New school year.

So, we decided to go the online school route for The Boy. I am also doing it with The Girl as well. We decided on this way to go because The Boy wasn't  progressing academically like we wanted him to, like the believe he should have been able to. He ended second grade about 3 or 4 months behind the average second grader. He ended third grade closer to a year behind. He also got glasses which I've noticed have helped him read better. I don't think his teacher had the time or maybe she didn't have the planning skills to help him with his learning. I don't know for sure, but when I talked to her she appeared to think he was a trouble maker, a rule breaker, and that he was of lower ability in academics. I realise that he has problems with authority and with rules he feels are unfair. We decided to go this way because he has a teacher that we can talk to if we need to, they send us all the books and materials for all of their classes. Everything from art supplies to text books. We did have to get some normal school supplies, like pencils and crayons.

So anyway, we enrolled The Boy and The Girl in Connections Academy. He is going to redo third grade and she is starting Kindergarten. The first week started September 4th. The first week was interesting, busy, and a learning experience for all of us. Both grades need a lot of input from the "learning coach" (me). Luckily The Girl likes to get things done quickly, with only small breaks. While The Boy prefers to spread things out more over the day. He likes to have longer breaks between his classes, sometimes if the classes are shorter or quicker he will do two or even three before he wants a long break. So this works out well for all of us. They each like to listen to what the other is doing, I think The Girl will be picking up more of The Boy's stuff than he will pick up from hers.

The boy has a lot of writing to do, which is a source of frustration for him. He really hates writing. I'm going to start him on cursive writing, because I've heard that for some kids with similar problems with hand control as he has cursive is easier and more importantly faster than print. So we will see how that works. We have a handwriting book that includes cursive, it came with the books from his school. So, we will see. He is doing pretty well with the reading part of language arts. So far math has been pretty easy. He is understanding the social studies, science and art. Only math and art don't have much writing so he's not getting frustrated with those classes. Everything else has writing to do so it's more frustrating. I've let him dictate some things to me, he seems to do well and to understand more when I'm doing the writing. We will see how the cursive writing will do as he learns more of it.

I think this will be a good segue to traditional home schooling. I would really like to do that. We would be doing a unit studies kind of schooling. We could study spiders because The Girl is interested in spiders. We could study the Norse gods and epic stories, because we watched "The Avengers" and they were curious about the story between Loki and Thor. We could eat at a Mexican restaurant and then learn about the culture of Mexico. Or many other things that interest us. I have "What your child needs to know in Third Grade" and "What your child needs to know in Kindergarten" I can get books for each grade from here on so that we can make sure we hit all the things they will need, mainly in math and history. Just in case they decide to go back to public school later.

The reason The Girl's Mom choose to go this was, is because we can do school whenever we want to. Since she works evenings, dropping The Girl off here at 1PM and picking her up at 12 AM, we can tailor our school timing so they can have some time together before The Girl needs to go to bed. If The Girl went to public school, she would have to go to sleep here before her Mom got home, and they would have to figure out how to get her to school in the morning. I think this is giving them the best of both worlds.

Concerns about The Boy.

Our vacation was wonderful, full of family and canning. I will be posting pictures soon. I know that The Boy had a good time, however he started to have more of the uncontrolled head shaking, sometimes his hands and shoulders were shaking as well. He didn't seem to notice and when I brought it to his attention he said that it was just happening on it's own. I don't know if it was stress, because of being somewhere out of his normal setting, all the people around when he's not really used to it, or just something that happened. I'm worried about it though, it could mean something else is wrong. I'll have to watch and make sure I tell his Doctor when we see her next.

He is also complaining about not being able to see to read unless he is up close to the book or the computer screen. So, we will have to go get his eyes checked soon as well. I'm about due for a new pair of glasses myself so maybe we can go together.

He is still a bit on the innocent side compared to other kids his age. Not so much a problem for the most part, but it could lead him into trouble.

Making blueberry jam.

Last year I tried to make blueberry jam without pectin, well actually I mean without added pectin since they already have pectin in them. Anyway, it didn't set and I was disappointed by it. So this year I decided to give it a try with store bought pectin. My downstairs neighbor gave me a nice size bucket of blueberries after I sent down some green beans from our green bean harvest.

First I had to smash or squash or smoosh or crush the berries.

Then I put the jars in the canner to heat up while I cooked the jam.

It took a lot longer to reach the proper temp for the jam to set than I expected. I tried dipping a spoon in and watching the jam drip off to see if it was "sheeting". I don't even know what that really means LOL. And then I tried putting a little on a cold plate to see if it would thicken up enough in a minute or so.

One it finally got there I ladled it into jars and got them ready for the canner.

I put them in the canner for 5 minutes as the directions said. By this time the water in the water bath canner had been boiling for a couple of hours and I discovered that the steam was condensing on the ceiling when a big fat drop landed on my head. EEWW! It was a little gross, because there was a little build up of grease up there. But on the positive side my ceiling is clean now!

I then took the jars of beautiful blueberry jam out of the water bathe canner and set them on the counter to cool. It was so satisfying to hear the ping of the jar lids sealing.

Here are the finished jars all ready to go on the shelf.

It tastes wonderful too!

Canning season starts.

Well, canning season has started. I've been able to can a few things so far this year. In June I started with strawberries that my niece picked. We, my neice and I, made strawberry lemon jam and just plain strawberry jam. They both turned out great.

 Strawberies ready to make jam.

 Strawberry jam.

Strawberry-lemon jam.

Then I picked cherries with Jennifer, and made cherry jam and cherry preserves, then made a pie and put the last of the cherries in the freezer. The jam didn't set up at all, it was a no pectin added recipe. I'm not sure how the preserves are supposed to be, but they didn't do what I thought they would either, the pie was good and I'll probably be able to make another pie with the frozed cherries I have.

 No pectin added cherry jam.

 Cherries.

 Cherry preserves.

 Cherry preserves a different view.

Cherry pie, it was a little sweet but I liked it anyway.

July 23rd Jennifer and I took our kids to a harvest for green beans. It was fun and we picked quite a bit, about 5 1/2 5 gallon buckets. I brought home almost 2 buckets full. I made some pickled, Dilly Beans, green beans with nearly half of them, I'm going to blanch and freeze the other half.

Dilly Beans.

I'm looking forward to canning more fruit and maybe even more vegetables if I can get a pressure canner.

Cherries.

Today my friend Jennifer and I went out to pick cherries. It was with Salem Harvest, which sponsors harvests to harvest fruit and vegetables from professional farmers as well as private people who have fruit trees, vines or bushes that produce more than they can use. We harvested cherries from an orchard that had been professionally picked before, what we harvested was what was still green at that time. We donate at least half of what we pick to the local Food Share and get to keep the other half for free. This was my first harvest, I can't wait for the next one.

I am tired, but part of that is I went to bed late, around 2:30 this morning, and got up early, around 7:30. And part of it is that I'm not in very good shape.

Now I have a 5 gallon bucket nearly full of cherries. I'm planning on making jam and preserves. I don't think I'll have enough to put some up in light syrup this time, but there might be another cherry harvest soon. I'm looking forward to picking pretty much anything else. Blueberries, peaches, apples, pears, maybe even some vegetables.

About Cars 2: The Video Game

As most of you know I'm a Bzz Agent, which means that sometimes I get products to try or I get to see some content about something before it's available in the store. I'm then supposed to tell people about what I've seen or tried, the good and the bad. I sometimes have coupons to give for those items as well.

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Anyway, today I'm Bzzing about Cars2: The Video Game. From what I've seen so far it looks like it will be a fun game for families to play together. You will be able to join C.H.R.O.M.E. and play spy's and have combat races! I like racing games so I'm particularly interested in this game, I think that The Boy and Messed Up Daddy will enjoy playing it with me. We like the characters from Cars so that should help make it fun too. You can go to their facebook page to check out some of the content. The game will be available June 21st, so we don't have too long to wait. You all know how much I hate to wait for things. LOL So go check it out and let me know what you think. Does it look like something you would like? Why or why not?

Work out issues.

I have to admit that I've fallen off the work out wagon, so to speak. I got discouraged when, after working so hard for months, all I was able to loose was 15 or so pounds, but I continued because I thought I was building muscle mass, which weighs more per inch than fat does. Then I was over whelmed when I gained it all back plus 5 more pounds, all while working out 4 or 5 days a week. I don't think that I started to eat more, or eat bad stuff while I was working out, but it's possible. So I gave up on working out all together. I tried to walk 15 minutes a day, but the weather got in the way, and I wasn't really feeling into it anyway. Now I'm feeling like a failure, and I don't know what I'm going to do about it.

I NEED to loose the weight. It's a health issue. So far I haven't had any really problem because of my weight, but it's only a matter of time. The Boy is still very young, I need to be healthy for him. I need to live long enough to see him grown and on his own. I worry about him because of his special needs and his other problems, he still needs me. I just don't know what to do.

I've been thinking.

I've been thinking about my weight problems. I am easily distracted from working out or any other kind of exorcise, that's one problem. I like doing it when I do, but ... it's easy to find something else I "should" do instead.

My biggest problem however, is my relationship with food. I really like food, the taste, the texture, the action of eating. This makes it easy for me to over eat, it's the "just one more bite" syndrome. I also get obsessed with some foods, it's more than a craving, it's much harder to ignore one when it hits. It's not just one food either and I never know which food it will be or when it will happen. I'll eat a whole chocolate cake because I can't stop myself, or recently it was Honey Barbecue Chicken Bites. I got them by accident a couple of weeks ago and ended up eating the first bag in one day. We had some the other night, The Boy didn't eat all of his, I sat here thinking of his leftover bites trying not to go get them. But I couldn't stop thinking of them, just sitting there in the fridge waiting for someone to come and eat them. Finally I couldn't stand it any more and went in there and took them out, warmed them up and ate them. Even though I wasn't hungry, in fact I was still full from my own dinner. I have to get control over this, I have to stop eating when I'm not hungry, and I have to stop spending so much time thinking about food.

A double knit hat.

I decided to try a double knit hat. I wanted it to be reversible. Or as The Boy said "completely reversible" LOL. I've made one other double knit project before, a pot holder. It was fun, and I wanted to try it again. I already had two shades of blue so all I had to do was find a pattern for the colors I would stay interested in doing but wouldn't be too hard to do. I found an snowflake pattern that was just right. Figuring out how to do ribbing in double knit was interesting and took a few tries, but  got it done. Then I had to figure out how to work it in the round with double point needles. I had some problem with laddering between the needles especially on the "back" or inside because I couldn't see that part as clearly as I could the "front" or outside. But I think it turned out pretty well. Here's some pictures.

You can see the laddering a little bit here.



The ribbing is a bit loose, but it works for The Boy.



Finally finished the left glove. Picture post.

Now I'll wash them and get them ready to give as a gift for Christmas.



The finished right glove. (pictures)

Gloves.

I've decided to try to knit gloves. I've made mittens, but wanted to make gloves. I made a green right glove, it looks pretty good, but is a bit big around my hand. I'm making a purple on right now and if it keeps on as good as it is so far I'll make the left one to go with it. Then I'll make another pair in the green for myself. I'll work out how to make the pattern smaller because The Boy wants a pair as well. If they work up as fast as I think they will I'll even make some with out finget tips for Messed Up Daddy. I'm not using wool, that's a little expensive for me right now. But I got some nice soft yarn from Dollar Tree several months ago, I have quite a bit of it and it works well for the gloves, as far as the sizing and thickness goes. I think they will be warm too.

So here are some pictures I took today of the purple glove in progress.



One skien of yarn is for the hand part and the other is the fingers.




The hand just before the fingers are added and the thumb  with just a row or so until it's done.





The way it looks on, I had to hold the camera upside down and use my left hand to take this. LOL



Tooth problems, again.

The Boy has a large cavity in his first permanent molar. It was giving him a lot of pain last week. We finally got a dentist's appointment with Messed Up Daddy's dentist. They looked at him and couldn't even get an x-ray. They referred us to a dentist next door, who supposedly worked with more children than the first office did. So we made an appointment with them, for 4 days later. We took him in, they did get x-rays but wouldn't do anything because they decided he was "special needs" because of the Cerebral Palsy. I thought they needed to know about it because it involves his mouth, how his tongue works, and the drooling as well as the way he feels the tooth brush and the taste/feel of toothpaste. So even though he is pretty normal otherwise they decided not to do anything, disregarding his pain. Luckily his tooth stopped hurting soon after that.

Now I have to find a Pediatric Dentist who will take him. There aren't any in town who are on our preferred provider list for insurance. I am going to call the insurance question line and see if they will pay as if they are a PPO because it's kind of an emergency. Anyway it will be expensive.

Right now he is doing fine. No pain and even remembers to brush his teeth after breakfast and dinner without much argument. Even when he does argue a little a reminder of how bad his tooth hurt gets him moving. Keep your fingers crossed that we will find something and that the insurance company will pull through for us.

Madsen Cargo bikes.

I love this bike. I want one, and have for a couple of years. They are having a new link contest, all you have to do is post one of their banner links on your blog or Twitter, and you are entered to win one of their bikes. You will notice the new banner over there to the right, if you click on it you can go look at their bikes and enter to win one yourself. Good Luck!

Finished Aprons, new photos of the Autumn apron.

My favorite picture. I guess I got the pockets crooked and it doesn't hang quite straight at the hem point.

The little girl I babysit wearing the blueberry apron I made for The Boy. She wanted to be in the pictures with me.



Messed Up Daddies favorite picture. Notice how long my hair is getting.



Finished Aprons

I got the Christmas themed apron finished the other day. And made the adjustments needed on the Ivy apron. Here are some photos of the three aprons I'm made so far. The first is the autumn themed one I made last year. This picture is not a good one, I really didn't feel like having my picture taken, but ... anyway.





I was cooking and not really in the mood to have my picture taken. I think I've lost some weight since then, but maybe not much.




This is the apron I made from the kitchen curtain fabric. I like it quite a bit.




Messed Up Daddy likes to take pictures at odd angles.




The Boy made me smile. I like this pattern quite a bit too. I'll probably make more of them eventually depending on the fabric I can find to use.




A bit closer on the Ivy apron. I like the lace and ivy ruffle. I didn't iron it before I put it on so you can see a fold in it. I'd also worn it a couple of times to wash dishes and cook dinner so it's a tad dirty.



Marmalade batch two.

I made the second batch of marmalade the other day. Well, I guess it's really orange jam since it doesn't have the peel in it. The flavor is nice, it doesn't have that bitter after taste that marmalade usually has. Te recipe I used called it marmalade so I guess I will too. The recipe says it will take a couple of week to set, so I'm not so worried about it this time around.

Here are some pictures.



Notice the lighter color.



The 9 jars I was barely able to fit into the canner.




Close up of a Better Homes and Gardens jar.





See the difference in color between the batches.



All the "Marmalade" together.



Marmalade up date.

The marmalade I made before has set at least a little bit now. I won't be able to tell for sure until we actually open a jar.

I made more marmalade today, this time I didn't use the peel and did use pectin. According to the recipe it could take two weeks to set, so this time I won't worry so much. LOL It's a much lighter color, more yellow than orange. It really tastes good, even in it's runny state. I got 10 half pints out of the recipe, I couldn't fit one of them in the canner so it's just going to go into the refrigerator until we are ready to eat it. I don't have pictures yet, but maybe tomorrow.

I used some of the other marmalade, the ones in unsealed jars, to make a really nice orange sauce for chicken. I added some garlic powder, ginger powder, and red pepper flakes to about a pint and a half of orange marmalade. I cooked it in a small pot for several minutes. I made chicken nuggets. Cut boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut into approximately one inch cubes, shook it up in a bag of flour with garlic, salt, and black pepper in it. Then I used the deep fryer to cook them and served the sauce as a dipping sauce. The kids loved it, and so did I. Messed Up Daddy wasn't home so he didn't get any. The Boy and I ate it with fried chicken a couple of days later.

My first try at orange marmalade

I'm not sure it's going to set up, but I've read that it can take a couple of days so I guess I'll just have to wait and see. It tastes fairly good, for marmalade. I'm going to make a second batch, one with less orange peel so it'll be sweeter.


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I ended up with 11 half pints and 1 pint



I lit a candle behind them.