Healthy Thanksgiving

We had a fairly small gathering at my parents' house for Thanksgiving: our family, my parents, and my brother. We ate a fairly healthy dinner. I made a cranberry relish and also a cranberry-chipotle sauce for the turkey. Below, is a picture of my wonderful Pumpkin Pie Cake.

I made a King Arthur Flour recipe of gingerbread cookies. My dad bit into one and said, "They taste like gingerbread!" He said he was surprised because most "gingerbread" cookies are not very flavorful.

They were actually much tastier before they were smothered in icing and sprinkles!

I hope you all had great Thanksgivings!

Wordless Wednesday

Pixie Wood

When I am super-stressed and overwhelmed by all the things I should be doing, I start new projects!

I would like to introduce my daughter, Nutmeg, to you all, and invite you to the premiere of her new blog, Pixie Wood. Nutmeg plans to welcome you to her busy world of school, friends, swimming, dance and church. She also intends to review books and also post some stories she writes. I hope you enjoy Nutmeg's blog!

Why not Young Earth? I'll tell you....

I use the Apologia Elementary Science series. I take quite a bit of ribbing about this. I do not teach my child that to be a Christian, to believe in the God of the Bible, one must believe in the Young Earth theory. I believe it is an intellectually dishonest theory. Young Earthers claim that because Christians believe God "did it," they can definitively know "how" He did it. That seems presumptuous on an huge scale. They have their theory and make all the evidence fall in line. Well, that's what the proponents of evolution do also! In our home, we observe nature and give thanks to God for it. We do not hitch our wagon to THEORIES!

Why do I use Apologia? Well, the elementary series is beautiful, and I like the scope and depth.

All this is to introduce you to, if you are not already familiar with him, Gerald Schroeder.

http://www.geraldschroeder.com/

Now, I do not pretend to understand astro-physics or whatever it is. But the little glimpses I have had of his work intrigue me. If you are at all concerned with the dating of the planet or the universe, I would strongly encourage you to check out his work. I can not do it justice, but I will tell you it has something to do with the age of the universe in the center of the universe. He believes the Big Bang was the moment of creation. He has some formula about the expansion of the universe and the time distortion. If you divide that by the age scientists give the earth (or maybe it is the other way around) you get an age of 6 days for the center of the universe. Does that make sense? I understand it if I cross my eyes and squint! Go look him up. It is an intriguing idea....

(What I find intriguing is that a man in my husband's Sunday School class did the math IN HIS HEAD when my husband tossed out the age of the earth and the formula for time/expansion! And this man makes great huumus. Amazing!)

Am I homeschooling Nutmeg?

It is no real secret that I breastfed my children for a good long while, too long for some folks. I was told that "it is not about you." When people give me a funny look about homeschooling, I wonder if they are thinking, "it's not about you, Michele." Well, it is. They both are/were. Our family is on a journey together. It's about all of us. I teach my kids all day. I teach them when they see me reading or looking a word up in the OED. (My children think it is normal to drag out the OED in everyday conversations.) We are in it together. Take this morning for instance. I pulled over on the side of the road to get a closer look at a puffball fungus. I was fascinated. Nutmeg was not. I had to drag her out of the car in 45 degree weather and demand she look at the blackened, warty mass on the side of the road. Now that was not all about me. SHE pointed out the puffball to me earlier in the week (when it was a lovely, creamy sphere atop the dewey grass.) She asked what it was, I researched, and I told her. I told her over its wizened, rotten-looking corpse. But she started it.

Wordless Wednesday

Crackbook

I really have been neglecting my blog. And my cross stitch. I got sucked into the Facebook, or Crackbook, vortex about a week ago. I have been reconnecting with people from high school, college and my brief stint in grad school. I have become addicted to "Flair," which are virtual buttons with catchy sayings like the buttons I used to pin on my jean jacket all those years ago. I have realized the problem is not that those friends are more interesting than my friends in the blogosphere, but rather it is easier to write a one-liner than a thought out blog post. After all, homeschool folks have looked at a grammar book recently. But I do miss my pretty blog and looking at everyone else's. So , I'm back.

The big event this week was Nutmeg falling from a foot bridge into a little side creek at the river. She fell because our insane dog rushed across the foot bridge at the same time. She was uninjured and fell into mud instead of rock. She fell about 5', and we were so traumetized, no one has mentioned Madeline's fictional fall from the bridge! I am happy to know that my mommy instincts are genuine, and I really will jump in after my child to save her. Even if the water is cold and the muddy bottom suspicious! Haven't you had those mommy fantasies in which calamity strikes and suddenly you have superpowers? Or at least suddenly know martial arts? ;)

It's good to be back.

Great. I'm jumping on the Lead-in-Rival-Crock-Pots Train.

You can find out about it if you do some searching. Here's one to start with

http://insightfulnana.com/tag/hamilton-beach/

Mimi!

Mimi,

My phone charge went out when we were talking!

And you know you can click on the pictures to enlarge them!

I love you,

Halloween Post 2

Here are my brother's Rice Creepies with my Halloween Tree.

I wonder how many candy wrappers are hiding in the bushes!

Be sure to check out the next post for more Halloween fun!

Halloween with the Fam

Last night we trick-or-treated in my hometown. I cannot remember the last time I trick-or-treated with my brother and sister. But we went out with our parents, our girls and two husbands. We all saw old faces from our school days. Here are a couple of pictures of the girls (and Eric, Nutmeg's and Chipmunk's uncle and Babycakes' daddy) on the old front porch. In years past, we always had obiligatory pictures made here with dates or before setting off on some adventure like graduation or Senior Trip.

Here are my siblings with Babycakes- I know, people think Eric is our other brother!

Here is my sister trick-or-treating with her nieces. I had to fight my brother and brother-in-law to trick-or-treat with MY niece! You can actually see bits and pieces of the whole Fam in this photo - except the photographer ;) !