A classic(al) day

We went to a Classical Conversations Open House today. I'd never heard of CC before moving here; it seems to be more popular in the southeast. Many moms said terrific things about our local program; I later found out (sometime last year) that the director attended our church.

Since we began homeschooling seven years ago, I have constantly second-guessed my efforts. "Second-guessed" may not be quite the right word. Evaluated? Critiqued? My thoughts run: Am I doing enough to prepare for middle school? high school? college? life? Am I using the right curriculum? Are my kids appropriately challenged? On and on it goes. What works one year may not be a good fit the following year.

With Holly beginning high school in the fall, I've been thinking a lot lately about how our high school will look. AM I doing enough? IS she challenged? Is SHE doing enough? How can we make better use of our time? How can we make the best use of our time?

CC held some appeal to me. A string of academically rigorous classes in a small group, one day a week, with a tutor . . . exposition . . . debate . . . research . . . rhetoric. (I'm almost getting excited all over again.) I attended a parent-information meeting last week, and we took the opportunity to watch the classes in action today.

CC is a great program. I liked what I saw. Holly appreciated it. The classes were relaxed; the teachers were engaging. And I was totally unprepared for what I learned.

We are doing so much of this already at home. What they were learning; how they were learning; their assignments--WE DO THIS!!!! It was an incredible affirmation for me. Holly saw that she can easily compete with these other students. I'm encouraged to continue with what's been working, all my second-guessing included. And best of all, we don't have to commit an entire day each week and a load of money to achieve this. We haven't made a final decision yet, but it was quite a revealing day.

Trevor even joined in the fun. He was expecting to be in the classroom with us (with dire threats to not disrupt). He was invited to attend a younger class, hanging out with a good friend of his for the morning.

What a morning!

We stayed in town and went to our usual Chinese buffet for lunch.

Notice Trev's combination in the background:
egg drop soup, fried calamari, and a donut.

We hit the mall.

What if I had eight of these boys?

"Walk faster, and she might stop taking pictures."

On the way home, we stopped at the library. I guess I don't get here enough.


Which reminds me. I need to post my decision to put away most of our curriculum for the next few weeks, just getting back to learning LIFE.

WHAT a great day!!

Weekly menu

YOYO (You're On Your Own)
breakfast: scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, turkey bacon (bleck!), strawberries
??
Dad's choice
pork tenderloin, browned butter rice, something green?
chicken mango sausage, rice and beans, something healthy
chicken?

Lunch (with or for):
filet o'fish sandwiches
smoothies
grilled PB&J
parmesan pesto things
tortilla rollups w/meat, lettuce, tomato, dressing

On the back burner:
Renita's Funnel Cakes!!!
chicken fajitas
Laura S.'s chicken pot pie (when I'm feeling particularly brave)
meatloaf (ground beef in freezer)
hot dog ideas from SHS! (link only available to SHS members)
Chef Greg's hash browns

Sunday!

What can you say when Biblemen show up in church . . . it's definitely a good thing.


Robert had coffee duty in the Cafe--which means we have a valid excuse to sit around and drink coffee. (Otherwise, we do it anyway.) The Cafe has been so successful that we are expanding it, doubling its size by breaking the wall into an adjoining classroom, in March.

It's also another excuse to sneak photos of unsuspecting kids

One of the women at church makes amazing, AMAZING homemade pastries. We've enjoyed her cinnamon rolls and danish in the past. This week, it was homemade eclairs--lemon or chocolate filling. My original plan was to share one with Holly. It didn't work out that way though.



Trevor had a friend come over for the afternoon. You'd never guess what they did.


I'm always sure to ask kids if they have a tendency to get carsick. So far, it's not been a problem. Just thinking about the boys playing DS, in the dark, over the hilly and curvy roads . . . I'm already getting a headache.

Taking Trev's friend home--DS is more fun in the dark

A lovely Sunday, a lovely way to kick off the week. :)

Random glance through the week

Trevor went to a friend's birthday party on Monday. The boys played video games, ate pizza, played more video games, and, well, you get the picture. (No pun intended!)

* * *

Trevor has rediscovered his Dangerous Book for Boys and is happily creating weapons. (Not like that's a recurring theme around here or anything.)

* * *

Holly, once again doing school work. Poor kid, we never let her have any fun.

* * *

In a momentary lapse of judgment, I trusted my GPS to get me to a meeting in Roanoke. At night. I made a fatal mistake in stopping at the grocery store shortly before my destination. The GPS would not reconnect with the satellite, flashing "Locating Satellites" at me for ten minutes, as I frantically drove up and down streets. Ultimately, I was left to GASP!! pull over and actually LOOK at a paper MAP.

$%&*# GPS.

Fortunately, I was only five minutes late.

* * *

Odd things seen around Stickville:


Apparently, nothing runs like a Deere.

* * *

And lastly (I SAID this was random), I found this photo of me.


It should be perfectly clear why I still have a fear of being on the other side of the camera. Even back then, I was terrified of having my picture taken. The school photographers were SCARY, for Pete's sake. They always wanted me to do something weird and unnatural.

Like smile.

Career options

Perhaps I'm a little optimistic.

Trevor ditched school, instead enhancing his guns and heading out into the woods to play sniper.



It could be really good. Right?

Weekly menu

Greek soup
Dad's choice
bbq pork sandwiches, pasta salad, Orange Jello Salad
YOYO
Orange Chicken (found on Heather's blog) (yes, we are having this again)
Shredded Beef Tacos
Chicken Caesar salad, bread

Lunch (with or for):
filet o'fish sandwiches
smoothies
grilled PB&J
parmesan pesto things
tortilla rollups w/meat, lettuce, tomato, dressing

On the back burner:
Renita's Funnel Cakes!!!
chicken fajitas
Laura S.'s chicken pot pie (when I'm feeling particularly brave)
meatloaf (ground beef in freezer)
hot dog ideas from SHS! (link only available to SHS members)
pork tenderloin (in freezer)
chicken mango sausage (in freezer), and rice and beans

Oh, deer, and a bunch of turkeys

Clarification: I am NOT talking about my family here.

We enjoy seeing a variety of animals out here. To tell the truth, we probably saw more wildlife living in suburbia--deer, bear, foxes, and coyote to name a few. A lot of what we see here is dead on the side of the road--deer, possum, snakes, and the occasional groundhog. The dead skunks are a sure sign of spring.

Oh, we even have live animals here, we just don't see them that often. Robert and the kids had a bear cub run out in front of the truck last summer. We often see turtles meandering across the road, and I'm quite sure it was a baby copperhead Robert spared last spring too. Yep. I'm pretty oblivious--and noisy--when I go outside, and the most I'll usually catch is the sound of deer crashing off into the trees. So getting these shots over the past few days was a nice treat.


There were at least five deer, but most of them were tucked in woods, not too great for photos.


Holly got these guys a few days ago. Uh, girls.


I joke that the turkeys would look great coming out of my oven, that Trevor needs to work on that bow and arrow stuff.


But I am just joking. The only was I want to eat my turkey is out of a big plastic wrapping from the grocery store, sans all the feathers and guts, thank you. And I won't even think about the deer!

Recipe -- Orange Chicken

Thanks to Heather for posting the link to this recipe. My family devoured it (even calling dibs on the leftovers for lunch the next day). I couldn't believe that I could fry the chicken up so nicely and have the whole thing turn out so lovely and good! I made a few slight changes from the original.


Orange Chicken

2 lbs. chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 t. garlic powder
1/2 c. of flour
1/2 c. of cornstarch
3 eggs, beaten with a little milk
oil

Mix cornstarch, flour and garlic powder together. Dip chicken pieces in the egg and then the flour mixture. Fry in hot oil over medium high until golden brown. Do this in several batches to keep chicken from sticking together. Drain on paper towels. Place chicken in a casserole dish.

Sauce:
1-1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. ketchup
1/2 c. of water
2 T. soy sauce

While chicken is cooking, prepare sauce. Mix all ingredients together in a pan and bring to a boil. Stir gently until sugar dissolves.

Pour sauce over chicken. Cover and bake 30-40 mins. at 350 until chicken is cooked through.

(Yes, there is no orange juice or other orange flavoring. The "orange" comes from the coloring.)

More things you don't want to hear -- SPIDER WARNING!!!!!!

"Mom! You gotta come look at this bug on the wall!"



Um. No, I don't. But thanks for sharing.

Holly's Buddy

Holly began riding at a new barn several months ago. She's been getting great instruction, but she has no passion for these new horses. She's made the decision to return to her old barn.



She went back on Sunday afternoon and rode her favorite horse, Buddy. She had a wonderful time; there's a lot of joy in returning to a place that you love.



And Buddy's pretty happy about that too.

Recipe - Nacho Dogs

Due to an abundance of hot dogs in my freezer, I recently put out a plea for hot dog recipes to my loopy friends. Renita passed on a link from Food Network, which included for this great Bobby Flay recipe. What really convinced me was the number of great reviews people had posted. That, and a desperate need for something a little different and new.


The complete and real recipe can be found here, but this is how I made them:

Nacho Dogs

Guacamole:
2 avocados, mashed
1 jalapeno, finely diced
3 T. red onion, finely diced
1 lime, juiced
1 T. oil
3 T. chopped cilantro leaves
salt
pepper

Combine all ingredients; mix well; set aside.


Salsa:
I used jarred salsa in the fridge.

Hot Dogs:
8 hot dogs
8 buns
1-1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
handful of pickled jalapenos, finely diced
crushed tortilla chips

Grill hot dogs to desired doneness. Place hotdogs in buns, top with cheese, jalapenos, guacamole, salsa and tortilla chips.

Trevor and I loved it. Robert and Holly were much more dubious, pulled ketchup and mustard
out of the fridge, and ate their guac with chips, separate from their dogs. But the nice thing about this recipe is that everyone can fix it their own way. I'll definitely be making these again; I'd take them over regular hot dogs any day!

Day trip

We had an appointment up in Charlottesville last week and made a day trip of it. Actually, since it's a three hour drive, we didn't have a choice.

Since I began my day with a lot of coffee, our first stop was just 30 mins. from home.



There are few customers this early in the morning, and it's the only time a dozen employees will ASK if you need help. I smile and say no, dash back past them 60 seconds later, of course without buying a thing.

It's a little embarrassing. But not as embarrassing as the alternative.

It was a gorgeous day for a drive.


After taking 20 minutes to park in the parking garage, we got to the dr.'s office six minutes late. As a penalty, they made us wait another hour longer to see the dr.


Four-plus hours after we'd left home, the kids were starving. Incredibly, I had a few crackers in my purse, which I threw at them in desperation.


We finally made it out of there and hit Chili's for lunch. This is one of the closest Chili's to Stickville, so it was a planned highlight of our day.


Our next stop was Kohl's. This is also one of the closest Kohl's. Trevor made out especially well. Holly got a few things, and Robert found a shirt. I got a rock.


By the time we left Kohl's, a storm had rolled in. Some of us were ecstatic to see that it was beginning to snow. Not me though, as we were 2 hours from home.


It was definitely my lucky day. As we headed south, the snow quickly turned to rain. (This meant that everyone else was disappointed.)


I guess it really was my lucky day. We didn't even need to stop at Home Depot on the way back home. And the kids decided it was lucky too. Between Charlottesville, and my working three days last week, we canceled school completely. And they got new clothes and Chilis thrown in there too!

Weekly Menu

No menu posted last week. As a result, we did not eat. This did not work out well for the rest of my family, so I'll have to continue posting menus and cooking dinner again.

Dad's choice
Pork Chops with Beef Gravy, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, salad
Orange Chicken (found on Heather's blog)
Dad's choice
Chicken Caesar salad, bread
breakfast burritos
spaghetti

Lunch (with or for):
filet o'fish sandwiches
smoothies
grilled PB&J
parmesan pesto things
tortilla rollups w/meat, lettuce, tomato, dressing

On the back burner:
Renita's Funnel Cakes!!!
chicken fajitas
Laura S.'s chicken pot pie (when I'm feeling particularly brave)
meatloaf (ground beef in freezer)
hot dog ideas from SHS! (link only available to SHS members)
pork tenderloin (in freezer)
chicken mango sausage (in freezer), and rice and beans
Greek soup

Seen around (another) town

Yes. 'Nuff said.

Hunh?!?!

Virginia Tech Director of Admissions, discussing the effect of the economy on college admissions:

"Even today, what they might can afford may not be what they can afford from day one when students have to deposit."
full text

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