THE NCHE NICHE

I recently joined a local band of rowdy homeschooling mommas. Okay, so we aren't really rowdy. We're all rather reserved actually... unless you hit our hot topic or favorite curriculum  buttons... then we may have opinions to share... or mildly suggest. But, rowdy or no, we are banded together birds o' feather

(who like to maintain our autonomous natures, thank you kindly.)

 The important thing is we are 'banded together' - something I had let go of for awhile

 (Sometimes my 'autonomous' overflows and I forget that I'm not an island adrift nor The Lone Ranger.)

It is nice to be back in community with like-minded yet completely unique folks again.

It has been a little while since we were last plugged in with a group. 

{Here's one time. This was another.} 

Between my overflowing autonomy and busy, bustling every day life, it just didn't seem like we had the time. But alas, as is usually the case-some of the best things are things we MAKE TIME  for. 

Like French Pressed coffee and homemade Croissants. 

Worth every second. 

This group is one of those things, and we are looking forward to making time for our new NCHE family . 

After the first few meet ups, I was so anxious to get to hobknobbing with our new found friends, I created a Facebook group so that we could congregate and well... hobknob. 

(Hobknobbing is a top secret homeschooling thing...for initiates only) 

I can show you the group, but I cannot let you in unless you are a NCHE initiate...because we're hobknobbing in there. And we like our privacy. 

(If you are a local homeschooling family in need of a group you can join HERE. Then come over to Facebook, perform the *secret door knock and we will teach you hobknobbing.)

Having the constant presence of the group via Facebook should also help me to interrupt much less at Mrs. Janie's house. But I best not make any big promises... I think of so many things that need to be shared when I get around real life people... and homeschooling folks at that! I'm just not sure I can keep it all to myself--even if I try. 

Aside from the happy proof of socialization that yammering on about our wonderful new group provides, I'm also making this entry to save a sample of the group's 'interim logo'. I couldn't find one on our website, so I created a quick one for the time being.

Because,  you know.... I tend  to logo the people I love ;) 

Well, I really should be going now. These lessons won't plan themselves... oh! and it looks like there's a new message in the Facebook group.

(Ha!- not really...but I'm sure the struggle to balance priorities is 'only a day away')

((HaHA! As if I have ANY idea how to balance priorities...I really like to sound as if I have it all together, don't I?))

Come on back another day, when we will talk about Mrs. Janie and The Matriarchs, a very important alpha-flock of homeschooling birds who teach us how to keep our wits & feathers as we tend our modest nests and  nudge our fledglings along.

*There is no secret knock, we just check the member roster

Chandler's Leadership Project

Chandler was enrolled in the same FLVS hosted leadership class as Logan but had delays in his project due to waiting on certain items to arrive via shipping. His project idea was to partner with the same CareNet center that Logan had, with an emphasis on encouraging young fathers. We learned that many care centers are trying to increase efforts to reach out to expectant fathers and  provide new parent education  for young men facing a new phase in life. 

Chandler assembled "New Daddy" bags. He chose a baseball themed bag and a small, soft baseball. On each baseball, he wrote "Play Catch With Me Daddy" or a similar sentiment to capture the idea that a young man will have an important role to play in his baby's life. He also included a copy of The Life Book~ generously provided by Gideons, Intl.

Logan's Leadership Project

 

 In FLVS Leadership, the students had to come up with a project that would directly touch/impact the community. Logan chose to collect money and baby supplies for our local CareNet center. She also crafted paper flowers from coffee filters and attached verses of encouragement to be given to women who come to the center. We brainstormed an initiative called Life Change that would utilize purple piggy banks placed within a community- all collected funds turned in to local Care Net center as well as a Life Change Perpetual Showers drive which would be an effort to collect physical item for babies and expectant mothers at set locations (in a similar fashion as Toys For Tots) Together we created a social media drive and received appx. 50 "LIKES" for the page. Unfortunately, this was only a concept and not an idea we have been able to commit energy or resources to at this time. However, it is being kept 'on the back burner' for such a time as we find enough purple piggy banks and willing locations to host collection sites.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip  Cookies

This recipe is adapted from the 1977 Betty Crocker cookbook my mom gave me when I married. It is older than I am and like many things with more age than me, it is full of wisdom to be gleaned.

• 2/3 cup Butter
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 ts Vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 3 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 ts Salt
• 1 ts Baking Soda
• Chocolate Chips
• Other mix-ins as desired

Cream together 2/3 cup of softened butter with 1 cup Sugar, 1 cup Brown Sugar and two eggs
(I used half salted, half unsalted butter).

 Add 2 ts Vanilla (I filled my second ts 2/3 full and filled the remaining space with almond extract).

Blend in 3 cups All Purpose Flour (I used 1 cup White Whole Wheat/2 Cups regular ), Salt & Soda.

Toss in Chocolate Chips & Stir.

Lay out a long piece of plastic wrap and scoop dough onto wrap. Wrap dough into a long cylinder, seal well and refrigerate. (As you form the cylinder, think about the size of the cookies you are making... this should inform your cylinder's size... think 'slices')

This is the last third of my dough in cylinder form. I didn't think to take pictures until the cookie making was almost over. 

Place cookie sheet(s) in freezer.

Preheat Oven to 375 Degrees.

Busy yourself with something else while you wait...perhaps those dishes that you used to make the dough. Trust me, you are going to enjoy the cookies far more if the kitchen is already clean.

When the oven is ready, pull the trays from the freezer, the dough from the fridge. Cut cookie sized slices and arrange on chilled trays.

Bake 8-10 minutes.

Allow to firm on tray for approximately 1 minute.

Remove to cooling racks or large plate. Avoid stacking cookies on top of one another until they are set well.

Place cookie sheets back in freezer, dough back in fridge. Resist the urge to 'accidentally' break a cookie for sampling. Everyone knows the first batch is for giving... (unless they burn.)

Busy yourself for a few more minutes- perhaps you'll want to start a cup of coffee or go process the next phase in your laundry cycle.

When the cookie sheet and dough are cooled/chilled, repeat baking steps.

Repeat baking and cooling steps until all dough is used or you have enough cookies to enjoy with your coffee as well as share with your neighbors.

This recipe said it made about 2 dozen cookies,  however, the instructions called for dropping rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Using the sliced cookie method, we had at least 3 dozen, possibly a little more than that.

 We baked cookies as part of today's science lesson on minerals and mining. Like most things, homeschool life has its challenges. Eating cookies for Earth Science was not one of them.

(NOT eating all the cookies before we were ready for the lesson however...)

Hot Tropics Tomato Soup

Ideally, I would have picked the tomatoes for this soup and stewed them down on a low simmer. I would have caught & plucked the chicken used for broth and set that on another low simmer. Not neglecting to milk my pet cow and a few coconuts too, I would have made sour cream, cocount milk and even the Cheeze-It ™ crackers from scratch. Eventually, finally, bringing it all together in a savory combination in one pot. 

This is not an ideal world. 

I have four children. (who all want something different for lunch, mind you)

I homeschool. (so I know about the dangers of using canned foods, I know!) 

I kill plants. (No tomatoes would have likely made it to the picking stage under my care)

I don't know that the cow would be that much safer. 

If I were close enough to a coconut tree to climb it, I wouldn't be rushing back to the house to make soup... (or climbing it either...but that is another story about how long it has been since I've been in the beloved Keys...and if I tell you THAT story, it will mostly sound like whining and I will become listless in my longing and neglect the reality of Everyone's Laundry...) 

Therefore: 

One can of coconut milk + One can of Harvest Orange Tomato + 1/2 Can of chicken stock= Tropical Tomato Soup

But, you can improve on this if you have the right ingredients.

(which I did, thanks to Chinese New Year)

Tropical Tomato Soup + Sriacha = Warm Tropics Tomato Soup...or Hot Tropics if you add a lot... Sun Burnt Tropics if you add half the bottle... and so forth. 

This was my lunch... and it was tasty.

 All of a sudden, my children decided they didn't want chicken fingers. 

They wanted soup too. 

So

I

 was 

 forced 

 to 

 share!

Don't you hate it when all those lessons about doing the right thing come back and steal your lunch? 

Chinese New Year

February 10th, 2013 issues in the Year of The Snake

Last night, FLVirtual School held a special Collaboration session in recognition of the upcoming Chinese New Year.

To get in the spirit of things, we decided to have Chinese food for dinner. I had casually mentioned this plan to Clay before he went to a meeting. When he called on his way home,  to see if we needed anything while he was out, he was surprised to find that we had decided to COOK Chinese dishes instead of ordering it from the experts. I blamed homeschooling... He indulged me by trying to find chop sticks (a negligent oversight on my part!) then, swung by Beef O'Brady's for some 'real food' just to be safe.

So, we 'made' Chinese to the best of our ability~thankful for the Ethnic Foods aisle and the International Foods freezer at the grocery store. Without it, we may have had to call Lucky Wok.

It's About the Sauces: Sriacha, Sesame Garlic, Pot Sticker. Soy & Duck

I must preface the description of what we made with a quick shout out to Uncle Ben for tipping us off to the super powers of Sriacha sauce...it made the Peanut Lo Mein just right.

We 'made' (translation: opened packages & properly heated in pools of vegetable oil) various Pot Stickers and Spring Rolls. Several neighbors have stopped by this morning to order take out...it left our house that aromatic.

They cleaned their plates, so then it was time for my favorite part of the evening: Fortune Cookies

I had never made cookies that require folding before... when the first one took the shape of an actual fortune cookie like I am often handed after meals @ Ichiban, I was beyond tickled. 

First Fortune Cookie

(there's an actual fortune in there, too!)

The cookies are best made in small batches. By the time I had made enough cookies for everyone to have two apiece, I was tired of cooking in small batches and ten minute intervals. So I poured the remaining batter into one giant Choose Your Destiny Cookie... I was able to fit all the remaining fortunes in it too: 

Ideally, the fortune cookie is the happy end to a traditional Chinese bite to eat...but the sad reality for me was this: 

I am still whittling this away at lunch time the next day. Which is why I have to be going now...