Edible Egypt

I admit it freely: this was mainly "twaddle." If you've read any Charlotte Mason, you know where I'm headed. We work very hard in our homeschool to make sure the choices for our time are worth our time, educationally. We don't do a bunch of stuff that isn't actually moving us toward the content goal. Another way to put it is, we try to avoid "fluff." But this project in Mystery of History was going to be too much fun to miss. After all, who wouldn't want to eat an entire country?

Plus, it gave me an excuse to by a sheet cake pan. I've needed one for years, but just haven't purchased it. Having an atlas exactly the right size made things so simple. Opened up, it was just the right size for our stencil of Egypt.

 The kids made toothpick flags to mark the important cities and features.

All cooled, ready to decorate.

There is a great selection available these days for adding color and details.

A strict "NO EATING OUT OF THE CAN" policy was enforced.

We traced the outlines from the atlas and made a stencil for the other incredibly easy part: spray on tinting! We had never used this before, but it was great fun. Stinky, but fun. It smells like silly string. I'm sure you all know exactly what silly string smells like, right?

Now for the details.

Gel icing in tubes with tiny tips made the addition of details very quick and easy.

Then the flags went in to mark everything.

Praline almonds worked well for the mountain ranges.

Rebekah (of course) carved chocolate chips into the shapes of the pyramids, but somehow I didn't get a picture of them, and they were some of the first bites to disappear.


I'm not ashamed to say it: We will definitely be "twaddling" into other countries, turning them into delicious desserts.

Cookies in a Jar

I had been meaning to make these for a long time, so this last week we decided to jump right in. 

We chose four different recipes for the cookies. The instructions explain how to pack quart size Mason jars with all the dry ingredients for a batch of cookies. Then you attach the instructions for the recipient to add the liquid ingredients and the jar's contents to whip up a quick batch of cookies.

The instructions specifically say to use wide mouth jars, but there were none available at the store, and so we had to work a little harder to pack the ingredients in the regular jars. 

The recipes tell you to layer the ingredients and pack them in in the order listed on the recipe. It makes the jars look really pretty when the layers are obvious.

We chose a candy bar cookie recipe, two varieties of oatmeal, and an M&M's cookie.

Rebekah chopped the Nestle Crunch bars.

We packed pretty gift boxes with one each of the four recipes and then stuffed tissue paper between them so they wouldn't knock together during delivery. We could have filled the extra space with something that looked better, but I just ran out of time. 

Here's the instruction book we used. I also have a copy of one for "Bars & Brownies." We may make a combination from both books next year. It was a lot of fun. And the girls enjoyed helping. We cranked them out pretty quickly once all the ingredients were all assembled. It would be great to make some of these jars to have on hand for little gifts during the year.

My Talented Husband

Kregg wears many hats: father, shepherd, businessman, hunting guide, board member for many organizations, and craftsman. In his spare time, he enjoys building furniture. He is completely self taught, just picked it up and figured it out. Amazing! I can simply rip a page out of a magazine showing a piece of furniture I like, and he can build it! 

When we were expecting our first child, he built a baby bed. He then decided he would make each one of our children their own, so they would be able to use it when they started having children. So sweet! But a dangerous precedent. :)


As the older ones began to graduate from high school, he decided to begin a new precedent: a piece of furniture. For Hannah, he made a mission style bookshelf with glass doors. I cannot find a picture of it in my files. But as life has grown more busy, the schedule has been a little delayed. Instead of having it finished when they graduate high school, it has now moved somewhere into the college years. 

But the wait is definitely worth it to receive a "Kregg Conder Original." Mackenzy's hope chest is basically finished!!! It still needs some felt "bumpers" so that it closes softly, and one more piece of hardware to keep the lid within the desired range of motion. But, it is now in her room, filled with all the things she has been saving. So sweet!


I love that my wonderful husband wants his children to have things crafted especially for them by his strong, loving hands. 

Our Looney Lunar Phases

"Doing" always helps ideas and principles stick to that "gray matter" inside their little craniums. So in our homeschool, it's always nice to find an activity that doesn't require a long list of materials and isn't just "twaddle," as Charlotte Mason would say. 


In science, we are studying Astronomy. Hard to take field trips when the objects of our studies are thousands of miles above our heads, except to a planetarium. So observation has to play a large role in our learning. That and simple activities like the one we did Monday. 

All it takes is a dark room, a flash light, and a styrofoam ball skewered on a small dowel. Each of the kids took a turn "being earth" and watching the moon appear to morph into different shapes. Keeping their feet inside one tile, they were to turn slowly around while holding their satellite a little above their head at arm's length. "The Sun" was another child at the other end of the utility room pointing a flashlight at the Earth. As the "earth" spun on it's axis the light from the "sun" shone on different parts of the moon's face causing it to wax and wane. 

Of course, Rebekah looks as if she's dreaming up some fairy tale as she "rotates." :) 


Sure we can look at pictures of the different phases of the moon, but acting out the principles involved helps us to avoid "Teflon Brain Syndrome." And we all know how dangerous that can be! :)

Artistic Endeavors

Homeschooling offers infinite opportunities to be entertained. 


For all of us. 


And, just so you know, humor is definitely an essential element of any homeschool if sanity is one of your end goals.


So I thought it might be enlightening to my dear readers to take a little peak into our morning. 


Prepare yourselves.


During our drawing lesson today, we were practicing the principle of foreshortened circles by attempting to replicate a birdbath. Our drawing curriculum comes in the tiniest of packages--a 60 page gem called Drawing Textbook, by Bruce McIntyre (tragically now out of print, so if you find a used one online somewhere, snatch it up). 


I attempt to draw the example on the whiteboard, explaining the sequence and the things to pay special attention to, even though I need the lessons as much as the kids do. :)

My examples are always lopsided because I try to stand off to the left side while I draw so the kids can see me from their seats. At least that's the excuse I'm using.

This first one is Ben's. We were joking with him that his looks a little like a bathtub.

Here's Josh's. His is for baby hummingbirds. He thought that was pretty funny. :)

Elizabeth's is of the bathtub variety. 

And Bekah's is dumping all it's water out. 






I asked them if they would like to see the example from the lesson. 


Rebekah, always with a flair for the dramatic, said, 

"NO! I don't want to see it! It would mock me for the rest of my poor, young life." 

Told ya. 


Humor is essential. 


And no matter what size your class is, there will always be a class clown. :)

Patchwork Pillow Project

The girls just finished a little sewing project. It was fun to help them walk through all the steps from choosing a pattern and fabric . . .

to cutting everything out . . .


 

To deciding which fabric to use for which applique . . .

To learning about applying fusible interfacing and WonderUnder . . . 

To practicing patience . . .

To deciding if the front and back of the pillow should be the same or 
different . . . (they each chose a different layout)

To learning how to make a blanket stitch (while watching the Live Feed of "The Response"--a day of prayer, repentance, and fasting for our nation) . . .

To assembly and creating the "fringe" treatment!  


Ta-da!!! The finished products. 

The Biography of a Counter Top

The kitchen now after several years of wear and tear. Granite was a good choice.

Since we both come from long lines of Do-It-Yourself people, there are extra stories to tell about lots of things. Kregg's parents have always done everything from plumbing to tiling to electrical to wallpaper to sewing. And my parents, mostly Dad, were the same way. Dad took it farther than most when he actually decided to add "Do-It-Yourself-Dentistry" to his list. He pulled one of his own teeth. I'm going to just let that soak in for a minute.

Anyway, as serious DIY people we can tell you a story about almost everything in our house. Kregg built lots of our furniture. Lots of stories there. We tiled our floors, textured ceilings and painted everything. More stories. He fixes most of our plumbing problems, or electrical problems, and handles the installation of everything from electronics to our double ovens. Lots and lots of stories. He even put in a fireplace where previously there was none. And when you aren't a "trained professional", the journey from start to finish on a project often has many interesting twists and turns. 

This is the kitchen before demolition

Take for example our kitchen counters. When we were in the middle of our major remodel, we were without a functioning kitchen for 6 months. There were only five children at this point, but you can imagine trying to feed a family of 7 from a makeshift kitchen we had set up in our den. This kitchen consisted of a toaster, a toaster oven and a microwave. We used disposable dishes because we had no sink in which to wash real ones. It was one of those "seasons" you simply live through.

We ripped out a wall and here is the beginning of the new kitchen.

If you have ever been through a kitchen remodel, you know how many thousands of decisions have to be made. You have to choose each and every appliance and fixture and plug cover and drawer pull. One of the biggest decisions we had to make was what counter tops to choose. In the middle of the process, my dad made a suggestion. We were in Fort Worth visiting my parents when dad said he had something to show us. He took us out back and there was a massive slab of granite. He told us we could have it if we wanted to use it for our counter tops. 

Granite was not in our budget at that time because it was much more expensive then. If we had been choosing granite from a showroom, this piece is definitely not the color we would have chosen. But the choice was not which granite. It was between this granite or a different material. We decided to take it back home with us and try to decide what to do. Kregg was building our cabinets and the kitchen, dining, and family rooms would all be open to one another, so the counter tops were a major decision. 

Taking this 5' by 5' slab home was going to be a trick, though. We were driving a full size van at that time. You know those old "conversion" vans that had the fancy upholstery and wood trim inside? Yup, that was us. Those vans had great "people space", but there sure wasn't much room for hauling stuff. And we always haul stuff. (Remind me sometime to tell you the story of how I hauled some goats home in the back of this same van.) The "cargo" area behind the back seat was extremely limited and, try as we might, the granite would not go in back there. The only other option was to slide it in behind the front two bucket seats. It just barely fit while still being able to shut the doors. 

This slab of granite now formed a formidable wall between the the front two seats and the rest of the van. There was a small opening at the very top that we could stick our hand through, but we couldn't see over it. These circumstances were somewhat concerning since our return trip was about 6 hours long. But then we decided that maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. The noise level was significantly reduced and Kregg and I actually were able to carry on conversations on the way home. My biggest concern was the stability of the granite. What if it shifted? What if it tipped over? It only weighed several hundred pounds. If it fell, it would squash flat everything behind it, including children. Kregg, however, assured me that the only way it would fall backward was if he accelerated from 0 to 300 mph in 5 seconds and popped a wheelie. And since a conversion van is not capable of such show stopping speeds, there was little danger. 

When we arrived home, he and I somehow wrestled it out of the van. To be able to use it for our kitchen, we had to do a lot of figurin'. Could we make the color work? That was the biggest question. And when we answered that question, the next one was could we get more? That one slab was not going to be enough if we wanted all of the counters to match. We called Dad. And this is where it gets interesting. That slab of granite was given to my dad by a man he had known for years. His name was David and Dad had met him while he was in prison. Dad taught Bible classes for over twenty years to inmates every Sunday morning. And the ones who wanted it were usually offered a job at Dad's company when they "got out." 

When David was released, he worked for Dad for several years. After a while, though, he decided to move down into the Texas Hill Country. One way he earned money was by working on boats for a man who owned a granite quarry. The man would pay him for the boat repairs by giving him slabs of granite that David could then resell. So to get enough granite that would match the piece we already had, Kregg contacted him. Sure enough, he had four more slabs we could buy from him. But it involved Kregg driving the six or seven hours and hauling them back himself. But we're do-it-yourself-ers, so of course he made the trip. 

After getting it all home, he called one of our good friends to come and help him unload. While they were getting the heaviest piece off the truck, it slipped and landed on Kregg's foot. Thankfully, his boots were steel-toed or it would have completely crushed his toe instead of just breaking it. 

This is the way you're supposed to haul granite, with lots of men to lift it.

We couldn't cut it to fit ourselves so we did have a granite guy come and haul it off to prepare it for installation. It was really fascinating to talk to him about it all. He said they would go through 5 circular saws a week, even using diamond bit blades. The saws simply didn't last more than a few days because the granite is so difficult to cut. He wanted to know where we had found our slabs and then he told us how much we had saved. Those five slabs of granite had cost us $200. The granite guy said his cost in that granite would have been $5000-$6000! 

The beginning of installation

We even had enough to do the backsplash 

It does pay to Do-It-Yourself. And then you always have a story.