Tag: children

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Good ol' days, Home School, Inspiring, Recipes, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom, Womanhood

Postaday Challenge – January Favorites – 2

Posted on by Katharine
Snowflake
Snowflake

I look out my window and see dead trees, grass that’s brown and crunchy like Wheaties, cat dish always needing water . . . with all the heat we’ve had, isn’t it hilarious to read these old posts! Enjoy!

DAY OFF #2

Repairmen of streets, wires, and buildings will get our roads safe and everyone back in their places eventually.

In the meantime, we play in the snow.

The day begins with Dad shoveling snow and bleary-eyed offspring wandering into the kitchen to ask, “What is that noise?” We so seldom have the pleasure.

Now our snowman stands watch. Our cars are decorated with snow objects. Lots of hot cocoa has slipped away. I enjoyed the crazy antics of our two home-bound adult kids, playing in the snow as if they were grade-schoolers. How thankful I am for the snow! Realizing they can still find joy in each other’s company is bliss to this mom.

ALSO (here comes the fun part) THEY CAN PUT ON AND REMOVE THEIR OWN WRAPS!

THEY CAN HEAT THEIR OWN WATER AND STIR UP THEIR OWN HOT COCOA!

THEY CAN HANG ALL THEIR WET THINGS TO DRY!

THEY REMEMBER TO SHUT THE DOOR!

THEY THINK ABOUT NOT TRACKING THE HOUSE WITH SNOW AND MUD!

I get all the same fun as when they were younger, with none of the work.

Another amazing thing: No one grumbles today that the Internet is “down-ish”. We all have decided to do traditional snow-day fun and forget about the rest of the world. I love it. Board games, non-electric musical instruments, laundry hanging on wooden racks by the wood stove, homemade food, and wild birds have risen to the top of our most-selected interests list and everyone is content.

And I wonder: How is it in other homes? I hope you and yours enjoy a great day, today. I pray God grant you peace and contentment.

And snow.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Home School, Husbands, Wisdom

Postaday Challenge – January Favorites – 1

Posted on by Katharine
Sleighing

They recommend we repost something from January. I think I’ll do that for this week. Since the temperature jumps far above 100 degrees almost every day, for us, I have chuckled, reading past entries about snow days, and hope you enjoy them, too. And remember: the special effects folks at WordPress were sprinkling snow all over the place on our blogs, as we read them. 🙂

SNOW AND ICE AND SLUSH, OH MY!

Whew! What a treat this blast of winter has been!

We returned last night from visiting our Texas granddaughter for her birthday, to find our world quite cold and bleak. Now our fires are rebuilt, house is re-warmed, chick water is thawed, and icy crud on the car is knocked off. We literally had to plow our way through winter precipitation along a three-hour drive.

That took four hours.

I was surprised and blessed at how excited our passengers were. Our twenty-something offspring, home on winter break, were like little children as they recalled rare snow days from their past and giggled in excitement over the frightening but beautiful scenes around us.

We all learned much about snow tires, black ice, legalities, and travel safety in snow-slush-ice. My husband, born in Iowa and raised in northern Missouri, practiced every safety tip he knew, as he drove us home. Since we were experiencing his expertise first hand, he used it for an old-time, teachable moment, in hopes the rest of us could somehow be safer one day, should we have to drive in such conditions.

We probably won’t drive anywhere today, though. When universities and government buildings close, it’s time to stay home.

Instead, we will build a snowman. The snow will be perfect and it is deep, from our southern viewpoint: six inches. We will make snow angels and have at least one good snowball fight, although, YES, we’re all adults. We’ll have a huge breakfast with meat, and I’ll cook chili for lunch. Of course, we need more hot cocoa mix, so I’ll stir that up, too.

It’ll be a family day off. Why not join us?

Posted in Believe it or not!, Health, Herbs, Photos, Pre-schoolers, Recipes, Who's the mom here?

Just Like B’sketti! – A Recipe of Sorts

Posted on by Katharine

Homemade spaghettiHow to cook. How to cook. How to cook for little ones who may not like my cooking . . .

Part of me felt like the character in No Reservations played by Catherine Zeta Jones, who was accustomed to satisfying finicky eaters by scrounging for ever more obscure ingredients, and faced with the dilemma of feeding a small child who did not feel like eating at all.

And part of me felt like just doing my thing and if there was a problem, they would eat once they got hungry. That part of me won out.

The children had expressed curiosity when we were shopping. I selected mushrooms, and they had not ever noticed raw ones before so asked what they were. When I told them, they made faces.

My turn.

For supper, I fixed the best marinara I could imagine and used some of those mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in olive oil, along with a large clove of wild garlic from our field, also sliced. We still have tiny onions left from our overheated garden, and I included a few of them, sliced. As all these paper-thin slices were beginning to brown, I added small chunks of a bell pepper a friend had brought me, along with one of her jalapenos, whole.

While some of the oil in the pan was still available, I tossed in freshly-crushed basil and oregano, and stripped a few leaves off a fresh stem of rosemary. All was sizzling along nicely when I remembered the soup base. I actually made soup base this year, which is merely whole tomatoes, washed and cored, and tossed into a blender, skins, seeds, and all, to be liquefied for a thicker sauce than we can obtain from just juice. I prefer the muskier taste the seeds lend and the redder coloring the skins contribute. It is the only way I will deal with only a gallon of tomatoes. Cleaning out my Victorio tomato strainer just kills me, if it’s for only a few quarts of juice.

Once the fresh rosemary had softened a bit, I tossed in a quart of the soup base. It sizzled just a bit, as it landed in the pan. Perfect. Since one of us cannot eat many foods without some Worcestershire sauce, I dolloped some of that in, too. And a bit of catsup for sweetening.

I slowly brought it to a boil.

Lastly, I added a whole bag of Great Value frozen 5-cheese ravioli. Yep. You may cringe at that, but I have read labels, and it has nothing in it but foodstuffs, all pronounceable. Probably not very organic, though.

Once it returned to simmering, I turned down the heat and covered it. Then I prepared a small lettuce, tomato, and carrot salad. The children had been impressed that the grape tomatoes I had bought had come “all the way from MISSOURI!” That seemed so exotic to them. I figured they’d at least eat the tomatoes.

After all was dished out and cut to bite-size, the littlest one sampled the ravioli and looked up at me so sweetly to comment:

“It tastes just like b’sketti.”

Kudos to the cook, I suppose.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Inspiring, Scripture, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

Supernormal Children

Posted on by Katharine

Children playingMy husband and I have been keeping a couple of sweet kids for a week, while their parents take an anniversary trip.  It has been a most enjoyable and profitable experience.

These children’s parents have made them behave since they were first born. It was not easy, either. The children have normal stubbornness and selfishness enough to test any mom or dad. But Mom and Dad have constantly and consistently met that test with something immoveable: the Word of God.

Therefore, the children know right from wrong. They also practice a strong grasp of mercy and overcoming, so that although the big brother may be right, he also may give in because he loves little sister, and she is much more apt to quietly point out his mistake to him, than to tattle. What an eye opener this has been!

The biggest lesson I have learned is in the area of sowing and reaping. It is the diligence and faithfulness of the parents that has formed these normal kids into such uncommon sweeties. No guessing was good enough for them; they went with the best child-rearing Manual and so far have done their best to understand and follow it. Though at times their decisions have been unpopular with friends or family, they have not backed down.

And we are enjoying a bit of their peaceful harvest.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Womanhood

Abnormal Children

Posted on by Katharine

flirt, girl, pinkI watched her as she sashayed down the aisle between rows of dining tables. She had just come from church, no doubt, from the appearance and timing of her family’s entrance. She couldn’t have been over five years old.

But from head to toe, and not just the exterior but somehow even the aura emanating from her, all was advertisement.

Her hair, held in a side-saddle pony tail with a frou-frou clip composed of fuchsia feathers, probably was naturally palest blonde, but crease marks from a hasty curling iron had been sprayed to stay in place during the normal cavorting of a five-year-old. The ear on the un-pony-tailed side offered a pink, diamond-looking, pierced earring.

She did not cavort; she swayed in a dreamy sort of notice-me way. Even her tiny fingers posed. And she flirted fake embarrassment from behind the frou-frou near her cheek while fuchsia-manicured fingers clumsily retrieved an escaping shoulder strap. That’s when I noticed it: the batting eyelids carried a heavy load: blue eyeshadow and brown mascara, to top off pink blusher, and an overload of pink lip-gloss.

Her dress, also hottest of pinks, shimmered as it clung, draped closely to her thin child figure, revealing the bone of her structure, the ripple of her musculature, the absence of pantyline. Ebb and flow of glowing fabric blared unmistakably: temptress.

The dress was far too short, as was Mama’s, but at least Mama knew how to walk like a lady. And Mama didn’t shimmer.

Actually, Daughter’s included a wrap application of an attempt at an empire style skirt that was not full enough to allow room for walking, so each step she took opened the skirt and revealed one long, tanned, and muscular leg and hinted at much more. When one fuchsia-tipped toe pushed against silver, strippy, demi-heel sandals as she struggled her little self onto the adult dining chair, an older man across the dining room dropped his fork on the floor and picked it up.

And looked.

And she noticed. And tried, not-enough, to conceal a knowing smile.

Rumpled and stale-haired, he approached their table and asked Dad if they didn’t know each other, occasionally glancing at Mama’s low-slung necklace. Dad searched his memory, clueless, finally blushing at not knowing, rose to shake hands and share a bit of social info. No, we live over in Dovegate Addition . . . don’t recall meeting you, but then, I stay gone on the road; field work, you know . . . the kids go to Dovegate schools so maybe we’ve passed during a PTA meeting? Oh . . . so sorry . . . I didn’t mean . . . well here’s our waitress; nice to meet you.

And as the older man turned to go, he patted Daughter’s shoulder ever so lightly, accidentally brushing a strap with one finger, saying, “Nice children.” And her shoulder straps really did fall down a lot whenever she was sitting . . .

____________

Of course it would have been highly unlikely to have found a photo that was exactly like this true life situation, but this one captures the sauce pretty well.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Home School, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

You’re NOT Gonna Believe This.

Posted on by Katharine

Some folks in Florida adopted a little girl. They mistreated her and her siblings for years. People turned them in to the social workers OFTEN. Nothing was done. Not really. There were so many cases, so few workers, blah, blah, blah.

Then the family withdrew the children from the public schools. Then the girl died from the abuse.

Suddenly, although these people had a long history of abusing the children in their home and no one knows if they were homeschooling or not, the court recommends penalizing ALL HOME SCHOOLERS, the implication being that all homeschoolers are child abusers, the state did not do its job because its hands were tied, blah, blah, blah.

Of course, maybe the judicial recommendations will not become official policy.

In this case.

There always is that hope.

Though becoming more and more bleak.

However:

  1. Did the child die because the state failed to act on already-existing laws? (Probably.)
  2. Will all the abused children in public schools still suffer because of lack of personnel? Or if the policy is enacted, will they suffer even more because of it? (Probably.)
  3. Will the state somehow provide funding for even more caseworkers? (Probably not.)
  4. Will the caseworkers somehow suddenly develop a higher level of caring or a deeper level of investigation? Or whatever? (Probably not.)
  5. If the recommendations do become policy, will the policy be unenforceable except on a whim-basis? (Probably.)
  6. Is it true that all caseworkers and all judges are totally unconcerned about the actual children? (Oops. Didn’t mean to say that.)
  7. Didn’t we ordain and establish our government to circumvent this precise problem? (Yes. Yes. A thousand times: Yes.)

Will we fight this as the U.S. citizens that we are, who are provided with innocence until proven guilty? (Your answer goes here.)

In case anyone is confused, let me say it again:

HOME SCHOOLING IS A LEGAL, PROTECTED ACTIVITY IN THIS COUNTRY.

THE PROBLEM IS FAILURE TO ATTEND TO ACTUAL CHILD ABUSE.

GET THAT AND DO NOT FORGET IT.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Coffee-ism, Homemaking, Photos, Who's the mom here?, Wives, Womanhood

MONDAY! Whew!

Posted on by Katharine
care to share a cup
Care to Share a Cup?

I just finished the most wonderful week, followed by an amazing weekend, and how exhausted I am! Does that ever happen to you?

A new friend visited me for a whole week. She stayed in our guest house and helped me with cooking and canning. One night I spent the night with her. What fun to talk like college girls until 2 in the morning! I say “like college girls” but really, we shared from the Word and from our lives like NO college girls I ever knew. I may be a bit too old for such a schedule, but it probably was for only one time, and was over too soon.

After lunch with an old friend that Friday, I caught up on shopping, found a new purse on back-to-school sale. No more BTS for me, but the sales are still a great idea.

Then it was off to our son’s house visiting with him and his lovely family, lunching on burgers and outstanding carrot cake, teasing and loving grandchildren, playing games; lengthening and strengthening the bonds we built in our son’s childhood.

Came home to view a large column of smoke rising from the woods about 4 miles from our house. Fire’s out, now, thank the Lord.

Then came Sunday, the day when we rest only from our own stuff, but highly concentrate on the Lord’s work . . . How I love the little church that has tripled in attendance since having a pastor, for a change! And how I love the one-hour drive to it, when I share my husband and he shares me with: NO ONE. Our talks have been so good.

That was yesterday, and we had a lovely visitor to grace our home for the afternoon. Made nachos and just relaxed together. So good.

Now it is just me, just this home. Such peace. Bed made. Laundry started. Cats fed. Chickens out. Headed for 105 degrees IN THE SHADE (that’s right at 40 C), today, down from the recent 110-ish week, with humidity from a brief rain last night. Air conditioner, set on 80, has run several times, already, this morning. Garden dead and tilled in. Jars of food all rinsed and stored in the basement.

Pear harvest waiting to be pear butter.

Second cup of coffee sitting at ready.

Join me! Bring your best knife and I’ll share some pear butter with you–it’ll be fun!