The Year Is Slipping Away From Me.

I started this post last April!  I abandoned it, but it has a lot of good info so I will update and post it.

What we did/are doing:

Math: We did Oak Meadow 7th Grade Math and 8th Grade Math. We chose to do two years of math last year so that T-Guy could work at his true grade level. We (did) do math daily now rather than in blocks and it has made a difference in how well the boys retain their new skills.  Both of them really love math. This year we've switched to Teaching Textbooks for Algebra I and it is going really, really well. In the space of 14 months I went from having math reluctant children to having kids who count math among their favorite subjects.

Language Arts: We read, discussed, and wrote about The Giver, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, A Wrinkle in Time, Bridge to Terabithia, Johnny Tremain, and several other books that I can't think of right now. We enjoyed The Giver so much that we read the rest of the books in that series, and J-Baby also read all of the Hitchiker's books. We started and abandoned Lord of the Flies as it wasn't grabbing any of us. Many other books have been read for pleasure rather than by assignment.  This year I have chosen our literature based on common 9th grade reading lists; so far we have read and discussed My Antonia and are finishing up Great Expectations, with more classics to come throughout the year.

We used the spelling/vocabulary lists from Oak Meadow 8th Grade English; I input the words into Vocabulary Spelling City and the boys learned and tested on the words using the VSC iPad app.  This year we are combining a book called SAT Vocabulary Lightning with the VSC app.

I had high hopes for The Write Foundation but it didn't work for us; the content was too religious with a decidedly creationist slant. Instead, last year we focused on solid paragraph writing with the boys answering questions in their subject journals. The boys took a Brave Writer online course last spring and we got so much from it that I bought their program and that is what we are using this year, along with continuing with subject journals.

We're still using Daily Grammar off and on.

Social Studies: The main spine for this subject was the Oak Meadow 8th Grade Civics syllabus. I found it uninspired and too heavy on the written work, so we adapted it for home use. We also watched several PBS/BBC series that brought various historical time periods to life for the boys, including Colonial House, Frontier House, 1900 House, and 1940s House. We tried Manor House but gave it up as it wasn't nearly as good as the others (something I recall from when Papa and I watched them the first time around).  This year we are using Short Lessons in World History; our intention is to switch to the Big History Project next fall, so this is just a brush up.

Science: We started with Oak Meadow 8th Grade Physical Science, but switched to Classic Science Elementary Physical Science as Papa didn't really have time to work the Oak Meadow with the boys on a daily basis and he felt it was poorly written and difficult to understand. The Classic Science program is more student directed and I was able to manage the experiments. The boys liked it so well that we are using Classic Science Elementary Chemistry this year. Papa also took up teaching the boys electronics, which they have continued this year. J-Baby is still learning to program on both the Mac and the iPad.

Physical Education: We decided not to do the same program we did in 2011 - 2012. The boys enjoyed it but it was scheduled in the middle of the afternoon and I had tired of the interruption it caused in our day. We focused most of our joint PE work on mountain biking; there are always new skills to be learned. In addition the boys worked on strength training using body weight only, and T-Guy had baseball. This year the boys have joined the area high school and middle school mountain biking teams, which comprise a full physical education curriculum.

Health: We focused on healthy bodies last year and will continue this year. We have ongoing discussions and learning about the role of exercise on the body, plus healthy diet and other habits such as ample sleep, fluid intake, and stress reduction. We continue to address the topics of puberty, teen sexuality, substance abuse, anger management, and healthy relationships.

Foreign Language: The boys elected not to study a foreign language last year, although we offered Spanish. J-Baby did dabble in Spanish using various resources. They began focused foreign language lessons this fall with Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish.

Fine Arts: Both boys made significant progress in their musical pursuits. J-Baby continued with piano lessons and T-Guy made a concentrated effort with guitar. This year J-Baby is again taking piano lessons and we found a great guitar teacher for T-Guy. Both boys work on music appreciation and have been learning the works of famous composers. In addition, J-Baby pursues drawing and other art endeavors, including modeling and mixed media work.

Sourdough Bread, Biscuits, Tortillas, Quick Breads, Muffins, and Scones

I am allergic to yeast, both baker's and brewer's. I was really surprised five years ago when the allergist tested me and then put me through an elimination diet and challenge, but the results stood. I had hoped this year that when I started working with sourdough I would be able to eat it, but no, it appears I am even more allergic to wild yeasts.

I do try to bake sourdough bread for my family each week even though I can't have it. The love bread and it makes meals, especially lunch, easier to prepare. I use an einkorn converted sourdough starter and einkorn flour. After reading many sourdough recipes online I was able to combine several ideas to get a bread that works for us.

Each week I make einkorn tortillas; usually Tuesdays and Fridays. I'm still messing with recipes and the tortilla maker in an attempt to get perfect tortillas. I even bought a Cuisinart food processor to try to make it easier by eliminating the need to spend so much time rubbing fat into flour with my bare hands, but I hated the results. I know a lot of people love Cuisinarts, but I took mine back after six days.

I also make einkorn biscuits several times a week; I hope to get a blog post up later this month demonstrating my recipe and process. Again, I had to tweak several recipes to come up with one that rises well with nice flaky layers. Midway through testing recipes I had to change course and find a recipe that wasn't for buttermilk biscuits. I think I hit gold as I now have a recipe that rises beautifully, tastes delicious, and has a very manageable dough that doesn't lose anything when the scraps are reworked.

When I realized that the sourdough bread wasn't going to work for me I turned to savory quick breads on soup night, but that's on hold right now while I avoid buttermilk this month. I must say that I baked a gorgeous Irish soda bread on Halloween that was enjoyed by all of our guests.

Muffins are probably the first bread I ever baked; they are more like cake than bread but since we eat them as breakfast and snacks rather than dessert they fall into the bread category around here. Muffins were one of our go to gluten-free breads as they are easy to bake and convert well to gluten-free. They do have more sugar than I like to feed the boys regularly so now that I am working with einkorn I make them far less often, make once a month as a breakfast treat.

Scones have always been a favorite of mine; they are basically a slightly sweet biscuit, often with the addition of other ingredients such currants or dried ginger pieces. For decades I had been making a simple corn scone from the Moosewood Cooks At Home cookbook but now that corn is off the menu for me (maybe that will change once I get my histamine issues under control) I am working on a basic scone recipe by tweaking the successful biscuit recipe to include more sugar.

I'm Really Bad at This

Either I forget to write something or I write a draft and leave it sitting there.

Tuesdays are usually a busy day for us and Election Day was no different. We had a full load of lessons and chores plus we spent the afternoon visiting at a friend's house. After dinner we turned on the TV to watch election results and stayed up way too late.

On the way home we stopped at Trader Joe's and picked up one of their new brined organic whole chickens. After sprinkling it with a small amount of kosher salt and a generous amount of dried thyme I popped it into the oven at 400° on convect roast. It was delicious! I'd say it was one of the best organic birds we've eaten. Alongside we had roasted Dutch Baby potatoes and broccoli - a simple meal that everyone enjoyed.

With a freshly roasted chicken carcass on hand I threw together a quick chicken broth so that I have some on hand that qualifies as safe on the low histamine diet. It boiled gently for 2 hours and then I strained and froze it. I have so much frozen stock that I had to label this as safe so that I can tell them all apart. It isn't as delicious or nutritious as a slow-simmered stock but it will do for now.

No More Broth!

For now, anyway.

I've been having major allergy symptoms for some time now (off and on my whole life, really, but almost uncontrollable this past year, to the point of leaving me unable to sleep) and decided to try a histamine avoidance elimination diet for four weeks to see if bringing down my systemic histamine levels might help. Unfortunately, slow-cooked broth is off the menu as meat products release histamine after they are cooked (naturally occurring histidine converts to histamine). The only broth I can have is broth that is cooked for two hours (not twenty-four) and frozen immediately. I don't have any of that right now so I'll have to skip drinking broth until I get some made with fresh bones (not frozen leftovers, that whole histamine thing).

Instead of drinking a mug of broth this morning I had a cup of nettle infusion. Nettles are a natural anti-histamine and I've been meaning to try nettle infusion for quite some time; I even already had some in the house. I enjoyed the infusion with a spoonful of sage blossom honey and it was really delicious.

Sunday Morning Pancakes

For some time now we've had a solid at-home Sunday breakfast routine going - Pancakes and Bacon.

Saturday evening I blend together Einkorn berries and buttermilk and then allow that to sit covered overnight. In the morning I add melted butter, leavenings, sweetener, and eggs, and then I adjust the consistency of the batter by adding either more buttermilk or a small amount of Einkorn flour. I cook them on a vintage electric griddle (which has improved my pancake making by a significant margin) and serve them with Kerrygold butter and real maple syrup.

(This is a riff on Sue Gregg's blender batter pancakes; I freely offer her credit for introducing me to the idea of blending whole grains with buttermilk.  My method the next morning is a little different, as are the ingredients I add.)

These are by far our favorite pancakes, even better than the buttermilk pancakes from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book, which were are favorite for a long time. As a bonus these have the extra nutrition from the whole grain and the soaking.

Our favorite bacon is from Beeler's. We buy it from our local health food store and I'll admit to grabbing four packages at a time just in case they are out of it sometime.

When we camp we make our Sunday pancakes with homemade biscuit mix using Einkorn flour, Real Salt, pastured lard, and Featherweight (corn-free) baking powder. I mix that with buttermilk and eggs and the pancakes turnout very much like the pancakes I remember from growing up - tender and fluffy.

Hodge Podge Saturday

I have been way off my game with meal planning. I have a November meal plan made but haven't been pulling things out of the freezer to defrost, which means I have to change to plan. Breakfast has been pretty much off my radar and each morning we're scrambling to figure out what to eat. Today it was homemade gluten free doughnuts, which made the boys happy.

We pulled together a simple lunch: I made hard-cooked eggs and biscuits and Papa made salads.

By dinner time we'd put the kitchen into disarray while investigating our electrical problems (we have a circuit that is out but didn't trip the breaker). I wanted to clean up and figure out what to make for dinner, Papa wanted to go out to eat. We settled for bringing something in, which I really didn't want to do but it's hard to disagree with a tired, hungry man who has spent his entire day working on a house problem.

Fridays

I'm suppose to make a nice slow cooker meal on Fridays, as we are out of the house all afternoon. However, preparing for and having a huge party Wednesday night has thrown me off a bit and I didn't defrost any meat. I did make einkorn tortillas at lunch, so I think we'll have tacos for dinner using pre-cooked and frozen meat. I made refried beans after the party so we have those too; the dinner won't take much prep.

I enjoyed my broth this afternoon. I was talking with a good friend and she reminded me how important bone broth is.  When it gets hot in summer I stop drinking it and I think my health is showing the effects.