Monday at Our House

For our homeschool lessons, we've been reading about the Jamestown settlement and the paths people took to get there. One of the books is titled A Lion to Guard Us. It is the fictional story of three children, who's father has gone to establish a life in the New World. While waiting in England to join him, their mother dies. They are taken in by a kind doctor, who then decides to take them to the New World with him.

In today's chapter, they have a breakfast of tea and biscuits. I'm not sure if biscuit means, you know actual "biscuits" or the British biscuit meaning cookie. We went with the flour, shortening and baking powder kind, served with tea from a real teapot.

Also, my college daughter had an art project due today. She was to replicate an art piece from the museum. She got a pot to paint from her professor, that was close to the shape of the original Greek vase. I think she did a great job!

Happy Halloween!

For school today, we read to each other some of our favorite fall and Halloween stories.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanine Titherington

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White

The Beast Who Couldn't Say Boo by Amanda Agee

And a chapter from Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder, that tells the story of Halloween with Grandma Dowdel.

We also made cupcakes (devil's food, of course) with sprinkles.



Tonight, I'm hoping for a chance to watch Arsenic and Old Lace with my older daughter.

Any special plans at your place?

Our Day in the Herb Garden

My children helped in the herb garden today. They dug holes for planting the new plants and my son was in charge of cutting back the rosemary. He had a great time, saying that was his favorite job ever! Here's the basket full of rosemary, cut and bundled for drying: We took some time to research the herbs that are in our garden. We have several that are great for herbal "teas", like mint and lemon balm. We have lots that we'll use for seasoning, such as chives, oregano and sage. And one or two just because they smell nice, like lavender.

My son labeled jars for some herbs that were already dry. Hmmm, maybe we should work on spelling tomorrow.

The new plants are in the herb bed, and we've left about a quarter of the bed empty for now. I plan to add basil and dill in a few weeks. In looking around the yard today, I noticed that the wild blackberries are in bloom. We'll gather the berries later in the summer and turn them into jam and jelly.

And a quick update on the mudroom--the siding is almost done and the sheetrock is going on the walls.

What's for Supper?

We had our own version of taco salad and chocolate cake for dessert. Our taco salad is tortilla chips, topped with seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, sour cream and guacamole.

Dessert was extra special tonight. My children helped with the baking as their school work for the morning. We added the ingredients (my son learned how NOT to crack an egg) and talked about how they combine to create "cake". We worked together on the frosting and they were in charge of adding the sprinkles.

All supervised by Abby, of course.

We've slipped through a wormhole in time

It's about 1865 around our place this weekend. A Civil War reenactment group is here this weekend. They've set up camp on the property and we woke up to gun shots this morning (although not really louder than the first Saturday of deer season).

The men involved have come from North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and I heard rumors of someone from Kentucky. They spent months preparing for the weekend, including building a bridge across a stream on the property.

Shhhh...we snuck over to the Confederate camp with fresh eggs from our chickens. We put the eggs in a muslin bag because a styrofoam carton just didn't fit with the spirit of the day.

Steve, one of the guys, took lots of time with my children answering their questions, showing them his gear and letting them taste rations. My 9-year-old son loved it! I think we can call this a school day at our homeschool.

Um, ignore the anachronistic car in the background.

And Frodo the Wonder Yorkie has been captured by The Cousin Who Shall Not Be Named.

Three Quick Updates

Domino the Cat is doing fairly well. He's still on antibiotics, which he hates, but is otherwise behaving normally. Well, normal for him.

The tree across the driveway has been moved. It involved a diesel tractor and a very determined husband. We are cleared for travel.

The Farmer Boy unit study is going along nicely. My son likes the country life.

Farmer Boy Unit Study

We are taking a break from our usual school work to do a unit study of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy. It is the story of a year in the life of her husband, Almanzo Wilder. The book tells of his life on the New York state farm where he grew up.

Last night's menu included a version of Mother Wilder's chicken pie. I didn't have a whole chicken, but I did have canned chicken. (My apologies to all you purists out there.) I did, however, make my own pie crust--from scratch. The chicken pie includes bacon, gravy and boiled eggs. Quite rich, but a hit around our house.

The Wilder Homestead has been restored and opened as a museum. I'm thinking field trip.

Stuff We Did Last Weekend

It was a busy weekend for this homeschooling family. We had two, yes TWO, field trips! Both, as it happens, involved grown-ups dressing in period costumes.

The first event was Friday night at Congaree National Park. Congaree National Park is the only national park in South Carolina, although there are other National Park Service sites such as Fort Sumter National Monument and the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

The event this past weekend was the Congaree Campfire Chronicles. We followed a guide along the park's boardwalk to "see costumed interpreters reenacting life in the Congaree floodplain from the 1500s to the present." I think my favorite thing, though, was being in the park at night. Perfectly spooky.

On Saturday, the "costumed interpreters" continued with a trip to Givhans Ferry State Park in Ridgeville, SC. The event was put on by "South Carolina's only group of Roman Soldiers", Legio IV. Whew! I'd be nervous if there were more.

The Castra Romana Festival was actually quite well done and great for children (no feeding Christians to lions at this event). We talked to one of the Roman soldiers with a great sense of humor about it. He said that he only does events in the fall and spring, when the weather is good for camping outside. He's a former military guy who's had enough of being miserable in real life; he's not going to do it for fun.

Hmmm...I'm not sure how we'll ever top this.

First Day of School

We started our homeschool year on Monday. It's really different this year; my oldest just graduated and the next oldest is in third grade. (Quite a spread, I know.) It's practically vacation time for me!

My son is in third grade and his little sister is starting kindergarten this year. What could possible go wrong?

Look good?

I thought I'd (belatedly) share my April Fool's joke. I served "lunch" to our homeschool friends. The children were polite, but guarded when taking their first tastes. So how does it look?

It's vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and crispy cereal treats, made with chocolate cereal and chopped dried pineapple. They loved it!

Did you do any fun pranks last week?