The Itsy Bitsy Spider

I took this this morning.

A Frugal Breakfast Just Became -- CHEAPER!

Pancakes are, I think, one of the most dirt-cheap breakfasts you can serve your family. Six ingredients, and they think they are getting a real good treat. Now I can go one better, instead of regular pancakes, how about Bread Crumb Pancakes? I don't know about you, but I have a hard time "selling" the heels of bread around here. So I stick them in the freezer. And I use them for ... nothing, actually. I get a big bag of crusts that I do nothing with, then I end up tossing them after a while, when they are all dried out and freezer burned.

But not anymore. I have found a way of using those bread crusts (mostly from my homemade bread, too!) in Bread Griddle Cakes. The recipe is from an old Fanny Farmer recipe book:

Bread Griddle-cakes

1¹/₂ cups fine stale bread crumbs (just swirl them in the blender)
2 eggs
1¹/₂ cups scalded milk (I just used it out of the fridge, no scalding)
¹/₂ cup flour
2 tablespoons butter (melted)
¹/₂ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder

Add milk and butter to crumbs, and soak until crumbs are soft; add eggs well beaten, then flour, salt, and baking powder mixed and sifted. Cook same as other griddle-cakes.

Now for the $64,000 question, how do they taste? They taste like FRENCH TOAST!! Yum-O! (to quote Rachael Ray). Seriously, you could sprinkle a little powder sugar over them, instead of syrup, and really make it frugal. Or fresh raspberries from the brambles outside, or applesauce, you get the drift.

Good, cheap and easy.

What didn't work for us Meme

Time to start (Like I ever stop) thinking about next year's curriculum. In pruning some dead wood, so to speak, here's what didn't really work for us this year:

1. Starting too late in the day. I have a dear friend who can begin school in the mid-day, and they do a very good job of it. If we procrastinate, linger over breakfast, get too involved in chores or hobbies, and so on, school gets shoved aside, and we end up not doing much.

2. Turning on the computer before 3:00 in the afternoon. This thing sucks you in. Seriously. There is no need for it, and we are waaaayyy more productive if it just isn't turned on.

3. The telephone trap is also a bad one to get into. Even if I have a legitimate need to call someone for something, to pick up the phone is to spend (waste) a half hour. ugh.

4. Assignments that are too open-ended. We attempted a unit on King Arthur this year. Although I think that the girls did learn alot, it was hard to get them to complete assignments without a concrete framework of what I expected from them.

5. "Winging it" without really preparing anything specifically. This had two problems, first, I wasted too much time trying to figure out what I was doing, and it lead to more of the open ended assignments that my kids rebelled against, see above.

6. Expecting too little of Deuce. She is a challenge, make no mistake, but giving her less to do, because I thought that it would be better, or would avoid arguments, was nearly always a mistake. Bribery worked much better.

As far as specific curriculum, we had some hits, such as My World Science (which, sadly, is no longer being published), Genevive Foster's George Washington's World, Henty's The Dragon and The Raven, and Friday math games. We've also had some misses, such as the above mentioned King Arthur study, Primary Language Lessons (for Deuce, it worked well for Ace), and nearly all the attempts at art.

Having a Heat Wave

Summer seems to have arrived. It is hot today, and luckily we are still in our week away from school, because it isn't an atmosphere that would be easy to study in. As it is, it's been a hard one to even manage getting along with each other and getting the basic day-to-day stuff done. My garden is growing, though.

To date, we have lovely lettuce, arugula, and spinach. The beets are up, as are the carrots, and the swiss chard. I've got some sugar snap peas almost blooming, and we've already been eating at the radishes. The zucchini and acorn squash are up, and there are flowers on the tomatoes and the peppers. The garlic and other herbs are strong and healthy. There's more oregano and mint than I know what to do with. I've also got a lot of healthy weeds. (bleeach!)

The flowers from a few posts ago have really filled in. The garden looks almost tropical. I'll have to get out there with a camera (and also weed it as well.)

The New Joker

Well, here he is: Astro (he came with the name). Some notes on Astro. First, he was supposed to be neutered. He isn't. So I've got to take him over to the clinic for that little operation. But first, he is going through some antibiotics for some sort of a bug. He came home with a little cough, and then it really blossomed into a respiratory infection of some kind. The antibiotics seem to be working though, he's much more playful than he was, and the disgusting side affects have stopped.

Second, he's big. Ninety-six pounds of joyful yellow lab. Ninety-six pounds of never stop smiling, running all over the place, bringing back every stick he can find, yellow lab. The kids adore him. They hug him, they ride him. I think the feeling is mutual. You usually don't find a kid without a dog, or a dog without a kid.

Third, Carmen, our other dog (breed: brown) likes him pretty well. Proof: she'll allow him to touch her. Even when she's trying to sleep. Plus, she likes to play tug of war with him and a stick.

Instant dog, just add family. Get a used dog.

Day at the Museum

I took the family hearts (well, the kids anyway) to the Milwaukee Public Museum. We had a lot of fun! The MPM has a butterfly exhibit where the butterflies are allowed to fly around. Deuce was a butterfly magnet. She had butterflies landing on her back, her legs, even her hair. She was also the most successful at getting them to walk onto her fingers. All the kids (except the baby) did get one to walk onto their fingers. They were prepped before about not touching their wings at all, and not grabbing them or anything like that. The kids, (even Jack of Hearts) were exceptionally gentle. It helped that the butterflies were clearly used to being handled. There were quite a few that landed on me, and even the baby had some land on her, but I shooed them away before she could notice she had one on her and love it a whole bunch to death.

Other things of interest were the dinosaur exhibit (a little to real for the Jack of Hearts, though, so we pretty much ran past the T-Rex), and the native cultures exhibit from Africa, South America, and Australia. The kids also liked exploring the Streets of Old Milwaukee, and the European houses exhibits.

This is day 2 of our week away from school.

A new heart

Yes, the Hearts family brought home a new dog. It's been about a month since Bilbo, our old loyal Lab mix passed away, and left a huge empty place in our home. We went to Orphans of the Storm, a no-kill shelter in our area, and there we found our new dog, Astro. (like the Jetsons.)

Astro is a large yellow Lab (mix? maybe - maybe not). His coat is very short and sandy-feeling. He is very gentle and patient, especially with the little kids, who climb on him and such. He is also very friendly to Carmen, our brown dog. What else can I say, he loves to play fetch, and will indefinitely, loves to be outside, but mostly loves to be with us. He is not a dog who wants to be "just left alone."

He had such a sad story, with his owners getting cancer, then giving up Astro and his buddy, Star, to the county animal control, when they could not take care of them anymore. Luckily, they were sent over to the shelter, but then Star was adopted, leaving poor Astro with no family, no home, and no companion. I was told that he had been in a home with kids, and that he loved children, so I felt good bringing him into our home, where we have sort of an infestation of children. It's been a short time, but I have a good feeling about Astro. He really is an "instant pet."

To anyone who is wary of adopting a fully grown dog: There is a perfect family for every dog you see at the shelter, especially if the dog is an adult. No housebreaking, you know what size they'll be, and none of the irritating "puppy stuff" like chewing the cushions off the couch. You just have to look, and be optimistic.

All I have to say is: Welcome home, Astro, welcome home.