This and That

We haven't had that big snow, yet.  We did have a few inches on the ground Tuesday morning and it snowed a few inches again tonight.  On Monday night it snowed a little on our walk to BSF, and we walked home in freezing rain.  The snow Tuesday morning was very wet--great for snowballs, snowmen and snowforts.  We delayed starting school an hour and all went outside to help clear the driveway/sidewalks and play in the snow.

I think he is sad because Frosty doesn't have a nose yet

Anna's snow bunny

Ready for a snowball fight!

Tonight I walked to the church in the snow again to attend the BSF "Personal Evaluation" seminar.  I have always wanted to attend more of the BSF seminars, but it was always so far to drive to justify another night/day away from home.  I hope to take advantage of the close proximity of the church to attend a few more this spring.  The seminar was shortened due to the weather, but that was fine.  The snow stopped, but the wind has picked up and the temperature is dropping.  We told the kids to do outside things today and we can to the Y tomorrow because it is supposed to be cold and windy.  Due to the drop in temperature, I am glad we didn't commit to ice skating with the Free Reformed Church homeschool group.   I did meet with the moms of this group on Tuesday night.  They opened with a devotional and then just talked about homeschool concerns and plans for upcoming ideas to do as a group.  They have a volunteer to teach an art class at the church one day a month and I think we may do that.  They also have plans to attend some plays, go to a farm that produces maple syrup in March, visit a taxidermist, and have a track and field day in the spring.   Most of their concerns were about keeping the kids on task and finishing their work.    Sure, I often need to encourage them to finish up before we can ________ (go sledding, go ice skating, watch a video, go to the Y, play a game, etc.).  I do not, however, have to take meals away from them or add extra work both of which seem counterproductive.  I guess we all have our styles.  I do wonder if being in school has helped the kids be more task-oriented.  If they are free from distraction they usually do pretty good.   The other problem they talked about was a lack of independence with doing their work.  I also do not see this as a problem with my kids.  They would rather have me give them their stack of books with instructions and go off on their own to do their work.  Even Lydia likes to be independent when able.   "This is how you do your math.  Do these four pages and come find me if you run into problems."  With reading and phonics I need to be with her to listen, but she does her worksheets independently.  I think this may also be a carry over from school.  I wonder if Seth will be different if I homeschool him from the beginning?    Overall, I think the kids are doing great with the homeschooling.  I am wishing I had more time for some things and more creativity with others.  Maybe all classroom teachers feel this way as well.  

We picked up a round roast from the food pantry last week and I had been wondering how to fix this tougher cut of meat.  I normally cook a chuck roast for a nice tender roast (my mom taught me well:).  Anyway, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com for cooking a round roast.  It had 4 1/2 stars in 600-some reviews so thought I would try it even though it sounded a little different.  You preheat your oven to 500, then turn it down to 475 when you put the roast in uncovered.  You cook it for 7 minutes a pound (28 minutes for ours) then turn the oven off and let the roast set in the oven for 2 1/2 hours.  At two hours I got a little antsy (potatoes and veggies were on the stove and what if the meat wasn't done?) so took a peek at the roast.  The oven was cold by now and so was the roast.  The inside was way too pink for the likes of this family, so what do you do?  Well, we sliced it up and Russ fired up the grill and we grilled most of the red/pink out of it.  It was still tougher than a chuck roast, but it wasn't too bad.  We all had a good laugh but did enjoy the meal. 

Russ is gearing up to start his classes next week.  He is working hard on reviewing his Hebrew vocab and making a booklist for the bookstore.  That will make quite a dent in the budget.  Hard to believe we have all these books that we could possibly need more... Russ loves it, though.  Can't ever have enough books. 
More on that in the next blog...