on-hand modern

home educating series: journaling

i'm not great at explaining the hows of homeschooling or exactly what it is we do all day. but olivia's journal does a pretty good job of *showing* you. i find it fascinating to page through. it isn't divided by subject and includes everything from her daily to-do lists to field trip reports to recipes she's tried, sketches of important historical figures, notes on a research topic of her choice, spelling lists of words that are relevant to her, memory work (scripture mastery), and so on. right now she's working on an on-going collaboration with her grandparents: they write down stories from their personal history and she edits and publishes them into books (see second photo). 

asher has a journal too. but at this age he's not that into it.

do you journal at all? i suppose ye old blog is sort of my version. there's something to be said for good old-fashioned pencil, paper, and tape though.

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thanksgiving 2011

without any family around to share the holiday, it's become our tradition the last few years to eat out on thanksgiving. to be totally honest, i still much prefer a home-cooked meal surrounded by parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews, but this way at least we get to spend more time hanging around with the kids instead of doing dishes. it's also become our tradition in recent years to book a hotel room close to home for the night. so for us the holiday pretty much goes like this: morning--see a movie in the theater, afternoon--eat an early dinner, evening--swim in the hotel pool. then the next day we get up and explore the city where we're staying.

so, these are some of my favorite photos from this year's thanksgiving festivities in...lawrence, kansas. haha. it's a cute little college town, home to the University of Kansas. we spent most of the day after thanksgiving on massachusetts street, poking our heads into all the quirky shops and making mental wishlists. olivia bought herself a vintage nancy drew book in an antique store. and asher picked out a $1 plastic reindeer at one of the local toy shops. around dinner time, the holiday lights came on for the first time and santa made his much-anticipated appearance on top of weavers, the department store.

it all sounds pretty idyllic and "thanksgiving in mayberry" as i type this. in reality...well.

we had our moments.

the thing is i look at the photos, and pretty much i only remember the good parts.

[photo of me by k]

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happy thanksgiving

i know i'm late to the party, but i hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving holiday.

oh yes i did. i spent waaaaay too much time sewing goofy pilgrim hats for the children.

back to regular posting this week, i hope. see you here tomorrow?

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this is grandma kris

i didn't get a great picture of k's mom when she came to visit a couple of weeks ago, so you are getting these instead. i love them so much. the top photo hangs on our living room gallery wall. it was taken for a newspaper story about families and boating and being awesome, i think. grandma kris is the baby in that photo as well as the one below it. she is the adorable blonde in the third photo and the ham in the last one.

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the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is that it's tradition.

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is that if you use pre-made graham cracker crusts, it takes exactly the same amount of effort to make 4 pies as it does to make one. so always make the full recipe.

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is that when you look in the fridge and see FOUR PIES, you feel rich.

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is knowing that if someone were to drop by unexpectedly, you could say, "please come in. i have pie." and they would think you are awesome. even if you are still in your pajamas.

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is that when you wake up too early and can't get back to sleep, at least you have something to write about.

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is that it signals the start of the holiday season. and girls in red dresses.

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is how cute are these mini pies my sister made?

the thing about pumpkin chiffon pie is it's my 1950s entrepreneurial grandmother's recipe. my favorite vintage photo of her + the recipe are right here.

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national family volunteer saturday 2011

national family volunteer saturday is the saturday before thanksgiving here in the US. my friend shirley organizes a trash cleanup of a local streamway. i think this is our third or fourth year participating? it seems sort of a funny thing to look forward to but the kids really do, and every year i think about capitalizing on their enthusiasm for wearing blue disposable gloves and starting our own regular (weekly? monthly?) trash pickup around the neighborhood. it should be an easy thing to do--thirty minutes here or there and very little in the way of supplies or planning. maybe this is the year i will actually follow through.

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awesome homemade caramel corn

this caramel corn is light (ha, in texture not calories) and crisp, and you can really taste the butter and brown sugar. serve it in little brown kraft paper bags for a party. or eat it right out of the bowl while wearing your pajamas + watching dan in real life again. that's cool too.

the recipe makes two large cookie sheets. you could cut it in half if you like, or make the whole recipe and store some of it for later. up to you.

the original recipe is here, but this is how i do it:

Caramel Popcorn

1) preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

2) pop 2 bags of microwave popcorn.

3) pour contents of bags onto 2 cookie sheets (the kind with sides), taking care to remove any unpopped kernels.

4) in a large pot over medium heat, melt 2 sticks of butter. add 2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 cup corn syrup, and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt.

5) bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.

6) as soon as mixture starts to boil, stop stirring. set the timer and boil for 4 minutes.

7) remove caramel from heat. add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon vanilla. stir to combine well.

8) drizzle 1/2 of caramel over each pan of popcorn. stir to coat.

9) bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

10) enjoy!

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another day

between the godzilla of stomach bugs and potty training, i think i have filled the tub somewhere in the neighborhood of 16-20 times since saturday. that's an average of 4 baths a day!

tonight k will be on duty so i can host book club. we'll be discussing the happiness project and eating caramel popcorn.

this morning i read the scripture, "charity never faileth" (from the book of mormon). it was exactly the guidance i needed for a particular challenge i'm having:

you can't go wrong when you act with love. acting with love is always the right answer.

now to put it into practice.

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playing swords

this photo doesn't do them justice, but i promised i would show you their dad-made wooden knife collection. not pictured but equally awesome: the battle ax. (commence lame wife jokes now.)

[photo by k]

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thoughts on holiday shopping

are you thinking about gifts for the holidays yet? it still feels early to me, but i made my first purchase for the kids this morning. i'm not much of a shopper usually--i get overwhelmed by crowds and choices (not to mention tiny-house-more-stuff syndrome, and the expense) so i tend to avoid it as much as possible. then the holidays come around and there's all this (self-induced) pressure to buybuybuy! just.the.right.thing. i confess. i can get a bit...crazy.

to try to keep the consumerism + my stress level at a minimum, i strive to abide by the following guidelines:

1) children may ask santa for ONE thing.

2) when shopping for children use this rule of thumb: one thing they want, one thing they need (our tradition is new shoes), one thing i made, one thing to read.

3) shop online as much as possible.

4) buy the grandparents the same thing every year.

5) avoid shipping costs + trips to the post office by sending gift cards to out-of-towners.

do you have any other anti-stress holiday shopping tips? i'd love to hear them.

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