This weekend I learned how to hang a new light fixture and how not to make a delicious brisket

01/14/2013 Nichole 1 Comment

Last night I made a brisket that a popular food web site said was going to be amazing, and it was extremely not amazing. I’d categorize it somewhere closer to gross, and I probably won’t try to make a brisket ever again.

The bad brisket didn’t ruin my weekend, though. I slept ’til nearly noon Saturday and yesterday (thanks Rockford!), we finally replaced the light fixture in the dining room, and I wrapped up the weekend by watching the first hour of the Golden Globes, then “Downton Abbey” and then the last hour of “Golden Globes.” And I think everyone in the house is finally healthy again.

Here’s hoping the rest of this week’s meals are a bit tastier than the Great Brisket Fiasco!

Monday: Black bean soup: We ate the leftovers of last week’s chicken tortilla soup almost every day, and every day Pete asked for more beans. He also asked when I would make him a just-bean soup. Today’s the day, little buddy.
Tuesday: Chicken Piccata: I’m not sure I’ve ever tried to make chicken piccata before, but Rockford loves lemony chicken so I’d be surprised if I hadn’t. Leaky memories aside, I’m hoping this will be tangy and lovely.
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers: This week it was Pete’s turn to pick the kids’ choice meal, and he picked his favorite food of all time: “Cheeeeeeeseburgers!”
Thursday: Festival of Leftovers: I’m banking on having soup and chicken leftovers, obviously. I’m not sure what we’ll do otherwise.
Friday: Pizza: We made our own pizza last week, and it turned out pretty great. We’ll probably do it again this week.

Homeschool

Homeschoolers rarely get to take a sick day

01/11/2013 Nichole 3 Comments

Homeschool at ButterscotchSundae.com One or more of us has been sick every day this week. Pete had a weird fever with no other symptoms last weekend, then I came down with an awful cold and lost my voice for most of the week — I sound a little like Kathleen Turner today, when I try to talk — and now both kids are having some (ah-hem) gastrointestinal discomforts that I very much hope not to experience personally. Right now they are both bundled up in blankets and a general malaise in the living room and listening to Jeremy Irons’ reading of “James and the Giant Peach” for the 253th time.

Despite all that, we actually got quite a bit of schoolwork done this week.

Extracurricular

Poppy finished her costumes for Odyssey of the Mind last weekend. She’ll be portraying a clown fish and an undersea explorer, and with her permission I will share at least one of the costumes with you after their competition next month.

Pete had his first basketball practice. I am so very much looking forward to his first game, which is in a few weeks.

Poetry

Poppy memorized Mary Ann Hoberman’s “Growing” this week, and Pete learned “About the Teeth of Sharks” by John Ciardi.

About the Teeth of Sharks
John Ciardi
The thing about a shark is — teeth,
One row above, one row beneath.

Now take a close look. Do you find
It has another row behind?

Still closer — here, I’ll hold your hat:
Has it a third row behind that?

Now look in and … Look out! Oh my,
I’ll never know now! Well, goodbye.

Reading

When last we spoke of such things, Poppy didn’t want to read “Harry Potter” so Pete and I were reading it together. Poppy gradually started listening, too, and by the end she and Pete were very vocally cheering for Harry & the gang. We started “The Lightning Thief” before Christmas, but neither of them wanted to finish it. Rockford gave them a copy of “The Hobbit” for Christmas, and he’s been reading it to them at bedtime.

Both kids are doing the Pizza Hut Book-It program this year. Since Pete is just learning to read, his goal for this month is to complete three Bob books. He conquered the first one of the month today. It was an odd one, about a couple with 10 children who enjoy hiding in a bag. Poppy’s goal is to read 1,000 pages. She’s done about 250 pages so far, almost from an American Girls set she got for Christmas.

Math

Both kids are still doing and enjoying McRuffy math. Pete is been working on ordinal numbers and counting by 10s this week, and Poppy has been doing quite a bit with counting money and reading clocks. I would very much like it if Poppy finished Teaching Textbooks 3, so she’s been doing about two lessons from that every week. I also downloaded a few multiplication games for her iPod touch this week in hopes that she would magically learn her multiplication tables, but it hasn’t worked yet.

menu plan Monday

This will likely lead to increased media consumption

01/07/2013 Nichole

We took the Christmas stuff down this weekend, so now the living room looks wide open and a little less cozy. We’re going to address that — I’m not sure “fix” is the appropriate word — by putting a TV in the living room this week. We have a TV downstairs and one in our bedroom, and I haven’t really missed having one in the main living area. Rockford has, though, so we’re going to give it a try. The basement is pretty chilly this time of year, and I’m looking forward to not shivering while we watch movies.

I think I’m on the forward edge of a migraine — the text on my screen is leaving shadows of itself everywhere — so I’m not even going to try to come up with a connection between moving the television and making a meal plan. But I will say that it feels like this is the first week in years that I’ve actually made a menu plan, so that feels like an accomplishment. (Update! It was the forward edge of a cold. Blargh.)

Sunday: Beef stroganoff: Sometimes I get a hankerin’ for beef & noodles. This was one of those times. I found a 4.5-star recipe for beef stroganoff at AllRecipes.com, but nearly every review for it had a change or two to suggest. My finished project only vaguely resembled recipe as it was published. (Another update! I spent the whole day in bed, and Rockford and the kids went to Subway after they discovered that the beef was too tough to chew. I left it on low in the CrockPot overnight, the beef became acceptably tender, and we ate it for lunch today.)
Monday: Football party: Some friends are having a national-championship-watching party, too which I’ll be bringing Crimson Tide Woopie Pies. I’m not sure what’s on the menu, but I’ve heard rumors that it might be corned beef.
Tuesday: Chicken Taco Soup: Poppy has an American Heritage Girls meeting at the same time as Pete’s first basketball practice tomorrow evening, which makes it a great day to haul out the slow cooker and make some soup.
Wednesday: Chicken in Mustard-Cream Sauce: I think I originally saw this on Pinterest, and then I ran into it again while browsing the Everyday Food section of Martha Stewart’s website. So I thought I’d try it. Don’t let me down, Martha.
Thursday: Fish sticks and mac ‘n’ cheese: Usually Wednesday night is kids’ choice night, but Rockford is in charge of dinner prep on Thursday and he requested something simple. Can you guess whose week it was to choose the kids’ night meal this week?
Friday: Pizza: We’ve ordered Pizza Hut for the last few pizza nights, because Poppy had a surplus of BookIt coupons to use. She used the last one last week, though, so I might actually make a pizza this week. (Or I might not.)