The Pumpkin Patch

This year in the garden we planted three pumpkin plants...and got two small pumpkins.

Mr. Wiedz's friend grows pumpkins every year and brought us three nice sized ones this year.

#1 went to a local pumpkin patch with her girl scout troop and picked out a pumpkin.

So, is a trip to the pumpkin patch really necessary when we already have all the pumpkins we need?

I think so.

We looked at the pumpkins and sat on the boxes for group pictures. We did all the little photo opportunity cut-outs. But we left all the pumpkins there.

We did come home with a new box of apples though. Delicious apples.

And there was a lot of running around on top of the hay maze by almost everyone. (Another mom watching her child in the hay maze was not thrilled by Mr. Wiedz fun!)

A great day at the orchard!

History is Alive :: Edible Oasis

After we were done in India and Gupta dynasty's rule of the Golden Age of India we traveled south to the Arabian Peninsula. Again, the beginning of our study had us discussing the climate of the area. How dry and hot the peninsula is. What better way to remember what an oasis is than by eating one! So much sugar on one plate, though. Brown sugar made the sand (I told the kids not to actually eat all of the sand on their plates), m&m's make a small "pool" of water that the animal cookies are drinking from (the instructions even include making sure there is a camel at the pool). I cut fruit by the foot into leaves and stuck them to a pretzel stick "trunk". All of the pieces are secured to the plate with white frosting.

Everyone had a great time with our afternoon learning snack.

:: Yarn Along :: The Finished Version

Joining Ginny, over at small things, again with yarn along. A single photo of a current knitting or crocheting project with a current read. I am really loving these posts, taking a moment to think about what and why I'm knitting or reading. I read...a lot. And I knit...not as much as I'd like but I do have 2-4 projects going either on the needles or in my brain.

I do love seeing what others are knitting and can always use some reading suggestions! Leave a comment so I can see what you're up to. And go over to Ginny's to see what others are up to.

I'm totally cheating but I have four projects to show off that are all COMPLETED!!!!!!!!

First up is Mr. Wiedz's hat! After the tearing out and the small needles and the small yarn I thought I would never finish this but I did! And right in time...the tempatures around here have taken a serious dive and Mr. Wiedz has sported his new hat everyday to keep his ears and head warm! Yay!

Ravelry notes here.

Next up is #2's sweater! Also a huge undertaking! As I got closer and closer if #2 would see me working on it he would comment that he was so eager to wear it. Such a sweetie! And as soon as it was off the needles it was on his person. A little itchy but blocking helped and he's loving it! Yay! Success #2!

Ravelry notes here.

I actually finished this puerperium a month or two ago but just now got buttons put on and got photographed. I found this pattern thanks to yarn along and had just found out I was pregnant with #6. Perfect timing. It was awesome to knit. And though I followed the pattern I think it turned out longer than ones I've seen and potentially longer than a baby needs but I still love it. I did not find out the gender of #6 but as you can see I have high hopes that we are expecting a little girl to finish our family :)

Ravelry notes here.

When my cousin Scary was here last weekend she mentioned that her little SoySauce had grown out of the hat that I had given her when he was born...oh, that just can't be. I had this chunky yarn laying around from making a Gnomey Hat for #5 and cast on the same beginning but didn't do the rows at the top. Still pointy but I made sure I had enough yarn. Love chunky yarn...and number 10 needles...knit up in two days!

Ravelry notes here.

And now...

On the needles :: a Christmas present. Can't say for who. Can't say what it is. But I've started. Ravelry notes here.

On the nightstand :: I could only take "John Adams" for so long before I had to move on to something a little more...fiction. #2 is reading Harry Potter book 2 and it got me in the mood for my own HP adventure. So, Harry Potter book 7. Since I've read it so many times now I can just read a chapter (or not even a whole chapter) a night and be just fine.

Rowing :: Lentil

I'm not sure why I am having such mental block with writing about our week with Lentil. It was such a great book. The boys really enjoyed it. But for some reason when it has come to writing about it...I just haven't. We rowed this book over two weeks ago! And we had a great week together!

Special ::

Lentil can't sing or even pucker his lips to whistle so he saved up his money to buy a harmonica. Before the week started I bought each boy his own harmonica to play with during the week. They were a big hit. Though no one "practiced wherever and whenever".

Patriotism ::

The book has a strong patriotic theme so we took some time to review the Pledge of Allegiance and talk about our flag. We counted the stars and the stripes and colored our own flag. We've been learning the Pledge since the start of school but I admit I'm a little hit or miss with it, this week we made sure to spend some time on it.

Small towns ::

We happen to live in a small town so #3 got the idea. We drew a map and he drew the path Lentil takes as he walks to school and practices his harmonica. His little drawing was so cute.

Lentil's hometown is the fictional town of Alto, Ohio. So we found Ohio on a map and found Oregon and talked about how far away they are and which direction we would have to travel to get to Ohio.

Lemons ::

Of course, rowing Lentil would not be complete without talking about lemons. We tasted something salty (salt water), sweet (simple syrup), bitter (unsweetened chocolate) and sour



And we squeezed lemons to make lemonade. We've made this homemade lemonade before, once at my mom's and once at home. At home we didn't have a juice squeezer and it took f.o.r.e.v.e.r. to squeeze all the lemons. So this time I bought a new juicer, they were all so excited.

All the lemon squeezing gave us a nice lesson in halves and wholes too. We put the halves back in pairs to show that they make a whole and counted how many halves were in all the lemons we used.

And because it was so easy to squeeze the lemons we squeezed enough to make lemon bars. I've always wanted to make these but have never gotten it done. They were delicious, though better the second day, I overcooked the crust a little.

Whittling ::


Old Sneep, being a lemon sucking, grumpy old man is also a whittler. So I got the boys each a bar of Ivory soap and a plastic knife and they whittled away, just like Old Sneep. Quite a messy project but they all loved it and our little room smelled really good afterward. They each saved the largest piece that was left to use in the shower...they were so proud.

#2 even joined us for this project. He'd whittled soap in Cub Scouts and had a lot of fun getting to do it again.

Parts of a Story ::


This story had a nice clear storyline which gave us a good chance to talk about the beginning, middle and end of a story. I couldn't find a worksheet so I just made a simple one in Word. Just boxes to draw a picture of the beginning, middle and end of the story. I wrote down what he told me.

Links ::

Teaching Stars - inspiration

American flag to color

more great ideas at delightful learning
homeschool share - most of the worksheets/mini books

:: this moment ::

A photo from the week. Not too many words. A simple moment, extraordinary, special. Something I want to remember, cherish, to pause over. If you have a "moment" leave a link in the comments for others to find and share.

inspired by soulemama.

History is Alive :: Weaving

Our history took us to Medivel India. We talked a little bit about the areas of India, the desert, the mountains, the river villages. We talked about the people who lived in the mountains. How they had to live in harsh conditions. How the weather in such high mountains was so cold. We talked about the kind of clothes people in those mountains would need and we weaved our own cloth see what that would be like. The activity book lead me through making them little looms and then the kids spent as much or as little time as they wanted weaving their cloth. #2 is the only one who stuck with it long enough to get an actual piece of cloth out of the deal but it was a fun exercise.

:: Yarn Along ::

Joining Ginny, over at small things, again with yarn along. A single photo of a current knitting or crocheting project with a current read. I am really loving these posts, taking a moment to think about what and why I'm knitting or reading. I read...a lot. And I knit...not as much as I'd like but I do have 2-4 projects going either on the needles or in my brain.

I do love seeing what others are knitting and can always use some reading suggestions! Leave a comment so I can see what you're up to. And go over to Ginny's to see what others are up to.

On the needles :: A hat for Mr. Wiedz. Oh, how badly I want to finish something. And I did finish this exact hat in time for last weeks Yarn Along. After I finished the last row, before I cast off I slipped it on Mr. Wiedz's head to discover that it didn't fit. sigh. So I ripped out to before the decreases but the yarn so small and the needles so slippery that I couldn't pick back up the stitches so had to rip out the entire thing and start over. Oh! The angst! But I'm fairly ahead of it now and it should only take a couple more days. Since I'm getting so close to finishing I'm thinking about what I'll cast on next, a Christmas present. Pattern is ready, needles are ready, yarn is ready. Let's get this hat done!

I'm also really close to finishing #2's sweater. I alternate but right now the hat...I'm not letting it beat me.

On the nightstand :: Really, on the nightstand is where this book lives. I pick it up between other reads and while it is interesting I use it mainly as a wind-down, wait for the Tylenol PM to kick in read. Only getting a page or two read a night. Should take me a few decades to read through it.

#2's 8th Indie Party

What seems like many, many moons ago I was due with #4 really close to #2's birthday, October 1st. Of course way back in beginning of that pregnancy I just convinced myself I'd go as far as I could so that their birthdays wouldn't be too close to each other. That was the plan until I was 39 weeks pregnant after a l.o.n.g., hot summer. When my doctor said come in tomorrow and I'll break your water it no longer mattered that it was just one day after #2's birthday. We'll have combined parties. They'll be best friends. When they get older they can have separate friend parties. It'll work. Let's have this baby. now.

So this year #2 had his first friends party. When we started birthday plans in September we worked out that the family party would be combined but would focus more on the theme that #4 picked, Batman, and the friends party would have all his siblings attending but would be his theme choice and his "own" party.

So I started with some internet searches for ideas for Indiana Jones parties. Some ladies have done some real big parties but I was able to add some ideas to my Pinterest board for the party. Things I thought were doable with a small budget and not too much time.

I made invitations on my new Creative Memories program, sbcStudio. I found a world map outline online that I copy and pasted, I turned it not so opaque and wrote the info on top of that. I put a brownish colored "paper" behind everything and printed them out. Then came the fun part! I used the stove top to burn the edges making it look like an old map. The boys thought the whole burning process was so AWESOME!

Didn't get a pic of the finished product but we were all very satisfied!

Once we got to party time or nearly so then it was really time to get to work!

The cake I found online and made the actual cake part in my mini baking bowl from pampered chef (I looked for my bowl but they don't carry it anymore...sorry). A little bit of carving when it was cool and the day of the party I frosted it and layed out the little scene. #2 loved his cake! I didn't add the candles until cake time because I didn't think they "went" with it.

We used extra cake pieces from the carving of the boulder to use as stands for sprigs of greenery from the trees outside to finish our scene. Oreo cookies smashed up make up the "dirt".

Party time arrived and we were ready. I had found brown hats at the dollar store which were a good reprenstation of an Indiana Jones hat. I told #2 he was lucky his birthday is the same month as Halloween, lots of good finds that wouldn't be available in say, June. We also had legos out so there could be some building and visiting while everyone arrived.

Then we needed a mummy for our Indie adventures. Mr. Wiedz is completely hands-off when it comes to party planning so a couple of days before I asked him if he'd act as our mummy and he said, "whatever." Well, whatever is not a good answer when it means the next day you are standing in the middle of the living room having toilet paper wrapped around you by five 6-8 year olds! It was great! After they got him all wrapped up he chased them around the yard, even making all the right mummy noises! Yea for an awesome dad!

I had meant to buy silly string while at the dollar store but forgot. The kids would have totally gotten into spraying the mummy...oh well.

After all that excitement we came in to do a little archeology hunting.

I had prepared 3 "fields" to reach into and find all sorts of treasures. If you count plastic spiders, snakes and glow in the dark rats as treasure. Monkey brains (cold spaghetti noodles), eye-ball soup (grapes in water) and snake guts (green jello) were a huge hit with all the boys. I gave each boy a plastic cup to put their treasures into then Mr. Wiedz and a dad that stayed washed them up for the boys.

After cake and presents we decorated treat bags, brown paper lunch sacks that they drew spiders, snakes and other decorations on along with their names. We filled the bags with their washed tresures from the archeology hunt and some gummy rats, gummy snakes (gummy worms really, I wasn't willing to spring for the 3 foot long snakes) and gold chocolate coins (Indie has to find some real treasure at some point). The boys ran around like wild indians until their mom's all came back for them.

#2 was thrilled with his "friends" party and that makes me a happy party planner.

Canning Tomatoes

I've never canned tomatoes before. My mom has a fear of pressure canners and I've always been under the impression that tomatoes have to be canned in a pressure canner and therefore are difficult and dangerous. But last year during canning season, like many years during canning season, I went on a search for a tomato sauce that could be water bath canned. And I found one! But I ran out of time and never got tomatoes to give it a try.

This year, I was determined.

Let me give you a brief history to tell you where my determination came from. Many years ago Mr. Wiedz was going on and on about his mom's spaghetti sauce. How delicious it was, that it was homemade, how awesome it was! So...obviously when tomatoes came into season I asked her to help me can spaghetti sauce. Only to find out that my lovely mother in law got her spaghetti sauce from a huge can at the canned food warehouse then processed it into jars at home. My husband and his step-father just gave her all the credit for homemade spaghetti sauce.

Well, I really wanted to make spaghetti sauce. Really.

So I bought a box of tomatoes and pulled out my recipe from last year (sorry, can't find the link). Then had to turn back to the internet to find out how to turn my box of lovely tomatoes into tomato puree.

The website I found told me to slice them and boil them until reduced and put them through a food mill to get puree. So I did that. I filled the pan with just over half of my tomatoes and let them cook. And cook. And cook. Then I spent f.o.r.e.v.e.r. putting them through the mill until I managed to get 1 quart of puree.

My recipe calls for 10 quarts.

I almost gave up. But I was determined. I figured it would work to blanch, peel, cut, seed and blend the tomatoes. In one phone conversation with my friend I had 5 quarts of puree. Using far less tomatoes!

So I purchased another box, spent quite a few naptimes peeling and blending tomatoes until I had all the puree I needed. After a couple batches in my crockpot and canner I had 10 quarts of beautiful spaghetti sauce!

While I had tomatoes I pulled up Soulemama's recipe for carrot-tomato soup (I can't get a separate link for just the post about the soup. Go to her tutorial page from the tap at the top and her tomato soup is a button there) and gave that a whirl.

Roasted tomatoes. Yum!

Bubbling away onions, said roasted tomatoes, carrots, garlic, etc... Yum!

Lots of sips and ohhhing and ahhhing and two quarts of soup base in the freezer! Yum!

:: this moment ::

A photo from the week. Not too many words. A simple moment, extraordinary, special. Something I want to remember, cherish, to pause over. If you have a "moment" leave a link in the comments for others to find and share.

inspired by soulemama.

Canning Pears {and best friends}

Quite a few weeks ago my cousin and I went to the orchard to pick pears. I only got one picture that day because I held her adorable littlest man while she and the other 6 children picked pears. And it was 98 degrees out. And we chose to go when it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

But Scary and the children were able to pick 140 pounds of pears which Scary and I split between us. They were still quite green so I put them in the garage with another box on top (so #5 wouldn't take one bite out of each of them) to let them ripen. And I canned peaches. And tomato sauce. And kept up with school. And got really tired.

So we started smelling the pears, but I didn't care. No day worked out as a good pear canning day. And Mr. Wiedz would come in and tell me how ripe the pears were getting..."you need to do something with those pears." Yes. Yes, I know. I don't want to.

Enter September 30th. One day until my #2's birthday and the birthday party two hours away to celebrate with family and #4 whose birthday is the next day. I was thinking about those pears in the back of my mind, they weren't going to last another weekend but I wasn't going to be home and I had a friend coming to visit that day and so many other things that I could be doing. So in a little way I was resigning myself to giving those pears to the chickens.

But that friend arrived and during the course of normal conversation the pears came up. She'd already gotten her pears up and I mentioned that I just wasn't going to be able to get mine done when she said the most AMAZING thing. "I'll help you."

Even though I couldn't ask her to do that that was exactly what she did. And she didn't really just help me, she canned all 70 pounds of my pears with a tiny bit of help from me. She got 17 quarts of pears done before she left.

AMAZING!

On another AMAZING, and I'm blessed beyond belief matter, my mother came last week and folded all of the socks in my home. All of them. 2 baskets full (I hate folding socks).

Pears and socks...does it get any better than that?

:: this moment ::

A photo from the week. Not too many words. A simple moment, extraordinary, special. Something I want to remember, cherish, to pause over. If you have a "moment" leave a link in the comments for others to find and share.

inspired by soulemama.

Everything is perfect. I didn't find out the gender.