Home organization - Part 1

To make sure things do not get forgotten in this chaotic house, I write a list of things I want to get done during the week. This gives me that extra bit of  "go" when I am at a loose end (I find it encouraging to be able to cross a particular job off a list!) and it also helps me to organize the housework. When Saturday comes and everything is crossed off, then I feel satisfied that I haven't been wasting my time.

The "to do" list goes on the same piece of paper as the "to bake" list, the weekly menu, a "notes" part for dentist appointments or visits from friends or family and a "spending" control.

This is one of the most important parts of our house organization.

 So, this weeks jobs were as follows:

+ Sort out sewing box
+ Over-sew grey skirt zip
+ Finish planting potatoes
+ Hoover and take up purple lounge carpet
+ Move, clean and organize kitchen school shelves
+ Clean cooker walls and extractor fan
+ Finish ironing pile
+ Deep clean and organize solarium

The "to bake" list was as follows:

+ Bread rolls
+ Fruit loaf
+ Rice pudding
+ Orange cinnamon biscuits

How do you readers organize your week? I would love to know.

La Fatarella

This village is situated on a hill, 486 metres above sea level, in the Terra Alta area of Tarragona. It is widely thought that the first inhabitants were Muslims. Indeed, the name "Fatarella" could originate from the Arabic "fatorella", meaning "little tower". However, there are also indications that the first people to populate this area were, in fact, the Ibers, back in the 10th century.

 

Just one of the many little cobbled streets.

Just one of the many arches.

La font de Sant Juan.

It is a very interesting village full of arches, cobbled streets and little corners and alleyways which are touched only by the midday sun.

Friday Fun Fact #2: Feet

Here are five interesting facts about feet:

! There are 52 bones in your feet which make up 25% of the bones in the human body.

! Two feet together have 250,000 sweat glands, most feet lose more than 1/4 l of moisture daily .

! Finger and toe nails grow more during hot weather, pregnancy and your teenage years.

! Many people have one foot larger than the other.

! The pressure on your feet when running can be as much as four times your body weight.

Feet!

Tea for two

This is one of my favourite pieces of music, played by André Rieu. Anyone for a cuppa?

Munchy Monday #7: Lentils with bacon and rice

Serves 8

You will need:

500 g Spanish pardina lentils (or similar, but not peeled)
250 g smokey bacon pieces
50 g short grain pudding rice
1 portion frozen garlic or equivalent
A squirt of tomato concentrate
Salt
Water to cook

Method:

Soak the lentils for 3 or 4 hours.  Rinse and drain.

Gently fry bacon in a saucepan until slightly browned. Add garlic, tomato and lentils. Stir and fry for a minute, then add water and bring to boil. Count 5 - 7 minutes and then add rice and salt. Stir again and simmer, partially covered, until rice and lentils are soft ( about 15 mins. more ). You will need to keep adding a little water from time to time as both the lentils and the rice soak it up in the cooking process.

 

Note: It is not necessary, in fact, to soak these lentils. However, I prefer to do so because it reduces the cooking time, so spending less gas.

La primavera ja és aquí!

Perquè, heus aquí, l'hivern ha passat...les flors han aparegut sobre la terra, el temps de cantar ha arribat.

Càntic dels càntics 2 : 11 i 12

For, lo, the winter is past...the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing of birds is come...

The Song of Solomon 2 : 11 and 12

Gym lessons

I find it very important to get out and about, to enjoy the fresh air and "let off steam" while we are homeschooling. Although M. is out almost every afternoon, we do dedicate a couple of hours on a Wednesday morning to doing something a little more special. Sometimes we go for a long walk in the woods, sometimes we just work in the garden and sometimes, like today, it is a while of freedom at the beach. This morning we walked (or in M.'s case scooted) for four kilometres along the promenade of one of the local beaches. Well, as you can see from the following photos, it wasn't all scooter...

Monkey stuff!

Scooting!

Up the down...

 

Swinging...

 

Shells to pick up...

 

...and waves to watch.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny morning. We had a very enjoyable time. It's just too bad that nobody else could join us.

Watch this!

Munchy Monday #6: Wild asparagus omelette

Wild asparagus

Serves 4

You will need:

A handful of wild asparagus, found in woodlands and hedgerows in the springtime ( we found about 25, maybe 30 )
4 lightly beaten eggs
Salt

Method:

To prepare the asparagus all you have to do is snap each one into pieces from the head down the stalk until they bend, usually between 10 to 15 cm. Discard what does not snap easily.

Place the pieces of asparagus in a small, non-stick frying pan and fry gently with a little sunflower oil, until the stalks have turned to a darker green and the plant feels tender and soft. Sprinkle with a little salt.

Add the beaten egg, also lightly salted, to the pan and stir a little. Make sure the asparagus is spread equally over the pan, cover and cook the egg very gently. When solid, flip the omelette and brown slightly on the other side.

This is what mine looked like!

I served this with a bowl of hot meat and vegetable soup with pasta, tomato bread and a plate of lettuce, fresh from the garden.

Our supper table. The blue plate is one of my recent birthday presents.

Thanks to my camera girlie for the last two photos. I took the top one.

Saturday

This morning I was up early to take L. to the station. Then I came back to our village and I bought the bread and went on to another village to buy the meat that is on offer.

Then I came home, had another breakfast  with hubby this time and went on outside to work in the garden. I had to till the earth this morning and prepare it for planting. First I had to bring in the last of the lettuces and the red stalk chard.

Within the next few days I should be planting the potatoes. This year they are a different variety than last years load because the store did not have the one I was asking for. Last year I planted the Gerla, a good all-rounder. This year the man in the shop said that the variety Sifra, from the Netherlands, was a good quality spud with similar properties. Well...let's go for it.

Greens and reds!

Lunch menu:      1st course - Green beans, leek and potato chunks, boiled
                           2nd course - Bread crumbed chicken fillets
                           Dessert - Fresh fruit (and chocolate for some)
       

After lunch I had a much needed nap!

Now to cut up all the meat and freeze it. I will also put a cake in the oven to bake, put away the rest of the shopping, put a couple of laundry loads on to wash and hang, prepare a stock for soup at supper, feed the cat, fold up yesterdays laundry, prepare supper for ten...I have "miles to go before I sleep."

Einstein

My son informed me the other day that his friends down in the village park had given him a nickname.
I said "Oh, really. What do they call you?"
"Einstein," he replied.
"That is interesting, indeed" said I, "Why do they call you that?"
"Because they think I know a lot."

This is what prompted me to write this post. In the year 2008 all my children went back to school because of certain official circumstances. Big mistake. My youngest, who was then in 2nd grade, did his work (most of which he had already completed in his home studies) and was then allowed to sleep for the rest of the lesson! No, I am not kidding.

This was the only year he has spent in a state school and  these aforementioned friends were his class companions at that time (and a real sweet bunch of children they were, too.) At home we have followed state requirements all the way, so, what IS the difference between my child and these not - so - little ones?

Well, the answer is that my son M. has been home schooled, and these children have been state schooled. Therefore:
   a) M. has much free time, they have very little, if any.
   b) These children spend six hours at school and then at least two more hours  with  homework, totalling an eight hour day. When are they supposed to play, read or relax with the family, etc.? The state decides what these children are taught and allows them no time to learn anything else.
   c) M. has been always been encouraged to make his own decisions, and guided on how to spend his abundant free time. These other children have to have everything crammed into an organized time table, with few possibilities to be able think for themselves.
   d) M.'s lessons are adapted to his way of learning, and for the most part he chooses what he would like to learn. Children who attend school have to fit in to the system.  It is for this reason there are so many who apparently "don't do well."
   e) M. is with his family 24/7, therefore influenced only by one set of people with one set of principles, morals and beliefs, whereas other children spend half their lives drifting from pillar to post.
   f) M. has been shown that he has to make an effort in order to succeed, whereas the majority of children in todays society are convinced that life owes them something.
   g) M. has a big family. It helps him to understand how to treat other people, young and old alike. This is an unbelievable advantage which other children are not given the possibility to experience, particularly if they spend so much time away from the family environment.
   h) In M.'s one on one lessons he has been encouraged right from the beginning to think out things for himself or to ask "why?" He has never been humiliated in front of class companions, a common practice in many schools.

My Einstein experimenting with the forces and properties of magnetism.

 

Homeschool quotes

As many of you already know, we are homeschoolers. We were blessed with this opportunity seven years ago, and have never regretted for one moment this "sacrifice" of time and energy we have been able to spend teaching our family.

I thought I would post a few of my favourite quotes about this subject and, searching in the internet one morning, I was amazed at the quantity of famous people who were schooled likewise.


“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” ~Benjamin Franklin


  “Much depends, as is allowed, upon the early education of youth, and the first principles which are instilled take the deepest root.” ~Abigail Adams


 “To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” ~Theodore Roosevelt


 “I believe it would be much better for everyone if children were given their start in education at home. No one understands a child as well as his mother, and children are so different that they need individual training and study. A teacher with a room full of pupils cannot do this. At home, too, they are in their mother’s care. She can keep them from learning immoral things from other children.” ~Laura Ingalls Wilder


  “Schools have not necessarily much to do with education... they are mainly institutions of control, where basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.” ~Winston Churchill


  “Home is the best place for teaching many things, first and most important of which is how to think for one's self.” ~Laura Ingalls Wilder


 

Weekend family quote

My Dear Daughter and I were talking together whilst  preparing supper last Sunday evening, when she suddenly came out with "Oh, Mama, I really want to be like you when I grow up." (Insert: this particular D.D is almost 20!)

To which I replied, "Well, my love, you don't have to wait till you're grown up, you know. I was already like me when I was like you!"

Mmmmm. Food for thought!

Birdsong

I Déu creà... tot ocell alat segons la seva mena.   Gènesi  1 : 21

Y creó Dios... toda ave alada según su especie.   Génesis  1 : 21

And God created... every winged fowl after his kind.   Genesis  1 : 21

Best Friends

Make the Lord Jesus your Best Friend,
In Him you can always confide.
Waking or sleeping He'll keep you,
He'll never stray from your side.

And when you find you have problems,
Troubles that make you be sad,
Comforting words He will whisper,
His ever-presence will make you feel glad.

Rejoice and be happy in Christ, now,
Give Him a place in your heart.
Praise Him and forever be thankful,
And His love to you He'll impart.

S.J.