, that we will start denying treatment to the elderly, and we'll find other ways of killing them.

The pro-death crowd were angry about this. They scoffed and jeered, and insisted that this was the hysterical over-reaction of the religious right.

But now those things all happen, and have happened, and our country continues as though nothing were wrong. Things that were unthinkable 30 years ago are court orders today- perhaps by the same people who insisted, so many years ago, that these things could not ever happen.

The Exodus 21 argument

Why the Quickening argument doesn't work.

Why it's inconsistent for proaborts to get all upset at being shown pictures of aborted 'blobs of tissue.'
They are so sensitive, they don't even want to see lovely, ungruesome, photographs of the development of babies in the womb.

If they really cared about 'women's health,' why are the proaborts so opposed to letting parents know before their children have this, and only this, surgery?

A hard case story, and why life is still the better choice.

Being Pro-life is about more than having a bumper sticker on your car.

And yes, I am well aware that some consider my use of the term 'pro-abort' inflammatory. If there is nothing wrong with abortion, it shouldn't be seen as inflammatory, should it?
I believe that 'pro-choice' is a deceptively ambiguous term used primarily because people who hold that position are uncomfortable with defending it. You see, there are many choices in life, but there is really one choice that the 'pro-choice' side is referring to- the choice to abort. People already had the right to choose NOT to abort (in this country- not so in China), the right to choose NOT to engage in activities leading to conception, the right to choose to place a child for adoption, as the mother of our Cherub did, in fact, they already have (and had) the right to choose many things, even disreputable, deplorable things.

The only 'choice' truly being argued for in the courts by the 'pro-choice' world is and always has been the choice to abort- because all the other choices already were protected by law.
And since I believe that the human child in the womb is just as deserving of legal protection as a human child outside the womb, I cannot really see this as a pro-'choice' issue. Some choices are not legitimate.
Abortion is legal for any reason, in any circumstances, for the entire nine months of a pregnancy. If she wishes, a woman can go into labor with a fullterm baby and have that baby killed before it leaves the birth canal.

I can't bring myself to call the source of that ugly legal reality the result of anything but a 'pro-abort' position. I understand that this is unpleasant and even seems antagonistic- but I hope very much that even if any of our readers disagree with me, they can at least see how this looks from my point of view. From where I stand it's as though those who want a more 'neutral' term are the sort who prefer 'ethnic cleansing' to genocide.

Homemaking Meme

Sallie at A Gracious Home has created a homemaking meme- this has far more scope than the kitchen Meme I did

Aprons – Y/N? If Y, what does your favorite look like?

YES! I love my aprons. I have to have two different places to hang all of them because I have so many (I have six daughters who help in the kitchen, too!).


Baking – Favorite thing to bake
bread


Clothesline – Y/N?
Not yet. We moved in last March and there isn't one up yet. It's not much use through most of the winter months, but I hope to have one in the spring.


Donuts – Have you ever made them?
Yes, repeatedly. Years ago when we had the single and unaccompanied military folk over every weekend I made huge batches of doughnuts every weekend in the fall. They went a long way toward filling up that empty spot in folks who lived on Military cooking. The HG has a delicious recipe for pumpkin doughnuts that she makes for us, too.
here's an easy way to make delicious doughnut holes- cheat. Buy those very cheap biscuits in a can, the kind that are four for a dollar. Cut the biscuits into quarters and roll each one in a ball. Then deep fry them until golden, lift out of the hot oil using a pair of tongs, drop the doughnut holes into a can or a paperbag with cinnamon and sugar, quickly add more rolled balls of dough to the oil, shake the bag a few seconds. Take out (use the tongs, the doughnuts are probably still hot) and set on a plate. Turn your attention to the next batch, which are probably ready to be turned a bit or removed from the oil.


Every day – One homemaking thing you do every day:
Meal planning
I have a lot of helpers, so there are not many things I do every day. But here are some things that one of us does every single day that might not need doing on a daily basis in a family with fewer than seven Progeny and three large black dogs:
Wash and fold a load of laundry
Take out the bathroom trash
Swiff the floors.


Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yes! Somebody gave us a small chest freezer, and we have appreciated it for the last two years, but I really want an upright. A BIG upright.


Garbage Disposal – Y/N?
Yes. But we've gone years without one before. I just have more scraps for the compost (or the hens when we kept hens).


Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
Aunt Sophronia

Ironing – Love it or hate it? Or hate it but love the results?
I hate it. It hurts my back a lot. I mostly don't do it.

Junk drawer – Y/N? Where is it?
Would you believe I have a junk drawer just taken pretty much as is from the Rattery? It was in the top drawer of the buffet we now have in our dining room, and it's been the same for about as long as I remember snooping around in it when I visited my grandparents (forty years or so)- it's a nice long drawer with divided compartments and it holds the same twenty or so pairs of scissors it always has, a collection of antique keys, an ivory backed hand mirror, some cloth napkins, and assorted items put there by people long since gone on beyond. when we brought it over I did clean out the other drawers and cabinets, but I was going to get to this drawer later. I keep meaning to sit down and clean it out, but I've only had it here about six months and just haven't gotten around to it. Because the scissors are all so old, they are a really nice, heavy quality. Likewise the safety pins, thumbtacks (which we've been using) paperclips, and other old oddities in their. I really need to get ride of the blue china cat planter. It's shaped like a small cat, hollow where the tail is so whatever you plant grows out looking like the cat's tail (or worse).


Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme
My kitchen has honey maple cupboards, smooth as silk with no hardware visible. I have a green toned cork floor with a sort of marbled look- it's lovely for the feet and back. Light, crackle green laminate countertop with the laminate going up the wall to the bottom of the upper cupboards. I have a pantry that's only one five gallon bucket deep, but about 14 feet long. Ivory or cream appliances and sink. Several plants on the windows and ledges. I left the doors off of the small cupboard above the stove top and have teapots in there so we can see them. I have a double oven and a separate stovetop. I have a bookshelf full of cookbooks. I have an island in the center. Wall paper boarder of green lattice against ivory background with bright red strawberries. Several decorative items in bright reds and greens. My bookcase was plain pine and I gave it a sort of primitive wash in green. Three sets of windows so lots of light- especially morning sun. One of the windows is in the door to the side yard where I hope to have roses and lilacs this year.
My pantry doesn't have doors yet, but when it does they will be magnetic white board.

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
Teaching the Progeny.
Meal planning.
Decorating.
Reading about it.

Mop – Y/N?
Yes. The only carpeting we have is some on the stairs and a few antique braided rugs (small ones).


Nylons – Wash by hand or in the washing machine?
I do not wear nylons. I wear long skirts with trouser socks instead (so much more comfortable). It's better if I wash them out by hand, but I usually forget to do it.



Oven – Do you use the window or open the oven to check?
Door opener.


Pizza – What do you put on yours?
Chicken, garlic, mushrooms, and peppers


Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Snuggle with somebody
Read
check the internet
take a nap


Recipe card box – Y/N? What does it look like?
Two recipe card boxes. One is just plain yellow (but a bright yellow) and I have had it about twenty years. The other is a metal one with green leaves and strawberries all over it.


Style of house – What style is your house?
Ugly block, pretty blue siding with slate gray roof.


Tablecloths and napkins – Y/N?
Yes. Every day. Cloth preferred.


Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Half and half.


Vacuum – How many times per week?
The stairs get vacuumed about once a week. That's the Boy's job. The floors get swiffed daily, and if we use the vacuum it gets clogged up with dog hair. The Sadie Lady dog is getting very old, sheds copiously, and she's going blind. Sad thoughts.


Wash – How many loads of laundry do you do per week?
I think it's about twenty. I also think it best not to think further about this.


X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off?
Only when we are getting ready for company.


Yard – Y/N? Who does what?
Everybody does something. Pip and Jenny do the mowing with a riding mower. Jenny does the flower gardening with some input from me (I intend us all to be involved with a vegetable garden this year). I pick the plants.


Zzz’s – What is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed?
I guess blogging does not count? Shut down the computers, turn out the lights, check for dishes where they don't belong.

Vintage Domesticities

Here's a glimpse of an apron from my great-grandmother's stash. For those coming in late, my great grandmother died at about the age of 92 somewhere around 1966 or so, and most of her things have just been sitting around since then. This obviously needs ironing, but what the image does not communicate is how much more it needs a very good washing first. It smells fusty, and it's badly stained. I'm going to try a couple different ideas for soaking and washing it later and we'll see how it works.

For those of us who have inherited vintage linens or are disocvering them at thrift shops and yard sales:
This thread about removing stains in older fabrics is invaluable, and who would know better how to go about it than Ebay sellers of vintage linens?!.

This page on laundering from vintage sewing is delightful to read (I like the old fashioned feel). Towards the bottom fo the page you will find mention of an ingredient called oxalic acid. This is the main ingredient of Zud scouring powder. You can find more here. We get ours at the local dollar store. I think you can also find it in auto parts stores. It's toxic, so be careful.

Here's an idea of how to decorate with them. (UPdated Note; Link corrected now).

Granny Tea had a friend build her a rack for hanging them. It looks sort of like the side of an old fashioned wooden crib turned so the short end is on the floor and the tall end is towards the ceiling. It leans against the wall and is attached to the wall at the top.

I looked at that and kicked myself six ways from Sunday for throwing away the old maple crib that had been mine when I was a baby (I try to declutter, I really do, but I am so bad at it that I nearly always regret keeping what I've kept and getting rid of what I got rid of). I could have used the side of the crib for the same thing.

You could also use a ladder or the old bed rails for a bunk bed.

It doesn't really lean over. Pipsqueak took the picture, and I guess she leans.

Another thing to do with some vintage linens is make a pretty window treatment. Mrs. Wilt used some handkerchieves for a sweet valance in a special spot.


To the right is one of my favorite recent discoveries, but I can't think what to do with it. It's a cloth table cover with ties on the four corners to tie it down around a card table or small wood table for a ladies luncheon.

My problem is I don't really have a table that small and with nine of us, I never have a use for one that size. I don't expect to need a cloth cover for a table this small for at least another ten or fifteen years, should the Lord tarry and preserve us. But I love these bright cheery colors and the design.

It's too small for a curtain on any of our windows, too. It's about 30 inches square. It feels like one of the synthetic fabrics new in the forties and fifties.

It might make a pretty valance, though, as pictured here.

What would you do?

LInks and Thinks

I share the links, you tell me what you think.=)

Giving the Declaration the weight it deserves would prevent some erronious thinking.
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Education- what is it?

---------------
Who said this:

"I believe in the culture war," she said. "And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war I'll take their side," meaning the Christian conservatives. "Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I'll take Jesus."


And what is the proper way for me to have punctuated that sentence/question?

------------------------

Story-

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cultcha, or 'Now Why Didn't I Think of That?'


-------------
In the Octopus' Garden...

It's very, very cool.
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what your kids can learn from a see-saw-

I guess we're a really risky family, because we just let the kids put a board over a tree trunk or a trash can flipped on its side. Sure, they sometimes get a splinter or some bumps and bruises, but they have a rollicking good time.

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Little girls and the culture that exploits them (great blog, great food for thought, but the topic is probably one best left to our older readers).

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Buttons, Buttons, who's got the buttons?

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I have confessed before that I do like to read Grace Livingstone Hill books sometimes. It is a confession because I also think they are twaddly. I keep reading them anyway. I especially like them when I've been sick, stressed, and just don't want to think very hard about anything. They are such cozy, comfortable (easy) reads.
What I have never before shared with anybody anywhere at any time is that some 20 odd years ago I went through my GLH books and made a list of all the meals ever mentioned and then tried to recreate them at home over a period of time (I did it, too, though it took me a while in those pre-internet days, to discover what a Brown Betty was).
If I am a little quaint and very quirky, I guess I am not the only one. And, look! Apple Brown Betty!!!

(Some of the links came from a post over at Sallie's Gracious Home)

Older than....

The FYB had been sledding at Granny Tea's, and he and his sister called to see if they could go to the creek with Granny Tea. The creek flooded its banks this week, washing away a friend's canoe, and we weren't sure how it was today, but since Granny Tea was going, the HM said yes. Actually, what he said was:

Sure, as long as you have adult supervision.

So the boy sighed sadly and said, "I guess we can't go then, because Granny Tea was the one who was going to take us."

"Aren't I an adult?" she asked.

"No," he said, as though this should be obvious. "You're older than an adult."

Later the HG asked what this meant, was it a new stage known as 'Post-Adult?' I said no, it was the same stage we'd always known about.

Second childhood.

We are a smart alec family. And the youngest two had a grand time at the creek with their Granny Tea.

Sunday Hymn Post

Show Pity, Lord
Words by: Isaac Watts, Music: Old Southern Melody
mp3 file here
Source here (great resource)

Show pity, Lord, O Lord, forgive,
Let a repenting rebel live:
Are not Thy mercies large and free?
May not a sinner trust in Thee?

My crimes are great, but not surpass
The power and glory of Thy grace:
Great God, Thy nature hath no bound,
So let Thy pard’ning love be found.

Should sudden vengeance seize my breath,
I must pronounce Thee just in death;
And if my soul were sent to hell,
Thy righteous law approves it well.

Yet save a trembling sinner, Lord,
Whose hope, still hov’ring round Thy Word,
Would light on some sweet promise there,
Some sure support against despair.

O Depth of mercy! can it be
That mercy’s still reserved for me?
Ah, can my God His wrath forbear,
And me the chief of sinners spare?

In Which Dogs are not Born Bilingual

A Hispanic woman entered the shelter the other day and offered a note as an explanation for the dog's surrender, as she clearly spoke not a word of the English.
She gave The Equuschick the dog's name, but The Equuschick unfortunately did not how to spell it.
The Boss demanded to know why they couldn't have given the English version of the dog's name, and The Equuschick had to explain patiently that dog the would not answer to the English version of his name, as dogs are not born understanding English anymore than humans are born with the sounds and syllables of the English tongue spilling from their lips as they leave the womb.

It is rather a pet peeve of The Equuschick's, actually. She does not speak Spanish herself, and she does see truth in the philosophy that those who immigrate to America should attempt to learn the language of the land. But one should not assume that simply because WE speak it, it is at all easy to learn and that it is the superior and natural tongue of the human race, and that infants and animals naturally understand it at as such.

Week 2 of the semester is over.

My Intro Jewish Studies class has been a real challenge, spiritually speaking. The instructor has bluntly said several things I strongly disagree with and knowing how to handle each comment has been troublesome.
Last class session he said that Jews appreciated the world around them and believed in ennobling the mundane and recognizing the blessings God has given us in normal things. For me, that sounded like the view of Christianity found in the Bible. Not so for the Prof. According to him, we view the world as a necessarily dismal and unholy place. So I spoke up then, saying that I disagreed. Christianity recognizes God's goodness, and the fact that His creation (the world!) is beautiful and we are thankful for every gift He has given us. These gifts include the mundane. I said that perhaps this idea may have been distorted by man's traditions, but that if you go back to early Christianity the ideal is essentially the same as that found in Judaism. He told me that he was quoting Augustine's ideas, and that was pretty far back in Christianity. Uh, but not far back enough, sir. While respecting many of Augustine's ideas, it's also quite obvious that he wrote centuries after the church and early Christianity were established.
He also said that the idea of original sin was involved in all Christianity. Again, not so. Even those who believe in original sin also know that not all believers hold this view and it's not just to apply it all the way across the board like that. The Professor acted as if it was a commonality across all Christianity (it's not in Judaism) when the reality is that there is no such uniform belief in original sin to be found in the universal Christian tradition.

I'm taking this class with a fellow Christian, and that has made everything much easier. Having an ally is wonderful. :)

Last semester I felt rather timid about a lot of things, and I'm still nervous, but I get to the point where I have to speak out and that's pretty much where I've been this week. I argued with the Jewish studies Prof about how Christians view the world, and then I accidentally butted heads with my British history Prof. Or, rather, I didn't do it accidentally but I didn't want to do it, if that makes sense. He likes to visit with all of his students individually through out the semester, so I visited his office yesterday. I determined to try and stay on neutral tracks (which should be simple if he's a history professor and I'm a history major, there are centuries of things we could discuss without controversy!) but that's not what happened. He found out I was a history major and asked if I liked to read. We talked about books, and my family's library of 6000 volumes, and how I loved to study, et cetera. Then at point in the conversation I mentioned being homeschooled. He abruptly asked if my mother was a teacher. Uhm, by his definition, no. By mine (and I think it's a better one), yes. I just said no, though. So then he asked about her educational background. Dude, I've just given you tons of evidence that I am capable of functioning in an educational environment, I'm taking your junior level class at a somewhat rigorous university, and you want to drill me on my mother's educational background? I almost wish I hadn't said anything about it.
And then he annoyed me even more by continuing to drag Iraq into the conversation. He should have been able to find something more original and less volatile for getting to know one of his students.
At one point in the conversation (mini-lecture) he paused and said, "Now, you do have an open mind, don't you? You do consider all sides of an issue, don't you?"
I wanted very badly to say, "Nope, my mind has been sealed shut! It's a hopeless business to get me to think new thoughts."
Instead I just said, "Yes, or I wouldn't be here at college."

Tofu Chocolate Dessert

Tofu Chocolate 'Pudding'
Admittedly, this will taste best to those who have been a long time without the real stuff.

Mix in your blender:
1 1/2 pounds of tofu. We used White Waves firm because we sweetened it with syrup instead of sugar.
1/2 cup of cooking oil (we used corn today, but have used safflower)
3/4 cup of Atkins sugar free raspberry syrup (the kind they intend for coffee. Vanilla also works, as do other flavors)
2/3 cup dutch process cocoa for extra chocolate
salt- Pipsqueak shook the shaker exactly 13 times)
2 teaspoons of vanilla
6 Tablespoons of real maple syrup (optional- you could use Splenda instead if that's what you're used to)

Chill two or three hours before serving. Eat with a spoon.

Savory Vegetable Pie

Ingredients
2 1/4 tablespoons fat (coconut oil, olive oil, bacon grease, whatever you have on hand)
1 1/2 cups onion -- thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups celery -- thinly sliced
2 pints cooked vegetables
1/2 cup flour
1 1/8 teaspoons salt
dash pepper


1/4 cup melted fat
1 1/4 quarts milk or liquid from cooked vegetables
2 1/4 teaspoons vinegar
2 1/4 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
6 whole eggs, hard-boiled -- sliced
batch biscuit dough

Melt 2 1/4 tablespoons fat in skillet. Add raw veggies (celery, onions) and cook for 10 minutes, or until glistening. Add cooked veggies.
Stir until well combined and heated through. Set aside.
Melt 1/4 cup fat in large saucepan. Combine flour, salt and pepper. Add to melted fat in saucepan and blend. Add liquid gradually and cook gently until thickened, stirring constantly. Return cooked vegetables to sauce, add vinegar and worcestershire sauce. Turn half of mixture into shallow baking dish ( either a 9X13 or use several pie pans if necessary). Cover with a layer of thinly sliced hardboiled eggs (if you do not have egg, use some other protein source. Lima beans;
cooked beef; a bit of cheese; white beans...) Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top
with remaining vegetable mixture.
Mix up a batch of biscuit dough- add some seasonings to it, garlic, chives, sage, basil-. Drop biscuits onto mixture. Bake in hot oven 25 minutes or until biscuits are done.

More REtro Cookery

Left: back cover

Right: front cover

Title: The Calumet Book of Oven Triumphs!

Date: 1934

Click on picture to enlarge. I chose this one because I liked the directions for covering a pan of cake batter in the days before tin foil and saran wrap and tupperware. You first cover the pan with a damp cloth, then with waxed paper, and you tie this over it the pan securely. To bake, unwrap and bake as usual.

I can't help but think of all the nasty, battery wet cloths I'd have before I was done, but maybe some of you are more coordinated. It might be something to think about to save on foil and plastic wrap.

I chose this spread because I especially liked the recipes for lemon tea biscuits and cheese biscuits. Click on the picture to enlarge and then you should be able to read them clearly. Most of the recipes in this booklet look practical and still suited to more modern tastebuds (unlike the meat jello, prune whips, and similar recipes in some of the other cookbooks).

Links and Thinks

Today is Robert E. Lee's Birthday:

Robert E. Lee has been lauded by different groups for the same reasons; Lee has the qualities of: devotion, humility, self-sacrifice, reserve, gentlemanliness, Christian character, acceptance of defeat, moderation . . . His status as an icon has developed over time in three major groups-Virginians, Southerners, and Americans.

In an emerging industrial culture that seemed to many people to be cold, foreign, and valueless, the image of Robert E. Lee and his antebellum Virginia looked more and more appealing all the time. He was a man representing the "finer life" in a time and place where men were strong and honorable, women were dutiful and pure, and the world was predictable and secure. If Lee represented a more stable and genteel world, he also represented a world that was cruel to blacks, rigidly hierarchical, militaristic, and male-dominated. But Lee was attractive because he put an honorable face on that world. Those who did the most to honor Lee were those who had the most to be nostalgic about as the united States raced down the road to industrialization: upper middle class and upper class white Anglo-Saxons.

Lee did posses traits which are indisputably admirable. By all accounts, he was an honorable man, a loyal husband, and a loving father. He served his country and later his native state the way he knew best-in war. By all accounts he was one of the best practitioners of war that the world has ever seen. Robert E. Lee's statue in the Capitol stands for all of these things, but it also stands for the peculiarly American process by which a mortal enemy can become a patriot.

From this website where you will find Robert E. Lee links to essays, poems, stories, history, and more. It's a great homeschooling resource.

Just so you know, regarding the reading challenge I picked up here, and which got its start here (you will note if you read that link, and you should because it's really, really, really, and I mean, really, good, that I did exactly what he warns you not to do), I have read Psalms through twice, and I hope to get through it at least once more this month. I mention that here for my accountability.

Frugal Fridays is up at Biblical Womanhood. Do pay them a visit.


This essay on 'The Ethics of Entitlement' is must reading, really it is:

Entitlement programs—government taking income and wealth from some citizens and transferring it to others—are a fairly recent development. The U.S. government assumed the task only two generations ago when Congress introduced progressive taxation and, soon thereafter, launched systems of old age insurance and unemployment compensation. Since then, social pressure, sustained by strong moral emotion, has caused all administrations to pursue the ideals of a more equal distribution of wealth....
[foes of redistribution] are unalterably opposed to political intervention because it springs from politics, builds on verdicts and interpretations of judges, and depends on brute enforcement by police. It runs counter to the inexorable laws of human action and, therefore, brings forth the very opposite of what it sets out to achieve. It hampers economic production, discourages individual effort, stifles economic progress, and creates social and economic classes whose self-interests are irreconcilable. Government intervention on behalf of one social class against another not only is illogical and ineffective, but also highly immoral. It defies the eighth Commandment—Thou shalt not steal—and violates the tenth—Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy neighbor’s. It is bound to bring poverty, frustration, quarrel, and strife.

The advocates of redistribution remain undaunted by such rejoinders. They reinterpret and reject the evidence and cling to doctrines and theories of their own. They raise the question of goodness and desirability of redistribution for the benefit of the greatest number. Searching for fairness and brotherly love, they pursue two distinct ideals: the removal of human want and suffering through the use of economic surplus, and the abolition of the great inequality of means among the several members of society.

The difference between Good Samaritans and redistributionists:

A helper and benefactor to the unfortunate and poor, the Good Samaritan binds the wounds, nurses the sick, and helps them get back on their feet. He does not call for government programs that make poverty a permanent social institution playing a central role in politics. He does not depend on progressive income taxation, nor on poverty administrators consuming the lion’s share of the poverty budget, or poverty politicians enacting minimum wage laws, occupational licensing, and union power and privilege. To be a helper in need is to lend a friendly hand to a needy person; it is personal effort and sacrifice.

Redistributionists make certain claims for themselves about justice and compassion, but:

It is a popular habit of speech to call “just” that which people desire and “unjust” that which they disapprove. ...The forces of equalization do not spring from justice, but from two absolute disapprovals by public opinion makers: the unrightness of hunger and want, and the unrightness of luxury....

Redistributionists favor a bureaucratic monstor, and mistakenly think this shows their compassion:

In every case redistribution leads to an expansion of the powers of government and of the individuals who run the government-politicians and officials. Redistribution requires an apparatus of redistribution, which extends the scope of government; the consequences of redistribution in turn necessitate repair efforts that call for more government, making politicians and government officials the primary beneficiaries of redistribution.

Pure redistribution would require a simple negative income tax that hands lower-income people that which is taken from higher-income people. But this is not the redistribution that is practiced. Politicians and officials act as trustees of the “underprivileged,” assigning the burdens and doling out the benefits.

Redistributionists are often strangely wall-eyed about whose wealth they would choose to redistribute. Most of them fall squarely in the middle classes or above, yet they rarely criticize redistribution icons (Barbara Streisand, Michael Moore, George Clooney) for failing to give all their money to the poor and living modestly:

The conflict society does not spring from the desire to improve the economic and social stan dards of its poorer members. It is the bitter fruit of egalitarian ideals that call for equalization of incomes through the agency of the redistributing state. But these ideals do not necessarily reject and condemn all economic inequality; they find fault only with the income and wealth of entrepreneurs and capitalists. Egalitarianism does not necessarily flow from envy and covetousness, but rests precariously on economic error that perceives capitalist income as exploitative.
...most Americans do not covet the million-dollar incomes of their favorite artists, entertainers, singers, and athletes. They love and cherish their favorite film stars, crooners, and quarterbacks and expect them to make a gallant spectacle of their success.

The same people who so readily accept the entertainer’s accomplishment and the politician’s position in the body politic, may resent the capitalist’s income for being “unearned” and “unjust.” They may be resentful of the fortunes earned by the manufacturer of men’s shoes or ladies’ stockings, of toothpaste or mouthwash. In their eyes, such fortunes are dirty lucre withheld from workers and gouged from consumers. They cling to popular notions that give rise to the doctrines of egalitarianism and to policies of redistribution.

And yet they buy those things.

And just when I have told myself I am just not going to get another book this year until I have read those on my list, no, not even from the library, I won't, Meredith comes along and mentions one that sounds very tempting.

And so does Krakokvianka. Of course, she has another post tempting weak women. I did so badly the first time I played that I left covered in humiliation and now I only play under a pseudonym, and not even this pseudonymn. What's really fun is when the FYG and the HG join with me and we play as a team. Then I can justify it as playing games with my children, bonding time, you know. The FYG is pretty good for a ten year old. The HG is brilliant. I mainly just type what the tell me. Pip won't play with us unless we whine real hard. She thinks we're too competitive. Jenny hates word games and so does the HM. Equuschick is pretty good, too, but she gets frustrated with me typing while she's trying to guess.

Frugal Family Fun Ideas

Frugal Family Fun
"It is by small economies and cares... that large economy is attained. One does not, in a household, make some great fifty, or a hundred, or two hundred dollars saving, but it is the little saving of five, ten and twenty-five cent pieces, of half dollars and dollars, which in the year mounts up to a goodly sum total, and these savings represent not meanness, but care." "~Aunt Sophronia"

Some time back a career woman was explaining to me that she needed to work- not to support her family, but to provide experiences of 'important cultural value,' such as eating out at nice restaurants and going to museums, taking family vacations. I was given to understand that since we did often go out to eat then, we just could not really have anything like the level of culture that she and her family did. Maybe not, maybe not. I can think of worse things.

At any rate, it occurs to me that for centuries nobody went out to eat in the way we think of it because for centuries the restaurant as we know it simply didn't exist, and yet there were people with more culture in their aristocratic pinky fingers than my acquaintance who looked down her nose at those who ate at home. And while it is certainly delightful and fun to eat out, and certainly there is nothing wrong with it (providing you actually CAN afford it, and I remind you that if you can ONLY afford to go out to eat on payday, then you really cannot afford to go out to eat at all), there's nothing wrong with NOT going out to eat at a restaurant either, so we needn't feel sad or guilty about it if it's not in the family budget (and actually, anything you can ONLY afford to do on payday is something you really cannot afford to do at all).

Below you will find some ideas for family fun tried and tested ourselves or by somebody we know. Some of them will add that culture thing to your family time. Some of them are just plain fun. We do NOT do all of these things every single month- or even every single year. They are things we either HAVE done at one time or another- some of them I'd forgotten about and want to do again- or they are things I know friends of ours have done.

Instead of eating out, fix a fancy dinner at home. Set the table with the best dishes and candles. Have everybody dress up and pretend to be eating out, practicing table and restaurant manners.

Invite people over often. Make sure to include interesting, fun people; eccentric, odd people; tourists, immigrants, and unusual people. Include old people with stories to tell and young people with dreams to share. Include missionaries, former and current. Include your minister and the elders of your church. Ask for stories of faith, stories of when God blessed them, and stories of dark days. Let them do the talking, and prompt them with questions. Show them you are interested. Do a lot of listening. And serve good coffee.

Art museums often have free days. Check out the one nearest you. We’ve often taken advantage of this, even when the museum was an hour or two away. We packed a nice picnic lunch and ate at a park when the weather was nice, in the car on the way home if the weather was ugly.* Always keep your eyes open for free or inexpensive attractions.

We buy a year's family pass to a different attraction each year. It may be the
zoo, the children's museum, the children's theater, or the symphony. We can't
afford to do them all at once, and with a family our size the cost of a yearly
pass is seldom more than it would cost us to get in once, so we choose one each year and immerse ourselves in that one, attending at least a dozen times a year. When the five oldest were smaller, we would have all family birthday parties at that year's family pass location.

Study another country/culture in your homeschool once a year, learning the
customs, meals, holidays, and so on, and incorporating something of your studies into your daily live- meals, dress, a particular custom or phrase.

Study art and artists using old art calendars. Hang up works by a particular
artist each month, discussing the paintings and the artists.

Take advantage of NPR and other radio stations. Listen to classical music all the time, studying the lives of composers at the same time.

Call local colleges and ask if there are any international students who would like a home-cooked meal with an American family.

Volunteer at the nursing home. We have met natives of several different European countries in a small Midwestern nursing home (I won't embarrass myself by trying to spell them, they are countries that seem to have lost all their vowels).

Read, read, read. Spend lots of time at the local library. Once we lived in a home that was not was not very near to any library. Paying the extra fee for a library card was my birthday present from my husband one year, and I loved it.

Every once in a while the older children and I get out the Shakespeare and read it aloud together, each taking a few parts.

My husband chooses a different classic to read aloud to the kidlets at bedtime. He’s done Pilgrim’s Progress, Farmer Boy, Bread and Butter Indian, some of the Childhood of Famous American books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Princess and the Goblin, and many, many more.

Vacations? As a military family every time we moved we tried to make part
of the move include visiting an interesting spot. We did stay in two locations
for five years each so we took lots of short jaunts to places of local historical or
environmental interest. We prefer camping to staying in motels (family size,
again. With a family this large most hotels want us to pay for two rooms.

Have poetry recitations at home.

Plant a garden, perhaps an historical herb garden.

Collect sea shells, stones, or pressed flowers- be pretentious and label them with their Latin names.

Many libraries in larger cities like Chicago and Boston hold passes to museums and
other educational attractions and sign them out to local residents. I've never lived in a city that did this, but others have told me it's available where they live.

If you live near a college, look into their music and drama productions. Sometimes tickets are very inexpensive. Sometimes you can attend rehearsals for free.

Host a hymn singing.

Learn origami together.

Pull up midi files on the computer and sing around the computer.

Tell stories to each other.

Look for board games and card games at yard sales and learn to play them as a family. You can adapt almost any game to include all ages. Play in teams, let small children be in charge of moving pieces, rolling the dice, or putting down the cards you pick. Friends of ours play Apples to Apples with a nonreader in the family. He just throws out any card he feels like. Everybody knows which card is his when it's the only one unclaimed. They say often he wins because his random choice is just as fun as the ones the readers have picked.

Frost cookies together, have a contest to see which is best.

Bake bread together- and bake the bread dough into interesting shapes (for years we never had play dough, I just made extra bread dough and let the kids mess around with a bit of bread dough each week). Then we baked their shapes and they ate them).

Turn out the lights, get out a flashlight and practice hand shadows.

Read, read, read. Discuss what you read together. And then read some more.

Sometimes a small town will have a volunteer band or orchestra- see if yours does and find out about free performances.

Get on GoogleEarth and so some virtual exploring.



Revised and slightly adapted from an older post.

Tip for Reading Long Passages

TAke a look at this repository of lovely etexts.

Pick an etext- say, Psalms, supposing you're the kind of idiot who decides to read Psalms through twenty times before July (and you are secretly hoping in your heart of hearts, that dark chamber that is deceitful above all things, that you will actually get through it twenty times by March or something).

Pick a long chapter that is looking like the mountain you cannot climb tonight. Copy it and paste it to your word document and then make the text an easy to read and very large format (perhaps Comic Sans, 22).
Change the font color to something like teal because you once knew a teacher for the visually impaired who told you that greens and grays were more restful on the eyes. If you can change the background of your word document to gray do so.
Start reading:

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law...
My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word....
I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself. ...
It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. ...
Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant....
Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD, and teach me thy judgments....
Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word. ...
Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope....
Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. ...
Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. ....
Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet thy commandments are my delights....
Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word. ....
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them....

And abruptly find yourself at the end of the chapter:

176: I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.

In fact, you find yourself there so quickly that you are all astonishment and you get your actual hard-copy Bible to check and make sure there really just 176 verses in Psalms chapter 119. Being still unsure that you really could have read all of them so quickly, you start at the beginning of your computer screen and read through it again, making sure no verse numbers get skipped, timing yourself this time.

Ten. Minutes.

Note that your silly self spent more time dreading trying to get through Psalms 119 before bed tonight than your silly self actually spent reading it (twice). Hope that silly self will learn something from this, but suspect self won't.

Read through passage again just for good measure (and decide to make a blog post out of the experience- thirty minutes).

The Arrow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth,
I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.
I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth,
I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?
Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

That's by Longfellow.

The boy got a fifty cent little bow with a set of suction cup tipped arrows for Christmas, the more fool I. It's one of his favorite toys, and most of the hugs I get from him these days are made awkward by the constant presence of that bow around his shoulders.
The stairs up to the Common Room have no ceiling other than the one above the entire Common Room. The boy enjoys standing on the other side of the wall and dropping his little parachuted soldiers down on the stairs below. He has of late enjoyed another pasttime as well, and in honor of the time he has spent in solitary confinement to consider his sins I offer the following:

I shot an arrow into the air
It fell to earth
above the stair
It flew swiftly
and out of sight,
Tis true,
But it landed almost 'zactly
Where I wanted it to.

I whooped and hollered into the air
My mother held her head and pleaded
"Have a care!"
My sister, coming unaware
on yon side of the wall and up the stair
was startled by the fall of my arrow in her hair.
And so I gave my SUCCESS! whoop.
But I wish it had fallen
In her soup.

TBR challenge, 2007

-----I've seen this hither and thither, but Palm Tree Pundit is where I suddenly decided to take the plunge.
Here's the challenge:

** Pick 12 books - one for each month of 2007 - that you've been wanting to read (have been on your "To Be Read" list) for 6 months or longer, but haven't
gotten around to.
** Then, starting January 1, 2007, read one of these books from your list each month, ending December 31, 2007. :o)

And here are my books:
X-January: Thalassa Cruso's Making Vegetables Grow Completed January 30th, reviewed here.

X-February: Ruth Stout's No Work Garden Completed February 13, reviewed here and here.

X-March: First Person Rural COMPLETED in February. Reviewed here.

X-April: John Lord's Beacon Lights of History Volume three: COMPLETED March 09. Excerpts discussed here, here, and here.

X-May: The Castle on the Hill, Elizabeth Goudge : COMPLETED March, um, I don't know. A couple days after Beacon Lights. My eldest read this and reviewed it in September. My review to come later. It turns out that this was a reread. I didn't remember having read it before until several pages into it. Fortunately, I also completed one of my alternates.

June: John Lord's Beacon Lights of History Volume Four Still slogging away at this one as of August 1.=(

X-July: The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus Completed July 31, 2007

August: These Were the Romans, by Tingay COMPLETED on time, just. August 30th.

September: Volume 8 of the Harvard Classics (Agamemnon, The Libation-Bearers, The Furies & Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus; Oedipus the King & Antigone of Sophocles; Hippolytus & The Bacchæ; of Euripides; The Frogs of Aristophanes )

October: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

November: All of God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes

December: The Boys' Froissart

Of course, being the kind of person I am, I went through the house and gathered to gether a stack of books, thinking to put them all in one place and figure it out later- these are the books I also want to read this year, but I probably won't:
Ford Madox Ford's The March of Literature
Marrou's A History of Education in Antiquity
Finally finish Moby Dick
Civilisation by Kenneth Clark
Dorothy Sayers The Mind of the Maker
Teach Them Diligently by Priolo
Fruits and Berries for the Home Garden by Lewis Hill
The Road to Serfdom by Hayek (finish it- I started it, and got distracted at some point and it was put away and I only just discovered it again with my bookmark still in it).
Soap Bubbles by C. V. Boys
Living at Nature's Pace by Gene Logsdon
Science and Human Values by J. Bronowski (another one I started and never finished. think I was in the middle of reading this one when we moved). COMPLETED, um, sometime in May? I blogged about this one extensively, looking through the Commplace Book Entries category should bring those all up.
On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
As I Was Saying, A Chesterton Reader
Step by Step Organic Vegetable Gardening by Shepherd Ogden
Start with the Soil by Grace Gershuny
Home Comfort, Life On Total Loss Farm Completed May, 2007
Success with Small Food Gardens by Louise Riotte
Aristotle for Everybody by Mortimer J. Adler
and, ironically, So Many Books, So Little Time, A Year of Passionate REading by Sara Nelson.=) -COMPLETED this in March. I blogged about it here.


Do I realize how ridiculous this sounds? Oh, yes, I do. Will I get through all these? Oh, no, I probably won't. I will probably finish 36 mysteries intead. Like chocolates.

I'm already working through:
The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent, by John Erskine
the third of the first three Thursday Next Books Completed sometime in February

Bible Reading Goals (for myself- I am also reading aloud to the youngeset two and hope to get them through the New Testament this year):
Read Psalms 20 times by July (Completed: 3;5;8;1116)- I am behind on this, but as of July 31 had read through Psalms 16 times.
Read Jeremiah 20 times by December

(if I finish the Bible reading ahead of schedule, I will start on Isaiah, my favorite Old Testament book, so that should be easy. I am working my way down from the longest to the shortest of the books.)

A Word to the Wise- some of the above books are worthy books that everybody should read. Some of them are just the books I had on hand for a particular topic. There may be a better one on your own shelf. Amazon links are provided as an easy, one stop reference (easy for me). I do appreciate those shekels when they come our way and we can put them to good use- but so can you.=)

I ALWAYS bite off more than I can chew. Always. I see no room in this 'plan' of mine to do anything but read and come up for air periodically to wave at the children, who would probably forget who I am.

Posts like this should not leave you discouraged and feeling like you do not measure up. They should leave you doubled over in laughter at my folly.

Zeus

It takes a lot of work to support a head so full of brain as the Zeus-dog's is, so sometimes he needs a little assistance. The Boy is always eager to help out. :-)

The Death Penalty

I am quite comfortable with the theory of capital punishment for certain crimes (murder, for instance), but a bit more squeamish in practice.

There are a handful of arguments against the death penalty that are intellectually honest, respectable, and made in sincerity.

This is not one of them.

HIgh School

Dymphna wants to know if you liked it or not, and if you did, why you think that is so?

I went to two high schools. I had some fun part of the time, but it wasn't the sort of fun I could recommend to anybody I cared about, and there were many flies in that ointment. I never felt like high school was the best that life had to offer. Good thing, too, because when we moved my senior year and I had to start a new school in a new state, I spent an entire year without making a single friend at school.

So much of school just seemed so pointless and silly- and constricting just for the sake of being constricting. In my first high school I had enough credits to graduate midterm, but the second high school wouldn't accept most of them. In one case I had taken a required course called Civics and Free Enterprise. IN the second high school the same course was called Government and Economics. The two courses even used the exact same books- but I was required to take it all over again anyway. Nothing could have more thoroughly made the point to me that high school was not truly about education, but about control- and government dollars.

But of course, that point was already made when I learned that while I had fulfilled all the requirements to graduate, I didn't have enough electives to buy my freedom. And the electives could be totally do-nothing classes. I could (and did) help out in the class for special ed kids through two class periods in the same semester. I do think that was a learning experience- but it was also a way to cut back on paid aids, and I am thinking two class periods was a bit redundant. I could take Shakespeare, which looked good on my transcript, but which was taught by the wrestling coach and all we did was sit in a circle and drone through the plays, with most students reading aloud in an excutiatingly painful monotone. That class ended when the coach ran off with one of the cheerleaders. Nobody cared much what electives I took, just so long as I took some, and without them, there was to be no diploma. In one high school a common elective was a class on the history of our local high school. The first essay assigned in an Honors English class I took was 'What I Did On My Summer Vacation.' In November we wrote on "What Thanksgiving Means To Me." The class where I felt like my teachers were engaged and expected us to learn something worthwhile (rather than be warehoused or indoctrinated) were rare indeed (Thank-you, Mr. Schmidt).

There was a lot about high school that just didn't make sense to me. The pieces began to rearrange themselves into a more understandable pattern when I read books like Child Abuse in the Classroom, What Are They Teaching Our Children, Change Agents in the Schools, and Samuel Blumenfeld's books.

High school isn't really a pleasant place for iconoclasts and nonconformists- although it is a good place for conformists to pretend they aren't.

Private Property

We were discussing private property, and the goal was to move on to good stewardship, gratitude for blessings, responsibility, etc. But we began with Mom asking the youngest two lot if they had any private property and what that might be. Here are some of the things they listed:

clothes

beds

my fish

legos

books

toys

doll house

room

alarm clock

toy cars

tea-sets

stuffed animals

OH! And I know one private property that's really important:

My Mommy.

And yes, I think he was looking at some brownie points there, but this is actually how children view us- as theirs. That's because we are.=)

Vintage Cookery, Budget Meals

Click on the picture to enlarge.
This recipe sheet seems to be more used than the others. I wondered which, if any, of the recipes my great grandmother tried. The Chili Con Carne is similar to the chili we used to have for dinner the year Granny Tea went back to school and got her Master's (otherwise known as The Year of the Fish Sticks).
Casserole of Noodles with Vienna Sausage looks like a fair dish for luncheon sometime.

A Lovely Gift

I know people are more interested in unique and frugal gift ideas just before Christmas rather than just after, but I just have to share a lovely idea that Pip got for Christmas from her friend Merry.

Merry sent Pip the first three Thursday Next books (picked up at library booksales,) with white out over all the profanity. It must have taken up at least two bottles of white out, but in between that profanity there's actually a delightfully offbeat, weird, quirky, tongue in cheek, deliciously, bookish tale.

The book remains about a PG or PG-13, but I am really enjoying Pip's present. Now that the air is clear of all that disorienting blue smoke, I am finding many little jokes and gags in here I had missed before, and I am finding that others are really aimed in a different direction that I had first realized. The church of the Global Standard Deity is funny.

People Like Her

We had taken a ferry, my family and I, for the first or second time in my adult life. Some of the passengers were regular commuters, in a hurry to get from one place to another, and some of them were tourists, taking their time.

With the Cherub, you can never be in a hurry. She has cerebral palsy (mild) and wears a sort of brace on one leg. She walks in a slow, rolling gait, something like a drunken sailor (unless she's trying to grab something to eat before you can stop her). Her depth perception isn't the greatest (getting her eyes checked is a process of by guess, by golly, and a smidgeon of luck), so she takes stairs slowly. She's also constantly distracted by anything going on around her.

Trying to get ahead of the crowd, the Cherub and I started down the stairs towards our van a couple minutes before the ferry actually docked, but we didn't time it well enough. We were only halfway down when we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of a swarming crowd of impatient commuters. People are distracting to the Cherub, so she slowed down even more. Embarrassed, I hugged the rail, my arms around the Cherub (she's also unsteady on her feet) apologizing and explaining over and over, "I'm sorry. We can't go any faster. Please go around us. I'm sorry. We're kind of slow. Please go around..."
People weren't rude, please understand, just in a hurry, and the Cherub's disabilities are not always obvious at first glance.

As we finally reached the bottom a middle aged businessman paused near me and said evenly, "They have elevators," and he pointed towards them. I hadn't seen them (and I learned later not all the ferries had them). I thanked him profusely, and he cut off my thanks with a curt, "They're there for people like Her." And he walked off.

I've never been sure if he meant to be rude or if he was just in a hurry.

If it's true that the elevators are there for people like my Cherub, if some people have their way, one day they won't be necessary. Amanda Witt links to a very moving post by another parent of 'people like her.'

Medications and Breastfeeding

Our single Mom friend is here again with her two sweet little ones for a couple days. She goes in for outpatient surgery tomorrow and we're keeping the little ones and then she's spending the night again so she doesn't have to go straight back to single parenthood the same day she has surgery.

She's nursing her newborn and had some questions about the medications she'll be taking. IN typical overkill fashion, somebody connected with the doctor's office or the hospital told her she'd have to put the baby on formula and pump and dump for a full week after the surgery.

Turns out that's not quite accurate. As in- it's a complete fiction from start to finish. I had a similar problem several years ago when I was nursing our youngest and had to go in for emergency gall bladder surgery and stayed in the hospital for a week afterward. Everybody just wanted to tell me to switch to formula (there's actually a fairly long and funny story about the receptionists involved in that episode, but that's for another post).

Unfortunately, although they're perfectly willing to talk like experts about medications in mothers' milk, too many folks in the medical filed have never even heard of the real expert- Dr. Thomas W. Hale.
I looked up her medication online at a breastfeeding discussion board where somebody had shared the pertinent information from Dr. Hale's book I copied and pasted some of it to a word document, edited a bit, added some commentary of my own, edited a bit more, and then printed out a single sheet of information on the medication and Dr. Hale and his work for my friend to share with her medical care-givers. I realised it might be useful to some of our readers, too.

Dr. Hale is a pharmacologist who has spent years researching the transference of medications through mothers' milk. He tests medication levels in the milk, in the blood of the nursing babies, and he discovers how much, if any, of a medication enters the breastmilk, at what levels, and the timing of the peak levels.
Thanks to his work with peak levels, some women are able to keep breastfeeding even while taking medications that do transfer into the milk by timing their medications and baby's feedings so that the babies are nursing during the time the medication levels are at this lowest.
He categorizes medications (including several popular herbal remedies) as follows:

: L1 SAFEST: : Drug which has been taken by a large number of breastfeeding mothers without : any observed increase in adverse effects on the infant. Controlled studies : in breastfeeding women fail to demonstrate a risk to the infant and the : possibility of harm to the breastfeeding infant is remote; or the product is : not orally bioavailable in an infant.
: L2 SAFER: : Drug which has been studied in a limited number of breastfeeding women : without an increase in adverse effects in the infant. And/or the evidence of : a demonstrated risk which is likely to follow use of this medication in a : breastfeeding woman is remote.
: L3 MODERATELY SAFE: : There are no controlled studies in breastfeeding women, however the risk of : untoward effects to a breastfed infant is possible; or, controlled studies : show only minimal nonthreatening adverse effects. Drugs should be given only : is the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the infant.
: L4 POSSIBLY HAZARDOUS: : There is positive evidence of risk to a breastfed infant or to breastmilk : production, but the benefits from use in the infant (e.g. if the drug is : needed in a life-threatening situation or for a serious disease for which : safer drugs cannot be used or an ineffective).
: L5: CONTRAINDICATED: : Studies in breastfeeding mother have demonstrated that there is significant : and documented risk to the infant based on human experience, or it is a : medication that has a high risk of causing significant damage to an infant. : The risk of using the drug in breastfeeding women clearly outweighs any : possible benefit from breastfeeding. The drug is contraindicated in women : who are breastfeeding an infant."
Source for information found above:-_Medications and Mothers' Milk_, Tenth Edition, by Thomas W. Hale, Ph.D.

For more information on Dr. Hale and his groundbreaking work in the unique field of medications in the milk of lactating women, please see his website, Breastfeeding Pharmacology: which is the source for the following cut and pasted information (if you are related to a breastfeeding woman, bookmark the site and use it as often as necessary):
Dr. Hale’s credentials: BS in Pharmacy Southwestern Oklahoma State University (1968).
Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology-University of Kansas, 1978.

Dr. Hale is an experienced clinical pharmacologist with many years of lecturing
in all areas of pharmacology and therapeutics. He currently is considered a
leading expert in the use of medications in breastfeeding women and travels
world-wide lecturing on the topic of using medications in breastfeeding mothers.
His four breastfeeding reference books, Medications and Mothers’ Milk,
Clinical Therapy in Breastfeeding Mothers and, Drug Therapy and Breastfeeding:
From Theory to Clinical Practice, and A Medication Guide for Breastfeeding Moms,
are used throughout the world by physicians, nurses, NICUs, Obstetrical units,
Lactation consultants, and LLLs.

Dr. Hale’s website also hosts a web forum where Health Professionals may ask questions for him or his assistants to answer.
I used to own a copy of Hale's Medications in Mothers' Milk, but when my last child weaned I passed it on to somebody who needed it more immediately than I did. I took it with me to the hospital when I had my surgery, and nurses all over the floor were coming into my room with pen and paper in hand to copy down the ordering information.

This book is so important, so vital- it's not just the standard in its field, it remains The Field- that if anybody tried to tell me anything at all about breastfeeding and a medication, I would ask if they'd heard of Dr. Hale, and if they had not heard of him and read his book for themselves, I would consider their information valueless. It really is that important. If it's not on your pediatrician's shelf, it should be. It should be on your OB's shelf. Stick it in your diaper bag and take it to your own doctor appointments for quick reference.

IT is a little pricey (around thirty dollars). Your local LLL group might have a library. You might be able to talk your library into buying it.. YOu should be able to convince your doctor to get it. It is the only reference book I can think of that I would really urge every breastfeeding mother to try to buy if at all possible, especially if she's dealing with medical people who haven't heard of it.

Parents' Meeting over at Dewey's Treehouse...

Mama Squirrel hosted the 55th Carnival of Homeschooling, and she did a lovely job with it, too, which is no surprise. Do go see.

When my first child was born, and I am totally serious about this, I thought other parents were joking when they would say to me, "Isn't it great how much newborns sleep?! They do it all the time, don't they?"
And I would chuckle along with them in sarcastic comradery, thinking that this was just a bit of friendly funning that new parents indulged in- a joke they played on the unsuspecting childless in order to ensure the propagation of the species. Really, I did. My newborn baby took fifteen minute catnaps, and then was awake for an hour or two at a time, devouring attention, needing body contact, thirty minutes of nursing, and entertainment. She would doze fitfully for another quarter of an hour and then start it all over again.
When The Equuschick came along, I realized that the joke was on me.

I also scrambled to my baby books several times a day with my firstborn, the HG, because it seemed to me she was spitting up copious amounts. But no, the books assured me, first-time parents always thought it was a lot, but really, it wasn't. I asked our pede, too, and tried to explain how much she spit up, but he just chuckled at me condescendingly, suggested I read too much and just should stop worrying. So I blinked my bloodshot eyes, believed the baby books and that doctor over my lying eyes, and went on cleaning up the messes, changing my clothes three or four times a day, and shielding everything the HG came into contact with from her tiny bits of spit up.

And then the Equuschick came along and I realized that no, I was right, the HG really did spit up a lot.

By the time my seventh child came along I was a bit more informed. We just watched what he and I age, burped him more often than most babies, never went anywhere without the dishtowels and receiving blankets over our shoulders, and laughingly called him The Vomit Comet and The Duke of Puke.

He was two before he was sleeping through the night.

This trip down memory lane prompted by Amy's Humble Musings.

More minimum wage talk, from the HG

A favorite Milton Friedman quote:
"It has always been a mystery to me why a youngster is better off unemployed at $4.75 an hour than employed at $4.25."

--
And a thought:
The Equuschick and I are both county employees. She currently makes more than the proposed new minimum wage. I make less. Raising my wages in this artificial manner will mean costing the county more money. Do we really want to increase county costs? Probably not.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior

This is a reprint, with slight adaptation, from last year.

From AmblesideOnline, year 11:

One of the clearest ways to gain an understanding of the shared language of the 20th century is through hearing or viewing the speeches of the era (or reading them if a recording cannot be located), From President Roosevelt's "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" to Martin Luther King's "I've been to the mountaintop," to Neil Armstrong's "One small step for man" to President Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," these famous and world-changing words were heard, rather than read, and the timbre in the voices of those who spoke them is a part of the history of this century. The phrases became part of the vocabulary of the people who first heard them.

From the magnificent "I Have a Dream" Speech:

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

From Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence, and we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience

.

From Why We Can't Wait:

"An important part of the mass meetings was the freedom songs. In a sense the freedom songs are the soul of the movement. They are more than just incantations of clever phrases designed to invigorate a campaign; they are as old as the history of the Negro in America. They are adaptations of the songs the slaves sang- the sorrow songs, the shouts for joy, the battle hymns and the anthems of our movement. I have heard people talk of their beat and rhythm, but we in the movement are as inspired by their words. "Woke Up This Morning With My Mind STayed on Freedom" is a sentence that needs no music to make its point. We sing the freedom songs today for the same reason the slaves sang them, because we too are in bondage and the songs add hope to our determination that "We shall overcome, Black and white together, We shall overcome someday."

I have stood in a meeting with hundreds of youngsters and joined in while they sang "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." It is not just a song; it is a resolve. A few minutes later, I have seen those same youngsters refuse to turn around from the onrush of a police dog, refuse to turn around before a pugnacious Bull Connor in command of men armed with power hoses. These songs bind us together, give us courage together, help us march together."

Also From Why We Can't Wait:

“Whenever this issue of compensatory or preferential treatment for the Negro is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree; but he should ask nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but it is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man is entered at the starting line in a race three hundred years after another man, the first would have to perform some impossible feat in order to catch up with his fellow runner.”

I mention this not to detract from Dr. King's accomplishments. He is one of the greatest rhetoriticians the 20th century had. But quite frequently those of us who are conservative or libertarian focus on that beautiful and magnificent 'I Have a Dream Speech' and co-opt Dr. King for support for our point of view on Affirmative Action. I have a high regard for Dr. King, but I don't agree with everything he said, and this is one example. I can hope that had he been spared he would have realized the unintended negative consequences that affirmative action has had for all Americans, and he would have come to agree with Thomas Sowell. But his life was not spared, he did not live to see what I see, and even if he had, he still might not have agreed with AA's opponents. We don't know, and it is not historically accurate to portray the I Have a Dream excerpts as representative of his views on affirmative action. For more on Doctor King's views on affirmative action see this article.

While admiring him for his gifts and talents we also acknowledge that he was a human being with flaws and sin in his life. See Number 8 in this FAQ for a discussion of the plagiarism in his academic writings.

But this is a day to honor Dr. King, so let's close with something he said with which I can and do agree, although I recently read (sorry, can't remember the source, just the comments to a blog somewhere) that when a white person positively references this quote it's a slam dunk bit of evidence that said white person is racist. I don't agree:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

Amos 5:24

Isaiah 40:4-5

Those who like to have little crafts and activities to go with holidays might enjoy some of these:
Make a teeny tiny book about MLKJr.
Read the speech a few times and then see if you can fill in the blanks here.
Take a virtual tour of Martin Luther King's birth home. I didn't finish this, but I will go back to it later. I really liked this one.

Latest Carnival of the Recipes

New Hampshire State of Mind hosted (and did a lovely job), and it looks like a good one!

Minimum Wage

Here's a string of links for the Common Room Scholars to read and think about. I cannot vouch for all the comments on every site, but they were fairly safe when I first collected these links (starting last week). Bonnet-tip for the start of the string to the Consumerist, which has an interesting discussion in the comments.

Christian Science Monitor has an article about as fairminded as one can expect to find in an MSM publication.

Just so you know, 29 states already have a minimum wage as high or higher than the one our keepers in Washington, D.C. just created.

Our state isn't one of them. Minimum wage around here has been only 5.25, and so the HM has, when confronted with a young man who says he really wants to work at anything but nobody will hire him, has hired him to do some work around our place (pulling weeds, hauling trash) for minimum wage. Since the HM's salary isn't going up, we will think more than twice about doing that. In fact, the only reason the HM is able support his family on his salary for managing a grocery store is because he has his pension from his twenty years of enlistment in the Air Force.

Speaking of wages, the grocery store industry already has a very narrow profit margin, especially the HM's grocery store (a discount brand). There is no way they can pay employees 7.25 an hour without changing something else- either reducing the number of employees at the store at certain hours, increasing the hours for the two salaried workers, or changing expectations of workers. The HM tells me he hires people for a ninety day probationary period, and he works hard to help them learn the ropes. He wants to see the people he hires do well, and he feels bad whenever he has to let anybody go at the end of the 90 days. He invests a fair bit of heart into his job and employees. He says at 7.25 an hour, his expectations will be much higher, he'll expect people to catch on with less input from him, and he won't feel so bad about letting them go if they don't make the cut. IN that respect, at least, it'll make his job a little easier, at least emotionally. I'm not sure that's what Congress had in mind.

Keep in mind that raising minimum wage isn't just costing the employer the two dollars you see here. Employers have to pay FICA, SUI, Worker's Comp- and these figures are based on the basic rate of pay. The economy won't collapse, millions of people won't be instantly thrown out of work, and there won't be a dozen breadlines in town tomorrow.
What will happen is that the HM will be a little less willing to take a chance on an unproven worker, or one with a problematic background. Prices will slowly go up just enough to protect that razor thin profit margin. The salaried employees (the HM and one other) will throw in a few more hours. In other jobs, employers will find that it just might be more cost effective to automate.

I'm not sure how this will change (or if it has changed already) but at one point the minimum rage increase exempted small businesses with less than $500,000 in revenue. Is this a tacit acknowledgment from politicians that minimum wage increases do affect employment levels and profit margins? Or is this a response to political pressure? What do you think?

Will some people benefit? Undoubtedly. But there are more questions to consider than might be obvious at first glance.

CoyoteBlog explains how increases affect the small business he runs.

HEre's an interesting history of minimum wage requirements in this country.

O, the irony, the delicious irony.

And here's a little project for the Common Room Scholars. Start keeping an economy journal. Cut out business related articles from the paper and paste them in. Make a list of prices of some basic commodities and check it month by month. Put some ads in a scrapbook and a year later compare the current ads. Check the classifieds and make a note of rental rates now and a year from now. See what you find. I'm not sure what you'll find, I just think it might be interesting to see what turns up.

Vintage Cookery- Feed a Family of Four for 13.00 Weekly

(Click on the picture to enlarge) This 1937 flier from the local A& P belonged to my great-grandmother. I'm not really exaggerating when I tell you I come from a long line of people who never threw anything away.

The recipes are all intended for a family of four (my great-grandmother had a family of six), and I'm a little embarrassed at how small the proportions seem to me (one cupcake per person for dessert). This cook-for-two-days-at-a-time plan isn't very imaginative, but I guess that didn't matter much in 1937. Just one more way we're spoiled, and I can't say I am as embarrassed about that as I ought to be.

Thursday's dinner was hot meat loaf with parsley potatoes, buttered green beans, raspberries or dewberries, cup cakes, and tea. Friday's dinner is just cold meatloaf, hashed brown potatoes, vegetable salad, bread and butter, cup cakes with hot chocolate fudge sauce and iced coffee.

The meatloaf recipe is large enough for eight servings, and on Thursday you cook enough extra parsleyed potatoes to have enough left over for hashing and browning on Saturday (we do like to bake extra potatoes and then fry cold potatoes for another meal). You cook extra beans and set them aside as part of the salad for Saturday.
You make a large batch of cupcakes (i.e. 12). Thursday night you serve exactly four cupcakes to your family of four, and that, along with some berries over the top of the cup cakes, is dessert. Friday for lunch you serve your family of four (notice they are all expected to be eating a lunch prepared by mom), four more cupcakes, this time frosted with a basic powdered sugar frosting, and then have the hot fudge sauce over the remaining four cup cakes on Saturday night.

Here's the bit about feeding a family of four for around thirteen dollars a week (click to enlarge):

I think it would be interesting and fun to take these recipes and figure out today's prices for them and see how much more (or less) it might cost to feed a family of four using the same basic recipes today. If you give it a shot, let me know how it turns out.

I'm typing the meatloaf recipe below. My commentary in italics.
4 slices of white bread (because we wouldn't want any serious nutrition to slip in here)
1 pound chopped beef (was this ground beef or really beef, chopped up fine? And who did the chopping?)1/2 pound chopped veal (I guess veal used to be much more affordable)1/2 pound chopped fresh pork (as opposed to stale, old and moldy pork. And why isn't the beef and veal fresh?)
1/2 green pepper, if desired
1 onion (I have a lovely picture of an entire onion wrapped up in meatloaf, sort of like a giant Scotch Egg. Only different. Because it's not an egg. And it's not sausage. But still, kind of like that. Except different.)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper (was pepper spicier or tastebuds more insipid? Because 1/4 teaspoon pepper for two pounds of meat seems laughable. Or, brainburst here, was the meat more flavorful?)
Chili sauce
1 tablespoon butter or other fat (more fat? There's not enough in two pounds of beef and pork?) [updated to note that one of our commentors educated me on this. In 1937 beef was still largely grass fed, and grass fed beef is much lower in the greasy fats and higher in the good stuff]
1/2 cup meat broth or water

Soak the break in a bit of warm water for a few minutes (blech), drain well. Add bread, minced green pepper and onion, eggs, salt and pepper to meat. Mix thoroughly. Form into a loaf, place in a baking pan. Pour chili sauce over meat, dot with butter (because there won't be enough fat in all that beef otherwise), add broth or water. Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees F. for 1 1/2 hours, basting occasionally. Serve hot the first day, and cold the second.

Note the three other recipes at the bottom of the page of menu suggestions.

And see that chair Mrs. Homemaker is sitting in in that first photo. My first thought was that I like it. It's an attractive and unusual chair. My second thought was, "Can you imagine the dust and grime that must gather on all those rungs?"

Politicks*

I used to think that Jimmy Carter hadn't been a very good president, but he was a pretty decent ex-president (I don't meant that in an ugly way, I mean I really did admire him personally and I thought he took the high road on many issues as a former President).

But I guess I was naive. This is really, really, disgraceful, with a capital T as in turncoat and traitor.

Have you ever read one of those Richard Buchan style spy thrillers, where the protagonist is running for his life, fleeing bad guys left and right, unable to find a soul to trust, and finally makes his destination, some bosom friend, or perhaps an admired and trusted hero only to realize (and you, with a weight in the pit of your stomach and your heart pounding) realize it along with him) that this bosum friend, this admired hero, is actually the kingpin, the villain of them all, and he's just delivered himself right into the enemy's hands? We were bought and sold a long time ago:

The Saudis bailed out his peanut farm in 1976. The infamous BCCI and Saudi
billionaire Gaith Pharaon actually helped with the startup funding of the Carter
Center. Carter himself is quoted fulsomely thanking Sheik Zayed bin Sultan
al-Nahyan, the long time ruler of the UAE, for donating half a million dollars.
From what is known Carter has received tens of millions of dollars from Arab and
Islamic sources.

We've been betrayed. I don't think Jimmy Carter is the first. I am sure he's not the last. And I also believe that probably just as many politicians with an R after their names as those with a D have been letting outsiders buy their foreign policy opinions. At best, accepting foreign funds is a conflict of interest.

Isn't it interesting that McCain's 'campaign reform' mostly just muzzles common, ordinary Americans?

*title is not a typo.

A Community Cookbook

Rick Saenz has started a wiki for the online agrarian community to put together a cookbook. See what you think, maybe contribute a recipe. Looks like a cool idea.

And speaking of Rick Saenz, he's lowered the prices at his family's Cumberland Bookstore- when's the last time you heard news like that?

20- Oh, JOY! Another Book Meme

Details here. This is a fantasy book list, and I'm not that big on fantasy. I suppose that's not quite true. I do like it very much, but only if it's very well done, indeed, and it seems to be hard to do fantasy very well indeed.
Mark the selections you have read in bold. If you liked it, add a star [*] in front of the title, if you didn't, give it a minus [-]. Then, put the total number of books you've read in the subject line.

**The Chronicles of Prydain - Alexander, Lloyd
Carrie's War - Bawden, Nina
Death of a Ghost - Butler, Charles
Ender's Game - Card, Orson Scott
Summerland - Chabon, Michael
King of Shadows - Cooper, Susan
The Dark is Rising sequence - Cooper, Susan
Stonestruck - Cresswell, Helen
* Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Dahl, Roald
- Matilda - Dahl, Roald
Ingo - Dunmore, Helen
The Sea of Trolls - Farmer, Nancy
Madame Doubtfire - Fine, Anne
Corbenic - Fisher, Catherine
******Inkheart - Funke, Cornelia
- The Thief Lord - Funke, Cornelia
The Owl Service - Garner, Alan
Happy Kid! - Gauthier, Gail
*Stormbreaker - Horowitz, Anthony
Whale Rider - Ihimaera, Witi
Finn Family Moomintroll - Jansson, Tove
Fire and Hemlock - Jones, Diana Wynne
* The Phantom Tollbooth - Juster, Norton
*The Sheep Pig - King Smith, Dick
Stig of the Dump - King, Clive
-A Wizard of Earthsea - Le Guin, Ursula
*The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Lewis, C S
The House at Norham Gardens - Lively, Penelope
Goodnight Mister Tom - Magorian, Michelle
The Changeover - Mahy, Margaret
The Stones are Hatching - McCaughrean, Geraldine
The White Darkness - McCaughrean, Geraldine
*Beauty - McKinley, Robin
Sabriel - Nix, Garth
* The Borrowers - Norton, Mary
*Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - O'Brien, Robert
Z for Zachariah - O'Brien, Robert
A Dog So Small - Pearce, Philippa
Life As We Knew It - Pfeffer, Susan Beth
A Hat Full of Sky - Pratchett, Terry (I have read others of his that I found a very guilty and very pleasurable guilty pleausure)
His Dark Materials sequence - Pullman, Philip
How I Live Now - Rosoff, Meg
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling, J K
* Holes - Sachar, Louis (I liked the movie much better)
The Foreshadowing - Sedgwick, Marcus
Marianne Dreams - Storr, Catherine
When the Siren Wailed - Streatfield, Noel
The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Stroud, Jonathan
* The Hobbit - Tolkien, J R R
* Charlotte's Web - White, E B
-------------------------------------------
90
Also found there- This one is 100 of the best children's books. Who decided they were the best? Well, the list came from 'the 100 best children's book on the National Education Association's page (from 1999, I think).' I could (and do)certainly quibble over some sins of omission and comission, but just for fun...

*Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
*Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
*The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
*Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
*Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
*The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
*The Mitten by Jan Brett
*Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
*The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Where the Sidewalk Ends: the Poems and Drawing of Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
*Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss
Strega Nona by Tomie De Paola
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin, Jr.
*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
*The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
*A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
*How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
*Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by John Archambault
*Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
*The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
*The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne
*The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
*Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
*Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
*Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
*The BFG by Roald Dahl
*The Giver by Lois Lowry
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff
*James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
*Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
*Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
*The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner (this title sounds very familiar to the HG and I, but neither of us can place it).
*Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
*Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson (just this year)
*Corduroy by Don Freeman
*Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Math Curse by Jon Scieszka
*Matilda by Roald Dahl
Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls
*Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
*Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary
*The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White
*Are You My Mother? by Philip D. Eastman
-The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
*Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
*One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss
*The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
*The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
*The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
*Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
*Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss
Basil of Baker Street, by Eve Titus
*The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
*Curious George by Hans Augusto Rey
Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
-----Arthur series by Marc Tolon Brown (about two, and I refuse to read any more. I cannot stand them. )
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
*Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
*The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
*The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar
*Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
*A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
*Stuart Little by E. B. White
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
*The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
The Art Lesson by Tomie De Paola
*Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
*Clifford, the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
*Heidi by Johanna Spyri
*Horton Hears a Who by Dr. Seuss
The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch
------------------------------------------
There was a 100 best English novels since 1923 list put out by Time, and I've read around 22 or 23 of them (I can't remember if I finished one of them), but I wasn't impressed with that list at all. The HG and I looked it over and said, "meh."
-----------------------

Update: Mama Squirrel takes a good look at the children's booklist, and (I know you're all so surprised) I agree. She suspects that what the list actually reflects is the best marketed children's books, and I suspect she just might be right.

Snow?

Monica, at the Homespun Heart, has some lovely ideas for a 'snow' party. I was beginning to think that may be the closest my kids get to snow this year, but we did have a few minutes of white stuff drifting down just a bit ago. It's gone now, and there's nothing on the ground, but the sky is still looking delightfully grim and overcast, so maybe we'll get lucky.

Sunday Hymn Post

The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His blood red banner streams afar:
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.

That martyr first, whose eagle eye
Could pierce beyond the grave;
Who saw his Master in the sky,
And called on Him to save.
Like Him, with pardon on His tongue,
In midst of mortal pain,
He prayed for them that did the wrong:
Who follows in His train?

A glorious band, the chosen few
On whom the Spirit came;
Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew,
And mocked the cross and flame.
They met the tyrant’s brandished steel,
The lion’s gory mane;
They bowed their heads the death to feel:
Who follows in their train?

A noble army, men and boys,
The matron and the maid,
Around the Savior’s throne rejoice,
In robes of light arrayed.
They climbed the steep ascent of Heav’n,
Through peril, toil and pain;
O God, to us may grace be given,
To follow in their train.

The only way to sing this one, as far as we are concerned, is to the tune of 'The Minstrel Boy.'

Cyberhymnal information

Alas.

'Twas on Wednesday when it was The Equuschick's turn for the dishes and had to do them late after Bible Study, and she gave the younger set the strictest instructions to put their dishes in the dishwasher as soon as they were clear of food.

And The Equuschick returned from Bible Study late that night, to find the FYB's plate and silverware neatly and propery in the dishwasher and The Equuschick's plate still on the table.

January Questions

from Ponytails at Dewey's Tree House

How much snow is there on the ground where you live?
-- Weirdly enough, none. In fact, it's raining. This has been a very bizarre winter. I think it's supposed to snow on Monday, though.

How do you make a snowbear?
-- Being the unimaginative sort, I can only think of the frozen custard places that have the name snowbear. I'm not sure how I would make one... just a rounder snowman?

Do you know the song "The Minstrel Boy?"
-- Indeed!

Do you like the song "The Minstrel Boy?"
--Indeed again!

What do you put in baked peanut butter cookies?
--1 egg, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 cup of peanut butter. <-- That girl knows her stuff.

Do you like writing stories?
-- Not very much. I went through a brief furor of story writing when I was 11 or 12. I tried an Anne of Green Gables look-alike, and a set of fictitious letters between a soldier and his sweetheart during the American Civil War. I came to realize that I was dreadful at it, though, and so I stopped. I let my sisters write the fiction now. :)

Vintage Cookery, the Debut of the Chocolate Chip Recipe (according to Baker's)

There is no date on this brochure, but according to this website, the first chocolate chip cookie debuted in 1937.

Bakers says their new recipes and special chocolate are the biggest news in a long time. I love that picture of the colonial housewife scraping off bits of chocolate for the modern housewife to use.

The brochure folds out to a poster too large for the scanner, so above is the top half.

And that's the bottom. Do you have a guess on the timeframe for this? The illustrations look early '50s to me, which seems rather late.

---------------

Update: January 13th- As some of you discovered and passed on to me, Kraft recently (2005) celebrated the 225th anniversay of Baker's Chocolate, and they have some interesting facts up on their website to commemorate the event (as well as some lovely images of past advertisements). That 'Colonial housewife' is actually the oldest product trademark in America, La Belle Chocolatiere. The story of La Belle and her image is a very romantic one, and you can read about it on Baker's website. She is from the American Colonial era, but she's not American, and she's not a Colonial. She's a Viennese Princess with a very romantic Cinderella story, which like most such stories, may or may not be true according to other sources.

You can also read more about Baker's Chocolate here. It's a virtual history tour celebrating the Dorchester chocolate factory. I also learned why German Chocolate cake is so called, and it has nothing to do with Germany. I never knew that.

You can view Baker's advertisements through the decades here. That might make an interesting project for homeschoolers to note how the advertisements and appeals have changed over the years. Chocolate Chips were introduced in the fifties, and this advertisement seems to predate that. I cannot find a date for when they introduced the semi-sweet bars, which seems to be the selling point of this ad.

Did you know Baker's used vending machines to sell their chocolates? In 1891?

Have fun.=)

Yesterday's quote... and another one.

I got yesterday's quote from a little daily devotional that I picked up at a thrift store a few months ago. Joy and Strengthis one of the best thrift shop book purchases I've ever made. Each day includes a Bible verse and an excerpt from various devotional authors. These authors span the centuries, and their thoughts are meaty. I knew I didn't want a devotional with namby-pamby "God looooooves you -- isn't that special?!" shallowness in them. True joy and true strength take work, and this book provides some of the sustenance necessary to build oneself up.

Take today, for example. I got home from school relatively early and since I was feeling energetic, I cleaned out the car. This was a job that badly needed doing and also one that proved rewarding: why there was a $5 bill under the driver's seat I have no idea, but there it was. Now it is sitting in a savings jar. :)
Anyway. My original plan was to go straight from cleaning the car to cleaning my room. I got upstairs to the bedroom, though, and thought that maybe I wouldn't do it anyway. I was giving myself all sorts of lovely excuses. I was tired. I'd made lunch AND cleaned the car AND participated in two very active classes already, surely I didn't need to do anything in my bedroom. oooh -- I could read today's entry in my devotional book and thus still be doing "productive" things but, well, still ignore my bedroom.
Today's entry:
"No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are behind us and done, that we begint o find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it." - Alexander McClaren

So if my toes were stepped on yesterday, they were stomped on today.

Is my room clean? No, unfortunately. I did "go straight up to it," though, after reading the entry and got quite a bit done. There was sweetness to it, and I actually look forward to finishing the project before the week-end is over.

Rambunctious Boys and Crabby Moms

The FYB continues to feel feistier than suits the tastes or sensibilities of the rest of us. And for some reason, even though we now live in a 3400 square foot house, it's impossible for him to do his leaps, bounds, running jumps, flips, spins, and punch-kicks (we must forget the punch-kicks) more than three feet away from another human being.
Tonight after being bumped, thumped, pounded, and jostled one too many times (I don't want to make too many excuses for myself, but all of this hurts) I reacted in such a way that the small boy, much subdued, retired to his bedroom and closed the door.
I savoured the restful silence and the ability to remain in one position in my chair for five minutes without being sideswept by the irresistable force of a speeding boy who is ricocheting off some immovable object. And then I went into the Boy's room to make the abject apologies that were owed (I had really been quite scathing).

He was sittin quietly, watching his fish in a dim room. My heart turned over. I apologized. He hugged me and told me it was okay. I explained that every time he crashed into me (never on purpose, you understand, it's just that I was like the paddle and he was the ball on the other end of an elastic string that apparently binds us together) it caused a lot of pain, but still, I acknowledged, that was no excuse, and, I said, I was sorry I was such a crab, I should not be such a crab.

He hugged me again and cheerfully said, "Yeah, if you're going to be a crab, I wish you could at least be a crab like the one we're reading about.* That would be fun!"

Maybe I should have pinched him.



*The crab we're reading about:

Frugal Decorating

That's the theme for this week's Frugal Friday at Crystal's blog. Lots of goodies, but remember that sometimes one person's frugal tip is another person's unnecessary expenditure...

I really don't want to be churlish or discouraging, truly, I don't. I just do want to hint to enthustiastic young ladies that just because somebody posts a lovely idea and calls it frugal, that doesn't make it so. Slow down, enjoy the reading, but don't be so overcome by enthusiasm for the pretties (and there are pretties) that you forget to add the cost. Everytime somebody suggests spending money to be frugal, stop and think about how you could duplicate the same effect (and if indeed, you really want to) without spending any money at all, or at least spending it at a local thrift shop or yard sale rather than the local xyz-Mart.

Postscript: I especially liked this border idea for a boy's bedroom from Happy Housewife. I could tell you what it is, but you have to see her pictures to really appreciate the genius. It looks so great!

I liked this outside the box thinking about window treatments from Bargain Quest, and not just because it's something I've been planning to do myself.=)

And yet another postscript:
I loved this idea from the comments at Crystal's blog:

Curtain Alternative- In my apartment, I have a hard time putting up valances and blinds due to the style of the patio doors, so I decided to take a pretty scarf a friend gave me and simply draped it on plastic hooks that I painted with gold craft paint. I hung it over a painting that I did a few years ago and it really brings out the area as a focal point in my home. Plus, no extensive hardware, drilling, etc.

Homeschooling When Mom Is Interrupted

Because homeschooling happens at home in the midst of life, things will happen that interrupt your plans for the day. Cindy recently did a very helpful post on how to work around that. She explains:

Just as soon as my children are reading I make sure that they can have a school day whether I am available or not. Of course, I try to be available all the time. I try to discipline myself during school hours so that we achieve the most possible every day. It is just that many days my priorities get shifted. My 18yos needs help on the FAFSA right now! My husband needs me to find papers or run an errand. I have to take a child to the Dr or dentist or hospital. We stayed up late talking to our older boys about issues they are facing and I am not able to arise as early as usual (rising early will solve many homeschooling issues). Someone’s car breaks down. In the course of a week I can almost guarantee 1 day will be a total loss and another a near miss. Thankfully, our merry little school runs along with or without me.

You'll need to go check it out to see the elegant way she handles this. It won't take long, she's not as long winded as I am, and when you get back, I'll share some of the ways I've handled the same issues.

Ready? I should explain first of all, just in case this isn't clear, that it really doens't matter much how you do this. I'm sharing a couple additional ideas, adding them to the buffet Cindy's started, if you will, and you can wander through the line and pick and choose those things that seem good to you. If you're an unschooler this will all look like so much contrived and unnecessary (and even undesirable) work to you. But I'm not an unschooler.=)

When I had just the two little ducklings, just twenty months apart, and we began homeschooling, The Equuschick was, um, something of a challenge. She was constantly asking me what she could do, because she wanted to 'do school' too, but she really wasn't able yet to do what her sister was doing (she needed glasses, we learned later, to correct an astigmatism, but that's another story). I spent a day or two putting together different areas I called 'learning centers' (this part is totally overkill)- I put a tape recorder and several books on tape in one part of the house. I put a box of musical instruments and things to bang together in a another part of the house- a distant, far, and lonely part of the house. I had a rubber band board, rubber bands, and some cards with shapes to make with the rubber bands on a desk. I had a box of playdough and cookie cutters in the kitchen. I had some papers and water color paints in a drawer in the dining room. I had stackes of puzzles in one corner. I had some magazines, gluesticks and scissors in another corner. I had some electronic gizmo which purported to 'teach' kids pre-reading skills. I had a box of blocks. I had some lacing cards and laces. I had some dress up clothes. There were other 'centers' that came and went, depending on what we had available. Then I took a picture of the Equuschick doing these varous things (I used instant film) and put the pictures in an index card box. I didn't require her to do anything except stay out of trouble; she could play independently to her heart's content. But when she wanted to have me tell her what to do, what to do, she would go to the index card box and close her eyes and pull out a picture adn that's what she had to go do for at least ten or fifteen minutes (I later got a timer for her to use). I didn't need to do this with my younger children- having always been around homeschooling and having been less exposed to television, they didn't need the extra help thinking of something to do.

YOu could adapt this to school projects, too, for a nonreader. Plan a few activities using things you have on hand and that they know how to use (a Clock-o-dial, for instance, or wrap-ups, or an educational game, or a particular coloring book, say of local birds, or civil war soldiers). Take a picture of your nonreader doing those things, and put the pictures in order in a small photo album or on a piece of paper taped to the wall. When you are interrupted they can refer to the pictures and go through them in order.

I am fortunate enough to have two homeschooled grads still living at home, and most of the time they are able to simple pick up my own school schedule and run through it with my littlest two. But sometimes they are busy, too, and in that case, I have another back up plan.

We have our regular schoolbooks, largely taken from AmblesideONline's list, and then I have a another group of books for times when I am not here. This includes books with stories that are wrapped up in a single, so it does not much matter if they do the books on this list two weeks apart. This year that list includes a fairy tale book, a small book of 'Leadership' stories from Bill Bennet's Book of Virtues, a coloring book of our local birds, a 'Math War' card game, a small poetry anthology, a McGuffey's Reader, Wrap-ups, and a fairly simple book about simple machines (inclined planes, pulleys, levers, with a few pages devoted to each one), a book of 'Hero Stories for Boys' published in 1900- Each chapter is about the life and death of an explorer. I also include a handful of things that are on our regular schedule, too. Calc-u-Ladders (daily timed mathsheets), our list of memory verses, the Draw, Write, Now book we currently use, Geo-Safari, and a Childhood of Famous Americans book that the ten year old is reading to the 8 year old wrap up this shelf.

For both our regular schoolbooks and our backup list, we use post-its to keep our place. I consider post-it notes an invaluable homeschooling resource. This way it doesn't matter who is reading the book next, we always know where we are- providing we can find the book;0D. I will sometimes use the post-it note to write down a narration question I think of while reading the book aloud, and other times I use the post-it note to write down something cute or clever one of my cute and clever children said while we were reading the book. Stick-it notes do not fall out of the books as easily as other bookmarks do.

I am thinking next of chaining certain books to the bookshelves, as Bibles were chained to the pulpit in days of old.=)

Index Card Files

EVerybody knows how to make macaroni necklaces, bracelets and garlands. The way I used to color the macaroni is to put it in a small container of rubbing alcohol and food coloring, stir it up quickly, and then set out to dry on a bit of waxed paper or plastic. The rubbing alcohol makes bright, vibrant colors that dry quickly, so the pasta doesn't get soggy.

To make the macaroni creations more interesting, get some bright colored cardboard and cut out interesting shapes. Punch two small holes in the center of each shape so that when strung they will lay flat. Add buttons and old beads to the mixture and let the children string away.

This could be fun for a little girls' teaparty, and then their necklaces would make up part of their costumes.

Vintage Cookery and Calumet

Here we have the cover and the back two pages of a trifold brochure advertising the merits of Calumet double acting baking powder. Click on the picture to enlarge.
The recipe for Emergency Biscuits (top left) seems to be just a recipe for drop biscuits- the emergency being something that makes rolled and cut dough too time consuming. The coffee cake and apricot muffins look tasty. And the new, easy opening top promises no more broken fingernails!

And here's the inside of the brochure. The coupon for the Calumet Baking Book (bottom, center) expires in December of 1937, so I posit that this brochure dates to around 1936 or 1937.
According to the brochure, the two teaspoons of Calumet needed for twelve biscuits only costs 1/2 a cent. Ordinary baking powder costs perhaps a tenth of a cent or so less, but the extra lightness of Calumet, they assure the cook, is worth it.

Calumet is so popular that it has become the world's largest selling baking powder!!! It's also part of that famous group of nationally known food products of General Foods, makers of Maxwell House Coffee, Post Toasties, Baker's Coconut, Swan's Down Cake Flour, and many others equally famous!!! (see second to the last paragraph, center). Name that logical fallacy, boys and girls.

Doesn't it seem to you that today that wouldn't be much of a selling point? "We're part of the huge conglomerate that makes everything else you eat!!!" I think today small is a better selling point.

Isn't that red purty?

Ouch.

This evening was hectic. The cell phone and home phone rang repeatedly, the Boy was feeling unusually energetic because his other half (the Girl) was spending time with the HM at work. The dogs were feeling unusually energetic because their person was doing some work outside. I was feeling less than energetic because I'm unaccustomed to this rising at 6 a.m. schedule thing, and because I'm dealing with the rough consequences of not doing what I should've done for Spanish. I must say I'm not dealing with it gracefully either.

So between all that and the boy and the dogs (I quite literally had one jump over my head while I was reading a schoolbook), I was feeling fairly cholerick of temper by the end of the evening.

And then I read this:
"It is a sign that the soul is living in God, if it maintain calmness within through the consciousness of His Presence, while working for Him in active ministrations. Such restfulness will show itself in the commonest ways, in doing common duties at the right time, in preserving a swetness and evenness of temper in the midst of ordinary interruptions and disturbances, in walking to and fro quietly on the day's varied errands, in speaking gentle words, in sweetly meeting unexpected calls. A calm, restful temper grows as self is learning to lose itself in God. Such grace tells gradually on the daily life; even the minutest detail may be brought under the power of God, and carried out in union with Him." - T. T. Carter

I have so far to go....

Bible Reading Schedule

A unique 2007 Bible Reading Schedule can be found here. It only has readings for five days in the week, so if you get behind you can catch up on the other two, and the last two weeks of December are also left empty for catching up.

Heroes

Because I really haven't been following the news much over the last few months, I am rather late to this story, but it's a good one.
Wesley Autrey, a construction worker in New York city and father of two little girls ages 4 and 6, risked his own life to save the life of a total stranger who had a seizure and fell down on the subway rails.
A train was coming, and he had to shove the man down between the rails and lay down on top of him to try his best to keep them both out of harm's way.
Mr. Autrey had his daughters with him at the time, and he said it was either do what he could to save the man, or let his daughters watch a man die while he did nothing.

Typical of such heroes, he says he did nothing extraordinary, it's what any human would do.

Chuck Colson has some cogent commentary, as usual, along with a good selection of links for those who want to read more about this story.

The Headmaster once pulled an unconscious, badly injured man out of a burning vehicle. He was awarded the Airman's Medal for it, but it's always embarrassed him (and he doesn't know I am posting about it) because he says it's what anybody would do. But other people were there, and they didn't do it. People who knew us at the time asked how he could take a risk like that (the vehicle was in flames, had highly flamable paints and paint thinners in it, and the door wouldn't open- and the injured man was a good 18 inches taller than my husband), given that he had a family. My husband could only shrug in some puzzlement and point out that the other man might have had a family, too, and he couldn't stand by and watch a man burn to death. A couple women even asked me if I wasn't a little bit angry at him for taking a risk like that. Angry? I was proud. Still am.

Mr. Autrey wasn't the only person on that platform, either.

I don't say that the people who didn't jump down onto those rails were cowards- who knows what goes through one person's mind at any given time, let alone when stricken numb and dumb by an emergency?

Thank God for the Good Samaritans among us.

Index Card Files

Simple pull toy: Kids who have not been walking very long love pulling things behind them, and it's the process they love, not the product. Thus, whatever vehicle they are pulling, it does not need to be fancy. Just take a box- a shoe box, or something like it, poke a hole in one end and thread a long sash, shoelace, or bit of string through it and let the children load it up with toys, stuffed animals, blocks, or things to carry to the kitchen and haul away.

another facet of the socialization question

Homeschoolers have all heard it, "but what about socialization?" as though that is all there is that matters about public school. And maybe for some, maybe for too many, of us, it is.

Fathers fret over their boys missing out on organized sports; mothers wince over their girls missing out on the social scene, the dates, the dances, the prom, and homecoming football games. I didn't really enjoy high school that much, and I've never wanted to go back, so maybe I'm not the best person to give an opinion on this, but I always think it's a baffling and a little bit sad when adults wish they could go back again, or can imagine few things worse than for thier own children not bo social butterflies on the high school scene.

In a typically thought-provoking post titled Princesses and Nasty Clothes, Mama Squirrel asks us some hard questions about how we're raising our girls. Are we raising our daughters...:

To be invited places? The authors of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes are quoted: "Will she be popular? Will she be invited somewhere? With what group does she belong?" I think those questions sum up the article even more than the details of the terrible clothing do. They sound like the stuff of old teenage novels (Will Poindexter ask me to the prom?); but now it's little girls who worry about those things.

And like Mama Squirrel, I don't think homeschoolers are immune. I don't think I'm immune.

Frugal Fest

The Frugal Festival is up at Savvy STeward, who did an excellent job. Here are some click-throughs I thought worthwhile:

The HG will want to look at this way of saving money on college textbooks! That was an option I'd not heard of. Here's another list of ideas (with a scary picture) and some links to price comparison sites.

The HG and the Equuschick will BOTH want to look at ten ways to save money on gas. Please note especially number 5. Number 11 isn't on there, but that's my favorite. Can you guess what it is? (stay home!)

Have some traveling to do? Get five percent back if you use this card.

This one wasn't particularly useful to me financially, because I do not pay extra just for a well marketed brand, but it was so well written and that final sentence so perfectly balanced in both glittering wit and sparkling barb, that I had to share it. It's a quick read, and you may need it for self-defense sometime. I love a well crafted turn of phrase.

This is cool. So cool. So much cooler than my sock finger weaving. Crochet a rug from strips cut from old t-shirts! There are even pictures! I'll probably never do it and neither will you, but it's too cool not to at least look at it!

Wenchypoo has a great article with very informative links on traditional methods of food preservation.

Here's a list of basic frugal ideas, and the poster is asking for more input. What can you share?

This was fun: Make your own rock tumbler. Just wear ear protectors.

Enjoy.

Still Biased After All These Years

In 1982 Franky Schaeffer published A Time For Anger: The Myth of Neutrality in the Media. In the early pages of that book he recounts an experience that might have served for a incident in Tom Wolfe's Bonefire of the Humanities.

He was at a large gathering where a prolife film was being shown to a very large audience, and different speakers were talking about prolife issues. He had stepped outside the crowded auditorium for some quiet and air, when he watched a local film crew drive up at the same time as a local pro-abortion protest group. He watched as the film crew set up their equipment and the protesters handed out their placards. The film crew stayed just long enough to get a few minutes of the handful of protestors marching around, and then both groups packed up and left.

It's not really much of a surprise that the New York Times turned a conviction for murder based on the evidence that a woman murdered her newborn baby, into a 30 year life sentence for an 18 week abortion, and confronted with the evidence on all the ways they got this story wrong, continue to refuse to apologize for it.

I Prophesy that He'll Be Wrong. Again.

This man does not believe in the same Bible that I do, or he would take infinitely more care with his 'prophecies.'According to this CNN article:

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America’s coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring’s heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

Pat Robertson:"I have a relatively good track record. Sometimes I miss."

Oh, yes?

God:

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Bonnet tip to TMAtt on GetReligion

WW2 Cookery and Cakes

The rattery has turned up several of these single sheet recipe hand-outs from the Chicago gas company.
Martha Holmes may sound familiar to you, but I don't think this is the same Martha Holmes.
Our Martha Holmes worked for the Peoples Gas/ North Shore Gas company in Chicago and is the author of several cookbooks you can find on sites that specialize in vintage cookery books. I wondered at first if she was a real person or a gas company creation, but according to the block of text at the bottom of these fliers, she was the director of the 'Peoples Gas Nutrition Center' in the downtown area. There were three Nutrition centers, and the other two wer run by a supervisor rather than a director.. Her books were published as early as the forties and as late as the 90's.

If you try one of these cakes let us know how it turned out for you. I think a couple of them look quite tasty.

I remember the first time I tried a vintage recipe. I think I was about 12, and it was from the back of the Aunt Sophronia book. I made a pound cake (I still make that one from time to time) and some pastry puffs. I was thrilled (yes, even at around 12) to be cooking from a century old recipe, and tickled to death that Mother let me try.

I liked experimenting in the kitchen, and my mother hated to cook, so she encouraged my experiments. As soon as I learned to cook she was telling me I was a better cook than she was, and spread the praise of my cooking thick and sweet. She had to spread it thick for two reasons. One was to make up for the complaints of my hard-to-please brothers (one of them still complains about some awful dish I made, as though now that I am an adult I will agree with his ten year old verdict that it was dreadful. Only, oddly enough, the peasant fare of One Pan Dandy turned out to be a family favorite, not only of my husband and children,