Ignore this thread!

[Dianthus]

@Slache have you used elemental science?

 

Ooh, a late order science booya!

Edited August 10, 2023 by Dianthus

[Slache]

3 hours ago, Junie said:

Mammogram done.

Cardiac echo done.

Bloodwork done.

It's been a busy week.

Heavens to Murgatroyed!

2 hours ago, Dianthus said:

@Slache have you used elemental science?

Nope. What're you buying? 

[Dianthus]

1 hour ago, Slache said:

Heavens to Murgatroyed!

Nope. What're you buying? 

Oh, I was sure someone in this thread mentioned it.

@Servant4Christ ??

Ds11 just asked if we could do physics. I want to combine him with ds8. They'll be 9 and 12 in fall. The logic physics looks like too much writing and too advanced for ds8. Grammar physics is maybe too light for ds11. But light is better than heavy. I was looking at Sonlight, love all the books, but it's 40 min per day. Elemental science has a 5 day or 2 day per week schedule, which sounds ideal.

[Servant4Christ]

@Dianthus Nope, not me. I've never used Elemental. We're using R&S a year ahead of grade level and then likely switching to Berean Builders for highschool.

Our R&S curriculum arrived literally 3 days after I ordered and I'm forcing myself not to open it until last school year's stuff is boxed/filed and out of the way. This may be the perfect motivator to get stuff done in the schoolroom.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Servant4Christ

[Slache]

2 hours ago, Dianthus said:

Oh, I was sure someone in this thread mentioned it.

@Servant4Christ ??

Ds11 just asked if we could do physics. I want to combine him with ds8. They'll be 9 and 12 in fall. The logic physics looks like too much writing and too advanced for ds8. Grammar physics is maybe too light for ds11. But light is better than heavy. I was looking at Sonlight, love all the books, but it's 40 min per day. Elemental science has a 5 day or 2 day per week schedule, which sounds ideal.

Look at Christian Kids Explore. Two days a week for middle school. 

Edit: I haven't used this.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Slache

[Susan in TN]

Soup is done!  I discovered that it is very difficult to caramelize 20lbs of sliced onions even in my biggest pot.  Eventually I took them out in smaller batches to caramelize in the large skillet.  They turned out pretty well.  Not as deep a color as they should have been, but a medium golden color and that was good enough for me.

Despite all that, it was delicious.  
   
 

French Onion Soup (quadrupled amounts)

• 4 large yellow onion (12-14lbs)
• 2 large sweet onions (6-7 lbs)
• 6 Tablespoons butter (3 sticks)
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme (8 sprigs)
• 2 Bay leaves (8 bay leaves)
• 1C white wine sauvignon blanc (4C)
• 3 tablespoons flour (12T or 6T cornstarch mixed into a bit of the broth)
• 4 cups beef broth high quality (1 gal)
• 1 tsp beef Better Than Bouillon (4 tsp)
• 1.5 cups chicken broth (6C)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (4tsp)
• Salt/Pepper to taste (I did not add any salt or pepper)
• 1 baguette
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil optional
• 6 slices Gruyere cheese

Instructions

• Slice the onions into ¼-inch slices, (no thinner). They'll reduce in size quite a bit and you don’t want them to be too stringy.
• Melt the butter in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Wait until it begins to foam, this allows water to evaporate out, leaving the butter more clarified and smooth. 
• Add the onions (in batches for quadrupled recipe) and use tongs to toss and coat them in the butter. Leave them uncovered as they cook.
• The onions will caramelize slowly, roughly 1 hour. Stir them every 10-15 minutes. As the onions caramelize, they may leave some brown residue at the bottom of the pot. Add a splash of wine and use a silicone spatula to 'clean' the bottom of the pot. Repeat as needed throughout the cooking process
• When the onions are nearly done, sprinkle flour (cornstarch mixture) over them and cook for 2 minutes. Add any remaining wine and increase the heat to medium-high. Toss the onions more frequently. They are done when they are richly brown and sweet.
• Add the beef broth, beef bouillon, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and thyme. Simmer over medium heat for 45 minutes with the lid cracked.
• While the soup simmers, preheat the oven to 350° F.
• Slice the baguette into ½ inch thick slices. Brush the tops with olive oil and bake for about 5 minutes.
• Increase the oven temperature to 450° F. Top each baguette with cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese melts and begins to bubble and brown.
• Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Ladle the warm soup into each bowl and top each of them with the warm baguettes. Serve!

Edited August 11, 2023 by Susan in TN

[Susan in TN]

6 minutes ago, Slache said:

Look at Christian Kids Explore. Two days a week for middle school. 

Edit: I haven't used this.

I think I used this at one point - maybe an early version of it.  I seem to remember liking it as it was easy to use and fairly engaging.

[Susan in TN]

I have a lot of sauvignon blanc left over.  Anyone want some?

[Slache]

23 minutes ago, Susan in TN said:

Soup is done!  I discovered that it is very difficult to caramelize 20lbs of sliced onions even in my biggest pot.  Eventually I took them out in smaller batches to caramelize in the large skillet.  They turned out pretty well.  Not as deep a color as they should have been, but a medium golden color and that was good enough for me.

Despite all that, it was delicious.  
   
 

French Onion Soup (quadrupled amounts)

• 4 large yellow onion (12-14lbs)
• 2 large sweet onions (6-7 lbs)
• 6 Tablespoons butter (3 sticks)
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme (8 sprigs)
• 2 Bay leaves (8 bay leaves)
• 1C white wine sauvignon blanc (4C)
• 3 tablespoons flour (12T or 6T cornstarch mixed into a bit of the broth)
• 4 cups beef broth high quality (1 gal)
• 1 tsp beef Better Than Bouillon (4 tsp)
• 1.5 cups chicken broth (6C)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (4tsp)
• Salt/Pepper to taste (I did not add any salt or pepper)
• 1 baguette
• 3 Tablespoons olive oil optional
• 6 slices Gruyere cheese

Instructions

• Slice the onions into ¼-inch slices, (no thinner). They'll reduce in size quite a bit and you don’t want them to be too stringy.
• Melt the butter in a large soup pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Wait until it begins to foam, this allows water to evaporate out, leaving the butter more clarified and smooth. 
• Add the onions (in batches for quadrupled recipe) and use tongs to toss and coat them in the butter. Leave them uncovered as they cook.
• The onions will caramelize slowly, roughly 1 hour. Stir them every 10-15 minutes. As the onions caramelize, they may leave some brown residue at the bottom of the pot. Add a splash of wine and use a silicone spatula to 'clean' the bottom of the pot. Repeat as needed throughout the cooking process
• When the onions are nearly done, sprinkle flour (cornstarch mixture) over them and cook for 2 minutes. Add any remaining wine and increase the heat to medium-high. Toss the onions more frequently. They are done when they are richly brown and sweet.
• Add the beef broth, beef bouillon, chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and thyme. Simmer over medium heat for 45 minutes with the lid cracked.
• While the soup simmers, preheat the oven to 350° F.
• Slice the baguette into ½ inch thick slices. Brush the tops with olive oil and bake for about 5 minutes.
• Increase the oven temperature to 450° F. Top each baguette with cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese melts and begins to bubble and brown.
• Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Ladle the warm soup into each bowl and top each of them with the warm baguettes. Serve!

It was FABULOUS! Thank you for having us!

22 minutes ago, Susan in TN said:

I think I used this at one point - maybe an early version of it.  I seem to remember liking it as it was easy to use and fairly engaging.

I've only heard this and similar reviews. 

20 minutes ago, Susan in TN said:

I have a lot of sauvignon blanc left over.  Anyone want some?

I don't know what this is, but it sounds like wine that didn't come from a box, so ME!

[73349]

Good morning and happy Friday. I hope you win the day.

[KrissiK]

Good Morning!!!

COFFEE!!!!~D

Friday!!

Busy, busy!!

School and work. Baby has a slumber party after school. The Mom is going to pick the girls up from school, so I don’t need to worry about that. Football team is scrimmaging tonight and DD1 wants to go to that,  but I don’t. She’ll just hang out with her friends anyway, so I guess DH will drop her off for that.

[Wheres Toto]

Morning Happy Friday.

I worked the morning yesterday for one of my teachers who had an appointment.  This week's camp is a smaller, quieter group so it was pretty easy.  I work the next two weeks of camp and the hardest part is going to be getting up early.   

Getting up yesterday was hard because I went to see the Barbie movie with oldest dd the night before.   It was really good.   Funny, yet thought-provoking, with a good message.   Probably will be taking the younger kids to see it this weekend.   They haven't gone out to the movies (or watched any on tv) in years but dd heard a lot about it from her friends and ds wants to get out of the house.   We don't know yet if dh is going to come.  

I'm very disappointed in how this summer has gone so far.  Lousy weather and air quality means we haven't done nearly all the stuff I wanted to.  We only managed a few field trips, didn't take ds driving at all (they were tearing up the road right outside our neighborhood for a while), barely went to the lake.    

And I have a ton of planning to do for classes still.  We don't start until September 11th so I definitely still have time.   

Dd has been doing math all summer but other than that won't start school until my classes start.  She's taking math, literature, science and possibly history at the center.   

[Susan in TN]

Good morning!

It's been a rough start to the day, but coffee is kicking in and all will not seem as hopeless in the near future.  I put a couple bills in the mail, and discovered that one medical bill was incorrect due to the wrong insurance company listed which means I will eventually need to make a phone call.  Svengo.  But not today.  I'm about to run to Kroger to pick up a couple things that were forgotten and/or not available at Aldi.

A couple of the kids' friends are coming over this afternoon and then after dinner is dd20's college convocation service.

Coffee!

[Junie]

Good Morning!

Happy Friday!

Headache. 😞

[Susan in TN]

BBQ sauce is done, divided into freezer containers, and cooling in the fridge.  I octupled the recipe.

Honey BBQ Sauce       
makes about 1 1/2 Cups

6oz tomato paste   
1/4 C apple cider vinegar     
1/4 C white vinegar    
1/2 C honey   
1 T onion powder    
1/4 tsp garlic powder     
1/2 tsp sea salt    
1/4 tsp chili powder, or to taste    
1/2 tsp dijon mustard    
1/2 tsp smoked paprika    
dash cayenne

Simmer all ingredients for 5-7 minutes or until it reaches desired thicknesss.

(I had to look up the word for "something multiplied 8 times")

 

Edited August 11, 2023 by Susan in TN

[Susan in TN]

I am obsessed with this song.  She plays the cello part herself.  ❤️

Edited August 11, 2023 by Susan in TN

[Junie]

Good Morning!

Happy Saturday!

Post-migraine brain fog.....

[Susan in TN]

Good morning! 
   
I have twelve more minutes of morning here in the Central Time Zone.  I took the girls to dd14's friend's family farm store.  It was swarming with people.  Apparently someone posted about it last week on tiktok and now everyone and their cousin wanted to stop by.  They had some really pretty flowers for sale which we didn't get any of.    But we got some granola and jalapenos and a couple baked goods for The Olders.
    
Last night at the convocation vespers service and today are kinda hard days for me.  Two years ago at dd20's first convocation service, dh was in the hospital but was showing some signs of improvement so we were really hopeful that he'd turned a corner.  But then he died the next day.  Monday the 14th is the actual date of his death, but it's the Friday night and Saturday that are hardest.  I managed to put off sobbing at the service until the very end.  A friend of dd's sat with me so I wouldn't be by myself so I said a quick goodbye to him and then skeedaddled..

It is now storming.  A bonifide gullywarsher.  Ds18 got the lawn mowed before it started, so that was good timing.  
        
Coffee!

Edited August 12, 2023 by Susan in TN

[Junie]

(((Susan)))

[Wheres Toto]

(((Susan))

[73349]

(((Susan)))

 

Another training weekend here. And we got homework tonight. 😯

Edited March 8 by 73349

[KrissiK]

((Susan))

[KrissiK]

It's 3:15. I forgot to go to the farm and feed my mom's cats this morning. I need to get out there stat.

I cleaned out the fridge. That was a pain.

[Renai]

So, a friend of the family was riding his bike last week and was hit by a hit-and-run driver. Dh said he actually went past that accident that morning but didn't know who it was (he was already taken to the hospital). It was their 23rd anniversary that day. He succumbed to his injuries two days later. I didn't really know him, but the family are long time homeschoolers, three graduated and two more at home. It's the youngest that is friends with Gymnast. 

In other news, K12 is pissing me off. And it has nothing to do with K12 and everything to do with Gymnast. Her attitude and lack of doing anything or desire to try is what made me turn her over to someone else to begin with.

[KrissiK]

I'm sorry, Renai. My kid didn't do well in K12 either.

[Renai]

22 minutes ago, KrissiK said:

I'm sorry, Renai. My kid didn't do well in K12 either.

No, she just doesn't like to do any kind of work. Not even with me. She did so little with me last year, it bordered educational neglect. That's why I've handed her off. She needs to work for someone else and realize it has to be done whether she feels like it or not. She just refuses to do work.

Parts of it worked for Dancer (she loved science and literature), but math didn't work (the teacher stopped answering her many questions, and eventually Dancer quit doing any math at all for the rest of the year).

[Junie]

Good Morning!

Happy Sunday!

Church and iglesia!

[KrissiK]

Good Morning!!

COFFEE!!~D

Sunday!!

Church⛪️

We watched “Field of Dreams” last night for 80’s Family Movie Night. We were going to watch “Stand By Me” but when I rented it I saw it was rated “R” so we’re like, that’s not very Family Friendly, so we picked another one. I remember watching it years ago and didn’t think it was bad at the time. DH looked it up at on IMBD and it had the “F-word” like 18 times. Hmmm. “ “Field of Dreams” is a good movie, though. The girls thought it was a little slow, but I loved it. 

[Wheres Toto]

Morning Happy Sunday.

I'm taking the younger two kids to see Barbie this afternoon.  In the meantime, Laundry!

[Renai]

Trying to remove myself from the bed so we can go to church. I CAN DRIVE MY OWN CAR!

[Servant4Christ]

((( @Renai ))) I seem to recall Gymnast and Oldest being similar age. I'm right there with you. The only tool I have is "no fun if the work ain't done.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Servant4Christ

[Susan in TN]

Good afternoon!

The girls and I played for services this morning and pre-service rehearsal was moved to 7am to accommodate the fact that People are starting to arrive for early service in earnest by 7:40!  I managed to eventually figure out that the A chord I thought I was playing in rehearsal was actually E minor and found a way to cheat a bit on the B minor chord to make it easier on my left hand which was getting tired so everything worked out in the end.

Got home and ate the rest of the French onion soup for lunch and then conked out for an hour and a half.

Last night the girls convinced me to try playing Zelda, Breath of the Wild and it was pretty funny.  I am not skilled in the video games.   
   
A nice, windy rainstorm is blowing through.  Imma make some rice pudding from last night's leftover rice.  I wonder if we have any raisins.

Coffee!

Edited August 13, 2023 by Susan in TN

[Susan in TN]

We are watching "Asteroid City" on Peacock.  A Wes Anderson film.  😊

[Dianthus]

I might used Apologia physics. I don't know what to do. I don't know why I end up down to the wire every year deciding. 

[KrissiK]

We had waffles for dinner. I serve them with maple syrup for those who prefer that, but I also make a yummy berry topping that goes over sour cream. That's my favorite.

[Renai]

I've printed over 300 pages this week, according to HP Instant Ink. Good thing I have that service. 😳 Now I'm using my rollover pages; I have 900 of them at my disposal.

[KrissiK]

Good Morning!!

COFFEE!!~D

Monday!!😩😩😩😩

School and work!!

Just the normal grind around here. summer’s over except for the heat.

[Susan in TN]

Good morning!  It's The Queen's favorite day!

Dd20's college classes start up today.  In between creative writing and Greek she'll come home for a bit so we can all go to the memorial gardens.  I'm making a huge vat of chili today and pre-cooking some ground beef and ground turkey for the freezer.

Tonight after dinner we'll take a quick family walk around the block/park and then the girls will head off to scouts.

Coffee!

[Junie]

Good Morning!

Happy Monday!

Second and Third Sleep.

I am just struggling...

[73349]

Monday: It's the willy-nilliest.

*sigh*

[KrissiK]

((Junie))💕

[KrissiK]

((Susan))💕

[KrissiK]

Busy and tiring morning. So much stuff to do and remember. i feel bad for the new teachers. The beginning of the year is like drinking from a firehose. 

Edited August 14, 2023 by KrissiK
Not a firehouse. A firehose.

[Susan in TN]

I started watching a Netflix show called "Fisk".  It's kinda like an Australian "The Office".  I love it.

We ate a small portion out of the Giant Vat of Chili.  I'll put the rest into freezer bags after it cools a bit.  
    
Useless trivia: my chili recipe contains no chili or peppers of any kind.  It's "farmhouse chili" from The Joy of Cooking.

[KrissiK]

Good Morning!!!

COFFEE!!~D

Tuesday!!

School for some, work for others. It’s been hot and humid. We had a weather system move through over the weekend (when I say “weather system”, I mean some clouds, a clap of thunder and a few sprinkles on Saturday night) and it’s remained humid. It was 104 yesterday. I think I am about done with summer, thank you!!

[Junie]

Good morning!

Happy Tuesday!

Going to the allergist today to figure out how to safely add gluten back into my diet. 😊

[Susan in TN]

Good morning!

Things are getting started around here.  Despite my frequent reminders over the past couple weeks, dd17 was surprised to discover that her online chemistry class meets on Tuesday mornings and not on Wednesdays as she previously believed, lol.  Strange how once in a while Mom knows what she is talking about.

Today's cooking consists of giant pork shoulders which I got BOGO.  I'll use these for tacos de carnitas and bbq sandwiches.

Coffee!

[Susan in TN]

And tomorrow I want to try a pulled pork and sweet potato hash dish that I found online.  Looked kinda tasty.

[73349]

It's the Tuesdayest.

Okay. School mostly done. DS has laundry in the dryer. Leaving for lesson and curbside groceries in a bit. Dishwasher is running. Dining room floor needs sweeping.

[Susan in TN]

I have been resisting the urge to smash the new laptop to smithereens due to the apparent unavailablilty of Microsoft office which is necessary for me to view and edit the pertinent documents that were transferred from the old laptop.  Since ds28 installed another similar program, I thought I'd just use that to start a new excel-type document.  Except I can't figure out how to do certain things on it and I am again having to resist the urge to smash it to smithereens.  The consumption of leftover rice  pudding is not helping.