Southern Pinto Beans

April 19th, 2013 § Comments Off on Southern Pinto Beans § permalink

Ingredients:

1 lb.Pinto Beans (soaked overnight or quick soaked – see below)

1 Onion Chopped

1 Bunch Cilantro, Chopped

1 can Rotel Tomatoes

1 each Red, Yellow and Orange Bell Peppers, chopped

4 cloves garlic chopped

1 tsp. Garlic Salt

2 TBL Chili Powder

1 tsp.oregano

1 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

1 tsp liquid smoke

1 tsp Wochestershire sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Water  to cover beans

Smoked sausage, chopped  or cooked ground beef – Optional

Directions:

In a large stock pot, mix the soaked beans and the remainder of the ingredients except Salt. Bring to a boil. Simmer for at least 2 to 3 hours or until beans are tender. Add Salt to taste. Serve with brown rice and jalepeno cornbread.

 

Quick Soaking Beans:

Sort beans and remove and debris. Add beans to stockpot and cover with water. Bring stockpot to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and cover. Let stand in water for one hour. Proceed with cooking.

 

 

Yummy Lemon Bars

April 18th, 2013 § Comments Off on Yummy Lemon Bars § permalink

 

 

 

2013-04-18 15.29.31I have to go to my Master Gardener meeting tonight and I have signed up to bring something. In my sleep, I rememberd that I used to make Lemon Bars and my family loved them. Sooo…Here is my post for the day. Why not grab the kids, juice a few lemons and make a sweet confection to share with someone. It’s really easy. You’ll be glad you did.

Crust:

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1 cup softened butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

Mix flour and sugar  in a bowl. Add the butter and mix with a pastry blender.

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When the mixture looks like little pebbles,  press into an 8″ x 11″ baking dish.

 

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Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Allow to cool.

 

Filling:

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4 eggs slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup lemon juice

Powdered Sugar for dusting

Mix flour and sugar in a bowl. Wisk in the eggs and lemon juice.

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Pour over cooled crust.

 

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Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated 350 degree oven.

Filling will firm up as the bars cool on the counter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar after cooling.

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Cut into 2 inch squares and enjoy!

A Typical Unschooling Day

April 17th, 2013 § Comments Off on A Typical Unschooling Day § permalink

Ocean sunset

 

I’m often asked what a typical Unschooling day looks like. “If you aren’t doing school, what ARE you doing?”

The answer can be as vast and expansive and as deep as the ocean. There is no right answer to this question. There are no two unschooling families that do it the same.  The Unschooling life is a shift in awareness. It’s more of a letting go than a doing. It’s a stream that moves and flows rather than a concrete solid truth. To me unschooling is about living in the moment and being grateful for all that IS right here and right now. It’s about having faith that we have the tools and the strength and the ingenuity to face whatever the future may hold for us.

We wake up each day with a sense of wonder and possibility. What connections might be made today? What obstacles might we have to climb over to find a gift? Where will our passions lead us and what new adventures will be brought to us through those passions?

I can tell you what we don’t do. We do not do worksheets, work with textbooks, force “educational” materials or coerce our children to do or be anything other than  who they are today. We don’t force bedtimes, certain foods, limit t.v. or computer time or force a lot of arbitrary rules upon our kids. We don’t subtely try to sneak in “educational” information to make sure our kids are “learning” something.

We live our lives through following what we like to do in any given moment. We learn through real life experience. Life is our learning pallet and we trust that each and every day learning is happening either on the computer, in the kitchen cooking together, working in the garden, watching documentaries, reading Harry Potter, camping in the backyard, cleaning the house together, taking walks, volunteering at an animal shelter, having conversations in the middle of the night, visiting museums, playing with friends, etc. We see what WANTS to happen in a day and we follow that with gusto.

Kids are always FINE with this. Even the most diligent student, if asked openly by a parent that has a willingness to really listen, will tell you that they would love to learn this way. We as parents are the ones that have to make that leap of faith. We have been indoctrinated to separate learning into compartmentalized subjects and have completely disassociated learning with life. Life teaches us reading. It teaches us math, history, science and much more as well. We simply have to engage with life.

As parents, we must stretch our eyes open – wake up to the world as it really is. The world is a miraculous place with so much to offer. Yes, bad things happen sometimes. But when our focus is directed to the wonder and preciousness of life, we see all that it has to teach us. Allowing our kids to learn this way helps them to retain that sense of wonder about the world and their innate ability to be curious.

So, our day might start at 12 p.m. because we stayed up late to look at the globe and find out where their new friend from skype lives.

It may start at 1 a.m., like the time we got up to watch the meteor shower in the backyard. We took snacks and blankets and a heater and laid down on the deck and watched the “show”.

Or it might start at 5 a.m. because we’ve decided to go on a trip.

The day may unfold into a game of monopoly or gardening or visiting the planetarium. We might spend a whole day playing Minecraft on the computer. I might be writing while the kids are orbiting around me with their conversations and silliness and laughter. However it unfolds, we are enjoying life and trusting that if something comes that we need to know, we will LEARN it and KNOW it like nobody’s business.

The learning happens in the living. The living starts NOW.

 

First Spring Harvest

April 16th, 2013 § Comments Off on First Spring Harvest § permalink

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I harvested our first peas today. It’s the first spring vegetable to produce this year. Our plants are big and beautiful and climbing our cattle panel fencing.

 

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These are our first pickings. I was going to wait until tomorrow to get the peas out but I was too excited to put it off. So my husband and I sat down to gently pinch the peas open and let the little green pearls make their way into a bowl.

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And here they are! I’ll probably wait to cook them until tomorrow. But what a delight to plastic wrap this bowl and have fresh peas in the fridge.

 

Class Dismissed – A Film About Learning Outside of the Classroom

April 15th, 2013 § Comments Off on Class Dismissed – A Film About Learning Outside of the Classroom § permalink

Class Dismissed pic

 

I’m so excited about this film. In my opinion, we need more of them.

From what I’ve seen on the Class Dismissed trailers, website, and Facebook page, this film will clearly and eloquently explore the ideas behind modern day homeschooling and unschooling. The director, Jeremy Stuart, hopes that this film will help families delve deep within themselves and ask the question, “What does it mean to educate our children?” On the website, he expresses his desire to paint a picture of the current compulsory educational system and the alternatives to that form of schooling.

There are currently three trailers that you will find on their Facebook page. I have provide one of them here.

 

 

In my mind, this is a film that can change the way that people think about education. If you already homeschool or Unschool, please share with your Facebook friends, homeschool groups and neighbors. If you are new to the idea of homeschooling or unschooling, please approach this film with an open mind and heart. With every passing year, more and more concerns arise with the current form of mass education. I’m sure you’ve recognized this or you wouldn’t be reading here. I invite you all to share this film, start discussions about education and spread the word about the film and the alternatives to the status quo.

Following are links to the Class Dismissed website and Facebook page. Perhaps you will visit those and rally support behind the film in any fashion that feels comfortable to you. Together we can make a difference in the lives of our children. Together we can raise children who are curious about our world, who think outside of the box and can bring unique resolutions and ideas to the issues we face as human beings now and in the future.

 

Website:  http://www.homeschoolfilm.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ClassDismissedMovie