Homework

Homework from last week:


Lesson update: in the van on the way to church on Sunday, Mariposa randomly said, "Mom, a sleeping bag is a spiral and so is a snake!". Yes! It is sinking in! Gemma still calls spirals "cinnamon rolls" but now at least she ALSO says "spirals"--she saw one in her Ten Friendly Fish book (octopus arm rolled up) and pointed it out to me. :o)

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Back to the drawing board

Gemma and I were just outside scrubbing the deck (I was scrubbing and she was playing with water). She had her hands in the bucket and was swirling the water and soap bubbles around and around saying "Cinnamon roll! Cinnamon roll!". It took me a second before I realized what she was meaning. I had to correct her: "No, honey, ~spiral~!". I guess my lesson didn't sink in as well as I thought.....

:o)


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Unit study on "spirals"

We got this really beautiful book from the library on spirals:


I thought what better way to illustrate spirals than by making some! I had never made cinnamon rolls before (Marcus beat me to it) so I thought this was a good time to learn.





Gemma and Mariposa had been playing with little pieces of dough alongside with me, and we decided to make that dough into cinnamon rolls too:


Patiently waiting for mama to put on the glaze:


Needless to say, they really liked this school lesson. :o). A lot better than a worksheet. And we still have homework to do--4 cinnamon rolls left for tomorrow's breakfast!

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A day in pictures

Kids choosing baby names after lunch:


Marcus on raccoon patrol:


Actively hunting the raccoon:


Chickens in the garden. Yes, Gemma is half naked, but she has boots on so it's ok.


Emperor Cluckpatine:


Where's Gemma?


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Hot Browns

Saturday was Derby Day! Marcus made Hot Browns for the occasion:



Bread, turkey, cheese gravy, and bacon. But it did have some tomato slices so it's healthy, right? I don't care; I'm eating for two....

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Four hours of freedom

Auntie Coley just came and took my kids to her house for FOUR HOURS so that I could rest, do projects, whatever. How nice is that??? I am so grateful for the help. I went around crafting my perfect evening so that I would really make use of her generosity. First I will spend at least an hour on the girls' room:


Gemma's clothes are now in this closet too, with James' in his new room. But it is (past) clothes change-over time so I have to do the seasonal switch, hence the boxes that have been there for weeks. Today is the day! Also the little bed will be cleared off to welcome Gemma tomorrow night. We told her this would happen but I don't think she really understands yet. ;o)

After this project I will take a short walk even if it's raining, then take a nice shower and clean up the house a little. If Marcus is lucky I will also have yesterday's groceries put away so that he won't have to do it:


How pathetic! But when he is gone, I am just on survival mode. I go straight from meal to cleanup to school to scheduled chores to meal to cleanup etc.... I also need to rest every now and then, at least nap in the afternoon. I don't really "sit down" any more but that's what Hawaii will be for. So anyway, here I go with my perfect four hours!

Here's a quick pic from the other day...the real reason you all check the blog anyway:


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5-grain bread

After resigning to the apparent fact that the only place to find good and easy whole grain bread is at the grocery store, I finally came upon a good recipe, on the back of a King Arthur flour bag.

First, put on your belly bib. What, you don't have a belly bib?


Next, gather your ingredients. You will need the following:


1 1/4 cups milk (I use water and powdered milk)*
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine (I use oil)
3 Tablespoons honey or brown sugar
3 cups bread flour
1 cup oatmeal (I use Bob's Red Mill 5-grain mix)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons yeast
*I try to use powdered milk in some recipes to save money. Funny story though, I ran out of my normal bulk WinCo powdered milk and Marcus was going to New Seasons so I asked him to check for some there. He was proud to find it and buy a bunch for me! Then at the check out he realized that at $8.99 a pound, he just spent almost $12 on the stuff. At home we realized that the New Seasons organic dry milk was MORE expensive than wet milk! The good news is that this "dry milk" is far superior to regular powdered milk. The bad news is we won't be buying it again!


I then add all the ingredients to my good ol' Breadman and choose the "dough" cycle. My machine likes the wet ingredients first. The dough is thick and not sticky and comes out looking like this:


The recipe says to use an oiled surface but I've always used a floured surface so that's what I use for this recipe too. It needs very little kneading, just a little punching-down and then shaping into a loaf:


I let it rise in a 200 degree oven, shut off, for about 20-30 minutes (or an hour or so at room temp) until it rises 1-2 inches above the rim of the pan. Then into a 350-375 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes, with a foil cover after 15 minutes of baking. The result:


A very very yummy loaf of bread with very little work, clean-up, time, or money (assuming you don't go to New Seasons for your powdered milk). ;o)

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