Sunflowers!

When I planted sunflowers this year, I admit that I wasn't even thinking about harvesting their seeds. I just was thinking, "gee, wonder if I can grow some big and pretty sunflowers this year?". That's it. Then they grew, and got beautifully tall and bright, I just got so excited at these huge flowers growing in my back yard.  They were so yellow and bright for a good part of the hot time of the summer...and then, sadly, they slowly started to nod their balding heads toward the ground, as if to say "okay, we're done here...better eat some seeds and make it worth our while, Farmer Al".

(Hmmm...is it weird that I think that my garden plants talk to me?  And that they call me Farmer Al? Please don't answer that.)

So out of pure guilt at the thought of enjoying nothing but their beauty, I investigated a little, and here is how you harvest sunflower seeds.  Yup, the good eatin' kind.

Cut the heads off when you see that behind the head is yellowing, and that the seeds inside are black tipped. 

You may have to brush away the top "fur" (technical term) of the sunflower to reveal the seeds.

Best done with gloves, you then work the seeds out by firmly rubbing them toward the outer circle.  You may have to rip the head in half to get a better grip.  I found this part to be strangely therapeutic. (Remember, I need therapy--I hear my plants talking to me!)

This is what they look like right out of the flower, with the empty head left behind.

After soaking them in saltwater overnight, lay them out on a paper towel in the sun to dry out.

Then roast them in a 300 degree oven for a little over a half-hour...or until a little brown.
Remove from the oven and add a little healthy oil and some sea salt if you'd like, and enjoy!

Sunflower seeds are a high source of protein, some of the B vitamins, vitamin E and many minerals, such as iron, magnesium, calcium and selenium.  As we found out working with our second batch, they may also contain EXTRA protein if you don't watch for teeny tiny holes in the seeds...yup, seed worms.  Blech.  But, I think that if you literally watch what you eat, you will spot the holey seeds and eat only what you intend to when sitting down to snack.  It is a way to add mindfulness to your eating, THAT'S for sure! :)

 

There are times...

...when I look at my little girl and she takes my breath away.

  

This tends to happen to me at unexpected times...not times when I as a parent am being "set up" by circumstances to suddenly realize the ever-quickening passage of time and quick maturation of my first born.  No, I don't catch myself with a lump in my throat when she has just gotten all gussied up for an English Country Ball, or has just primped and prepared for some other special occasion.  If we sent the girls to public school, I suspect it wouldn't even be so much that first bus ride to junior high.  But instead, these moments creep up and seem so mundane.  Today, while giving Moo her spelling/vocabulary test, she just suddenly looked...so...grown...up.  She came out of her room to the kitchen table, and as I dictated the words to her, I considered her quiet and studious pose in her neatly wound little braids, her signature headscarf, her fingernails painted in a light tone and her growing bunch of bracelets that each means a special "something" to her and...well...*gulp*.  It hit me.  She is not getting anything but older, wiser, more mature and closer to her launch date.   We can try to hold on to these children that we have on loan to us for just a short while...but they will grow up.  They will leave.  They will have their own babies.  Those babies will grow up fast.  Another mom will swallow hard and dictate the next vocabulary word and quietly get the camera to remember this very normal moment where the speed of time's passage became crystal clear.  

This is the natural cycle of things.  And I am in awe.

And that, my friends, is why I have to bring this post to a close and go hug my girls for awhile. 

Small Packages

You are about to be humbled by pictures of the awesome hugeness of my garden produce. Well, not really. This morning I decided it was time to give up hoping that my watermelons would grow any larger, and I cut them off their itty-bitty stem and brought them in to be enjoyed at lunch. These TWO, tennis ball sized watermelon were the entirety of the watermelon crop this year. But if you ask the girls, they were the BEST watermelon they've ever eaten. :)

Now you see it...

Slurp!

...now you don't.

Oh, So Pretty

My Mom made this lovely flower cake for my birthday.  It is so much prettier in person (in flower?)...somehow the picture doesn't do seem to do it justice.  Camera operator error, I'm sure.  

Today was a mixed bag...I woke up to discover that Moo's eyes had swollen shut like a prize fighter over night, and so the day started with my choking back tears when seeing her swollen little face.  Sigh.  After a trip to the doctor, we were left still uncertain about the cause.  She had developed some dryness around her eyes after swimming this weekend, and she had been improving until...dum dum duuuummmmm...we put Vaseline on her eyelids and undereyes.  THAT, my friends, was our first mistake.  My dear redhead is an extra-sensitive redhead, and ended up with the equivalent of a chemical burn around her eyes and down parts of her face.  (As picture crazy as I can get on my blog, I promised her I would not post the picture that I took of her.  I took it to help remember her condition and progress, should this happen again...but I just can't do that to the poor thing.  She is just this side of feeling that awkward self-consciousness when her hair or clothes are not quite "right"...I cringe what would happen if I had to send her off on a bus to school tomorrow.  Ugh.) 

Upside: after a Zyrtec and some time, she is starting to look a little less beat up.  For instance, now she has a crease in her eyelid.  Just one, but we'll take it.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I was telling a friend of mine who called to wish me happy birthday, that I have to learn to cope better when things go wrong with my girls...or with anyone in my family, for that matter.  I can tend to get all dark and twisty inside...and then I become paralyzed from being able to function at an optimal level.. I have to work on that.   Perhaps Someone knows that, and has begun to work in me on that one.  Hope so.

My dear husband and girls got me some jammies, and aside from the lovely cake, my Mom & Dad got me a food dehydrator (woot woot!).  My Dad also got me a gag gift--a bacon cook book.  It was pretty funny, and I'm sure that some of the recipes will work just fine with turkey bacon...except the Bacon Baklava (eeewwww!).  Talk about "dark and twisty"!  Who would think up such a thing??? 

First School Project of 2010

Small models of Henry Hudson's galleon ship he sailed while looking for the Northwest Passage.

The girls had a good time turning their rice milk containers into miniature ships.

The Vocabulary of Mysteries

If someone asks me what vocabulary program we use in our homeschool, I am likely to say "The Carolyn Keene Method".  What it involves is for the student to read Keene's Nancy Drew mystery novels NON-STOP.  In fact, the girls developed this vocabulary curriculum on their own.  Once every few minutes, I hear, "Mom, what does askance mean?" or "Mom, what does it mean if something disintegrates?".  I then either answer them immediately, or direct them to a dictionary.  That's it.  It's not like Wordly Wise 3000 or some other workbook-y or fancy-shmancy approach, but it works for them and keeps their noses in books.

Belle is currently "studying" The Secret of Mirror Bay.

....and studying....

...and studying.  I don't think we'll get to math for another hour or so.  

Typical Late Summer School Days: Or Why We Can't Get Any Schoolwork Done

I hate these hot-hot days of summer. I personally HATE the heat, and my red-head daughter who should already be careful in the sun has decided to get a reaction to any sunscreen used on her skin. Sooooo...we're not outside as often as usual these days. It is a good thing, then, that we begin school during the first week of August. It gives us productive schoolwork to do during the day...at least in theory.  But as is typical, the transition back into a full class-load is met with some resistance.  All three of us seem to be trying to shake off a touch of attention-deficit disorder.

For instance, this is what happens when I am distracted, and the girls aren't being closely monitored:

My aspiring ornithologists sneak away and video the local wildlife.  Back to work, hoodlums!!

Belle hides away and fiddles with an Etch-A-Sketch while I'm busy canning.

Speaking of canning, I'm busy canning all sorts of stuff (the salsa on the right is my own, my mom gave us the pickles last night).  Oh wait...I think I'm supposed to be teaching something.  What was it...?

Moo hides away in her room creating the "Fayth Library".  Really, if you want to make her day, call and request a library card...and follow through by checking something out.  My girls love libraries, and Moo was ecstatic to discover that there is a degree offered in library science.  We shall see...now, don't you have to make your vocabulary flash cards, young lady???

Awww!  But the local wildlife is so cute!  Wait, if Mom stands on the table and waits a ridiculous amount of time (say, around the amount of time needed for a solid history lesson), maybe our hummingbird will allow a short video to be taken...

Poor Charlie has been sleeping all day with a toilet paper bandage wrapped around and around his head and neck.  Apparently when I wasn't looking, one of the girls decided to play veterinarian.  Yeah, how about doing your spelling work like I told you to do?!?  Then you will learn how to spell veterinarian!!!

 

 

 

 

Who can focus on teaching and overseeing seatwork when I've got an ever decreasing amount of counterspace in my kitchen?! 

These are the remains of the veggies after a morning of serious boiling, peeling, preparing and canning.  I've also done a fair amount of dehydrating this year, but that is really kind of disappointing.  I think I sliced up about 5 zucchinis, only to have them equal--no exaggeration--1 cup of dehydrated zucchini.  Although I love the idea of storing lots of food this way, I would need a MUCH bigger garden and a industrial size dehydrator in order to feel like my garden-cup overfloweth.  I just don't have that in me. 

And, by the way...contrary to what the picture suggests, we do NOT have a banana tree in the backyard.  Yet.

Great Expectations...Not

I officially have 3,829 ripe tomatoes on my counter.  

After eating tomato sandwiches, yummy bruscetta, and healthy tomato, mozzarella & onion salads daily...I am down to 3,751 very ripe tomatoes.

So in order to get out from under this quickly-ripening-soon-to-be-rotting-if-I-don't-take-drastic-measures tomato apocalypse, I am trying my hand at making homemade tomato sauce.  

Belle remarked, "Is this your first time making tomato sauce from tomatoes?"

"Yes it is", I answered proudly (first mistake).

"Well, since it is your first time....", she said matter-of-factly, "don't expect it to be good."

"Okay.  I won't."

I guess it's good to keep expectations low.

A Spot of Tea

We were preparing for friends to come over for bible study last evening, and I was desperately trying to chisel my Key Lime bars out of the 8 x 8 pan.  I had decided to make things look all fancy, and brought out the pedestal cake plate in order to display the homemade bars and some store-bought cheesecake (in case someone hated Key Lime).  My hubby saw me struggling, and offered to help me finish the job.  He proceeded to take over and re-stage the bars and cheese cake slices ever so symmetrically and lovely on the cake plate.  It looked MUCH better than if I had done it.  He has much more patience for these kinds of things. 

I *harumphed* and said, "You know, it's kind of embarrassing to be outdone by you in EVERY SINGLE way in the kitchen!"   I then said it was the feminine form of feeling "emasculated" (whatever that word would be?), and that it hurts my pride that he outperforms me in cooking, baking and now, STAGING of food.

And then, with sweet sincerity and a straight face, he said, "Honey, you make great tea."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I can boil water...pour it in a cup...and place a tea bag in it like no one else I know.  Sigh.

Not Very Nice...or Easy

So you know how I will post just about ANYTHING about my girls...funny sayings, important stages of growth, pictures of one of them hugging the toilet...pictures of that same one with a comb hopelessly tangled in her bangs?  These are, you know--all kinds of "goodies" that I just don't want to forget.  Things I want to remember forever.

Well today, I will be the subject of my post...because I never, ever want to forget...

...the perils of simply trying to cover one's gray hair.   

Ack!

The girls love it, but I am here to tell you that as dark as my hair is naturally, it now is ridiculously BLACK.  My husband said it is "just like Jackie Chan".  Nice.  I would have preferred to be compared to a FEMALE, thank you very much!  Belle said, "Oh please oh please don't change it...I love it!".  Now I know I'm in trouble when my dear Belle who would like pink hair one day says that my hair is "perfect".   And my dear Moo has attempted on at least two occasions to lecture me on the importance on what is "on the inside", and wonders why I would have ever thought to cover my gray in the first place.  Sigh.  Good question.

So, Future Allison, when you read this post in the future, let it serve to remind you so that you will never forget: Nice & Easy Darkest Brown IS NOT YOUR COLOR!!!

Parts of Speech ...*groan*

Found while correcting today's grammar homework--

 

Question: 

Give an example of a concrete noun. 

Answer by a daughter who shall remain nameless: 

Brick.

Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better

Over the last two days, we've huddled on the family room couch and listened to Orwell's Animal Farm on CD. (BTW, it was a TON easier listening compared to our attempt at the beginning of the summer to listen to Beowulf--yikes!)

It was interesting to do so as a family...and we've found it challenging to define propaganda, and to explain its swaying effects despite obvious truth that argues in its face. It was also difficult to explain to the girls the real, historical truths that lie behind this satirical look into a group of farm animals that take over a small farm in England. Difficult, but worth it.

Just consider the wealth of topics that a story such as this one spun by Orwell can offer. Lots of good stuff here... communism, revolution, satire, propaganda techniques, critical thinking strategies, as well as themes of justice, oppression, fairness, law, sin and then of course the question: how then shall we live?

More Fun with Friends

Would you really expect an extended time with a house full of friends without some sort of a talent show? These are a couple of the highlights:

Josiah won for cutest and best head of hair...hands down.

Jonathon wow-ed the judges on the piano...

Then, Heidi impressed the judges with her amazing piano playing abilities.

Benjamin received a standing ovation from thousands of adoring fans (just a slight exaggeration of the numbers).

The Grant girls performed a couple numbers, finishing with this short piece learned from their time visiting the Chicago Children's Choir:

Debbie, Benjamin, Zechariah, Jonathon, Heidi & David joined together for this lovely piece: