There Are Zebras on the Ceiling

With apologies to Jack Prelutsky . . .

There are zebras on the ceiling dancing upside-down ballet.

A giraffe is in the foyer, and it will not go away.

There's a chicken in the kitchen playing checkers with a quail,

and the turtle's running races with a very speedy snail.

My father's growing feathers,

and my mom is ten feet tall.

A weasel and a wallaby are whistling on the wall.

The cheese has turned to butter, and the butter's turned to bread.

The tub is full of buzzards, and a bear is in my bed.

The furniture is shrinking, and the den has disappeared.

My sister's sprouting antlers, and the puppy has a beard.

A marmoset is marching with a mallard and a mouse.

It's just another normal Monday -- I just love it at my house!

Weekly menu

Dinner:

pizza

tacos

YOYO

pork with lemon and caper sauce, couscous, Caesar salad

BBQd Chicken Divine, watermelon salad, sweet potato fries, fried cabbage

breakfast (eggs, sausage, hash browns)

shrimp scampi, rice, _______

"seafood night" -- not sure what this is, but Robert promised Trevor


Lunch (with or for):
strawberry soup
smoothies
grilled PJ&J

On the back burner:
grilled flank steak
fondue
galoush
Molasses Crinkle cookies from Strawberry Shortcake Murder
will it ever get cold enough to make Emily's Tortilla Soup?

Quote of the Day

Trevor: Mom! This is the first Starbucks we've been to in Virginia!

Mom: That's because we're not IN Virginia, dear.



Sure enough, we're back in North Carolina. But just to take Robert's mom to the airport.


New shopping. Target. Panera. Cold Stone. Starbucks. It was JUST like being in Colorado Springs. (To be fair, we have all these stores in Roanoke, but we haven't actually been to them yet.)

We also stopped in Office Depot. My three 6' bookshelves are no longer enough to hold my curriculum-junkie books. I have several boxes left to unpack and haven't found cheap bookshelves that match my basement decor. But I did one better, finding a matching bookshelf on clearance for $25.

I think I might be getting to like NC a little!

But only a little. I was v-e-r-y happy to get back home. Stickville has won my heart. No contest.

:)

And this is why . . .

. . . they're called the Blue Ridge Mountains.


Incredibly beautiful.


Not Pikes Peak, but stunning to me just the same. God's creation . . .



90 degrees on Tuesday. 60 degrees on Thursday. Fall has rushed in, and I don't think I'll see summer again anytime soon. Every time I drive this way, I vow to come out by myself early in the morning (in my case, before 9:00 a.m.) just to take more pictures.

Maybe these will make up for that ghastly picture in the previous post, lol.

Wendy's weirdo

I just happened to see this boy (not my son) at Wendy's a week ago. While he was showing his mom, I got the chance to take this pic.

What were we thinking?

We attended a homeowners' meeting last night. Our street has an association strictly for maintaining our road. Since the meeting was at our neighbors' house across the street, I figured we'd walk over.

It's almost 1/4 mile away. Uphill. And it was hot. Neither of these are ideal for Robert, so it took us a few minutes longer, and we were the last people there. (Notice we continue to make these good impressions.)

The meeting ended at 9:30 and everyone left. Except us. We're really not the die-hard, never-leave, worst-neighbors-ever--for several minutes, our host was physically blocking the door as we continued to overstay our welcome chat. When we finally left, we joked about how dark it was outside.

HA-HA. NOT FUNNY.

1000 feet of sloped driveway. Winding through trees. Pitch black outside. The only saving grace was that it was paved.

Close your eyes and try it. Add one big scaredy-cat wearing tall sandals, and one whose balance is not the best. As you gingerly lean forward, the only way you know if you're on the road is when you step off of it.

Myspace Codes: MyNiceSpace.com

Next time, we're driving.

Curriculum! (Part 3)

This is one of our bigger changes this year. It's also the area in which I'm making the biggest cutbacks. Both kids are studying Medieval history, and this is the first year in which they will use different history spines.

We've used the Story of the World series for several years. Trevor tagged along the first three years, last year fully participating. He'll continue with this, and we'll look to the activity book for additional reading suggestions and activities. Story of the World also ties in geography, writing through narration, and a timeline. I mesh in art and music history/appreciation when appropriate (or interesting!), along with math and science history. I like Story of the World because it's a great spine and gives me a lot of flexibility in how I choose to use it. I can drastically tailor it to meet the needs of either or both of my kids, or a short week, or a week without extra reading materials--or I can bulk it up, spending more time on a subject when I choose, etc.

It's written for an elementary level, and last year, we bulked it up to remain challenging for Holly. It worked okay, but there were other considerations this year. She's read, or listened to, so many books over the years (several hundred each school year). She remembers almost everything she's read. Our new library selection is much more limited, and Holly's focus this year is on other subjects. It was the perfect time to make a switch. Since I am a curriculum junkie, I had some ideas on what to consider, and I chose Beautiful Feet's Medieval History for junior high.

It was a choice that still surprises me. I've looked at this before, and I was not drawn to it. We've v-e-r-y loosely followed their History of the Horse--probably just reading one book, lol. But I liked that it continued history in the same manner as SOTW, reading, writing about it, keeping a notebook, making maps, etc. While it's a literature based program, the reading is far less intense than what she's done before. The book selections are excellent. I ended up buying most of them to keep in our home library (since I can't get them easily at my public library!). Beautiful Feet is definitely a good fit for our school, for Holly, for this year.

The only thing is that we haven't actually started BF yet. We spent the first month of school finishing up SOTW Vol. 1, and Holly's moved ahead in Vol. 2, until she catches up to where Beautiful Feet picks up. I guess I should say 'Beautiful Feet will definitely be a good fit for us.' I hope. LOL.

Taco Seasoning

***UPDATE*** Choose this BETTER TACOS recipe instead!

We had taco salad last night, but I didn't have any taco seasoning mix. I found this online, and it was great--so great that we'll be using this instead of a pre-packaged mix from now on!

TACO SEASONING

1 T. chili powder
1/4 t. garlic powder
1/4 t. onion powder
1/4 t. red pepper flakes
1/4 t. oregano
1/2 t. paprika
1-1/2 t. cumin
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper


Add to meat, along with 3/4 to 1 c. water; simmer until liquid is halved, or whenever you think it's ready.

I found the recipe to be flexible; I used garlic salt instead of garlic powder, omitted the paprika entirely (couldn't find mine!), used dried onion instead of onion powder, and cut the salt by more than half.

Quick update

As Jean is considering the possibilities of moving here, Robert has taken her to a few retirement centers that are relatively close. Since they've been gone, we've managed to get in three days of school this week. (Yay!)

They were home today, which also was our first true day of fall weather. We went on a walk, and other than that, there's not a lot of exciting stuff to do here. :)


We went to town in the afternoon and ate dinner at the Moonshine Capital's Egyptian-owned Italian restaurant. It was packed (really!).


Afterwards, we took Jean to get a tattoo.


Okay, not really, but we did laugh about the possibilities.

We came home tonight and watched Evan Almighty. We'd heard good things about it for quite a while, and this movie lived up to its great reviews. We all enjoyed it, and I definitely recommend it as a family movie!

Weekly menu

Dinner:

Robert's mom is here. She tries to eat vegan, or vegetarian, or organic. We don't. This is a week for Rob to juggle meal planning, lol, and I'll try to carry it out!

tuna salad

YOYO

taco salad

dining out

Tortellini Salad, pitas and hummus

???

"seafood night" -- not sure what this is, but Robert promised Trevor



Lunch (with or for):
strawberry soup
smoothies
grilled PJ&J

On the back burner:
grilled flank steak
fondue
galoush
watermelon salad (I really want to try this, can I still find watermelon--cheap?)
Molasses Crinkle cookies from Strawberry Shortcake Murder
will it ever get cold enough to make Emily's Tortilla Soup?
Chicken Divine

HOT, Hot, hot

"Can you believe she brought the camera AGAIN?"

We've moved in the midst of a drought. And a heat wave. Roanoke hit or broke 15 records for heat in August, both in daily highs and highest nighttime lows. We have yet to see a day with a high "only" in the 60s. When it's really hot, we have a sulphur smell to our well water, I think it has to do with the iron levels in the soil, I don't remember. More often than not, we still run the A/C at night. This week, we continue to set record highs in the upper 80s-90 temps.

In looking back at our Colorado pictures, we frequently had our first snows in October. The first freeze was last night. In Virginia, I'm still wearing shorts (at least at home, haha) and tank tops. I'm loving this. Robert doesn't do so well with the heat.


Holly and I continue to take our evening walks, although we sometimes eat dinner too late to get outside before it's dark. But most of the trees still haven't made a drastic change.


We often walk with our new friends--two neighborhood dogs. (I was hoping to get some good pics, but the dogs seem camera shy.) Maggie is medium sized, black and white. She became our friend first, coming down her driveway to meet us, eventually sticking with us for a bit. The other dog was a little scarier, weird looking, with a big fat neck and long legs. His bark sounds like an elephant seal. I think his name is Uba; Trevor calls him "Lumpy," a good fit. Lumpy's more reserved, but Lumpy and Maggie have both walked all the way down the street and back with us. We look forward to their company now.

Lumpy doesn't look as scary in photos.

These pictures are from the other night. It doesn't look anything like fall. And you can't beat the scenery.

I love the garden here.


Some of the houses are visible from the street.

And some aren't.

We walk with the neighbor's dogs when we can. I'd worry too much about bringing my own dog, he's a bit hyper and doesn't listen well.


I enjoy walking with Holly, and I treasure this time with just the two of us. Trevor wants to get in on this too, and if I can get back to my regular wake-up schedule, he and I will start walking together in the mornings. We can take advantage of the weather.

Back home again.

And the heat goes on.

End of the never-ending nightmare?

You know how you can have a bad dream over and over? It comes when you least expect it. Eventually, if you plan and choose a different strategy, you can react differently in the dream and change the ending.

That's how I feel about North Carolina. Our first two trips involved Furnitureland, the door of which we will never darken again.

I was not thrilled to learn that Robert's mom was flying into the Greensboro, NC airport. (She saved $250 on her airfare, so it was understandable.) I strategized again, planning what we could do while we were there, being sure to stay faaaar away from anything resembling home decor.

We stayed close to the airport, in the beautiful town of Oak Ridge: new build; new money; new Chili's. It was very nice inside--new--the first Chili's we've ever seen that didn't have faded 1970's photos of chili cookoffs covering the walls.


Robert and Trevor found giant pinecones and had a pinecone fight in the parking lot.


Jean's plane was on time, so we raced to the airport. There was loads of new construction, orange cones and signage. A little nervous I headed for "paid parking." I shouldn't have been worried--we put a quarter in a parking meter and walked 20 feet to the terminal. This is a town that is planning far into the future. The place was huge and completely deserted. It was 7:00 p.m., and the airport shops were closing. Robert and I panicked briefly when we saw "Winston Salem Regional Airport" engraved on the fountain--since we were supposed to be at Piedmont Triad International Airport. But apparently they are the same thing. (Go figure.)


Yay! Jean's here!


We were 70 miles from home. I had a choice, drive unfamiliar roads in the dark and worry about hitting a deer, or worry about getting carsick. I suppose I'll do both eventually, but this time I chose to drive.

It was all in the strategy. But I'm not at the point where I'm looking forward to going back next week!

We're expecting!

COMPANY!!!

(Oh, come ON.)

Robert's mom will get in tonight, staying for a week. It will be fun to see her and to have someone visit our house. This is a totally different set up than we had before. She'll be staying in Trevor's room, and we'll put a bed up for Trevor in Holly's room. The first few nights should go fine with the kids, but the rest of the week might get interesting, to say the least.

We've been here for eight weeks, and we've adjusted pretty quickly. But some things could take Mom by surprise.

• The sulphur smell that will hit her when she turns on the shower.

• Will she notice the gray water? (We've not had rain for two weeks, and the color and smell is common.)

• How about the brand new tub that's already orange-clay stained on the bottom? (Or maybe that's iron?)

• The closest she'll find to "organic" food might be by the creek in my backyard.
  

• Will she think it's fun to haul our garbage out to the county dumpsters?

• I hope she doesn't get carsick on these curvy backroads. They're a true test of an iron stomach.

• She'll get to see a lot of nature--about half in the form of roadkill.

• I can't wait to take her to town to see Ida's Salon of Beauty and Live Bait Shop.
  

On the upside, at least Robert's no longer parking his car on the grass (or where the grass would be if we had some). :)






P.S. That thing about Ida's--it's a joke.

Book Review - The Old German Baptist Brethren by Charles Thompson

This was a very interesting book to me as it focuses on the German Baptist history of our county. Written in 2006, the author's great-great-grandparents settled here for religious reasons in the late 1700s.

The book traces the Brethren from early 1700s Germany, where they were not allowed to worship freely. Recruited by William Penn, they settled in Germantown outside of Philadelphia. Because of their similarities to the Amish, I assumed they had the same roots, but no tie exists.

At the time of the Revolutionary war, the Brethren faced persecution from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and others for their refusal to fight, and for expressing gratitude to the British Crown for allowing them free worship in the colonies. Due to the persecution, many left Pennsylvania, coming down the "Great Wagon Road." Also known as the "Carolina Road," part of the trail runs through a nearby park.


A doctrinal split in the late 1800s eventually led to the construction of this church. It's on a main road, and we drive by it often. It's a large church, lovely, and no sign marks the building.


We are the number two dairy producing county in the state. Most of the dairies here are owned by the German Baptists.

Following the church's history in our county, the book goes on to the agricultural operations of the German Baptists. This county has experienced a lot of growth over the last decade, and many of the farms have closed or are currently threatened. Like the Amish, many farmers' children have turned to other occupations. The second half of the book contains mostly interviews with German Baptists and/or dairy farmers, who orally recount their home and work life, and how they are affected by modernization and growth.

I felt a little guilty, as our house sits on part of what used to be one of the area's large dairy farms. I enjoyed reading of places I know, some people's names I recognize, and areas with which I am familiar. Knowing more about a community helps me to feel that we belong.

No one else would find this book very interesting, but I'm glad that I found it. It was a great read!

The finished cake!

I thought the candles added a nice touch, since there were 13 of them! (As I look at the photo, though, I wonder if they should have been pushed down all the way into the cake so just the letters were sticking out?)

Holly did not want to do anything for her birthday--so we didn't, and that included taking the day off of school. Her presents included Brady Bunch Season 5, Full House Season 1, and a Webkinz. She spent the day in an electronic haze, lol. Robert, at Holly's request, made chile rellanos for dinner. I was able to ordered the chiles from amazon.

* * *

I've always wanted to be a Brady. Season 5 was the BEST . . . Marcia and Greg's driving contest; Peter and his fake mustache; Greg accidentally dying his hair orange. Classics!!

I think we need to get Partridge Family next. I have their Greatest Hits CD, and my poor kids know all the songs. It's their version of torture. It couldn't be my singing.

In the News

No time to post tonight, but here's an interesting link from Fox News:

Nearly 1 in 5 Democrats Say World Will Be Better Off if U.S. Loses War

(To quote my friend Chris,) kinda makes you go hum.

Birthday Cakes of Holly's

Holly's birthday is tomorrow, and we made her birthday cake tonight. I made her first birthday cake for her first birthday. My sister was visiting from California, and Robert's family was coming over to celebrate. I bought a brand new teddy bear cake pan, and the cake was a complete disaster, sticking to the pan, unsalvageable. This was obvious early on, and I was able to run to King Soopers to buy a perfect cake. It's no surprise that it took me many years to attempt to bake another birthday cake. Sesame Street cake, Tweety cake, even a McDonald's cake . . . there have been a lot of store bought cakes.

Four years ago, I finally gave it another shot. Although I have a few tried and true cake recipes, we weren't taking any chances and used a box mix instead. White cake with sparkles inside, white frosting with fireworks-looking decorations sticking on the outside . . . the perfect cake! (And I didn't dig out the picture to post.)

I was on a roll. The next year, she had a bowling birthday party. I made this cake from Family Fun Magazine--pretty easy (and isn't it TOO cute?!)--a perfect cake!


When Holly turned 11, she wanted a store bought cake--she'd seen the perfect cake at the grocery store and couldn't wait to see if it tasted as good as it looked.


Last year, we tried De'Etta's famous ice cream cake. Can I say it was a piece of cake to make? Of course it helped that I wasn't the one making most of it . . . a perfect cake.


Even then, Holly liked it so much that she planned to have this perfect cake again for her next birthday.

Oreo cookies for the crust; two half gallons of ice cream; candy to layer in between the ice cream; your choice of topping.


We blended 30 Oreos in the food processor. I could've added melted butter but didn't and pressed it into a springform pan.


Meanwhile, Holly had the chocolate ice cream softened to a milkshake consistency. We poured it over the crust, and she smoothed it evenly on top. Instead of roughly chopping the peppermint patties, we put them in the food processor (I was lazy).


She spread those on top of the ice cream, and we put it in the freezer to harden a little. (Along the way here, Trevor grabbed the springform release, asking, "What's this?" Just to be safe, I wrapped the bottom in aluminum foil, lol.)


She softened the mint chocolate chip ice cream.


She spread that over the candy layer and put it in the freezer to set for an hour. It might have been better if we'd waited until tomorrow to use the hard shell, but I didn't think of it until after she put it on tonight. It went back in the freezer until tomorrow night.


Holly picks the flavors. She enjoys making the cake. I get to eat the candy and watch someone else work in the kitchen. And it's definitely another perfect cake!

Quick Tuesday

Trevor played archaeologist today as we wind up our studies on Ancient Rome. I put a pot in a bag and Holly smashed it against a tree. It was Trevor's job to put it back together.



It was a great day to sit outside!


I sat at the DMV for almost an hour to get my new license. It's sure a different way to get a feel for a town, listening to everyone! Some were chatting nicely to strangers, others complaining. I couldn't believe the lengthy--and loud-- cell phone conversations that some people had! I talked with a 70 year old man who had a brand new giant tattoo covering his lower arm. And my (license) picture turned out okay, isn't that the important part?

I dashed to WalMart and stopped at the deli. I gasped with delight when I saw "Red Beet Eggs." I've never seen these for sale before! I love pickled eggs and make them a few times a year! The deli girls found it amusing that I was so excited and gave me free eggs.

So I can't get whole green chiles here and have to order them online. But that's okay. Where else could I buy pickled eggs?

:)

Find Your Candidate

Here's an interesting website that matches Presidential candidates based on your beliefs.

http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

I liked this. I didn't like that my top match apparently is Mitt Romney. I'd NEVER vote for him. Okay, I hate to say never, but he's not a candidate that I would support for several reasons. But there are other possibilities as some of my close matches include:

• Fred Thompson. I don't know much about him, but I'll be paying more attention.
• Tom Tancredo. He IS my favorite, but I don't see it happening. He's not shining in the media spotlight.
• Mike Huckabee. From everything I know, he's definitely a candidate who I would support.

Have fun!

Weekly menu

Dinner:

French dip sandwiches; Caesar salad

pizza

roast chicken; mashed potatoes; corn

chile rellanos, tortilla chips, guacamole **HOLLY'S BIRTHDAY!!**

"seafood night" -- not sure what this is, but Robert promised Trevor

Chili's restaurant

tuna sandwiches, chips


Lunch (with or for):
strawberry soup
smoothies
grilled PJ&J
taquitos
frozen pizza

On the back burner:
grilled flank steak
fondue
something with ground beef?
watermelon salad (I really want to try this, can I still find watermelon--cheap?)
Molasses Crinkle cookies from Strawberry Shortcake Murder
turkey/avocado subs, chips
taco salad
will it ever get cold enough to make Emily's Tortilla Soup?