January 2009
Monthly Archive
January 27, 2009
A few years ago, we started a tradition with some friends of celebrating Thanksgiving together. However, autumn always seemed so busy and the date we could finally both agree on migrated later and later, until eventually we settled into a January Giving Thanks Dinner.
Our dear friends host this event, and treat our crew to a delightful evening of fun, food and fellowship. There is always a theme and special activity to look forward to. In the past we’ve had both a talent show and a reader’s circle. Our host is a wonderful cook and the meal is always a delightful, relaxing treat. (This year we each had a rich chocolate truffle dessert served in a martini glass!)
This year’s theme was Handmade and Heartfelt and we were all required to make something to gift to the other family. MrPages and the boys worked in the wood shop. MrsPages and the girls hit the kitchen. I longed to use my sewing room but it is still lying in a state of devastation (although I can now find the floor and at least one pair of scissors!)
We were blessed with a bucketful of miniature Animal cookies and a special gift for each one of us that not only was beautifully handcrafted, but carefully thought out and perfectly suited to each recipient.
I left feeling both abundant and inadequate. Abundant with such caring and generous friends. And inadequate because I feel so incapable of reciprocating. It seemed to me that nothing I brought was sufficient to show these dear friends just how special they are, and how much what they’ve done means to us. At times like these I realize how fully lacking I am, how grateful I am that people can care so richly for one another, and how determined I am to try and love them back with intensity and joy.
Related posts:
- Yellow Belts
- I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends
January 16, 2009
Posted by Jennifer under
Home Schooling No Comments January 6, 2009
Best garage sale find: Twenty place settings of Corelle in an acceptable pattern! It included two sugar bowl, a creamer and the teapot. Our old set was quickly disappearing as pieces broke and I wasn’t looking forward to budgeting for a brand new set. I was telling MrPages at the garage sale, that the price the seller was asking was really good, when the seller yelled from across the yard that she would give us the whole set for half of what was on the tag. Best twenty bucks we’ve spent to date!
Best recipe find: Hamburger Helper – Home-style from my beloved More with Less: World Community Cookbook. (I love Extending the Table and Simply in Season as well.) It seemed kind of plain and simple, and I confess I thought the troops might not be impressed, but they all raved. It quickly became a weekly staple.
Hamburger Helper – Home-Style
Serves 4
Brown in Skillet:
3/4 lb ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
Add:
1 T. finely chopped onion (left in large pick-outable chunks or omitted for my crew)
1 stalk chopped celery
1/4 c. frozen or canned peas (We have used whatever chopped veggies were in the fridge or freezer.)
2/3 c. fresh ir canned tomatoes, chopped
While beef is browning, cook in salted water:
1 c. crinkly noodles (we use whatever pasta we have. I used some left over macaroni and cheese the other day – well actually, it was KD – and omitted the cheese below. It was really yummy.)
Drain noodles and spread over meat mixture. Sprinkle over all:
1/2-3/4 c. shredded cheese or 1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
Simmer uncovered 15 minutes to blend flavors. Serve from skillet.
submitted Marie L. Berg, Kan.
A program on world hunger motivated the contribute to invent her own economical skillet dinner.
Taken from Page 121 of More with Less: A World Community Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre, commissioned by the Mennonite Central Committee and published by Herald Press, copyright 1976.
Best used clothing find: Bathing suits for three of us in November! It was an exciting moment for those of us who desperately needed more coverage in the pool!
Best website find: Book Closeouts. I got the entire Narnia series in hardback for far cheaper than anything else I’ve found! The LittlePages have been building their Little House collections. The site’s catalogue is huge and I don’t usually browse there, but I always go there first when looking for in-print books that mainsteam booksellers no longer want.
Best used book find: Lord of the Rings trilogy in paperback. MrPages has been waiting years for his own copy.
Best used household find: A cast iron dutch oven which will be perfect for period appropriate cooking at living history. No more mooching off the other settlers.
Best music-related find: Zen Creative 2GB MP3 player. This mp3 player, while less popular, is actually more functional and offers more flexibility that an iPod (which MrPages refuses to buy). It has a slot for SD cards (like in cameras) so we can have a card full of our Librivox recordings, and one with classical music, and one with Christmas music. We have it plugged into speakers that are in various places around the house, or we use a small FM transmitter to listen in the car. You don’t need special software to use it, you can just drop mp3 files onto the thing and go. Audiobooks on the highway are the best time-killer ever.
Best techno-geek find: MrPages sometimes does gratis computer work for friends and friends-of-friends. He often comes away with old, mostly unusable hardware, which he, in turn, takes somewhere to be properly disposed of. Just before Christmas, someone dropped off an old broken laptop. It apparently worked find, but the plug-in jack was broken. MrPages made a few $10 Ebay purchases, dismantled the whole laptop down to shiny metal parts and lots of tiny screws, managed to put it all back together (just to have to take it all apart again to fix that one incorrect screw), and now we own our very first laptop! We plan on using it as a portable DVD player. (Our fifteen year old TV is hard to lug around the house.)
And I think that about uses up my creativity and so sums up our year.
Related posts:
- The Year in Review: Work and School
- The Year in Review: Holidays and Events
- The Year in Review: Film, Movies and other DVDs
- The Year in Review – Books
January 4, 2009
MrPages is still working at his job. He missed two large rounds of layoffs just before Christmas. Both were in sectors that his company had recently acquired and therefore didn’t need the extra staff. His partner of almost ten years, who is also a telecommuter, recently told their supervisor that if someone had to go, she would volunteer. She works because she loves it, but doesn’t “need” the income the way MrPages and their other coworker do. They both have younger families to support. Who said their aren’t any heroes anymore!
Work on the house is a more steady job, with no layoffs in sight. It is looking good though and I do expect that we will be moved into the basement for winter next year, if not earlier. 
After the basement the main floor walls and flooring need attention. Ten years of finger prints and toys, mini-cars, and tubs roving across the hardwoods are beginning to show. Significantly. And then the kitchen desperately needs to be attended to. It is in a sorry, sorry state. For all the renos we’ve already done, the kitchen is the most daunting. While we were willing to be without a functional basement for four years, I really can’t imagine washing the dishes in the bathtub until NotSoLittlePage1 graduates.
Decluttering is also going slow but progress is being made. It took me four sick pregnancies in five years to get to the point we were at in December of 2005. So I am trying to remain upbeat about it taking three years to get back. (I thought about posting pictures. I have some from 2005, but I’m not yet ready to admit that it was that bad, and that it’s still not as good as I would like. Perhaps next year.)
School is going extremely well this year. I spent most of the spring and early summer praying over our school direction and what it should look like. The results are that we decided to use Ambleside Online. Again. I had used it in the very beginning of our home school journey, but was uncomfortable with some of the book choices. I’m older and wiser now and realize that it’s okay to just not do a part of the curriculum that I don’t like! So we’re are happily back at Ambleside. The children are each doing their own year, which makes for a busy day for me, but more ownership for them. SO we are currently working on a combined Year 1 and 2, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 7. I’ve made quite a few substitutions (since we focus on secular education), but any replacements would be similar in scope, so you can get a real feel for what the Pages are doing. As an aside, I recently asked them if they liked the “new way” of doing school. They generally agreed that things are harder and they have less free time, but they all love it and wouldn’t go back to a more informal way. Someday I may find to time to tell you all about how I plan and execute four different plans simultaneously.
Related posts:
- The Year in Review: Best Finds
- The Year in Review: Holidays and Events
- The Year in Review: Film, Movies and other DVDs
- The Year in Review – Books
January 3, 2009
January 2, 2009
MrPages and I are amateur film buffs. One cold January evening, MrPages tromped up to the local Blockbuster and discovered the foreign and classic film section. We quickly exhausted their selection however and eventually came to depend on the library. Even their selection seemed limited, however, and we finally took out a membership at Zip.ca. For $11 a month we get to “rent” two movies. We’ve never had problem with the DVD’s or the mailings. We don’t, however, use Zip to decide what to rent. There is even more dreck at Zip than at Blockbuster, but if you know what you are looking for, you can find a number of older films.
We are very picky viewers, even more so when the children are involved. We want to create an appreciation of art and a taste for well-done film. We try to keep a look out for film recommendations by friends. Almost everything we watch is pre-inspected at a few internet sites: Moviepicks or Kids in Mind. Each one of these site rates movies thoroughly, allowing parents to know what their getting into before they see a film.
In addition, MrPages and I preview a large number of movies before we let the LittlePages enjoy them. We also keep up a constant conversation about what makes good film, including plot, character development, acting, sets, special effects, and over-arching world view. The LittlePages are all looking forward to seeing a number of films when they’re a little older. As each reaches a certain level of maturity, more films will be available to them. We are also working hard not to deny our youngest the chance to see fun, preschooler type shows. I recently realized that while the LittlestPage has seen Flywheel several times, she had never Blues Clues!
So here’s the list of the most remembered films the Pages saw this year:
The entire family:
Christmas Shoes – the ultimate tear-jerker, even the second time around. Not a great film, but we could all do with a reminder of the important things in life.
Emergency! – Cutting edge realism, at the time. It had the children pretending to be Emergency Services personnel for months.
The Waltons – How did I miss these growing up? A large family that loves one another and makes the right choices during difficult financial times. The teen love interests are a little annoying, and the clothes are more 1970’s than 1930’s, but far better fare than most of what’s on cable to day.
Curious George – Awesome soundtrack! Kids music that appeals to the musician in MrPages. The movie was good too.
The Nutcracker Ballet – I thought they would get bored, but they loved it. We had read the original E.T.A. Hoffman book, which is different from the ballet, but the crew still enjoyed watching this stage version by the Royal Ballet.
Blues Big Musical – My three year old almost missed out on this. She was absolutely thrilled and keeps talking about it, even weeks later.
For the older ones:
Bridge to Terebithia – I confess I had not read the book before MrPages and I previewed this movie for the kids. The ending was a complete shock. Well acted, well presented and a pleasure to watch with the oldest Pages.
Night at the Museum – This has a soft spot for us in the same way that Nemo does. There are not many films that portray Dads as heroes, but the Dad in this film triumphs. Silly, fun and full of laughs.
Princess Bride – Card-carrying cynic MrPages read this to the crew this summer. They all loved it. The movie was much darker than I remembered and I kept wondering about the moral implications of some of the character’s choices. That said, the movie is almost word for word from the book and has a ton of great quotes.
MrPages and I:
To Live - A beautiful foreign film that follows the life of a young rich man as he loses his fortune and China becomes communist. With research we discovered that the title is better translated To Live On (it makes more sense). The film is a testament to the strength of human resilience.
Primer – A low budget, extremely complicated science fiction film about traveling in time and how it could change people. Although highly intellectual and therefore a little confusing, it is certainly worth a look if you like science fiction and relationship driven film. A handful of friends made this movie for $7000, and it won a pile of awards. No special effects, no sets other than a house, an office and a U-Store-It, but a real mind-bender.
Dr Who – What can I say? I grew up watching all the Doctors. We’ve been watching the DVDs of the newest series. I’m also trying to find older seasons since MrPages hasn’t made the acquaintance of earlier Doctors. Some of the newer ones are much scarier than older versions, but the hero still manages to avoid violence and use science to overcome the latest threat to the universe.
Ushpizin – An Israeli film that follows a Hasidic couple during the feast of Sukkot. This film is well acted (by real Hasidic jews) and beautiful to watch. The spiritualism is deep and reverent.
The Terminal - A sweet movie that could have been great film. While Tom Hanks turned in a solid performance, the other characters were less believable. The product placement was pretty heavy handed as well. However, it’s still good for a lovely date night escape.
For other lists of good movies checkout:
What to Rent – This site has you answer an extensive questionnaire and then treats movies likes real people and tries to match you with ones that match your personality and mood. Most of the matches it offered us were good quality films that we have seen or would consider seeing.
A few other lists I have bookmarked include Babara’s Picks for Family Friendly Films , this one of Classic Heartwarming Family Films, this one of Spiritually Significant Films, and Film Site offering a complete listing of the greatest classic movies ever made.
You can also check out Kathryn L. Stout’s Movies as Literature curriculum.
Join us next time for The Year in Review: Holidays and Events
Related posts:
- The Year in Review: Best Finds
- The Year in Review: Work and School
- The Year in Review: Holidays and Events
- The Year in Review – Books
January 1, 2009
We received a lovely Christmas letter from our friends John and Wendy. Since I gave up Christmas cards a few years ago (after the last batch got misplaced until the following summer) I thought it might be fun to post a similar type “letter” here on the blog over the next few days.
So here’s the first installment of our Year in Review: Books.
As we sat down to discuss this category, we had trouble remembering all the books we had read, and then limiting our choices so that the post wouldn’t take hours to read. We have already started a catalog of our personal library at LibraryThing, but it occurred to me that is might also be interesting to keep track of exactly what we read next year, which means having to log our library books somehow. I’m debating between just writing things down on a piece of paper or starting an account at Goodreads. But enough analyzing.
The LittlestPage loves to read. She has six readers who all volunteer their time enthusiastically, so she is never without entertainment. Her top winner right now is Gossie and Gertie and others in the series by Olivier Dunrea. Others that she loves to pull off the shelf include Big Sarah’s Little Boots and George and the Dragon (oh my, what power little mice wield!).
LittlePage4 adored Three Tales of My Father’s Dragon, especially the audio version. He also loved Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars, the common theme being adventure and silliness all rolled into one!
LittlePage3 also has a fondness for Miss Pickerell. His favorite was Miss Pickerell Goes Undersea. The creator of Miss Pickerell, Ellen MacGregor, worked hard to create scientifically accurate books that do not sacrifice adventure and fun. You will likely have to take a trip to the library to find these treasures.
LittlePage2, a long time Little Women fan, read Little Men and Jo’s Boys this year and fell in love with them. She couldn’t articulate exactly why she loved them so much but said, with a sparkle in her eye, “I want to run a boarding school, just like Jo’s.” I may be biased, but I can’t think of any higher calling than raising children to live and love.
NotsoLittlePage1 finally received permission to read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. She ploughed through all three in about three weeks. (She took a few days off, when the stories were getting intense, choose not to read them before bed, to stop bad dreams, and still managed to carry the last little bit of her 
school work for the term.) When asked what she felt about the books, she said she was still processing them; that Sam is the real hero, although everyone wants to be a Frodo or an Aragorn. She most appreciates the work of the author, who didn’t just create a story, but created an entire world with a beginning and end and all that happens in between.
MrPages reads a steady supply of classic science-fiction e-books on his little Pocket PC including a large Jules Verne and Vernor Vinge binge.,
I have to admit that I read so many books, they sometimes get lost in my memory. The ones I can most recall include I Heard the Owl Call My Name, a fi
ctional account of a young priest who goes to live and minister in a remote BC village of Fist Nations people. Brilliantly written in a fashion that captures the Native culture and the difficulty of religious evangelism. Similarly, God’s Galloping Girl: The Peace River Diaries of Monica Storrs, 1929-1931 will continue to haunt my mind. An account of a simple woman trying to help a poor people in a remote, harsh part of Canada in the 1930’s. Simple, mundane, and personally convicting.
Tune in next time for The Year in Review: Film, Movies and other DVDs
Related posts:
- The Year in Review: Best Finds
- The Year in Review: Work and School
- The Year in Review: Holidays and Events
- The Year in Review: Film, Movies and other DVDs
