Not without Mom

Julia went to a fast-food restaurant today. This particular on-the-fly-eatery, let's call it M*, is not her favorite (In-N-Out), but someone treated her so she went and she ate. She ordered food off the menu like any normal luncher would. But for some unknown reason, she could not seem to get the main menu item down. Gravity was on her side, but it just was not falling. She managed to down about half and gave up. Next she walked around and did some deep breathing exercises. She was on the edge of truly defying gravity. I heard the whole story tonight as she recounted the scene to Rachel, "I just couldn't throw up without Mom there!" Made me feel so good I think!

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Full Belly Farms

In May, our group was blessed to get a spot overnight at Full Bellly Farms. We drove into the Capay Valley amazed at the beauty and production of the glorious organic farm. We ate, worked, slept and played on the farm. It was the most amazing experience for me this year!!!

hay rides around the farm

gathering eggs for breakfast

samuel loves the farm animals

making butter while singing and dancing

harvesting flowers for drying

yarro for flower drying

we drank fresh milk for breakfast and saved the cream for the strawberries

Samuel would make a great farmer

feeding chickens using the feed on foot method

refreshing swim in Cache Creek

harvesting potatoes for dinner

Hypermiling

I have become a bit of a hypermiler for the past few months. Not up to 100 mpg, like the more serious and somewhat dangerous hypermilers, but I have improved my mpg. Here are the hypermiling tips out there on the www--don't use your breaks (especially when turning), use your gas pedal only when necessary and very lightly, avoid stopping at all, empty out your car of excess weight (went to Weight Watchers for this), turn off the AC, close the windows (aerodynamicy). It's actually kind of fun. I brought my mpg up about 5mpg. So with a 20 gallon tank, that means I can go 100 more miles than before. Unless, somebody drives my car and disturbs the mpg. "Hey, I've been working so hard, fellow drivers have been honking and staring me down on the road and now my MPG work is ruined, ruined I say!"

Or get this one, someone takes the car and parks it for 12 hours with the keys locked in the car with the motor running all day!!!! THAt'S 0 MPG!!! NADA! I'M speaking Spanish HERE and WE just filled the car up with gas LAST NIGHT!!!!! There is joy in every somthing or other when there's love at home. Ahh, I feel much better. Thanks for listening.

Choco, Popco & Tomato

Having had the flu here for a few days and coming back to my appetite, I thought I would post a delicious blog of essentials.

Chocolate In my past, any chocolaty temptation was a go. Now, unless I am really desperate, it has to be dark all the way. Although quite popular among some consumer's, Milk leaves a sugary, pasty after-taste. While Dark leaves you marveling in a long-lasting, bitter-sweet and lovely sensation. You really only need one to two quality choc-chips (I'm particular about brands) every half hour to feel like you been to the all-day-choco-rama! Caution: Out of control choco-chipping can be habit forming. Keep a year supply just in case.

Popcorn, which I happen to be eating right now. Everybody who knows me, can tell you about my popcorn and my machine. The machine is a relic, 1979-80?, JCPenney, two toned, electric, hot-air popper. The machine was owed by my brother at BYU and handed down to me in 1982. It has never failed me and has popped over 30 billion kernels. What? You don't have a kernelometer? I wish I had a car as faithful as my p-machine. Oh well, now for the p-corn commentary. I know most of you love your p-corn oozing with butter and salt. Some of you are even risky enough to try other flavors. I found one that I've been stuck on for years. This recipe is very simple, yet cannot be made by most people (except Rebekah). Curtis does not attempt it. It takes white kernels, popped in the old machine (I cannot lend this out), drizzled olive oil (this is the hard part, for the drizzle must be precise), granulated garlic (I went through a 26oz bottle of this in 6-8 months), and coarse sea salts (from Spain). I have made many friends, but no lovers (Curtis can't smell it anymore) making and eating garlic popcorn. This popcorn goes well with Canasta and Nertz!

Tomato There is no veg...fruit..veg? whatever as wonderful as the tomato. As I peak out my window over my computer, I can see the tomatoes have reddened since I started this entry. A sign that I should quit, but do read about the tomato. It is growing out there in every form and size. It will be a juicy tangy snack, lovely roasted salsa and to-die-for pasta sauce (ours are salmonella free), sandwiches, salads....Do you not agree, ketchup lovers, that the tomato is incomparably the fruit? veg..um fruit of aah and wonder?

You may leave your food opinions. Off to pick a tomato!

The last blog Worked!

I received my copy of the Yolo County Yellow Pages! For those who live in Yolo County you will know that the previous email (last paragraph) worked! I also received an apologetic email from the Woodland Opera House director for forgetting to leaving some minor details out of her public announcement in front of a full house. So once again--you all have the most wonderful children in the world (can't wait to see what happens tomorrow).

Bragging Rights

For those of you who are expecting a Stapp photo, there will not be one attached to this blog, for reasons which will soon be made clear.

You may think you have bragging rights. So go ahead--brag your guts out. I do this on occasion because my kids are so darn spectacular. Whoops, I shouldn't have said it. I guess we all have the right, but the humbling consequence is usually well deserved. Please indulge me and read on.

There is a certain phenomenon, and from here on out I will label it the "Nose Against Dirt" (NAD). I will demonstrate this by personal experience. By the way, this is only one example of this occurance which I have endured.

Lately I have been bragging about Samuel, my wonderful (wait a minute, I think I'll take that wonderful back)...um, my son. Well, so Curtis signed a release form for Samuel to be featured on this years Yolo County Yellow Pages phone directory. Of course, a perfect opportunity for bragging rights. "Hey you over there, my BOY SAMUEL IS GOING TO LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE, well at least while you're searching for a plumber at midnight!!" "Dude, come this May you are going to get the coolest book left on your porch wrapped in celaphane. BE ON THE LOOKOUT!"

So tonight, yes this very night, I'm sitting in the Woodland Opera House, the very place that provides material for 75%-85% of my bravado. I hear the details of the Yolo Yellow Pages cover during the Spring Dance Recital in front of hundreds of yellow page users. My Samuel has been pushed aside for some other theatrical star! My head jets back and forth, my mouth wide open, "Whaaa?" People to whom I have bragged are seated around glaring at me, "Whaaaa?" I am guessing the parent signature was not a done deal.

NAD--ddefinition--strong and surprise attack from behind where the victim does not have time or wherewith all to react, therefor perpetrator is able to land victim on ground with nose against dirt.

I think I have blogged about this before. Maybe last year when I was braggedy brag bragging!

So here's to all your kids. I think they are better than mine! They are so accomplished and wonderful and famous! WOW-Whee! I wish my kids had their talents, intellect, physical strength, and spirituality. I guess I will have to settle with mediocrity.

(I wonder what the consequence will be of adding that last paragraph. I'll let you know!)

You're really Smooth Samuel!

What happens when your mom serves you a super-dee-duper thick blueberry-stawberry smoothy? Sometimes it's so good and it gets stuck at the bottom of the cup and you have to jolt it out. Then sometimes when you do that it drops out a little faster than expected! Then.....

Point Reyes

In March we took the most wonderful trip to Point Reyes with 15 kids and 9 parents. We spent two nights at the hostel and hiked somewhere around 16-18 miles. The weather was perfect. We had six nature/history teachers, two wonderful dinner coordinators, and a few tag alongs. I was the self proclaimed "boss" of the event. I brought some crafts and organized the night-time program, which included solo night hikes (no flashlights). In the hostel bunkhouse there is a boys and girls dorm. The kids had a great time harrassing each other! Paul Erickson was awesome at teaching astronomy! Basically we ate well, learned much, and played hard.

Come on! Let the Flowers Bloom!

Julia is getting ready for the ACT. Time to see where the homeschoolers on Fremont Street failed. Can't the college just come over here and scout her out like an athlete. How come athletes get a special viewing. I thought that it was a place of higher learning! I doubt the ACT can assess her true height of learning. Looking at the ACT prep, all the great subject she learned are not covered on the test. And of course, she was never timed while she disected that pig fetus!

I guess failure is only in the eye of the ACT board!

We have succeeded by the standards of famed authored Louisa May Alcott

"I never went to school except to my father or such governesses as from time to time came into the family. . . . so we had lessons each morning in the study. And very happy hours they were to us, for my father taught in the wise way which unfolds what lies in the child's nature as a flower blooms, rather than crammed it, like a Strasburg goose, with more than it could digest."

Oozing

We have a cabinet for board games. We enjoy playing board games. At times the games, or the people who play the games, get out of control. The dice do not get put away properly. The offender thinks, "Hmm, I'll just leave them here on the edge of the cabinet." "Wow, I found a domino. No sense putting myself out by finding its proper home. I will leave it here inside near the domino box." On and on.....This is when the oozing begins. The cabinet is perfectly shut, but there is $500 Monopoly bill hanging out the side. When you open up out flings a Sorry plastic dilly-bopper thingy and an egg timer. The board game cabinet does not have a Monopoloy on oozing. Certain children, in fact all four of mine, let the towels ooze on occasion. Grab a towel let the rest ooze. DVDs ooze. Tools ooze. Shoes ooze. The most flagrant, and I am sure you will agree, is the oozing of clothing. Believe it not, my computer was oozing. I finally cleaned it up and now I can blog...is my brain oozing? OK, I'll go to bed.

Merry-Go-Round Break

the temple

a quiet place to step down

off the constant turn

of human life

poet want to be

Queen Elizabeth is Back

Queen Elizabeth is back from her vacation. We are not sure exactly where she spent the last month or two, but she returned a few nights ago when Alex flicked his blankets off his bed from the top bunk. Tarantulas like warm climate vacation spots. A boys bed is a prime location.

Washing Ice-Cream

Have you ever washed ice-cream? I have. You scoop it out and it flies across the room! Aaaah, plop. It is too extremely yummy (and depending on the brand, too expensive) to feed the deluctible cold creamy ball to the garbage disposal. What do you do? I start washing my ice-cream real fast! You don't want the whole thing to melt away, but you don't want any dog hair in it either. It's a real balance.

Pondering the Prophet

I wonder. I just wonder if...hmmm, if maybe President Hinkley is embracing the likes of Nephi, the Prophet Joseph, Noah, Alma, Samuel the Lamanite...

How to Homeschool?

You there! Caryn, hey, what is it all about?

When I tell people we homeschool (homeschoolers have made the word a compound word), most think we have set up a school at our house with desks, text books in every subject, lunch period at noon, worksheets, lectures on every subject from Mom. I suppose that may have been my expectation.

Educational tradition is ingrained into my very soul. How can this child learn without tests, spelling books, and state mandated standards guiding each move? But the fact is-what was I thinking, the kids (at least mine) would have none of it.

Truth is....truth is, we kind of wing it over here. Just today I was talking to my friend/teacher, Natalie. I suggested, "Hey teacher-friend, wouldn't it be fun to concentrate on the the wars (i.e. Civil, Revolutionary, I, II, etc) next year." She says to me, "Yes parent-friend, I've got tons of novels, ideas, movies, etc we can use."

This year I thought it would be really cool to learn about the great artists. Every week we concentrate on an artist. The boys have seen more pictures of naked ladies this year than necessary, but that just goes to show you what happens when you wing it.

Winging sometimes causes insecurity. Sometimes I think, what the heck, nobody is learning a darn here. Slackers! Then one of my children says something extraordinary (usually not in front of anybody else, of course) like, "You know if you took all the planets and put them in a big ball, setting the big ball in the same orbit as the earth, the Sun's gravitational pull would...and I then turn to myself (feigning direct attention on the child) and think, "You've done the right thing Caryn. You deserve some recognition. You're top dog dude!"

Confession: After five years of homeschooling we traditionally use the math text book, to the chagrin of one particular child who prefers to ponder on his scientific and outer space enquiries and theories.