Weekly review

I originally started this post last weekend but with me working, it never got done. So this review will be for the last two weeks.

Math: Not much new here again. I did buy Ellie a couple of wipe-off mats to help her with her math facts. I've been hearing horror stories of the Everyday Math that they are teaching in the public schools around here and I'm very thankful that my kids are not subjected to that. I feel for those kids who are being taught this as they are mostly confused as to how to do basic addition problems, etc and how math will continue to be a struggle for them as they grow older. For those of you who don't know what this is, it is basically relativism in the classroom--i.e. there are several different ways you can solve this math problem (most of which are painfully confusing) and you (generally speaking here) as the parent shouldn't inflict the way you learned how to add on your children. Sad, really.

English: Ellie finished up her chapter on diagramming compound sentences, identifying comma splices, and identifying run-on sentences. She has also learned about appositives (yeah, I didn't know what they were either) and the proper comma usage with them. Kara is memorizing a poem called "The Goops." She is also learning the being verbs. Part of her English curriculum is copywork. At one point this week she had a meltdown during copywork because she was convinced that I was making her write way too much. Afterall, she had already done her spelling and handwriting!!! Needless to say, it didn't get her out of her copywork that day. Ellie is also writing a paper about life on the Silk Road. This pertains to our current history topic. She's about done with it--I just have to go over it with her to make a few modifications and then she'll copy it for her final draft. Ellie is actually quite good at her writing and rarely needs to make modifications to her rough draft. She usually thinks quite a bit about each sentence before she writes it down. I'm pretty much the same way. In college I rarely edited a paper since I knew what I wanted to say the first time I wrote it.

Latin: Ellie is now working in Latina Christiana II.

Art: Last Thursday we went to a fundraiser at the Art Center. The fundraiser was for the local food bank and was called Empty Bowls. Basically, you pay a certain amount (either per person or per family) and get lunch (a bowl of soup and some bread) and you get to take home a bowl that was donated by someone. With the purchase of a family ticket, you only get to take home 2 bowls. However, there were several people around us who found out we didn't have enough tickets for each of us to have a bowl and gave us their tickets. We got 5 tickets so each kid could pick out a bowl and I picked one out. The kids were very thankful to the generous people around them. Dan went with Natalie and she picked out a really ugly bowl (according to Dan--I didn't see it) so he put it back and chose a different one for her. She said she liked that one too. I think she was just excited to pick out her own bowl so she just grabbed the first one she saw. :-) The museum was open to the public without an extra admission fee so we toured the current exhibits and went to a kids activity. The theme for the activity was installation art. Basically it is art you can walk through. The kids each made their own installation art--sort of like a diorama. There were some really weird exhibits there that I'm not sure were really art and the kids didn't really care for some of them either. One of the exhibits had a video with it that we watched. When it was over, Ellie asked me what in the world that was all about. I told her I didn't have any idea and to ask the museum docent who was standing outside the exhibit. She did and the lady told her it was for her to figure out. Ellie didn't really appreciate the answer. :-)

History: We've studied Kublai Khan, Ghengis Khan, Marco Polo, Joan of Arc and the Black Death.

Science: We learned about the life cycle of the frog and about the function of a lily pad and all of the life that lives under a lily pad. We also watched some videos on National Geographic's website about the life cycle of the frog and some of the dangers of frog life. The kids had a blast watching them.

Cornmeal pancakes

This recipe has become one of our favorite pancake recipes. It is definitely a hit with the kids, especially when served with real maple syrup (except for Kara who prefers pancake syrup). Make sure you don't skip the whipping of the egg whites or the pancakes will be much denser. This recipe come from Food to Live By.

Cornmeal Pancakes--makes about 8 4-inch pancakes.
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp finely grated orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice
2 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup buttermilk
3 Tbsp canola oil
Extra canola oil or butter for griddle

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and orange zest in large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together orange juice, buttermilk, egg yolks and canola oil. Pour buttermilk mixture into dry ingredients and stir just until combined. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Fold into pancake mix. Do not overmix.

Heat oil or butter on hot griddle. Spoon the batter onto griddle and spread the batter a bit. When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes, flip the pancakes. Cook until other side is brown.

New job!!

As many of you may have already heard, Dan got a new job!! Yeah!!! This has been something that we have been praying and hoping for for quite awhile. His current job (which he is resigning from) was not allowing him to have any work/life balance. It required extensive travel and very long hours basically from November to April/May. So he was really missing out on much of our family life. Earlier this spring at the homeschool conference he was really convicted to find a new job that would allow him to be home on the weekends/evenings as it is only eight short years until Ellie, our oldest, will be leaving home.

He had been watching the job postings for quite awhile and was starting to wonder if anything would open up before his travel schedule picked up again. He had set an internal deadline of being done with this job by October 31. Plus he had met with a couple of the people in the department in which he wanted to work and knew that they were currently overstaffed. We knew that God would have to work a miracle in order for him to get the job that he wanted. Well, He did. Two people in that department quit and they posted an opening. He applied, was interviewed and offered the job all in a time frame of 2 1/2 weeks--unheard of here!!! One of the interviewers told him that they had 20 applications in the first 2 days. The job was only posted a week so I'm not sure how many applicants total they had.

We are thrilled about this new direction in our life and the kids are really excited about him being home this winter. They are hoping Dan can take them ice skating this winter and I'm hoping he can shovel the snow! :-)

Mosaic Cheesecake

When I first saw this recipe on this blog I knew I had to make it. I love cheesecake and I love brownies. So when some friends invited us over to play cards, I had this dessert in mind when I volunteered to bring the dessert. We had half of it left when we were done playing cards so I put it in the freezer for a later time otherwise I'm sure I would have felt the urge to sample it several times during the following days.

Mosaic Cheesecake

Part 1: Fudge Brownies
1 1/3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup canola oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. In smaller bowl combine wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. Line a 9x13 pan with tin foil. Let tin foil hang over on two sides so you'll have handles with which to remove the brownies after they've cooled. Spray tin foil with cooking spray. Pour in batter. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Do not overbake. Let cool. When cool remove brownies from pan and cut into 1/2 inch chunks with cookie cutter. You will need about 1/2 of the pan for the cheesecake. The rest you can just eat. :-) (they are really good refrigerated)

Part 2: The crust
2 1/4 cups chocolate graham crackers, crushed
8 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Mix crust ingredients together and press into bottom and up sides of a greased springform pan. Fill crust or chill until ready to use.

Part 3: The cheesecake
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened (I use the 1/3 less fat kind)
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 cups brownie chunks
Mix cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating and scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Gently fold in brownie chunks and pour into crust. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until the area near the center is set. Center will still be slightly wobbly when pan is shaken. Let cool and top with ganache.

Part 4: Ganache
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp powdered sugar
Scald butter and cream in a saucepan. Place chocolate chips in food processor and process until powdery or very small pieces. With processor running, pour in hot butter and cream. Stop machine and scrape sides as necessary. When mixed, add vanilla and powdered sugar. Process until completely combined. Spread over cheesecake while ganache is still warm.

Chill cheesecake until ready to serve.

Weekly review

Our school week this week wasn't as productive as normal since we had illness going around our house. Ellie spent most of Wednesday lying on the couch. Dan was also sick with a cold this week and Kara's had a cough. So far Darin, Natalie and I haven't been ill.

History: We continued to study the influences of feudalism in the Catholic Church and some of the reformers of that time--namely St Dominic and St Francis of Assisi. We also learned that St Dominic developed a system of governing that the current English and American governments are modeled after. We also read about the Crusades--the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ellie and Kara learned how to play 9 Men's Morris--a medieval game similar to tic tac toe. They also finished painting the salt map they started almost a month ago. A few of the geographic features that they chose to put on there are an island, a peninsula, the source and mouth of a river, an estuary, and an ocean. Here is the map sans labels.

Math: Not much new here. Both girls continue in their studies.

Bible: We are still working on the catechism questions (and will be for quite awhile) and singing hymns. Kara is working through an Explorer's Bible Study book for her devotional time and Ellie is working on a study about willingness that I got from Keepers of the Faith.

English: Didn't get much done here this week--only 1 lesson each I think.

Science: This week we learned about complete and incomplete metamorphosis. We looked at the life cycles of several insects and caterpillars/moths/butterflies. One of the insects we studied was the mosquito. Only the female mosquito bites as it needs blood before it can lay its eggs. We also learned about surface tension and how some bugs use it to either stay on top of the water or hang just below the surface.

Latin: Since Ellie wasn't feeling well we didn't start a new Latin lesson this week.

Handwriting: Kara started a couple of lessons on beginning cursive this week. Ellie is a bit bummed that Kara is learning cursive because now Ellie can't be cryptic by writing in cursive.

Weekly review

One of these weeks I'll get around to actually posting my weekly review at the end of the week. By the middle of the next week I hardly remember the specifics of the week before without getting out the curriculum. Plus some weeks just blend together. Here's what I remember.

Math: Ellie learned about expanded notation and Kara learned more about fractions. Both are reviewing their math facts.

English: Ellie finally finished last year's English and we started on this year's English. She learned how to diagram compound sentences. Kara continues to review the four types of sentences. Darin learned a few more letters and has been working in a workbook. He worked on writing some of his numbers this week and was quite proud of some of the 5s he drew.

History: We learned about how feudalism and about how the church got caught up in it. They also learned about knights: how they were trained, what they wore, etc. Ellie read a book about building a castle. We also went to JoAnn Fabric to pick out our fabric for our unit celebration.

Science: This week we learned about photosynthesis and pollination. We read a few books about it and then dissected a lily and looked at it under the microscope.

Tomato Spinach Phyllo Bake

This recipe came out in a Light & Tasty magazine either last year or the year before. My whole family loves it (well, except for Darin who sometimes thinks he doesn't like anything) and it is good for you too. I made it one night for supper this week and Darin helped me mix the ingredients.

Here's the recipe:
Tomato Spinach Phyllo Bake

4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 packages (10 oz each) frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 cup (4 oz) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup cottage cheese
3 green onions, sliced
1 teaspoon dill weed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
10 sheets phyllo dough
Butter-flavored cooking spray
3 large tomatoes, sliced

Combine first 9 ingredients. Set aside. Spray 1 phyllo sheet with cooking spray. Place in greased 9 inch cooking pan allowing one end of dough to hang over the edge. Repeat with 4 more sheets staggering which side the dough hangs over.

Spread 1/3 of spinach mix over phyllo dough. Top with 1/2 of sliced tomatoes. Repeat layers and top with spinach mix. Spray remaining phyllo dough sheets and layer on top, staggering as before. Gently fold over ends of dough towards center. Spray with cooking spray. Loosely cover with tin foil. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake 30 minutes longer. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Our bike ride

This weekend Dan's parents were here and they brought their bikes along so that we could ride on the Cannon Valley Trail on Saturday. Saturday morning we got up, had bran muffins for breakfast and packed up the bikes. I packed a lunch for us all and brought that along. The trail runs from Cannon Falls to Red Wing--19.4 miles one way. We hadn't planned on biking the whole trail, but we weren't sure how far we'd go. We figured we'd just play it by ear.

The trail was beautiful as was the weather. The trail is mostly tree covered and doesn't have many hills. The sun was shining and it was cool to see the sun shining through the trees onto the trail.

We got to the trailhead a little before 11. After about 10 miles we stopped in Welch to eat the lunch that we had packed. We were all feeling quite good, especially after eating, so we decided to keep going. After another 5 miles we took a little break. The older girls were ready to head back but we told them that if we went all the way to the end we'd stop at the bakery in Red Wing for donuts. They were all for that and agreed to keep going.

We got to the bakery (which was about a mile further than the end of the trail) and sat down for some donuts. Unfortunately they were out of the custard-filled ones that we love.

On the way back I started to have some knee pain in my left knee--the same knee that has kept me from running. I knew this wasn't going to end well since we still had 20 miles to go. At about mile 30 my right knee started to hurt. And we still had 10 miles or so to go. Darin was a huge help and pedaled the whole way. And we finally made it back to the van. It took a lot longer to get back than it took to get to Red Wing. Next time I don't think we'll ride so far in one day. But I have to say that the kids did a great job. Ellie and Kara didn't complain and Darin pedaled the whole way. Natalie had it easy, of course, in the trailer.

Here are some pics that Dan's dad took:

Pound cake

The other day when I was showing Dan our newly organized downstairs pantry, he saw the box of cake flour and commented that I hadn't made pound cake in quite awhile. I got this recipe several years ago when we lived in Lincoln. One of Dan's co-workers, Karl, made it for a potluck one night and it was so delicious and moist. It freezes well, but around here it never lasts that long. Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 T vanilla
3 cups cake flour
1/4 tsp baking soda

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Mix in sour cream and vanilla. Add cake flour and baking soda. Butter and flour a bundt pan. Pour in batter. Bake for 2 hours at 300 or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.