1.
Free museum day in Houston tomorrow! The shuttle will be running free of charge and the Museum District is free, free, free!
2.
9/11. Remembering the thousands that were killed by terrorists that day. On that day I had a 3 year old, 2 year old, and an 8 month old. What I remember -not knowing what was going on, what would happen. My neighbor didn’t have a car, but I did, so she watched the kids while I went to WalMart to stock up for both of us.
WalMart was NUTS. But I did manage to get diapers. It took me 3 hours in line. This was before WalMart had televisions at every checkout, and before everyone had a cell phone. Somehow, though, there was a running newsfeed.
We lost our fifth child that week to miscarriage, and my SIL lost a baby too. I have 11 children, but I’ve only met 8 of them so far.
3.
On a lighter note, Kroger is running a sale on cheese and I’m kicking around the idea of cheese waxing. Has anyone done this? Where do I even get cheese wax, and is it cheap enough to make a difference? Should the entire economy collapse and everyone start living in Hoovervilles (Obamatowns?) I think cheese will make my husband extra happy, so maybe I should have some in my stash, huh?
HEB is having a good sale on eggs, but I’m not ready to try keeping them on the shelf without refrigeration. Although it would, perhaps, be a nifty science lesson.
4.
Alli weighs in at 13# 10 oz. She’s in the 97th percentile for height and weight. Most of my children fall directly on the 50th percentile – she’s a monster!
A fat monster with darling dimples and arm creases. She loves to nom nom nom on her fists, which look like little pink meatballs.
5.
My poor squash. I planted 6 yellow squash and 12 zucchini plants, then Houston had a brutal heat wave and no rain for over a month. My plants didn’t produce.
I yanked a bunch to give the few strongest ones more room.
Then, they got aphids. And thrips. And looked oh, so, sad.
I determined to pull them all and start over.
But two days later, when I went out to empty the garden and replant seeds, there were 3 yellow squashes! The zucchini didn’t make it, though.
Unfortunately, nightly skunks gnawed one to pieces. Haven’t figured out what to do about them.
6.
A prolife activist was holding a sign in front of a high school this morning and was shot, and killed! Apparently the shooter may also have killed another person before being arrested.
7.
We’ve been using This Country of Ours for history this year, having ditched Story of the World. It’s available for free online, but I finally broke down and ordered a copy for $10 to make planning easier. While I was at it, ordered this:
They look fun, don’t they? My history plan is 1 day of reading/lesson, 1-2 activities/crafts/timeline each week. We’ll also be learning states and capitals twice a week – one day to learn, another to do activities. I’m planning something similar to what Jessica does, but with regular binders instead of scrapbooks.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
3 quick observations.
1.)
You do 7 quick takes properly. I’ve just made my first attempt and I’m hopeless. I can’t do brief.
2.)
You have TV’s at the checkout in Walmart? Really?
3.)
How on earth do you manage to find time to grow vegetables?…And now you want to wax your cheese?
You must be mileaminutemama.
My special projects are cover for my dismal laundry management skills.
Though, really, I plant the seeds and the veggies kinda grow on their own. Which is probably why they got aphids… but I’m saying it’s heat stress. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Catnip is supposedly a good herb to plant around the garden to repel skunks and other mammals…although your neighborhood cats may visit at night like mine. Also try a cayenne spray around the base and one the leaves of the plant. This will repel mammals and insects, but not birds. There are many websites that sell the stuff ready-made, but I make my own. Just infuse some oil with cayenne powder, and add soapy water. Many recipes for it online as well.
I’ve been planning to buy cheese wax online – very reasonable for how much it will wax. I buy cheese for less than $2lb at Costco so I’d like to wax a bunch. I’m also wanting to can butter.
As for eggs, I’ve very successfully shelf stored eggs from a local farm for up to 3 months. Bad eggs float – at the 3 month mark I had a few that were starting to be a little floaty so I tossed those but you know a bad egg when you crack one and we ate 99% of those eggs. I’ve got an order in with my egg lady for all I can get – hens are already laying less in preparation for winter here.
Two things I wanted to comment on –
1. We leave our eggs out of the fridge if we have to. They have sat on the counter for 3 weeks before without issue. I used to be really bad about making sure eggs were in the fridge. As our family grew, I knew I had to make due with the one fridge and one floor freezer we have. The only thing I notice is that if you want over easy eggs, the refrigerated eggs work better. My sitting on the counter eggs just don’t flip easily.
2. The other day I was at WalMart and saw place mats with the Presidents on them. I also bought a map of the US, a map of the world and one with the alphabet. They were a $1 each. I found them by the towels/bedding area. For $4, I can keep 4 children quiet for 10 to 15 minutes. Worth the cost
I still get choked up to read about where people were when 9/11 happened. I was in WalMart and the cashier told me. I had seen people in sporting goods gathered around a tv before then but I didn’t know what had happened yet. 8 years later and sometimes I feel like it was just yesterday.
Ha! I just read Kaira say that hers has lasted 3 months. Ours would never last that long! Our family loves eggs so even if they “kept” that long, they would not last that long!
I never keep my eggs in the fridge, and they last fine. It may be a pond difference – when I shared a house with a Canadian, she was always moving the eggs from the cupboard to the fridge, much to my bemusement.
I have never, ever seen cheese and eggs kept out of the fridge, except on Little House on the Prairie reruns.
It’s quite a radical move, stateside!
Both egg whites and cheese freeze well. I saw Julia Child freeze egg whites then use them to make a souffle’. I don’t know about yolks though. I bet the egg whites would make a nice angelfood cake. Cheese crumbles when frozen but will still melt and cook fine. I buy large bags of grated from the warehouse store and freeze it for homemade pizzas.In “Little house in the big woods” p190 Ma sewed cheesecloth around the cheese then wiped it with fresh butter everyday and flipped it until it had a hard rind. She kept it on a shelf in the pantry.