Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Lost in Translation

A friend of mine stopped me today after helping to run the Thanksgiving party in my oldest son's (4.5yo) preschool class. She just couldn't stop laughing after talking with our M...


Mrs. J: So M, are you excited for Thanksgiving?

M: Yeah, I'm excited for the turkey. But we have to kill it first.

Mrs. J: (confused) Does your daddy go out and hunt for the turkey?

M: No, he doesn't shoot it. We catch it with a butterfly net.


LOL! Where do kids come up with this stuff?!
Cheers to a 4-year-old's perception of reality!

Posted by B-Mama at 10:50 PM | 3 comments Links to this post  
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Monday, November 23, 2009

Cranberries. So saucy.

Cranberry sauce is a highlight of the Thanksgiving meal.


Making it couldn't be simpler: with a basic recipe of 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and a 12 oz bag of cranberries, it basically makes itself.

The taste couldn't be better: tart and sweet, it moistens and enlivens every other Thanksgiving dish on the table. Great texture. Great deep ruby color. My toddler eats it by the spoonful. I do too, in private.

This year, my brave sister-in-law ("Queen Hospitality"), who just had her first baby, is hosting all 17 of my husband's immediately family members. Among other things, I'm bringing cranberry sauce. I will be making 3 batches. One standard recipe. Two with a little extra sparkle.

Do you have an excellent cranberry sauce recipe you'd be willing to share? Exotic, homey, or otherwise special.

I will make two of the suggested recipes, and my in-laws (including five sisters-in-law who are all lovely ladies, talented chefs, and connoiseurs of fine foods) will vote on a favorite. The winner and runner-up will receive by mail an Advent treat. I'll get your addresses when the results are in.

Thank you for helping to add extra zest to our Thanksgiving table! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

Posted by Juris Mater at 5:47 PM | 15 comments Links to this post  

talkin turkey


We are taking the week off to enjoy Thanksgiving. While we have done our traditional Handprint Turkeys, we are also reinforcing several weeks of reading from our Thanksgiving book basket by doing Narration work. This is a Charlotte Mason technique where the children tell back what they have read or learned. Try it with your children, the results can be cute or surprising, they remember such interesting details. I used a few prompts and had the children dictate to me while I typed their words. I asked them to tell me about the first Thanksgiving, Our Thanksgiving Traditions and what they were thankful for this year.

We are headed to New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with my brother. I look forward to cooking and having a relaxed family meal. He is a vegetarian so we are getting to experiment with some new side dishes, but I have also ordered a turkey from our local farm. I am looking forward to stuffing and sweet potatoes, but we are adding brussel sprouts and cauliflower this year in an attempt to use local, seasonal foods.

We are hoping to fit in some runs and perhaps watch the parade. I am especially thankful for my brother this year, who is a writer, a cancer survivor, a great uncle and friend. We don't agree on everything, but we choose to get along and respond to each other with love. He is incredibly supportive of me, and I try to be so of him, too.
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Posted by Mary Alice at 2:10 PM | 1 comments Links to this post  

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Perhaps a better Montessori Idea...




We have been chatting about how to help our children build routines, including getting ready to go in the morning and handwashing. B-Mama told us that her boys are reminded to wash hands well because she posted the instructions that they made in school near the sink.


Handwashing is a great example of a Montessori practical life activity. Appropriate, child size tools are provided and the child is taught to do some real work (wash hands) that does matter to himself and the community. In addition to the skill at hand, he also learns to focus and to follow a sequence of instructions. By repeating this task over and over again, he has the experience of mastering something. He also has a sensory experience as he feels the warm water and soap.

I was looking for Christmas gifts on Etsy -- the perfect compromise for those who wish they could shop local/independent but also wish to avoid stores. I came across these charts which look like a great help to habit building. Once you are over there, look around, it is great fun and so inspiring to see what people are making!


Posted by Mary Alice at 9:34 PM | 3 comments Links to this post  

Friday, November 20, 2009

Keeping it real...

You Montessori homeschooling supermoms (and everyone else too) will enjoy this coverage of a wonderful new Montessori innovation for dental students.

Montessori School of Dentistry Lets Students Discover Their Own Root Canal Procedures

Posted by Juris Mater at 11:29 PM | 2 comments Links to this post  

Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: The Waitress at the diner where I had breakfast with my two younger children this morning. She brought the children extra crayons and coloring sheets and hot chocolate with cream as soon as we walked in. I was on the phone getting a car maintenance quote when she delivered our breakfast order. Without being asked, she sat down, buttered bagels and cut them into bite-sized pieces, moved all the hot drinks and knives, started the kids on their breakfast, and stayed with them until I finished my phone call. God bless you helping hands and kind souls of the world.

The Bad: The Stranger who cloned my credit card and charged $487 at a Walmart in California this afternoon. My bank is USAA, the military bank. My M.O. is fiercely watching every penny as we budget through graduate school. Stranger, you've messed with the wrong people.

The Ugly: My First 2009 Christmas-shopping trip this morning at TJMaxx. The heat is on, as I have one week to buy (on a budget) for many dear family members who we will see next week at Thanksgiving. Gift giving is oh-so-not my love language. It is 1 hour past naptime for my 3-year-old Bean and 18-month-old Angelina. Bean in the stroller handles porcelain trinkets as he uses his feet to push off the shelves and roll himself to the top of the staircase. I catch him just as he begins to head down. Angelina is back in the Ergo pulling my hair and tantruming, having just finished eating chocolate out of a display which I must now purchase. I am drenched in sweat, frying alive in a turtleneck sweater which I cannot remove because of said Ergo. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Maybe, just maybe, we can get this all taken care of before Advent.

For better or worse, there's rarely a dull day as a homemaker, wife, and mother of three preschoolers!

Posted by Juris Mater at 8:50 PM | 8 comments Links to this post  

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Facebook Pros and Cons

Lately, I am getting the sense that everyone is on facebook. You can stop laughing now, yes I am internet savvy, I have a blog, after all! However, until the last six months, I thought that facebook was just for people about 5 years younger than me, or for those who were really into online networking.


Then I found out that my mom is on facebook. Frankly, it struck me as a little bit lame, I mean, really, who is she friending on facebook, is she sixteen? Well, I guess her facebook page must be pretty interesting, because my friends started asking me about it -- as in, is your brother really in the Opera, I read that on your mom's facebook page. So, who is she friending out there in internet land? My friends, my friends parents, my in-laws, extended family on both sides, the list goes on, but it seems my mother has an awful lot of friends!

After sitting quietly at the last two parties I attended while friends who had not seen each other in a while picked up quickly because of facebook updates, I started to wonder whether I should be on facebook. Then, someone (well, my mom, actually), sent me a link to a picture that I couldn't see, because I am not on facebook.

So, I started asking around, and friends tell me that I am the only person they know who is not on facebook. They tell me that I have missed the invitations to several parties and get togethers because I am not on facebook. They also tell me that they have found old friends on facebook, and it has been lots of fun. Then they tell me that facebook is annoying and a huge time suck. Then they tell me very honestly that I do not have time for facebook. Then, I started hearing about how people get hurt by facebook. Elizabeth is not alone in being 'unfriended' and I know one woman who was unfriended by family. I also know that I have a tendency to over share and wish I could take things back, which is part of why blogging only once a week is a good fit for me. Also, I know people get contacted by people from their past with whom, perhaps, they would prefer to remain out of touch. Now, instead of letting a friendship drop, you have to actually reject someone? Or do you just say "yes" to everyone but then block their messages so they don't annoy you? I already get easily annoyed by people on group yahoo lists, when they start getting political or just post too often, or ask obvious, google-able questions.

I can see lots of value in online social networking, but fear it is a distraction from real life social networking, after all, I have an extensive social network right here in my home! What do you think, am I missing out by holding out on facebook?

Posted by Mary Alice at 6:00 AM | 18 comments Links to this post  

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