TEXAS NUGGETS or

Life of a Pecan

Miss Ivey, a wonderful lady from chapel, asked if the kids would like a nature outing to her backyard. It seems that the Pecan Trees have gone wild this year due to all the rain we had in the spring. The squirrels were not up to the job this year. We had noticed around town that the ground was crunching. ::snort:: People pick up pecans from parks, the chapel yard etc. I had resisted buying Pecans last week because of the price, so this seemed like a God-send all the way around. I told Miss Ivey that before we'd moved down here I always thought Pecans came halved in a plastic bag. ::snort::

After the dentist and McDonald’s yesterday, Jared, Arielle, Nolan, Zander, Stacia and I, headed for Miss Ivey’s. We had an hour and a half before I had to start making our way to speech.

We don’t know a lot about Pecans (other than we like them better than Walnuts and they make a great pie), but this is what we learned.

It all begins with a tree or two

The pods fall off the trees (Miss Ivey says that Pecan trees are ALWAYS dropping something on you:leaves, sap, pecans, bearded blooms)

These pods crunch underfoot - and must be picked up by either squirrels or humans. ::snort:: We all got into the act at this point.

Miss Ivey did have a great little gadget that we took turns using

They have a dry outer shell

Which begins to split open at some point

To reveal what Zander (and now the rest of us will probably always call) TEXAS NUGGETS - this will end the debate on how to pronounce Pecan ::snort::

Someone got hungry for a snack and cracked this one open and ate it right on the spot....ah the memories of strawberry and blackberry picking. I apologize, Mom. ::snort::

With visions of Uncle Bill's Chocolate Pecan Pie dancing in our heads - we quickly cleaned Miss Ivey's yards and netted 8 walmart bags, 36 lbs, or 2 6 gal buckets of Pecans. For a bit healthier version of Uncle Bill's pie click here. I sure thought of him a lot as we picked and cracked - he would have been thrilled with all this bounty.

In one of our forays yesterday I purchased two "Texas Nut Crackers"

Mike came home and declared a good ole set of Yankee pliers would work better

Ah - the end result - still not quite enough for two pies; but we'll keep cracking


Notes: At $6 - 10 a lb to buy LOCAL pecans this is going to save us quite a chunk. It was a gorgeous day for being out in the weather and doing something productive. I woke up wondering why the back of my thighs were so sore. I wondered if Leslie's walking DVD had finally caught up with me. While writing this up, I realized there are great exercise benefits to picking Pecans too!

BRAVERY BRIBE

Zander got to pick a treat after the dentists. He chose McDonald's - a place he dearly loves that we only visit while traveling. ::snort::

He debated but then asked if we could go get the others to come too.

She does NOT have a booger - it's from her biff on Friday ::snort::


Should I paint the van this way????

Zander’s Dental Adventure

Today was the day that Zander had an evaluation with the Pediatric Dentist. He has seen a dentist every 6 months for FOUR YEARS and has never opened his mouth until he showed Miss Gina his “sharp tooth” last week.

Today he went right in, answered their questions a bit (he wasn’t really into being social) and then opened his mouth.

Of course with a room like this – it’s hard not to win a kid over. They “happened” to put us in the ocean room. Dolphins are one of Zander’s “things”.
This is the lighting.

Zander was quite fascinated with the ceiling. Dr. S promised he’ll make the dolphins swim next time (laughing gas).

He got to wear some cool glasses.

He told Dr. S that he had TWO sharp teeth. I told him that Dr. Self had seen the one the one that was broken and none of us had noticed another. Noticing he’s biting in this photo – but he hasn’t done this the rest of the day – so I think he did well and took it in stride.

Of course, they wanted an x-ray. I was worried about this. I knew the bitewings would be a problem. They did this kind instead. They did them for FREE because our insurance won’t pay for this kind????

Zander did great. Mike and I were able to stand right there, Mike cracked jokes and told him what was coming next at every step of the way. When he got a bit tense we were there to NOTE that and calm him immediately. I don’t think Mike realizes how great HE was in there and I think that is really why Zander did so well.

They discovered that Zander needs TWO root canals. This may be why he says he has TWO sharp teeth. The one is literally sharp, but he may be interpreting pain from the other as sharp? We really don’t know. He says they don’t hurt. He likes his sharp teeth and I’m not sure how he’ll feel about it being crowned. ::snort::

Dr. S works with lots of autistic children and those on the spectrum. I could tell he’s good with reluctant children. Zander is scheduled for a root canal next Monday and one the week after that. Please pray as you feel led. He has to begin meds tonight. We’ll see how he does with the sugar in the meds. It could be a challenging couple of weeks.

In the practical arena….we pay up front, the office will bill Concordia and Concordia will send us a check. HOWEVER – Concordia doesn’t pay for things that we need done…so there you have it. The office does give us a 10% military discount. That will surely help with two root canals.

Shoeboxes Galore

The final tally is in! Our little chapel of 100 members gave 165 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I'm so thrilled. The entire city gave around 1,000 so we gave 16% of the cities collection. Our coordinators used to be regional coordinators in PA and have all sorts of plans to make this a bigger thing in our area. They are go -getters!

Mike and Miss Vera and Mr. Kirk took boxes to the center that is the collection point this a.m.

Stacia takes one more box into the chapel


Praying over the boxes

Celebrations

This was a weekend of celebration in our family.

Saturday was Mom and Dad's 45th wedding anniversary and Mike's 47th birthday!

I had a convention to attend on Saturday. We had planned to spend Sunday celebrating Mike's brithday - and we did - in between Sunday School, a service and an Advent Wreath Workshop. LOL

*The Spiritual Power of a Mother by Michael P. Farris*

A local friend tried to loan me a book at MNO. It was in pristine condition. My books are not in pristine condition. I told her I’d rather not borrow the book. It was evidently in her heart to loan me a book. She came to Bible Study that week with THIS book. It had been dropped in a bathtub by a previous borrower. Even *I* figured I could return it in the same condition. ::snort::

This book began slowly for me. I almost set it aside. Suddenly, in my reading I found myself saying, “YES - EXACTLY” and I was hooked.

Mr. Farris’ stated objective is to encourage homeschool mothers. The book is divided into several short chapters that seem to answer specific questions he has received or experiences he has had. I am guessing that any homeschool Mom would find at least one chapter in this book that encouraged her – and the rest of the chapters? Speed read. ::snort::

I do think for a general book to encourage all mothers I would still recommend books by Sally Clarkson. This one is specifically geared to homeschool subjects and many of the topics would be not apply to a mother who does not homeschool.

A few quotes I loved:
“Today there are so many homeschoolers out there that we have resorted to spiritual one-upmanship.” …. We must squelch the “homier than thou” attitude in our personal lives. p. 38

“The longer I walk with Christ, the tougher I try to be on myself. I do my best to hold myself to very high standards of excellence. However, the longer I walk with Christ, the more lenient I become on people who do things differently from the way I do them. ….As homeschoolers, we need to be tough on ourselves and lenient with our fellow homeschoolers who have other distinctives.” P 39

There’s a great chapter titled “Thanks Mom” .”The Dangerous Myth of the Perfect Homeschool Mom” is a chapter that is a must read! Basically, Mr. Farris says there IS no ONE right way to homeschool and we need to accept that. “The Dangers of Playing with Romance”, “Self-Esteem and Achievement”, “How Can I follow if My Husband Won’t Lead” (deals specifically with a wife who wants to homeschool and a husband who doesn’t but would apply well in all areas), as well as many other chapters are sure to encourage.

He suggests there are only two areas that must be mastered: language arts and math. The rest of the subjects our children should be knowledgeable in. What do you think? He says we’ll never be able to MASTER history, science, PE, home ec etc…..that our children should be exposed to these areas but must master language arts and math (up to Alg 2).

We dropped our HSLDA membership years ago. I would say one of the main reasons was that we took up another Christian homeschool leaders’ offense. This is a BAD idea, ladies. ::snort:: BUT other things bothered us about the direction of HSLDA: we felt like things were sometimes presented in a way to frighten people into keeping legal protection, we felt that they WERE endorsing one way of schooling and that they WERE “homier than thou” in some areas. Reading this book is causing me to rethink several of those reasons for dropping our HSLDA membership. Maybe members of HSLDA can have some of that attitude but, I’ve read Vickie’s book and now Mike’s, and THEY don’t. It’s ALWAYS a bad idea to take up another’s offense….no matter how well-meaning you are. I’m still not sure about the tone of their newsletters and such…but I could join and not read them…..::snort:: We’ll have to talk and pray about this.

Yes, I added this to my fall reading list.

Friday and Firsts

Another Friday, another produce co-op. Then up to the base to deliver tickets for a women's conference, and to recycle a bunch of boxes and newspapers. Mike wanted to go out - so we had an early dinner at Outback. I'm starting to LIKE steamed veggies. ::snort::

We came home and watched Andre. A cute movie. Cecil made an appearance at our home again this evening.....ugh. We're gently training, training, training Zander to take responsibility for his actions - but Cecil is a hard habit for him to break.

As for those firsts:

Stacia's first biff - last night she was running with Arielle up to the deer....she fell.

Jamin drove for the first time

Zander lost his first tooth - a big thing for a little one who doesn't like change or strange feelings. He told me with lots of concern that now he "was going to get really, really old because his teeth are falling out!" ::snort::