TUESDAY – WEDNESDAY

Tuesday: is one of our busy days. We have to finish school early so that we can run to speech. Josiah wasn’t working this Tuesday so he came with us and ran to the library while Nolan, Stacia and I went to speech. Tuesday night I led our PWOC Breaking Free Study. This is the first study I’ve led since last May. It was fun. I made some fresh bread. I was trying Adrienne’s new recipe and used 2 TEAspoons of salt instead of 2 TABLEspoons of salt. The bread rose beautifully and then sunk in the middle. Bummer. We saw some lingering “challenges” that I think we can trace to our “splurge” with Zander’s diet on Sunday night. I’m going to have to get to a health food store and see if they have some really good things to add to ice cream that don’t have the artificial flavors added.

Wednesday: I started the day with a burst of inspiration. I made home made hamburger buns and planned to grill for dinner. We’d add a fresh salad and I have 20 lbs of white potatoes from co-op so thought I’d make oven fries. I didn’t have a lot of faith that the kids would enjoy this food – but it’s a meal they are familiar with that I could “make healthy”. An hour later I was up to my elbows (literally) in lots of bread dough but I did make over 50 buns. We’ll use them for sandwiches too. Thanks to Adrienne for the tip.

The afternoon found us enjoying the local park. I know it sounds like we are doing this all the time. I told someone a week or so ago that we are park deprived after three years of AK winters…..and the other factor in our current schedule, is that I KNOW it will soon be to HOT for sitting in the park….I’m making a conscious choice to get us to the park to PLAY.

While at the park Zander found a family to socialize with. Aren’t we always worrying about isolated homeschoolers knowing how to socialize? NOT. Anyway – the boy went and joined a family who was EATING….and helped himself to their left overs. I was humiliated. I couldn’t believe they LET him eat their food. He had his cheeks crammed with goldfish when I found him. Adrienne told me about a store in town that may have some of those substitutes that we could give him. Yes, they would still be processed but we need to find a few treats he can enjoy from time to time too. God has blessed me with ladies on SHS and Adrienne and Heather who can give me GOOD TASTING recipes that are healthy….which is really a key. I don’t mind extra work but I want our food to taste good.

The evening found us executing my dinner plan. We ran out of propane. Plan B was the broiler…I dropped a burger in the bottom of the oven and grease splattered everywhere from the broiler. I hate grease! This meant all the windows open and fans blaring air through the house. Nolan told me the hamburger buns “weren’t really any different than Burger Kings” – this was a compliment. Zander ATE the oven fries. Arielle contented herself with two carrot sticks, an apple, peanut butter and one fry. I keep praying she will EAT. Stacia amused us all by enthusiastically eating her rice, a jar of green beans, some sweet potatoes and chasing it all down with the JAR. Some notes about the photos.

Yes, I feed her topless as much as possible….saves on clean up. Yes, I was using CANNED baby food – because after I bought tons of bananas to make her yummy fresh and she hated them I thought it would be wise to try small jars and see what she likes before I buy fresh stuff and steam it and have her hate it. {g}
And this is what our eating machine did when she realized there was no more food…haven’t we all felt like this at one time or another in our lives???? I believe this was my very expression after finishing the last bite of Andes Mint Cheesecake at Christmas. {G}