Sophie's First Spelling Quiz

Sophie had her first word study quiz today.  She was excited that her teacher wrote "Great job!" on her paper.  Hannah also had her first spelling quiz for the year and was pleased that she got them all right even though she "didn't study that much."

After school today the girls and I made a Costco run with Grandma to stock up on some items.  Mostly we got breakfast and snack items for the girls, as well as a supply of vitamins.  The one thing I really wanted was a jumbo box of Nexcare band-aids, but unfortunately they didn't have them this time.  Boo!

After dinner this evening the girls put on a Tom & Jerry themed puppet show in the laundry room.  Afterward they showed off their puppets and the masks they created today.

Charles has been coming down with a cold and felt pretty bad today.  Hoping he feels better soon and doesn't get the rest of us sick, although Sophie has been sniffling and sneezing the last few days as well.

And, just for fun, here's an old video of Jubilate that Kevin posted on Facebook today.  I almost didn't even recognize myself in it!

No Boys Allowed

The girls absolutely love playing in my classroom and adjacent walk-in closet before and after school.  Yesterday they created a little clubhouse that they were creating pictures in.

The sign says "No boys allowed" with an accompanying graphic representation

Sophie's self-portrait, with lots of freckles

Hannah's drawing of a man hiking on Mt. Everest.  He'll eat his lunch on the swing in the background.  He's wearing a hat, scarf, and mittens because of the cold snow on the ground.

Hard at work

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Yesterday I canned 10 more pints of diced tomatoes, bringing my canning totals to 32 pints and 7 quarts.  That's a lot of tomatoes!

Yesterday's canning yield

Our tomato plants are very diseased at this point and ridden with pests, including squash bugs that have decimated our squash and pumpkin and are now looking for other targets.  We're still harvesting a few tomatoes, but they ain't pretty!

Ugly tomatoes

These will be OK for canning, though they certainly won't win a beauty contest.  I have enough to can one more batch this weekend.  We may pull the plants out and go ahead and put the garden to rest for the winter.  We're both kind of done tending it and ready to give up the fight against the very numerous pests that we've encountered this summer.  We will need to dig up the sweet potato vines to see if anything grew beneath the surface, though their patch of garden is quite weed-ridden by this point in the season.

I also canned two pints of roasted cherry tomatoes using a recipe that a colleague shared with me.  I had just enough to can these two jars so I didn't get to sample a bite, but they sure looked and smelled good.  Find the recipe below.

This blurry picture doesn't do them justice; they are pretty!

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes (recipe from Lee Good)

Toss 8 cups halved cherry tomatoes with:

1/2 c. olive oil

2 T. sugar (I go on the scant side)

1 1/2 tsp. salt

Spread on a baking sheet (with sides) and bake at 350 for one hour.  When they are finished (some of them will show a bit of browning at the edges), remove them from the oven and ladle them straight into sterile jars, add hot lids and screw on rings.  Invert jars for at least an hour and make sure lids seal.  Of course, they can be enjoyed immediately as well!

Miscellaneous Photos (from the last several days)

Computer lab area of my classroom with new (nicer) tables

The note Hannah received from her teacher after the first week of school

A cartoon that's especially appropriate for Hannah

Probably the last of the tomatoes from the garden

My happy face after returning from a jog

Putting on a play, though Charles thought it was more like "playing" than a "play"

Funny-shaped tomato -- what do YOU think it looks like?

Climbing the walls (literally)

"I want to do it too!"

All Day in the Kitchen

I didn't intend to spend all day long in the kitchen, but somehow I did.  I wanted to make bread today (that I knew) so I started the dough sponging before I went for a walk this morning.  This is what it looked like when I returned, and the girls' reaction to how large it got:

 

 

Sophie's been excited about the pumpkins that Charles harvested from the garden last weekend, so she wanted to make pumpkin muffins from the recipe in her kindergarten cookbook.

 

For dinner, we had a meal more suited for fall weather.  It's been on the cooler side all day, so this felt appropriate.  Charles grilled venison, which we ate with green beans and a new mac and cheese recipe we tried.  It was delicious!

Other kitchen adventures included making a Tomato-Cucumber cold soup (very refreshing) and whipping up a Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad (also yummy).

I did get out of the kitchen a few times.  While hanging the laundry, I noticed that most of our sunflowers have finally bloomed.

Hannah and I also went to the grocery store to get what we need for this week.  On the way, we went to Ryan's Fruit Stand and picked up a half bushel of gala apples.  This winter I really want to try to eat local apples rather than buying them from the store.  With three orchards selling them in the Timberville area, that shouldn't be too hard!

First Friday

Each year our middle school students participate in "First Friday" activities on the first Friday of the school year.  (Clever name, right?)  Rather than go to regular classes, they participate in several seminars during the morning and then go to a local park for lunch and various activities.  Read on for an account of today's First Friday events.

The morning began with an inspiring talk from our new principal

We then sang a few songs

 After this time of collective worship, students traveled with their grade level to three different morning activities: 

Group-building in the gym

Learning to know one another better in the commons

Grade-level seminars in homerooms

Sixth-graders heard about student-led conferences and took a learning profile assessment.  Seventh-graders exercised their minds as part of their year-long theme of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Eighth-graders did activities that helped them think about time management to prepare for a school year that will be more demanding than what they've been used to.

We then left school and went to the park for a picnic lunch.  After lunch students participated in various activities that they had signed up for through their PE classes: swimming, wallyball, basketball, game room, and disc golf.  Then we wrapped up the afternoon with icy pops before heading back to school.

The water was a little chilly

Icy pops to cool off at the end of the day

 A good time was had by all, and now I'm ready for a good night's sleep!

The Grumps

Well, the girls made it two days of getting "up and at 'em" in the mornings.  Day 3 was a different story.  Neither one wanted to get up.  You see the face Sophie gave me this morning, and Hannah fussed that getting up at 6:30 was too early, even though we leave the house by 7am and she got up before 6:30 most days this summer.  I guess school is wearing them out!

I got in the groove with my classes today, finally getting into studying some course content rather than just talking about procedures, etc.  It felt good.

Completed bulletin board of summer reading

Hannah's been taking her evening shower in our bathroom.  This works well for two reasons: 1) Sophie prefers to take a bath, and 2) bath time happens more quickly since they don't distract each other being in the bathtub together.  After several nights of showering in our shower, I had Hannah bring her own shampoo in rather than using ours.  She told me she would put it on the seat in the shower.  Here's what I found this morning when I went to get it:

Everything neatly arranged and symmetrical, all in its place.  Yes, she is my daughter!

A few other pictures from the day:

Watching TV after school, all in a row

Delicious garden fresh dinner -- what will I do when we don't have all these fresh veggies anymore?

Workout Injury and Garden Update

Apparently I pulled my left hamstring yesterday morning while doing a leg workout.  I didn't realize this yesterday (during the first day of school), but last night I woke with pain every time I rolled over in bed.  Needless to say, I did not get a good night's sleep.  I hobbled around this morning and took a break (obviously) from working out.  Thankfully, by the end of the school day it had loosened up quite a bit and felt much better.  I may take some Aleve tonight to make sure that I get a decent night's sleep even if it stiffens up again.  I'm seeing some upper body workouts in my near future while I let this heal.

Here you see today's picks from the garden (minus the pear, which was given to me by a colleague).  Lots of cherry tomatoes, 7-8 peppers, several large slicing tomatoes, a couple of romas, and two yellow squash.  The garden is definitely slowing down.  Charles has pulled out all the corn, the squash bugs have claimed our squash plants and pumpkin vines and have now moved on to the tomatoes.  I'm throwing out more diseased and rotten tomatoes than I'm harvesting.  All the plants now have blight almost all the way up.  Their days are definitely numbered.  The watermelon vine still looks good, and the squash and zucchini that I planted late have come up, though I don't know that they're going to flower and produce fruit.  My late planting of lettuce and greens is also emerging, although it's surrounded by both watermelon vine and many, many weeds (as are the pepper plants with some fruit still remaining and the sweet potato vines that may or may not have any tubers hiding beneath the surface).  Ironically, now that the sweet potatoes are surrounded by weeds, the bunnies can't find them to much on, so they're bigger now than they've been all season.

While I was harvesting in the garden, Hannah was inside reading the script for The Sound of Music.  Yesterday she talked with the producer and musical director for the show, and they offered for me to be a nun in the production so that she would feel more comfortable being in it.  I talked with her about it last night to see if she would be in the play with me, and she asked to see the script so she could see how many times Gretl is on stage.  She's read through a portion of Act One and will likely keep reading tomorrow.  We all desperately want to see her participate in this production!  It would be so neat to see her on stage in such a classic musical.

First Day of School

The morning began with Charles loudly repeating over (and over) "FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!" at the top of his lungs.  (And he wonders why his daughters are so loud sometimes!)

I'm happy to report that everyone (mom included) had a good first day.  The girls were super excited to go this morning and were just as excited when they got off the shuttle this afternoon.  Some pictures from the day:

New shoes for school

My cutie patooties

Traditional first day of school picture

All the girls ready to go

Finding new seats in mom's classroom

Waiting for the morning shuttle

Ready to go!

Sophie had a minor tumble off her bike after school

Showing me what she's chosen for her "About Me" bag that she's putting together for homework.  Yes, those are pictures of Carter!

After school today we went to the choir room to hear the high-schoolers practicing songs for the Sound of Music auditions that happen tomorrow.  The producer and musical director for the play took a few minutes to talk to Hannah to help her feel more at ease about playing Grethel.  She still hasn't decided whether she wants to do it.  They'll allow me to play a singing nun if that will make her feel more comfortable.  She now wants to read the script to see how much she's on stage before she makes her final decision.