Homeschoolers - Act Now!

Subway and Scholastics Books are hosting an online writing project for children ages PreK through 6th grade. The grand prize winner receives some awesome prizes, including $5,000 worth of athletic equipment for their school.

PROBLEM - they have a disclaimer at the bottom of the page stating that the contest is specifically not open to homeschool students.

Excuse me, but there are MILLIONS of homeschool students in this nation and this is just discrimination. A homeschool student could easily donate the athletic equipment to their homeschool athletic association, local park, athletic center, neighborhood center or the like. I realize they are doing this to have a mass marketing effect, but they could have just as great a media response from a charitable homeschool student donating the prize.

I believe this is a wonderful opportunity for us to make our voices heard that we as homeschool families are tired of being cast in a negative light.

Here is the link to the program so you can read the disclaimer for yourself. Click on the "Parents" link - I believe you have to enter a birthday in order to log on. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see that it is open to public, private and parochial schools but specifically excludes homeschool students.

I've also provided a link to the Subway comment form, where I sent a letter this morning expressing my displeasure and dismay that they would exclude such a large student group.

For more info on the contest go to: http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/kids/
Click on the box at the bottom of the page for the Sandwich Story Contest.

You can contact scholastic at: P&CConnects@scholastic.com or
CConnects@scholastic.com.

You can contact Subway at:
http://www.subway.com/Applications/CustService/frmCustomerService.aspx

Subway and Scholastic need to realize what a major mistake it is to exclude such a large student population just because they have their classwork done at home.

Coming Blogiversary

Today is actually my one year blogging anniversary! I've had a great time this past year getting to know some wonderful online friends, finding great recipes, tips and fabulous homeschool activities.

This week and weekend are super busy - today we're delivering beef, tomorrow we're working our cows, Sunday is my middle daughter's 6th birthday, Monday is the holiday and Tuesday morning my husband leaves for a 60-day assignment at Fort Knox, KY. Whew, I'm tired already!

Since time is short this weekend and I want to have a little fun with this anniversary time, I'm going to have a giveaway next week to celebrate this one year milestone. Be sure to check back sometime Tuesday when I'll post my giveaways and you can register for your chance to win!

Have a safe holiday weekend!

Stew and Soup Shortcuts - Frugal Friday

This Friday is a super busy day with beef deliveries and prep for my daughter's sixth birthday this weekend. So I thought I'd share a quick tip that I use for making my soups and stews.

Whenever we have veggies left over from meals but not enough to have as left overs at another meal, I put them in a large plastic container in the freezer. The next time we have excess veggies at a meal but not enough for a left over meal, I'll add them to the plastic container. I continue to do this until the container is full or almost full.

Pretty soon I have a freezer container full of a mix of veggies - corn, green beans, peas, carrots and the like. The next time I make a soup or stew I have a container full of veggies to add to my recipe.

As an aside, I have a blog series going for the summer on Family Emergency Preparedness. I'm sharing the 10+ years of information we've learned as we've planned and prepared for those storms of life that can cross our path. If you want to learn more or participate by sharing your ideas, just click on the Preparedness tab at the top of my blog ~ I'd love to hear your comments!

You can find more Frugal Friday ideas over at Biblical Womanhood. Have a great Friday!

5 Seconds of Fame

We had a delightful reporter for one of our area's free weekly magazines come out to do a story on our ranch and our pastured beef a couple of weeks ago. The article published today - and we're so very pleased with how well it was written to capture our intent for raising our beef. Here's a link to our 5 seconds of fame:

Who's For Dinner? - by Bo List of the Memphis Flyer Magazine

Thanks Bo!

Preparing For What? Lesson #1

I mentioned earlier this week that I would begin an Emergency Preparedness series on my blog this summer to share everything we've learned in the past 10 years or so about preparing for the various "storms of life" that cross our paths.

This is the first posting of that series. I'll be keeping all the posts archived under the Preparedness tab at the top of my blog so you can read whenever you want or come back to take any notes!

The first question most people ask is "why prepare?" or "what exactly are you preparing for?". Well, we decided many years ago that there are many things that could happen outside of our control that we might need to be prepared for. We read in the news on just about a daily basis about some crisis that is taking place - flooding, drought, tornadoes, earthquakes, train derailments and the like.

We have a couple of options for dealing with these situations:

~ We can be pessimistic and decide that no matter what we do, things can happen that we do not control and so we might as well just resign ourselves to that fact. Besides, if something happens the government or other agency will step in to help me.
~ We can be overly optimistic and decide that those things only happen to other people and probably won't ever happen to us.

Or, we can be REALISTIC and know that things beyond our control sometimes do happen, they could happen to us, but I can PREPARE for some events to make the time I spend going through them a little bit easier. To me, this sounds like a great option. Knowing that we can encounter rough spots in life, but through a little advance preparation, manage to get through them a little easier than we would with no preparation at all.

So what kinds of things am I talking about? Well, before we started our Preparedness Planning, the first thing we did was sit down and decide what types of things could happen in the area where we live that we might need to be prepared for. Then we put those things in order of likelihood - with #1 being something very probable or likely all the way down to things that might happen, but chances were more unlikely.

If you want to establish a Preparedness Plan for your family this is the first step. You sit down and decide what things you want to prepare for by looking at what they are and how they might affect you. Here are a few of the items on our list to give an example:

~ Tornado
~ Earthquake
~ Winter Ice Storm / Power Outage
~ Job Loss
~ Train Derailment

These are the top 5 things that are likely to happen to us in our area of the country. Let's look at them individually and I'll tell you why they are on our list.

1. Tornado. We live in the tornado belt. We've already been in our safe room due to spring storms at least 3 times this year alone. On one of those occasions, a funnel cloud passed directly over our house and touched down a couple miles away. A few years ago, it seemed like every week during April and May we had severe storms rolling through the area and we were taking shelter. We have the greatest likelihood of severe weather every year during April/May and again in the fall around November. I have 3 little girls, so I believe it is prudent to be prepared for the possibility of a tornado.

2. Earthquake. Where we live in Tennessee we are directly impacted by the New Madrid fault. Depending on where a major earthquake had its epicenter on this fault line, we could experience significant damage, loss of power, loss of infrastructure and the like.

3. Winter Ice Storm / Power Outage. Where we live we also tend to get ice storms in the winter instead of snow storms. Our wintery mix almost always starts as rain, turning to freezing rain, turning to sleet and ending up as a coating of ice. This usually means downed trees and power lines. In the last severe storm we had, there were people without power for as long as 3 weeks.

4. Job Loss. My husband is self-employed as a financial planner. Depending on economic conditions, increasing regulatory oversight, or an extended mobilization with the Army, he could at some point be unemployed.

5. Train Derailment. We live approximately 3 blocks from a rail line that has trains zooming through many times during the day. We've seen numerous times in the news about train derailments and hazardous materials leaking. It seems prudent to me that we somehow prepare for a 2:00 AM knock on the door telling us to leave the area due to a train derailment a couple of blocks behind our home.

While I hope that none of these events happen to us I have to be realistic in knowing that they indeed could. So, to help cope with the possibility of these events - I take comfort in knowing that I am prepared for them.

HOMEWORK: Take a few minutes after reading this post to jot down the things that could likely happen to you in your area and how it would affect you.

NEXT IN THE SERIES: How To Begin Preparing

Wordless Wednesday

Streamline Sheets - Works For Me Wednesday

This week I'd like to share a part of the makeover I performed on my linen closet last weekend. I needed more space for some overflow pantry and preparedness items, so I started looking at our sheet situation.

I started wondering just how many sheets per bed we need - I have 3 twin beds and a king bed. I don't know about ya'll, but I usually just wash the sheets I took off the bed and put them right back on instead of having to fold them.

So, I decided that we really only need 2 sets of sheets per bed. We have one flannel set for winter and one cotton set for summer for each bed and one spare cotton twin set and one spare cotton king set.

I found in my linen closet 5 sets of queen size sheets for a bed I no longer have - so I gave these to a friend of ours for his farm in Mississippi.

For the sheets that are left, I decided that instead of folding them and putting them in the linen closet, I could just as easily fold them very flat and store them between the mattress and box springs on each bed.

Voila! Instant extra room in my linen closet. Now, each of my daughters has her flannel sheets neatly folded between her mattress and box springs. I have a set of flannel and an extra set of cotton folded between my king size mattress and box springs. The sheets we didn't need we donated.

That's my Works For Me Wednesday tip ~ consider storing your sheets between the mattress and box springs and free up some linen closet space!

You can view more great Works For Me Wednesday tips over at Rocks In My Dryer!

Family Emergency Preparedness Series

I'm starting a series this summer to discuss Family Emergency Preparedness. Those various "storms of life" that cross our paths that we need to be prepared for. My husband and I have been working continually on our family preparedness plans for about 10 years. Through this series I want to share the information that we've learned - the hows and whys of what we do. Please plan to join me!

This will serve as the master page for all the posts that I write about this topic. You can visit this page via the tab at the top of my blog, via the button on the sidebar, you can subscribe to my feed or you can subscribe via email if you want to know each time a new post is added.

I'm excited to hear comments from you all about this series - what you've done to prepare already, what steps you're going to take to start a plan if you've never had one and ideas that you'd like to share.

LESSON #1 ~ PREPARING FOR WHAT?

The Spirit of Childhood

The lovely ladies over at 5 Minutes for Mom are giving away a Nintendo Wii as a grand prize for the photo they believe best captures the spirit of childhood. This is my entry in that contest. If you want to enter, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom via the link to learn how!

Room Makeover Grand Finale - Tackle It Tuesday

If you've been following along for the past couple of weeks, you know that I've been steadily working to transition our upstairs homeschool room back into a bedroom for my oldest daughter, who is 9. The homeschool room is being moved over the summer to our dining room, which is currently not used.

Well, the majority of the transition is finally finished! Here's the progress.

We started by clearing out all the homeschool materials, computers, books, posters, supplies and the like. Here's a picture of us getting started.



Next, we purchased a twin bed and some new bedding. My mom was generous enough to purchase these items for my daughter. My daughter actually picked out the bedding and I think she did a great job of picking something that can last for many years as she grows and matures into her teenage years.



Next, my step dad decided to re-do his bedroom from a washed pine to a cherry - so my daughter received his washed pine pieces - an armoire and a bookcase. I had a lingerie chest and blanket chest that matched very closely, so we moved those items in as well.

Then, my best friend of the past 16 years or so had an estate sale and we found a couple of side tables and decorating items to go with the new decor.



This past weekend, I finished taking out the final few remaining homeschool items and finished most of the decorating. I have one long wall that we need to decorate and the plan is to eventually make her a fabric covered headboard for her bed. In the meantime, we put up a nice picture instead.

I'm really pleased with how it all turned out - ready for the final pictures?

Here's a general view as you walk through the door. The lingerie chest and closet are on the wall to the left. The bed and side tables are directly in front of you. The wall to the right is open and we'll be decorating it this summer. The wall to the immediate right of the door (foot of the bed) has the bookcase and armoire. Here are the shots:



Here's the lingerie chest:



Here's the armoire and bookcase wall:



Here are the baskets we used to organize the armoire:



Here's the blanket chest at the end of her bed facing back toward the closet and lingerie chest. The sewing box I bought her for her birthday 2 years ago - amazing how well it matches isn't it!



I just love how it all turned out and she does too! Thanks for following along on this major tackle!

One Local Summer 2008

I'm participating again this year in the One Local Summer event that will begin on June 1st and continue through August 31st. The premise is that you cook at least one meal each week made with entirely local ingredients, then you share the information about your meal with the other participants online.

I had a wonderful time last year doing this - the girls and I did lots of shopping at the Farmer's Market and made several local meals each week with our purchases. Some were all vegetarian, to some we added our own beef or lamb; we tried lots of new recipes and in all had a great time.

This year the One Local Summer event is being hosted by Farm to Philly. People from all over are participating and will post each week about the local meals they made. If you want to sign up to participate, just click on the Farm to Philly link and select the One Local Summer category. Sign-ups continue through Sunday, May 25th. I hope you join us!

Lemon Tea Cake - Recipe of the Week

Just in time for the weekend and next week's holiday celebrations, how about a delicious, southern, summer cake? Guaranteed to tingle your tastebuds - ya'll will love it! Here we go! Remember to read through the whole recipe before you get started, so you'll know all the steps.

Lemon Tea Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup steeped lemon tea
1 cup sugar
Powdered sugar for dusting, if desired

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 6-8 cup pan. I use a Bundt pan. Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

With mixer on medium speed, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Remember, this takes time, as the objective is to coat every single bit of sugar with butter. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon extract and lemon zest. Gradually beat in dry ingredients just until the batter is evenly mixed. Overbeating = rubbery cake. Pour into prepared pan and bake one hour or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cake cook in the pan for 10 minutes on a wire cooling rack.

While cake is baking, make syrup by combining the lemon juice, lemon tea and 1 cup of sugar in a small saucepan. Bring this to a boil and cook until the syrup thickens. You are not looking for molasses, just thick like maple syrup. This will take 5 minutes or so. Remove pan from heat and let syrup cool completely.

Pierce the flat side of the cake all over to help it absorb the syrup. Chopsticks work well for this task. Slowly pour syrup over the cake, allowing it to absorb completely. Let cake cool in the pan 10 minutes more. Transfer to a serving platter and allow it to cool completely. Dust cake with powdered sugar if desired and serve.

Serves 12.

Enjoy!

Recipe from Pick TN Products Recipe Booklet

Embroidery - Show and Tell Friday

Show and Tell Friday is hosted at There's No Place Like Home - please be sure to visit!

This week Kelli mentioned that we might want post something handmade for our show and tell. Well, I didn't have easy access to some of my homemade items, so I've decided to share a photo of something my oldest daughter made.

This is her first "official" embroidery project she did in 2006 at the age of 7-1/2. She had been doing some practice items when she decided she liked this pattern and wanted to make it for her Dad for his birthday that year.



I think she did a pretty good job for her first gift effort! Our goal was to work a whole lot more on her embroidery skills this year, which we haven't done very much of so far. We've decided to work on it a lot again this summer, which should be lots of fun on those hot, summer days!

Have a great Friday and weekend - I look forward to visiting more Show and Tell posts today!