Green Eggs and Ham
02 Mar 2012 3 Comments
in Cooking, Homeschooling, Random Enjoyment, Uncategorized Tags: making memories, science, what school looks like today
I’ve been excited all week about today being Dr. Seuss’ birthday. We love his books and his movies, and I knew I wanted to make Green Eggs and Ham for breakfast. But was there a way to do it without nasty food colouring? I decided to investigate.
What I found really exciting. Red cabbage can turn eggs green? What?
It didn’t occur to me until part way through the process that I should be taking pictures, but here’s what I did:
1) I chopped about 1 1/2 cups of red cabbage, added it to a pot with a tiny bit of water on the bottom and simmered it for about 10 minutes, adding a splash of water when needed to prevent scorching.
2) I used my immersion blender to puree it, and then pushed it through a fine strainer to squeeze out the beautiful purpleness.
3) I separated a bunch of eggs…
4) …and added a couple scoops of the purpleness to the whites.
5) Then the kids got mixing.
Apparently, the green comes via a chemical reaction relating to the pH levels. Here’s what I found:
“Naturally, red cabbage has a colour somewhere between red and purple, depending on the pH-value of the soil it is growing in. This colour change occurs due to the pigment flavin, which belongs to a group of water soluble plant pigments called anthocyanins (For those of you, that don’t know what the pH value refers to, it is the measure of the acidity (pH < 7) or basicity (pH > 7) of an aqueous solution). In this Instructable, we are making use of the fact, that flavin is a natural pH indicator and that egg white has a pH value of about 8. These slightly alkaline condition result in a colour change to a blueish-green.”
How cool is THAT?
6) I then spooned some egg whites egg greens into the pan, and carefully spooned a yolk on top, flipping carefully when the time came. (They look less green in this photo for some reason, but they were actually quite green in reality.)
7) I tried to make the ham green, but it only made it purple. Clearly, the ham didn’t have the right pH to cause the reaction. Great science lesson! We talked about pH levels in pools and how our eyes can be red when the pH is off, and perfectly clear when the pH is right.
We all enjoyed our breakfast immensely!
Caleb declared that it smelled like I was cooking chinese food for breakfast, I guess because of the cabbage smell. But they tasted like …eggs, perhaps a slight bit sweeter. All five of us ate them up and declared breakfast a great success!
Now this has me thinking about pH levels and experiments we can do with them. Maybe planting seeds in soils of varying pH levels to see what happens…? I think it’s all pretty cool.
It’s a snow day here in Nova Scotia (we’re finally getting our winter), and I’ve declared it a Funday Friday – because I can (the homeschoolers among you know what I’m talking about). My brood is out in the snow now, a bit of shoveling, bringing in some wood and of course, playing! Later, we’ll do some crafts – maybe draw some Dr. Seuss characters? We’ll watch ‘Horton Hears a Who’ this afternoon, and probably do a read-aloud of Green Eggs and Ham. It’s days like this that my kids will look back on with fondness.
And now I’m off to clean up the post-breakfast mess. A small price to pay for all the smiles.
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
Wordless Wednesday: A Mighty Oak
22 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family Living, Random Enjoyment Tags: sunshine, Wordless Wednesday
This post has been linked to Wordless Wednesday over at 5 Minutes for Mom.
Wordless Wednesday: After the Rain
08 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family Living, Random Enjoyment Tags: sunshine, Wordless Wednesday
Like much of the continent, we had an abundance of rain this spring. On a blue sky, sunshiny day last week we broke out the picnic blanket for some games and yogurt popsicles on the front yard. Peaceful contentment.
This post has been linked to Wordless Wednesday over at 5 Minutes for Mom.
Someday
25 May 2011 1 Comment
in Family Living, Living, Random Enjoyment Tags: carpe diem
Did you ever see ‘Knight and Day’ with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz? It was cute, funny and highly unrealistic. It just what I needed on the day I happened to see it. But the best take-away from the movie was Tom’s definition of “someday:”
“Someday. That’s a dangerous word. It’s really just a code for ‘never’.”
And it got me thinking.
It’s a word I say a lot.
It’s a word that doesn’t really play well in to my goal of total contentment and intentional living. It means I’m longing for something else.
I don’t want to be longing for something else. I want to be living in the here and now, enjoying it all, living fully.
That is not to say, of course, that we shouldn’t have patience for some things. I would like to go to Greece someday, but it’s just not in the budget right now so it will have to wait until it is. I want more time to do things for myself, but I’m able to recognize what season of life I’m in and I know that someday my kids won’t need me quite as much. Someday I will have time to do more things for me.
But for many of the things in life, someday really should be today.
I should be saying yes more often.
Away I go now.
I’m going to make some banana muffins with extra chocolate chips.
Then I’m going to get out the paints and do a fun craft with the kids. I prefer to save the paints for outside on the grass (so I can mow it off rather than clean it up because I’m lazy that way), but it’s raining again still. No, no. Today, we paint on the floor!
I am embracing the NOW after all…
This is me and my attempt to live with a little less “someday” and a lot more “today.”
___________________
And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count.
It’s the life in your years.
~Abraham Lincoln
Turning on a Dime
10 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family Living, Homeschooling, Random Enjoyment
School started well on Monday. All the kids worked diligently on their tasks; the boys doing some copy work and Eden doing some addition and subtraction. Although she’s only 4, she insists on ‘doing school’ along with her brothers. Caleb loves to play teacher, and offered the occasional bit of help to read the instructions on the page.
Cuteness. I love when they help and encourage one another.
But behaviour turns on a dime in this house, probably like it does in every house. The happy cooperation fell apart. I guess Caleb read a bit more than Eden wanted him to read.
Did you notice him smiling beside her? It was hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, but I managed to maintain my composure during the outburst …that lasted several minutes.
Then she looked at me through the tears, with eyes asking ‘WHY are you taking a PICTURE of me CRYING?’
Because I love it, that’s why. I don’t love the sadness or frustration of my kids, but I do sometimes really love how they look when they cry.
Am I alone on this? I have so many photos of my kids in tears. It brings a messed-up smile to my face.
Mean, I know. I can’t help myself.
Moments later, it was time for recess. The wind shifted again and Eden and Caleb skipped happily up the stairs. I followed them up shortly after to find this:
And as quickly as it started, it was over.
Ah, the joys of preschooler drama.
Back
04 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Random Enjoyment, This is Me Tags: blogging
There is nothing like a break from something to make you reassess how much (or how little) you need it.
I gave up blogging for Lent ~a first for me, and I wanted to give it a try. I honestly found it tricky for the first bit. I tend to put many early posts in my drafts folder as they come to mind; mostly just a sentence or two to remind me later of the idea I had. It took some conscious work on my part not to do that, or even open my blog during those days. I didn’t even list my ideas on paper, though there were a lot of them. It took some effort to resist the blog, but I did it.
And after about 2 weeks, the blog felt like a somewhat-distant memory. Funny, how that happens.
Now I find myself evaluating the need and desire to have this blog. I have some subscribers and I get emails from people I’ve never met, and that is a lot of fun. I also SO enjoy a number of blogs out there, with like-minded women who put Christ first and are crazy and convicted enough to homeschool their kids. 
I think there is something incredibly comforting in these web relationships we’ve built over the last few years. We are here to support, encourage and lift up one another. We are here to share in each other’s burdens and joys.
We are here.
And that makes me want to keep being here. My break made me realize that although it became easy not to blog, I do miss it a lot.
And so, I will continue on in blog-land. After a couple weeks I’m sure I’ll be wondering how I ever managed to take that break.
I look forward to catching up with y’all.
Breaking from Routine
03 Feb 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family Living, Homeschooling, Random Enjoyment
That fluffy white stuff has been quite elusive in our neck of the woods. We’ve had two inches here and there, but nothing terribly like winter. I had really really been hoping for a nice big snowfall, and then it came.
Yesterday was a snow day for most of Nova Scotia. It’s another snow day today!
Of course, homeschoolers don’t get to use snowdays like kids in public schools. We usually just work through, and maybe cut our day a bit short or hang out a little longer than usual in our jammies, or skip the book work in favour of Scrabble and Planet Earth. The kids are usually good with this – they don’t usually even know it’s a snow day unless they notice the lack of school buses on our street.
When our family worked through a snow day we had a couple of weeks ago, David said something like: “Hey guys, think of it this way: You take SUN days instead of SNOW days. Those are the days you get to go to the beach when all sorts of other kids are sitting in a hot classroom.” Well, then. He did make an excellent point. Another homeschooling perk.
So, most snow days are regular days for us.
Most.
But not yesterday.
Well, I had planned to follow our usual morning routine, but when the kids ran out excitedly before 8am, and were still playing beautifully at 9:30, I just didn’t have the heart to drag them from their winter paradise. They were just having so much fun!
Instead, I did the unexpected and just let the day take its own shape. On their warm-up intermissions inside, we watched Pippy Longstocking, played a game, had some yummy snacks. Another time we made supper and played another game. The kids were only ever inside long enough to slightly dry their clothes in front of the fireplace. They warmed their rosy cheeks. Then they were out again. They even took their hot chocolate outside in travel mugs. They had made their quinzee with built-in cup holders in anticipation of it.
My highlight of the day was the most unexpected thing of all. Me, running around the backyard in my snowsuit and big galumphy boots, hootin’ and hollerin’ like I had just won a prize! When I stopped, I found the freshest, most untouched patch of snow I could and plunked myself down. My littlest giggled and stretched out next to me for a snow angel of her own. Then Caleb joined in. It was unexpected for me to be acting so silly outside in the snow in the middle of the day when I had so much else to do. It told them that they were more important than the dishes and the laundry and the phone calls I had to make.
It’s a busy life with a lot of demands. Homeschooling is a big job. But doing the unexpected and breaking from routine now and then is a wonderful idea! It put all of us in a good mood and renewed me for the rest of the day!
I guess I did win a prize.
Legotastic
26 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Family Living, Random Enjoyment
My kids subscribed to the Lego catalogue months and months ago after much rigamarole over trying to figure out how to get the US publication in Canada. Then, after about 15 weeks of “post-mail delivery freak outs”, it finally arrived. It’s been dog eared and carried around and discussed ever since. This happens at least once every day:
For a year or two now, the boys have pooled their allowance, birthday money and tooth fairy money to buy Lego and build their collection. I love the creativity and longevity of those wonderful little coloured blocks.
Last week, their great-grandmother gave them each $10 and they have had even more discussions about the merits and pitfalls of each of the lego sets in the catalogue. Today, during their Lego-chat, our eldest (10) included a couple of little tidbits I just had to remember…
“Don’t forget, when we’re teenagers we can get summer jobs and then we’ll be able to afford all KINDS of Lego!”
and
“When I get married, I’m going to make my wife’s RING out of LEGO! Isn’t that Sa-WEET? She’s gonna LOVE that!”
Oh, the innocence!
I will share this on their wedding day. Oh yes. I will.
C is for Caleb
29 Jun 2010 1 Comment
in Believing, Parenting, Random Enjoyment Tags: birthday
… and he’s 8 today.
He is the sweetest boy I’ve ever met,
and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother.
If I had to choose one word to describe him, it would be ‘considerate.’
He always thinks about the other person first — a character trait which, in my opinion, is severely lacking in today’s society. I try very hard to impart that quality in my other children, but it’s a toughie! He’s the kid to offer his last bite of his favourite food to someone else, just because.
He comes by frequently and just asks me what he can do to help.
And he’s so happy about it.
That’s Caleb.
He’s quieter than my other children. We could see at a very young age that he was going to be a pensive one, and he is. He thinks about things… everything. He really simmers in his thoughts. His quiet nature makes it a bit more difficult for him to make friends, but in all honesty, he’d really rather just have one or two really good friends anyway.
And he loves food. I mean LOOVVES it. He is the real menu planner of the house. He browses the grocery flyers each week because he loves to think about what we’ll be making. As a 3 year old, he’d say “Good morning Mom, what’s for supper tonight?” Yeah, he’s all about the food. He hopes to open a restuarant some day, and I can totally see it.
Yes, this boy of mine is pretty special.
Caleb, we love you and we’re pleased to see you growing with a such a big heart of servitude, and a deep love of God.
May He continue to bless you, just as he has blessed us by bringing you into our family.
