Geography: Our city and the beginning of Texas

 

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Apparently that’s what my kids had to say in my post I left open to draft………

This is the famous round rock that our city of Round Rock was named after.  I know we’re very original, aren’t we?

I wanted to start teaching the kids a little bit about our local area and so we made a field trip of it.

  We carefully crossed over as close as we could get to see it without getting into the water.  I promised the kids we’d come again in the summer when they could get in the water.  They’re kind of used to coming to this park and playing in the creek.  So, it was a little hard for them to not go in the water.

Afterwards we spent some time throwing sticks into the river.  If you look really closely you can see Superman has a piece of string in his hands that is tied to a stick.  He found someone’s old fishing line and had thrown the stick in the river and was pulling it around.  Of course after he’d let it go and had wandered off I realized I should have gathered up the fishing line so it didn’t get caught on some poor duck.  The things you realize after the fact.

 

And then they had to try all the places they could throw sticks.

That was our first activity.  After we learned about our city we started to learn about our state.

 

First we read L is for Lone Star.  This is a great series if you ever get a chance to read these, there is one for each state in the union.  I had this from back in my teaching days, and it does a great job of giving you some fun facts about the state, one for each letter of the alphabet.  If you have a kid a little older than mine than you can read them the extra facts, or if they’re little like mine just stick with the one sentence statements.

As I read the book I thought of all sorts of great day trips I could go on if I were doing this forever and a day long study of Texas.  This is definitely one of the advantages of homeschooling, as long as it is in my budget I can do as many field trips as I want.  So, I could take them to the Texas Ranger museum, or go the the Alamo, or the Dr. Pepper museum, or the Blue Bell ice cream factory (I was kind of surprised this wasn’t the b word, but I guess it does make more sense to use the state flower, but come one “Blue Bell, the best ice cream in the country,” what Texan doesn’t know that jingle?), and the state capital down in Austin.

Of those my plans are to go to the state capital, originally that was going to happen last Friday, but………  After that I’m thinking either Dr Pepper museum or the Blue Bell ice cream factory.  Many of the others are probably better when the kids are older.

We also read The Legend of the Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola.  I’ll have a post specifically for that later this week.  In theory.

For more great geography ides head on over to Children Explore, Children Learn, Children Grow.

Oh, and this is the first post I wrote in Windows Live Writer, or at least first one I scheduled.  We’ll see if it shows up at 4:13 today.

My friend Sam

I’m kind of trying to sort through memories and pictures right now of my friend.  And so, you guys are going to be lucky enough to hear about him this way.

His real name is Aaron.  Aaron Scott.  He’s the fourth one on the left, and I’m the one on the far left.  Yes, I sun burn easily.  We met on a trip to Six Flags that our youth group had organized (I am rather amazed I found this photo from that day).  It was slightly awkward because a friend of mine had decided that we would make the perfect couple and so she spent the whole trip trying to fix us up.  You know, arranging for the two of us to sit next to each other on a roller coaster, or other strange things.

We discovered we had a lot in common, and then we met another friend, also named Aaron.  You can see the problem that was going to arise.  Well, those two delighted in having the same name and in stealing things from me and putting it on high shelves I could never reach.

Sam is on the left and his best friend Aaron is on the right.  I have no clue why he’s strangling him.

He loved to torment my dog.

That next summer we went on a mission trip together.  There were FIVE people named Aaron or Erin.  I forget the reason, but for some reason he decided to rename himself Sam, and from that point on I’ve called him Sam.

You know.  I don’t actually have a picture for this story.  But, I have this diagram that his Dad drew.

When I was a junior in college I was all set to go to Sam’s birthday dinner.  I was waiting for my Mom to come home so she could drive me there because my car was in the shop.  I’m starting to get impatient because we’re going to be late if she doesn’t get there soon.  That’s when I got the call.  My Mom had been in a car accident and was in the ICU, and could I get down there soon.  I called Sam to let him know that I couldn’t make it to his party, and I needed to find a ride to the hospital.  Well, he calls me back a few minutes later and tells me he, and his family are on their way over to take my brother and I over to the hospital.  Then they spent the majority of that night until about 4 in the morning at the hospital with me as we waited for word on how my Mom was doing.

He was in my wedding as an usher.  One of my most precious memories from that day is when he and Aaron R stood outside the sanctuary and saluted me as I walked through those doors.  He also caught the garter.  It’s the only wedding where I’ve seen guys fight over catching the garter.

Sadly, my computer crashed and I’m not able to find the great pictures of him teasing my boys.  But, I do have a fun picture from his wedding.  The whole family was in the wedding.  I was a bridesmaid, Jeff was a groomsman, the boys were ring bearers, and Princess was a flower girl.

Every year we would go to the Renaissance Festival together, and then in the spring go to Scarborough Faire.   Here’s where I talked him into getting the mask to go with his swashbuckler hat.  You can’t see it, but on the back of my hat is this long narrow feather that he had so much fun sitting and thwacking up and down.

And I was so incredibly happy when he and my best friend in the world got together.  Isn’t this a great photo of them?

Well, I’ve got another post on God’s goodness in this time I’ll try to get written later.  We’ll see.

For anyone who needs a laugh right now

I’ve been searching through my photos to find pictures of Sam for the memorial service next Saturday.  There’s one in particular I want to find of him and the boys just after they were born, but I haven’t found that yet.  Instead I found this video, and wanted to share it with anyone who could use a laugh right now, like me.

 

And hopefully that brightened someone’s day like it did mine.

I'm taking a break for a little bit

My friend Sam died last night.  So, I'm taking a break for a little bit.  We would appreciate your prayers at this time as we go through this.

I really want a dog

Sigh, I thought I had scheduled this to come out tomorrow.....  This is what happens when you try and write a post while watching your kids  take a bath.


Princess Puppy

So, we read this book and it sparked a conversation with my kids.  But first I have to give you some background.

My kids have wanted a dog for as long as I can remember. I made the mistake of telling the boys one time (about a year ago) that we could get a dog once Princess was potty trained. They spent the next month following her around saying, "You want a dog? Go poop in the potty Princess and we'll get a dog." NEVER say something in front of your kids you don't want them to remember.  Keep in mind she might have been two when they were doing this.

Now fast forward a year and we're working on potty training her for real now, and they're following her around and telling her all about how she needs to go poop in the potty so they can get a dog.

All right, you have the background.

Well, in this book it talks about the different things you need to do for a dog.  Feed the dog, walk the dog, and pick up after the dog.  I talked with them all about how they would have to do this, and they said they could it.  Then I dropped the bomb I knew would make them think, you have to keep your toys picked up.

"Oooohhhhhhh," they all chorused.  I could see some serious thinking going on.  "Why?"

"Because dogs chew toys when they're little."

"Oh, can we have a cat?  Cats don't eat toys."  This from Batman.  Like I said, serious thinking.

"No, we can't have a cat.  Daddy is allergic to cats.  That means they make him sick," I figured this would get them more excited about picking up toys.

"How about a bird?" asked Superman.  "He could fly all over the house and flap flap flap all over.  And he wouldn't eat toys because he'd be in the air."  He illustrates how a bird moves with his arms.

"No, we're not having a bird inside."  I started to have nightmares about the mess and horror that would be.

"Can we have a bird outside?"  Batman asked.  "Then he could fly around outside."

"We're not keeping a bird in a cage outside," I answer, but I offer an olive branch.  "We could get a bird feeder so birds could come and eat the food and a birdhouse so they could make their nests here."

"And we'd have baby birds?" asked Princess.  You could see she was excited about this idea.

"We might," at this point I'm trying really hard to not laugh, and really wish I'd had my camera handy to record this discussion.

So, now I need to find a good bird feeder and birdhouse.  Any suggestions?  I have some ideas, but would love some more.

My Valentine.......

I saw this over at Long Days, Short Years, and thought it looked fun.  Besides I haven't done one like this in a while, and it amuses me.

MamaHen's Valentine's Day Meme

1. Describe your Valentine in five words or less.


Cute, fun, impish, good listener.  And I guess that's five.

2. Best Valentine present you ever received?

Hmmmm.......  Why is it that as soon as I'm trying to think of these things I can think of stuff I've gotten for every other holiday?

3. Worst Valentine present you ever received?


You know, I don't think I've gotten a worst Valentine.  So, I'll tell you about my worst Christmas present.  My Mom's boyfriend at the time gave me a pair of his old underwear with holes in them in a Victoria's Secret box.  Underneath the underwear was the actual present, but still.  That's weird.  REALLY weird.

4. Your favorite Valentine candy?


I used to love conversation hearts, but now they're all hard and not fun to eat.  But, to actually answer the question I love the chocolates with nuts or caramel in the middle.


5. Would you rather receive chocolate or flowers?


Oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh, what a hard question.  But, I guess if I have to choose flowers.  I've figured out I have this tendency to not eat the chocolate quickly and it sits there.  Probably because half of the chocolates in the mixed chocolate have weird fillings in them.

6. A dress-up candlelight dinner out or a movie snuggling at home?


Ummm, right now I'd kind of like the dress-up candelight dinner.  We don't get many chances to go out somewhere fancy, and it's fun to dress up occasionally.  Actually, I want to go out dancing.  I love swing dancing, so going out dancing would be better than a fancy dinner.

7. Your favorite romantic movie(s)?


I somewhat agree with Mama Hen, "Pride and Prejudice" is great, but I also like "While You Were Sleeping".  Oh and "10 Things I Hate About You," and then I just thought of another great one "Return to Me."

8. Your favorite romantic song(s)?
Storybook Love
I've embedded a copy of the song, but I'd suggest listening to it while you're reading other blogs or something, because some of the illustrations are while not explicit, a little more risque than I'd like.

KimChee, or Another recipe that makes Jeff really happy

So, I'm not a big vegetable fan, so you can guess Kim-chee is also not on my list of recipes I like.  However Jeff loves it.  And, as you may have noticed this is not the current chef for the week, but when I told Sarah I made this she said she loves Kim-Chee, so I figured I'd go ahead and post it.  Hopefully I'll get all caught up soon, but we'll see.  Life is gettin a little bit in the way, my friend with cancer is really not doing well, so my priorities aren't as much on trying new recipes as it is on helping my friends.

That being said, off to the recipe

Kim-Chee K's Way

Ingredients


1/2 medium head napa cabbage, uncored, roughly chopped (about 1-inch strips)

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 cup julienned (matchstick) carrot

1 cup julienned (mathstick) daikon radish

2 green onions, split in 1/2, cut in 2-inch sections

3/4 cup tamari soy sauce

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon honey

4 dry hot chile peppers, split lengthwise and seeds removed 
 
1.  Make sure you don't try to make this 15 minutes before you plan to eat this, it won't work.  So put the recipe off for a while, and then try again another day.
 
2.  Cut the cabbag into bite size pieces and put in a colander.  Liberally sprinkle with salt.  I discovered it was actually important to use kosher salt because the rock salt .  Let it sit for a couple of hours until the cabbage starts to wilt.
 
Hmmm, so I'm sitting here watching Dinosaur Train with the kids and I just noticed that Batman has a cut on top of his head.  He says he dropped something on top of his head.  I guess I need to wash his hair to clean the wound.
 
3.  Rinse well with water, and then use your salad spinner to get all of the water out.
 
Princess says I need to eat more popcorn.  I'm suspicious of this slightly soggy popcorn.
 
4.  Combine with the radishes and carrots.
 
5.  Mix the rest of the stuff together in a BIG glass bowl, I used a tupperware marinade container because that's what it fit in, and it made it easy to occasionally mix it.
 
6.  Add cabbage mixture to the marinade and put in dark cold place (think refrigerator) for 24 hours.
 
Oh, and as a side note I used crushed red pepers instead of the dried red peppers because it was a heck of a lot easier, and well.....  I forgot to get the red peppers.
 
VERDICT:  Jeff said it was similar to kim-chee, but not as spicy.  Of course then he ate a different bit that had some of the pepper and that was spicy.  So, my guess is I didn't have the spice ratio right.  But, he said I need to make sure and make this again, so that's a win in my book