Museum Field Trip

We did a museum field trip today to the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia. It was free admission today. They have a nice ancient history and 16th-17th century European painting collection, enough to review many highlights of the Old and New Testaments in painting and sculpture. The Greek collection was a perfect complement to my son's readings on Greek myths this week.

We viewed several 16th-17th century paintings of saints : Saint Sebastian with the arrows, Saint Elizabeth, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Catherine, Saint Margaret, and a good many of Saint John the Baptist. There were some nice Albrecht Durer wood block etchings of the Jesus's life, paintings of Our Lady, and a small illuminated Book of Hours in the tiny medieval gallery.

We browsed a gallery of Dutch and Flemish paintings showing common everyday scenes with rich details near the end, as attention was waning.

There was a wonderful large painting of Lot(first painting above) and his daughter's fleeing the city of Sodom. We stood in front of this painting for quite a while because it was full of symbolism - lust, deceit, and lecherous folly vs. chastity, virtue, prudence and self-knowledge.

There was another lovely painting which sticks out in my mind, and that was the one of Mary and the baby Jesus surrounded by a garden wall (chastity/purity) where not even the angel enters. He hands her a lily from the other side.

It is a smaller museum, but has a decent collection of art and sculpture. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, nice enough to wander through the Victorian garden on our way out of the museum.

Ancient Greek Studies for Middle Elementary

Two new vintage ebooks my son is beginning tomorrow:

The Story of the Greek People By Eva March Tappan, 1909.

The Heroes, or, Greek Fairy Tales for my Children, by Charles Kingsley, 1914.


Both public domain ebooks are free to read and download at Google Books. We load our free ebooks onto a flash drive and then read them on a laptop.

I even got my three year old daughter to read a book online with me today. We read My Book House: In the Nursery by Olive Beaupré Millera, 1920 which has cute illustrations.

Hints and helps:

In order to print or save pictures to your computer, you'll need to switch to the HTML version at the site. Look to the bottom right sidebar. Make sure you right click on the image of the page, or you'll get the entire web page.

I had trouble downloading these books with dial-up, so I use a free download manager which works very well, even with dropped connections.

If you need to return to a main page, click on "review book", and then "about book".

The Edible Garden

We have lots of shade in the backyard; we are covered by a cooling canopy of oak trees. So it's a bit dry and difficult to grow vegetables, although we keep trying. Things are growing much better this year thanks to Sluggo (organic slug and snail repellent) which is working better than Diatomaceous Earth.


Here are few herbs and vegetables which are growing well in a small corner with partial sun:

Sage, oregano, mint, and lavender

Garbage can potatoes














Tire tomatoes











Apples













See more at From Seeds to Harvest carnival.

Grenadian Spice Cake Recipe

I've got some leftover limes from Cinco de Mayo, so besides limeade, I'm making a cake using the lime zest. This Grenadian Spice Cake looks very good, and it has a rating of five out of five stars at allrecipes.com.

Image from Allrecipes.com

Update: This was very good, a bit plain for children, definitely a good tea or coffee cake. My tween son loved it, but my preschool daughter was looking for something more. It had a nice hint of lime, but I'd have rather had a stronger lime flavor. If I make this again I'll add lime juice and more zest.

Simple Baked Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Tonight I am making something the children will like, homemade macaroni and cheese. I didn't have a car today, so I had to make do with what I had on hand. My substitutions and additions are in bold.

Ingredients:

* 1 (16 ounce) package elbow macaroni(egg noodles)
* 1/2 cup evaporated milk(dried milk and water, and a bit of whole milk)
* 2 eggs
* 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream(ricotta cheese)
* 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 tablespoon butter(canola oil)
My additions: a few squirts of homemade catchup, onion powder, garlic salt, and seasoned stuffing bread on top with more cheese.

See rest of recipe here.

I'd add a picture, but my camera needs charging. It's still cooking, but a little taste of the cheese sauce tells me this will be really good!

Update: Very tasty, but definitely needs the sour creme for a creamier texture. I probably should have added more milk and oil. This recipe needs very little bake time as it can dry out quickly.

Hygiene Hypothesis: Are We Too "Clean" for Our Own Good?

Interesting medical college article, especially if you suffer from an autoimmune disease. Click here. If this hypothesis is true, a little dirt and germs as a child could be beneficial.

"Increased hygiene and a lack of exposure to various microorganisms may be affecting the immune systems of many populations - particularly in highly developed countries like the US - to the degree that individuals are losing their bodily ability to fight off certain diseases.

That's the essence of the 'hygiene hypothesis', a fairly new school of thought that argues that rising incidence of asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis and perhaps several other diseases may be, at least in part, the result of lifestyle and environmental changes that have made us too 'clean' for our own good."

May is the Month for Lilacs

The New Century Third Reader, The Lilac, 1899.

Lessons with Plants, 1907

Modern Prose and Poetry for Secondary Schools, Warble for Lilac Time, 1914

HT to Elena for her post, Lilacs.

Free Homeschool Stuff: Art Projects for Children

A few favorites from the Art for Kids blog:

Maud Lewis Cat Painting

Tinted and Shaded Circles

Marker Drawing

Click on titles to go to projects.

Cute Wrap Skirts for Spring and Summer

I received my wrap skirts today from Thailand via ebay, and I love them! I had a pair of wrap shorts in the early 80's which were very similar. They fit very well, and will continue to fit when I lose this dern extra 25 pounds(two sizes smaller). One of the skirts is reversible. I also got a free gift of pretty pair of neutral Thai shell dangle earrings. Low light for these pictures, sorry. I was trying to figure out what was in my hair in the first picture...dirty mirror. Note to self - clean mirror! Click to enlarge pictures.

Not a bad price(less $14.00 at auction per skirt) even with shipping, and it arrived quickly. I clicked through Bigcrumbs.com for a little extra discount, and ebay gave me back some ebay bucks. Discover card is giving back 5% on clothing this month as well. I'm hoping that ebay purchases count for this.

K-Mart is having a sale on cotton sleeveless tops for $4.00(I'm wearing one), so I'll have to go back to purchase a few matching tops for these skirts. I'm also sporting a new wedding ring in silver. I outgrew my original gold one, and they were 70% off at K-Mart. I got a new band for $19.99.

Skirts were purchased from Nepal Silk on ebay. The reversible one at top is made from silk Saris, so soft, and beautiful fabric. The others are cotton Batiks. All need to be hand washed. They fit small - extra large( true to U.S. sizes). They sell some plus sizes as well - cute sun dresses. I like the kimono style because it covers chubby shoulders and arms(giggle).

Look at the fabric on this one...it's the same style as the first one at top. I also saw a pink one which was beautiful. I love the feel of Sari material, and it works so well at keeping you cool. When I lose a little weight I'll wear my top tucked it, or wear a shorter top length to show off the skirt's waist.



I just discovered that you can wear this wrap as a sun dress, criss-crossed in the back and front. If I were skinnier, I could wrap it around to the back. I had to hold it for the picture. I can still wear it tied around the front, without the criss-cross, as a bathing suit cover-up. They have longer wrap skirts which would make a cute longer sun dress. What a versatile piece of clothing!

Free Old Fashioned Gardening Magazines

I found this over at Google books, The Garden Magazine. There are many editions from 1905 - 1920's. See this main page at bottom right to view other editions. These books are downloadable and in public domain. A tip for printing or saving pages, select HMTL mode on side bar at link.

Old Fashioned Victorian Gardens

All from vintage gardening books:

A nice list of Victorian flowers

and

Victorian Flower Garden Designs

and

Features and Equipment of the Victorian Garden, of interest - Garden paths or walks - how to build, How to make a Hot Bed, Fruit Gardens, Garden Manures, and Potting mixes in the Victorian era.

Popular shrubs: Azalea, Holly, Hydrangea, Rose, Lilac, Forsythia, Andromeda, Barberry, Peony, and Quince.

Flowers: Delphinium, Aster, Alyssum, Chrysanthemum, Tulip, Pansy, Violet, Lavender, Daylily, Hosta, and Yarrow. Crinum lilies AKA: cemetery lilies are coming back in style.

And of course all types of ferns were popular.

I tried to find modern designs for small Victorian gardens, but they were loose interpretations, very modern(almost Zen-like) with lots of concrete patios. They should appear all natural, but somewhat controlled. They used loose and wild plantings within controlled boundaries, a bit of like a cottage garden, but more formal and tidy. The pathways were typically loose materials, not concrete or hard surfaces(unless main walkway). I'll keep looking, but artist renditions are always a good source.

Here's one in London:

Found a good one thanks to Homeliving: Explore the Victorian Garden: find resources, history and information about gardening in the 19th century.

Other resources:

Old Fashioned Living: The Garden Path, a long list of plant and garden information.

Here's one under construction in Britain - notice the sharp contained boundaries which will house plants that overflow giving the illusion of naturalized planting areas.



"There is a distinct atmosphere connected with those simple one-path gardens that is most delightful. It lies not only in the gravel paths and the stiff, box-borders, but in the fragrant old-fashioned flowers that were grown promiscuously inside the trim line of box."(Garden Ornaments, 1916) This sums up Victorian gardens to a tee, and I think I feel most comfortable with this sort of garden - ordered chaos.

Free Homeschool Stuff: Online Courses and Education

A nice listing of free online courses and education as well as an informational video on how to use these resources.

Includes: Business OpenCourseWare, Technology OpenCoursWare, Science OpenCourseWare, and Liberal Arts OpenCourseWare.

Homemade Ketchup

Tonight I decided to make my own ketchup. We are almost out, so after we finished a bottle Kurtz Ketchup, I thought I'd just make a copy-cat recipe from the ingredients on the back of the bottles minus the corn syrup. I also checked around the web for other recipes to see how people were making their ketchup. Most recipes were pretty much the same. The main ingredients are tomato paste, sugar(sweetener), vinegar, onion powder, salt, and spices. Instead of using a recipe, I just experimented with these ingredients by keeping an eye on the texture and adding spices to taste.

You certainly can make ketchup with diced tomatoes, but next time I'll wait to get some tomato paste! It's taking a long time to thicken up; I've got it cooking on low, and added some corn starch. The taste is really good, just too thin.

Here's what I can remember using for a large batch:

- Two cans of tomato sauce, one can of diced tomatoes, and one can of seasoned diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup sugar, and a big pour of dark molasses
- 3/4 - 1 cup vinegar
- A little water(a mistake, needs less liquids!)
- Various shakes and pours to taste of onion powder, Italian seasoning, cardamon, celery salt, tarragon, salt, coriander, and garlic.
- A few sprays of canola oil
- A little corn starch to thicken which got blobby on me.

I used the blender to liquefy the tomatoes and combine everything, now I'm waiting for it to thicken up on the stove. I think I may need to get some tomato paste tomorrow to fix it.

Here's a formal recipe: Hillbilly Housewife Homemade Ketchup recipe

Is it worth it? Maybe, if you use the paste, or you have a lot of tomatoes to use up. I think it takes a lot of them to make a good thick paste. The benefits are a product free of artificial ingredients and high fructose corn syrup, made to taste, adjustable for sugars and salts.

You can also just purchase organic or Kosher ketchup which is free of artificial ingredients and high fructose corn syrup. Not all organic ketchups are free from high fructose corn syrup. Ketchups like Muir Glen, Trader Joe's(spicey), Annie's, and all Kosher are sugar based.These ketchups are about $3.50 a bottle and up.

See more entries at this week's Make It From Scratch Carnival.

Make Your Own Mulch and Compost from Leaves

"Every spring we make new leaf mold. This is part of this year’s huge pile of ground-up leaves… by next spring it will have become a pile of rich black “soil” that will do wonderful things to our gardens." Read the rest here.

We do a version of this as well, more out of laziness than anything else! ;) Seriously, this is an efficient and cost effective way to recycle, and take advance of nature's cycle of decomposition. We use a mulching mower to shred the leaves, tiny sticks, and grass into tiny pieces so that they decompose more quickly. Instead of piling them, we just mow right over the stuff and leave them. Everything returns to the earth as free fertilizer. Anything extra or unsightly gets raked up around the trees in a neat circle, or wisked into the beds as mulch.

In addition to the using a mulching mower, we get free wood chips from local tree cutting companies. I dress the beds with these, right over the leaves and weeds. It all breaks down into lovely rich soil with the help of lots of worms who find the mix lovely.

Less work and cost for us, and better for the environment.

Our local government is encouraging this natural method of landscaping in order to minimize fertilizer and other chemical run off(storm drains) into the Chesapeake Bay, which is suffering a slow death from algae bloom and pollution. In addition to loss of wildlife, waterman jobs have been lost due to poor catches. Crab and fish are no longer as plentiful.

Yogurt Recipes and More

Just what I needed! See Denese's post for a list of homemade yogurt techniques, recipes with yogurt, and as a bonus, homeschool yogurt science.

I just made a mixed berry yogurt smoothie with one of the recipes, yum.

Natural Inspect Repellent Spray

It's that time of year again in our area. The mosquitoes are out in force already. This year we are trying a natural deet-free products. In the past we've used Avon's Skin-So-Soft(deet-free), but not all natural, with very little success.

Seven natural insect repellents:

California Baby(some Targets)
Aubrey Organics Gone!
Badger
Kiss My Face Swy Flotter
Repel
Sport Bite Blocker SPF 20
Homemade on Etsy

You can also make your own with essential oils added to either oil, vinegar, witch hazel or vodka. To name a few, these essentials oil are known for their natural bug repelling properties: lavender, eucalyptus, citronella, lemon grass, lemon eucalyptus, peppermint, clove oil, rose geranium, cedar, *neem oil, and tea tree oil.

*Neem oil stinks! I have found that citronella completely covers the smell of neem oil, so it's a good choice for pairing.

I plan to make my own, and purchase a commercially produced natural bug repellent. I have read that these products work with your skin chemistry, so no one product is good for everyone. I'm guessing that a combination of many different essentials oils that are known to repel mosquitoes is probably better than just a few.

Using natural soap scented with the bug repelling essential oils in addition to the spray might not be a bad idea for layering the protection. I think I'll look for some at either Target, Etsy or vitacost.com . Vitacost has a bar of neem soap for $1.32.

Check Vitacost.com as well. I buy discounted Dr. Bronner's products from them. The shipping is very low at $4.99 on any size order, and they ship fast. I'm trying

All Terrain Herbal Armor Insect Repellent Spray Deet-Free 4 fl oz $5.19. It's got one positive review. I'm also ordering some essential oils for some other projects - great prices as usual.

Also see :Five Plants That Repel Mosquitoes

7/09 update: I made my own and used the All Terrain. Both worked well! I still got a few bites, but then I got bites with DEET repellents as well. BTW, it works well as a natural deodorant too. I used vodka as a base, and added neem oil, eucalyptus, citronella, lemon eucalyptus and cedar essential oils. I didn't measure, but recall pouring about a tablespoon of neem oil and 2 tablespoons of citronella into an 8 ounces spray bottle full of vodka. The remaining essential oils measured out at about 10-15 drops.

I haven't tried this, but you might be able to add zinc oxide powder to your bug spray in order to give it sunscreen properties.

Hot Enough for a Pool!

It's so hot here! We put the kiddie pool room up again. This pool, green outdoor carpet, and screened tent are going on their third year. The tent has some small holes which have been patched, so I think this will be the last year for the tent. Family Dollar had one for about $30.00, so I went ahead and bought this for next year. They had it up in the aisle, so I was able to see it before purchase. This is a really good price, and it looked sturdy. The one we are using now was purchased from the camping section at Walmart.

This pool room is great for a few reasons. It has an outdoor carpet running right up to the back door to keep the little ones feet clean. Clean feet means a clean pool and house. The outdoor carpet is easy to sweep when it does get dirty. The zipper screened tent keeps it cool and bug free. Placing it right outside the back door of the den means that I can watch(pool guard) my daughter from inside, which is a must for me when it is sweltering outside. The only way I'd stay out there was if I were sitting in the pool. When it's very hot, I hook up the hose to a side pole and put it on "mist". My son and daughter loved this last year. My son is getting a bit too big to even sit in the pool, but he does it anyway in hot weather.

This was our set up in 2007. That blow up pool sprung a leak after only one season, so we went a hard walled pool.











When the daughter is six, we'll get a bigger pool. I've got my eye on a nice 10 ft. x 30 inch circular Intex pool(ages 6 and up). These metal frame inexpensive pools snap together easily, and are simple to take down when the weather cools off. I have seen mixed reviews for this pool online, so I'm hoping this pool works for us. Most complaints were about the weak pump, and leaks during the seond year. The tarp has to be purchased separately; without the tarp, the bottom is prone to leaks from sharp objects. Amazon reviews, four out of five stars.

The Intex Metal Frame Pool - 10'x30 is $79.00 + $55.00 shipping(heavy to ship) at Amazon.com. ToysRus might carry it as well. Target.com has got it for $129.00, and I think they may have free "ship to store" for pick-up much like Walmart. I'm keeping my eye on this one, but we have another three years before I'd feel safe enough to purchase this pool for the little one.