I think I know what I'm looking for.

Of course, as a certified political junkie I've been watching the Republican debates and reading about the various speeches and "jockeying" going on.  I've also been watching in disbelief as our President touts his "jobs" bill which he announced about a month before he really announced it.  (In a joint session of Congress, uh.)  Oh, did you know the bill STILL isn't before the Congress yet?

But I like principles, not procedures, and I've been thinking about what I want out of my candidate.  To me, taxes are the central issue.  Tax philosophy reveals a lot about a candidate.  So here is what I've decided is important to me:

1. The rate of participation in the income tax should go up.  I think that every wage earner should pay something.  Currently, only 51 percent of wage earners pay an income tax.  (I am not considering Social Security-related withholding.)  We live in a beautiful country, and it is indeed a privilege to support our Republic.  The amount could be minimal, even $25, but the message it sends is that our country has value to every single person.
2. The tax code is not the place to pick winners and losers.  No loopholes, no magical deductions or tax credits.  Do those things away from the tax code if you need to offer incentives or loan guarantees.  I would even be willing to give up the mortgage tax deduction here--no need to favor homeowners over renters.

That's it.  Everyone pays a little, and we are taxed cleanly. 

Amazingly, the tax code has remarkably little effect on the amount collected, which hovers around 18% of GDP.  The only way to raise more money is to raise the GDP, otherwise known as "growing the economy."

Sometimes I think we get so caught up in the "who is rich" and "I want mine" questions that we lose sight of the first question we should ask:  what is the purpose of the tax code?  Presently the tax code is a tool to separate winners and losers and to provide incentives for certain behaviors.  I am looking for someone who recognizes that streamlining the tax code would be a first and enormous step in easing the regulatory burden on small and mid-size businesses.

I don't have a candidate yet--not sure if I ever will!--but I wanted to share my primary criteria for evaluating all of the candidates.

P.S. On a related note, Darryl Issa (who is rapidly becoming my favorite Congressman) released a report today on the regulatory "tsunami" that businesses and all of America have been subjected to.  Haven't had time to read it yet.

Really, I made this one early...

Tuesday, as a matter of fact.  Then the week got away from me, and here I am a day late.  Anyway, on to my weekly French Fridays with Dorie post.  Again, though...a food stylist's nightmare!

"Creamy, cheesy, garlicky rice with spinach" is our recipe this week.  Now, is there any part of that title that doesn't sound appealing?  I know.  We were practically licking the plates.  Next time I'll make a double recipe.

The idea is a French risotto, with no wine but cream and a generous amount of Swiss cheese added before serving.  Made with arborio rice, this can't help but be sticky, but the cheese just adds to it.  I added some sauteed chicken breasts and we had kind of a one-plate meal.  Our weather here had given us an unexpected taste of fall earlier this week, and so this rich dish was perfect for a (slightly) cool evening.

My one complaint, a quibble really, is that there isn't a counterbalance in flavors to the richness of the cream and rice and cheese.  I think next time I will substitute about 10% of the broth for white wine next time.  There WILL be a next time.  Thanks, Dorie!

Reading Out Loud

The lovely ladies over at Three Thinking Mothers are posting about read-aloud books this week, which gets this post off of the back burner for me.  It's one I've had in mind for a while.

We used to read chapter books with the kids all the time.  Charlotte's Web, Harry Potter, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, others I've long forgotten.  And then, one day, we didn't.  I don't know why we stopped, but I realized that we hadn't read together in a very, very long time.  It made me sad and a little wistful.

As I was doing some reading in preparation to homeschool D, I came across this book:  The Read-Aloud Handbook.  (Honestly, I think Mary told me about it, since she is my trusted source for a million different wonderful things.)  Jim Trelease advocates for reading aloud at all ages, even teenagers.  And especially, especially my elementary-aged kids.  He also gives some fabulous recommendations for books for all ages.  I knew D and I would be reading aloud a lot, but I loved the idea of all six of us gathering around a book and sharing it again.

I showed the book to my husband, and he agreed.  I quickly took over the reading duties in spite of wanting to sit and knit--call it the frustrated actress in me.  We started out with a Rudyard Kipling classic, Rikki Tikki Tavi, this summer.  We were hooked.  I would have returned to more Kipling (it is a short story) but we were headed to Boston and I adore E.B. White, so it was Trumpet of the Swan for us next.  Oh, how I will treasure the memory of reading about crazy Louis the Swan as we were gathered in the little living room on our houseboat in Boston Harbor! 

Next up was Lassie, the real book which is nothing at all like the sappy television show.  I had to hand that book off to my husband just a couple of times because I was crying so hard, but it was absolutely marvelous.  In fact, I think that one was easier to take as a read-aloud because the dialogue is written in dialect!  I got to try out my Yorkshire, London, Edinburgh, and North Scot accents because that is exactly how the book is written.  Great fun for dog lovers and anyone who loves a good adventure.  But...it is incredibly sad or moving at times.  The poverty, injury, and death are not whitewashed, but that seems to respect the kids more.  In not cutting that part out, somehow the author has communicated that life is tough but the child can handle it.  We were all so sad at certain parts of that book.  Truly, I have tears in my eyes thinking about one particular chapter right now.  The ending is beautiful, too--just keep the Kleenex handy.

And so we have moved on to Black Ships Before Troy, Rosemary Sutcliff's fabulous retelling of the Illiad, complete with beautiful illustrations.  My middle-school boys actually spied this one as soon as I brought it home from the library and devoured it on their own.  They are thoroughly enjoying hearing it out loud, too.  The girls like the story best when there is less killing and more about the ladies, but too bad for them that we are in some pretty heavy battle scenes right now.

What is it like reading with "older" kids, meaning ages 13, 11, 10 and 7?  Much better than you might think, and so worth the effort.  Everyone can sit and listen with minimal fidgeting.  And our books can be a little more interesting for the grown-ups.  It truly is a peaceful way to end the day--all six of us pile onto a sectional sofa and listen.  The biggest disruptions are at the beginning of each evening while every jostles to get "their" spot.

We have adapted very quickly to our new routine.  Sharing a book is sharing an experience.  While I don't homeschool all the kids, this is a way for us to have at least one shared experience every single day.  I really love that.  It also gives me some control over what is going into their heads.  (This week, murder and mayhem.  Next week, hopefully something lighter.)  I also have some issues with the assigned novels at my kids' school, so this is a great way to round out what they are exposed to.  As a matter of fact, I chose Black Ships specifically because D and my 6th-grader J are both learning ancient history.

The Read-Aloud Handbook was such an encouragement to me to jump back in and reclaim some of the warm times we had as a family reading books together.  I have made it a part of any baby gift I give, too.  It was good to hear that older kids want to be read to.  It is even better experiencing it first hand with my own!

Next up...I'm thinking about something funny like the "Great Brain" series.  No cryin', no killin'.  Just some smarty-pants boys.  Or there's always Roald Dahl...

Summery Corn Soup

Yum!  This week's French Fridays With Dorie is Corn Soup.  The verdict:  LOVE.  The bright, fresh taste of this soup makes it a great way to highlight fresh-from-the-field corn.

I didn't have field-fresh corn, but the corn at Publix was on sale and really good this week.  Hooray!

My children kept walking by the bowl of fresh corn kernels and snatching some.  They were amazed at how sweet and tasty raw corn is.

The soup cooks with the cobs in it!  I've never done this before, but it must make the soup even corn-ier.  It looked absolutely beautiful simmering in the pot.  After cooking, the cobs are removed and the soup pureed.  Hooray for immersion blenders!

Finished and plated with just a little bacon and some extra corn kernels.  (I had to hide my little stash from the kids while the soup was cooking.)

The verdict:  Bill and I loved it.  D, the youngest, ate two bowls.  The other three kids ate it but weren't crazy about it.  I do think they prefer chunkier soups to pureed ones.  Next time I might leave it chunky and add ham or shrimp to make it more of a full meal soup for the kids, and then they would eat it.

I usually make corn chowder in the winter, using potatoes and cheese.  This version, missing those two ingredients, is very light and clean-tasting.  We will be making it again!

Waste

Solyndra, a "green" company which produced solar panels, declared bankruptcy and closed its doors this week.  Just like that, $535 million of federal government money, in the form of loan guarantees, is gone.  That is $535 million taken from taxpayers who were engaged in pursuits that generated wealth and then transferred to a company that used it up.

The doors of this company are shut, and there is no more money left. 

Have you ever tried to generate wealth?  Not earn a wage, but start a company and make something of it?  It takes an enormous amount of work to create $100,000, $1 million, $10 million.  Enormous energy, creativity, and guts.


And yet...the government fritters away millions and billions of dollars in poorly-run programs and favors to connected fundraisers.  Money that is husbanded carefully in private companies is funneled into programs where $1 million is a rounding error.  Here is what bothers me:  There is no respect for the amount of work that the tax dollars represent.

We hear "$10 million for this program" and "a billion for that one" bandied about by people who have never tried to make that money themselves.  They have made high incomes, even in government, but they are very isolated from the actual work and guts of making something that creates wealth. 

In Solyndra's case, one prime investor was also a key bundler for the the Obama campaign.  The Department of Energy hasn't been entirely forthcoming but it looks as though corners were cut in the approval process for the guarantee.  And this is not an isolated case.  When you have more than $700 billion to give away, you find yourself with a lot of friends.

You know, Warren Buffett has been awfully outspoken lately about wanting to pay higher taxes.  In the end, I can't believe this (former) capitalist really believes that giving our government more money to spend on companies like Solyndra is truly the best use of his money.  If it were, why would he not have invested directly in it? 

I wonder if the administration had a wider variety of backgrounds in top administration positions, would we see such a cavalier attitude toward business, particularly the small businessman.  This is an aspect of the upcoming Presidential campaign that I will be paying a lot of attention to.

Seeing homeschooling everywhere

Do you ever learn a new word, and then suddenly you hear it everywhere?  That is how I feel about homeschooling.

I found this over at Walter Russell Meade's blog (via Instapundit):

Life in school is life in bureaucracy.  You follow the rules, do what you are told, and rewards follow.
The real world was never very much like that, but the parts of the real world that look most like school (like for example law firms, universities and government and private sector bureaucracies) have their heads on the chopping block.  By the time today’s students are in their forties (and that is MUCH closer than you think, kids), most of those organizations are going to morph into something very different.  Or they will die.
Inmates who spend a long time in prison become institutionalized; they adapt so well to the conditions of prison that they can no longer function in the free world.  Something similar can happen to students.  From age six or even younger, students are immersed in a predictable world that runs by the rules.  Then you get out of school — and expect that this pattern will continue.  If you go to a good law school and do well, you will become an associate at a successful firm.  Do your job well, work hard, obey the rules and wash behind your ears and in due time you will make partner.

Professor Meade was talking about heading to college, but it sounds like a pretty good argument for homeschooling.  I want to raise my children to be thinking, purpose-filled adults who make things happen rather than waiting their turn.

I also happened to read a very controversial book this summer, Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto.  Oh, Lord, I was agitated about this book for weeks.  Gatto, a retired NYC school teacher, makes the argument that the system is designed to create followers, not leaders and certainly not independent thinkers.  He argues that the only truly beneficial education for a child is one-on-one child focused.

I don't go that far, but I think the system is screwed up, to put it mildly.  There are too many administrators, too much paperwork, and too much money in too few hands.  Truly local control is fiction in public schools.  And unfortunately, the public school influence is all but impossible to avoid in the textbook industry and the general mindset even in the best private schools.  (Three of my kids are in a school I really do love.  This book was very hard for me to read.)  I'm not faulting individual teachers here--I know plenty--but they would agree that the system is really messed up and getting worse.

I have a disagreement with one part of that quote up there.  Meade says that government jobs which the schools are preparing their students for are disappearing.  I totally disagree there--government is one of the few growth sectors in employment. 

Just one more way I'm seeing homeschooling portrayed in the positive light.  A great big echo chamber on the internet, I guess.

Edited:  Just this morning, I was over at Pajamas Media--NOT a homeschooling site, by the way--and found this.

A day to take stock

This began as a post about where I was with our little homeschooling adventure, but I rethought it.  Today is my birthday and seems to be a better day than most to assess where I am.

A year ago I was running my shop, ferrying my kids to lacrosse and Scouts and church and horseback riding and school, and feeling buried in the process.  I loved my shop so much, my customers and employees, I loved the process of considering what lines to bring in or drop, anticipating what my customers would love or loathe.  I loved providing a place of community for them, watching them gain skills and confidence, and grow friendships around the big table.  It was very rewarding in so many ways.

I loved seeing my kids grow, too, but somehow they could be put off in favor of the shop.  That sounds terrible but it is true!  Our house continued to grow messier and messier while I focused more energy on my business.  My friendships outside of the shop suffered greatly, too, something I am still very sad about.  I don't know how to recover from that.

But during this last year I realized how very busy I was, with things outside of my home.  Ecclesiastes tells us that everything has a season.  I was running away from my season of child-rearing and home-making.  Maybe that is too strong.  But the shop had become my catch-all excuse for leaving things undone at home and anywhere else.

Moms who work, my hat is off to you.  I don't know how you do it.  But that is another thought for another time, or post.

The last year saw so many incredible blessings.  We had some fantastic vacations (and here and here), genuinely wonderful times to relax and enjoy each other.  Somehow my husband's business has continued to prosper in spite of the economy and increased government interference.  We've gotten to help start a new church and form new friendships there.  Of course, the biggest event in my life this year was selling my shop, a remarkably seamless transaction with a dear friend and excellent businesswoman. 

So this year finds me starting new adventures:  I am homeschooling our youngest child, and I bought a horse for myself back in July.  My girls and I are looking forward to competing more as the year goes by.  I am paying far, far more attention to what my other three children are studying and reading at school, unfortunately for their teachers!  My house needs a lot of work; nearly three years of benign neglect doesn't sound like much but with this many people the clutter and mess can quickly be overwhelming.  I even find myself sitting down at the piano and playing more, something I had all but stopped a year ago.

As I write this, I have to stop and observe what an extraordinary man my husband is.  He is steady as a rock, and not only tolerates every wild hare I have--he encourages them!  "Enable" is probably a better description.  He offers advice and support, and even when things don't go so well he is always my biggest cheerleader.  I am so lucky to have him.

So there we have it:  a quick take on my life over the last year.  I would say that this looks like one very very good year.  I wonder how the next year will pass, what in the world God has in store for my family.  Happy Birthday to Me!

An American Classic a la Francaise

French Fridays with Dorie...Hamburgers this week, and they were terrific!  Thank you, Dorie, for including this one in the book.

Here is my finished product:

No challenge for a food stylist there!  This is a grilled burger, with the oh-so-French additions of red onion marmalade, a cornichon-caper-tomato blend, and shavings of Parmesan (okay, Italian but close).  The verdict:  wonderful!  Two lucky kids even got to take the leftovers for lunch the next day, with nary a morsel left for hungry Mom and Dad.

Here is what I learned from this recipe:

1. Gherkin is the English word for "cornichon."  Yes, I had to look it up.
2. My Cuisinart Mini-Prep food processor is not worth the space it takes up in the cupboard.
3. A vegetable peeler is my new favorite way to slice Parmesan cheese.

Thanks for a great recipe!

All that and knitting, too

Finally I'm getting another post in time for Ginny's Yarn Along over at Small Things.  Love her blog, and wish some of the zen-peace that seems to emanate from her blog would take hold over here at 302.  But...

Here's what I'm knitting:

This is untouched since last week.  I only need to bind it off, and I need to do that TODAY.  It is promised to someone for a display.  The pattern is LazyKaty (ravelry link), and the yarn is the Zauberball sock.  I like this very much, but somehow have used 1/3 less yarn than the pattern calls for.  I am afraid that this means the little piece will also be 1/3 smaller!

And here is what I'm actually working on:  a sweet cardigan from Easy Kids Knits, in navy blue so that P can wear it with her school uniform.  Cascade Ultra Pima--great wearing yarn, less fun to knit with because my finger is still messed up from a horse several weeks ago.

And reading...I just put this on my Kindle:

Lord, my blood pressure.  I can only do this one is small bites, but it is worth reading!  Fascinating, truly.  Highly, highly recommended reading as we continue in this economic malaise.

I also picked up G.K. Chesterton's collected writings when Amazon had a Kindle special.  It was something insane like $2.99 for 36 books and writings of his.  I'm reading the Father Brown mysteries alongside Reckless Endangerment, little puffs of fresh air among the greed and despair.  Chesterton has a way with words that you just don't hear in more modern writers.  Here is one of my favorites:

The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.  

May you have many miracles happen to you this week, and may you have the wisdom to notice.
Edited:  I noticed my picture of Reckless Endangerment wasn't showing up.  Here's another one.

Look what we are doing!

D and I are now through two weeks of homeschooling.  So far we have

painted cave-style as we studied early man,

made rock candy for science,

 and made sentences using "linking" verbs.







We've also read six books that I've counted (so far) and narrated several.  D has memorized a poem that she'll say tonight at dinner ("The Goops" by Gellette Burgess) and she has copywork and narration firmly in hand.  Not to say she's an expert, but she is quickly getting the hang of it.  Our writing book places huge emphasis on narration first, and then dictation and copywork to learn to write.  There is only creative writing as the child wants, and so far D isn't a fan.  We've learned to play Yahtzee and Mexican Train dominoes.  We've also played many, many games of "99 or Bust!"

D is still loving being at home.  She is as content as I've ever seen her, truly happy.  That isn't to say that she doesn't push back--there is plenty of that!  But I am so grateful for the opportunity to see her grow and learn, first-hand.

I want to post more about having kids in both homeschool and private school, and how they compare, but this is getting long and so I will do a second post about that soon.  Happy Wednesday!

French Friday catch-up

Just to be clear, I made this dish last Friday.  I even ate it for lunch on Friday.  But then we went to Alabama, where there is no internet, and I couldn't share it.  Yes, the internet does exist in certain parts of Alabama, but not in the corner we retreat to.

Then I couldn't find the camera cable to share the images of my tasty but unattractive dish.  Then I couldn't find the camera.  Yes, I could have shared my description, but those pictures...so finally, here it is, Eggplant Caviar from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.  Pictures like this make me understand why there was no photo in the book:

Even though this is a food stylist's nightmare, it was very tasty!  Roasted eggplant mixed with garlic, herbs, oil...delicious.  I have had this before--Dorie says it is similar to baba ganoush but I truly didn't see any difference at all.

One thing that the recipe didn't mention:  eggplants give off a ton of water!  I drained my mashed eggplant twice before combining it with the other ingredients, and it was still quite wet.

I'm already looking forward to this week's recipe:  Hamburgers!  My husband requested them especially for his birthday dinner, and they look worthy of a special occasion. 

(This post is part of French Fridays with Dorie, which can also be found on Facebook!)

Words mean things.

I've been thinking about the word "entitlement."  We hear it bandied about a lot these days, as in "slashing entitlements" or "keeping entitlements in check."  Screams of protest when "entitlements" are threatened, and yet to say someone has an "entitlement mentality" is an insult.  But what is an entitlement?

As usual, I went to a dictionary.  An "entitlement" in the legal or government sense just means that the government lays out the qualifications for receiving a particular payment or benefit, and if you meet those requirements, you are then "entitled" to the payment.  Think of it like a contract:  if you enter into a contract with another party and fulfill the conditions set forth in the contract, you are then entitled to payment as stipulated in the contract.  That's it; there are no further rights involved or created. 

But in "real life," an entitlement is something you deserve because you are, well, YOU.  If I am entitled to something, I have a right to it.  Oh, there comes that word, a right.  And if something is a right, then it can't be taken away.  See how that happened?  You fulfill the requirements of an entitlement program, so you are (legally) entitled.  But that isn't how we non-lawyers talk, so you feel entitled to ("deserving of, having a right to") the benefit.  And so if someone touches those entitlements, they are trampling on your rights!  All because the legal definition doesn't match up to the everyday usage of the word.

Personally, I always thought that only Social Security and Medicare are entitlement programs, because you could only have benefits if you or your fiduciary had paid into them.  Then you had a "right" to those programs because of the social contract that Social Security represents.  But that is wrong!  Do you see how I was confusing a right to something with mere entitlement in the legal sense?

It turns out that an entitlement program is just a government spending program that imposes restrictions on the category of person/company receiving the money.  Social Security and Medicare, yes, but also unemployment, food stamps, agricultural price supports (I despise that one), and a host of other programs. 

We must let go of the idea that entitlement program recipients somehow have a right to payments which continue for all time.  There are no rights involved.  The language problem also means that two different classes of government payments get combined into one thought.

It seems that we need to have two labels, not one.  The first would apply to the benefits that you have paid into, like Social Security or military retirement.  For those payments, what you eventually receive has some relationship to the amount you paid in.  Maybe just "Benefit."  Maybe something else.

The second label goes to all the other payments that the Congress comes up with.  For those, I'm in favor of "Other People's Money," or OPM for short.  Just to make it crystal clear where ALL of that money has come from. 

What do you think?  Any other ideas for a change in language?

A cautionary tale

I'm telling about what happened as a public service.  Maybe you will avoid what happened to us.

My son broke our brand new television this weekend.  The 60" Samsung that hung on the wall in our newly-finished basement is no more.  It was a careless accident; he lost his grip on the Wii controller and threw it smack into the television.  Gone.  Just like that.

I'm sharing this because I had no idea it was that easy to kill a television.  What can you do to avoid this?  Maybe nothing, but there are some things to try to lessen your chances.

First, think about the proximity of the seating to the television.  It happens that the sofa is kind of close to the television here.  (I know, then why is it 60"?  It worked in the room, trust me.)  So the possibility of something hitting the screen just goes up.  Actually, the seats are fine, but I have (just) discovered that the boys like to stand in front of the sofa to play their games.  Maybe we should have taken the sofa out and just had those low "gamer" chairs that my husband hates.  The idea here, though, is to be aware of how close those controllers get to the television!

Second, MAKE the kids wear those wrist straps.  I have to say, I thought they were using them.  I always use them!  They are there because the stupid controller can fly from your hand and hit something or someone.  USE them.

Next, think about a plasma versus LED.  We have a plasma TV in another area, and upon further inspection I think it wouldn't have broken quite so easily.  Of course, I could be wrong.  But think about it.

Finally, consider the warranty when you buy that television.  We weren't "suckers," so of course we didn't purchase any warranty when we bought the TV.  Now, I haven't checked the details to see if a warranty would have covered something like this accident, but I'm assuming it would have.  I'm going to consider it the next time we buy something like this.

Yes, not much technical information here.  I wanted to let you know this is possible!  It had never even occurred to me.  And then, one day, THUD, and there went our awesome television that we watched while my sweet husband and I played pool in the evening. 

Cured Salmon? Must be French Friday.

Back again!  Kind of.  I forgot to read ahead.  This week's recipe is "Salmon and Potatoes in a Jar," as always found in Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.

This recipe involves very little cooking--great for summer!  The salmon is cured in a salt/sugar mixture, then packed in oil with onion and carrots.  The other jar holds boiled tiny potatoes, also in oil with vegetables.

But.  The recipe takes a couple of days since the salmon is cured, not cooked.  Unfortunately I waited until Friday to find this out!  So here is my salmon at the beginning of the curing stage.

Tomorrow we will pack it in oil and then hopefully try it by Sunday.  I don't think this will be going to the church picnic on Sunday, though!

Updated on Sunday:  We tried it, but...no one liked it!  This wasn't as universally disliked as the Gnocchi dish we made a few months ago, but only the cat liked the salmon.  It was truly beautiful packed in the jar, but really not good beyond that.

The potatoes packed in oil and vinegar were delicious.  I'll probably be eating that for lunch later this week.  Oh, well.  This is what French Fridays are all about!

The First Day

Did you love the first day of school when you were a kid?  I did...pristine school supplies, carefully chosen outfit, and butterflies.  The butterflies only lasted until I figured out how nice/mean/easy/hard my teacher would be, while the outfit was usually way overthought, and those school supplies only stayed pristine until we actually had to start learning something.

My kids feel the same way, except they wear uniforms.  This is everyone with their start-the-year Smarties.  It isn't a great picture because, frankly, I got so teared up that I couldn't really see through the viewfinder:

When did they get this big?!

 M is a 7th grader now and J is in 6th grade, so we now have two middle-schoolers.  P started 4th grade, while D is in 2nd grade.  And that isn't D's uniform, because she doesn't have one this year!  Wednesday was our first day as a homeschooling family.  I suppose that also means it was my first day as a teacher, too.

On our first day, we did Bible, spelling, math, and grammar.  We read the first bit of her history book, and D completed a time-line of her life.  She also started interviewing family members for a "Family History" booklet.  She ended the day with free reading time.  She was happy, and I was exhausted!

Yesterday we did science instead of history.  I've gotten a really neat science book (Real Science-4-Kids) but I think while it's nice outside we'll spend a lot of time doing nature-y things.  So we spent some time in the yard yesterday, pulling weeds and trimming flowers.  We also found two really cool animals in our yard and identified them.  Here is one of our friends:

D is loving having Mom all to herself.  At least twice she's said "I love homeschool!" just out of the blue.  But I have to say, we are a little intense together, and I think we will find our way to a routine that works for us.  We had a stressful day yesterday (involving many moving parts, including a trip to the ER) and late in the afternoon she just had a total meltdown.  So she is sleeping in today while I finally write this.

First Day flowers and an apple.  My husband is trying to get in good with the teacher.

As for me, I know I am falling prey to the worry that many homeschool moms have:  that I'm not doing enough, and that she'll fall behind and somehow not learn something critical to her getting accepted to the college of her choice.  That is something I just have to relax about.  We don't have to everything every day.  That is my new mantra, I think.  Or, maybe this:

Yes, I know, I've used it before.  But it works.  Sanity later.

Slinking back to French Fridays

For several weeks I was blogging recipes from the wonderful cookbook, "Around My French Table" by Dorie Greenspan, keeping up with the gang at French Fridays with Dorie.  Then I fell off the wagon.  But--I'm back!!  And what an easy week to pick:  Slow-Roasted Tomatoes.

Here's the idea:  slice tomatoes, brush with olive oil, cook in slow oven for three hours.  The result: concentrated tomato taste, like a sun-dried tomato but without the leathery texture.  Then these tomatoes can be used as an ingredient in other recipes.

Here are my grape tomatoes, ready to go into the oven.  The rosemary is from my garden.  I didn't add garlic, although that would have also been delicious.

Here is a view after they are done roasting:

See how shriveled they are?  Rather like large raisins, but still juicy.

I tossed them with some pasta, more olive oil, and parmesan cheese.  The verdict?  Simple tomato-y goodness, sweet and bright, and I don't even like tomatoes!  Bill loved them, too.  The kids, um, well.  This really is a little outside the normal range of things they like, so they don't count on this one.

Dorie says you can store these covered with oil in a jar, and then use them over several weeks.  I think they would be great as part of a bruschetta, or in couscous, or as an addition to a salad.  And I'm stopping by the farmers' market this weekend to get more.  These were great!

Now, I'm also trying to go back and pick up some of the past recipes, because I missed some good ones.  Working backwards, I also started the citrus-berry terrine.  "Terrine" is fancy-cooking-ese for fruit in jello.  This was a hoot to make!  I have never used plain gelatin in anything, but I have conquered my fear.

Here is the plain gelatin softening in a little water.

Then I added some sweetened orange juice, stirred to dissolve the gelatin thoroughly.  Then I placed the mixture in the fridge to thicken slightly, after which I was supposed to add fruit.  Except that I took the girls riding and we stayed too long:

This is orange juice gelatin, no fruit!  We all took a taste, which is why it looks lumpy.  And do you know what it tastes like?  Pure orange juice!  It is delicious, a revelation.  (I really do not like Jell-O.)  Just for the record, here is what I was supposed to end up with:

So I am going to try this again, but I think I will try it with the V8Splash I have in the fridge--Cherry Pomegranate--and I also have to go back to the store because the kids scarfed up all the berries.  What a fun surprise, though.  I can also see using a little less gelatin and making popsicles, too.  Less melty and probably less icy, too.  Too bad summer is over...

Outing myself.

See that stack of books?  That is the better portion of my second-grader's curriculum...we've decided to homeschool D this year.

You may know our kids attend a private school that we are generally very happy with.  Once I no longer had the shop, though, of course I took the opportunity to consider where I thought each child was, and whether each one might benefit from a change.  D had a good year last year, and I love her teachers.  But as I watched her, I found her reading and doing math at a much higher level than I'd observed in her schoolwork.  I think the little scamp has been holding out on us!

So we are spending a year finding out how D really learns, and how best to move her along.  I am really excited about it.  And so is she--she has always been Mom's girl.  I mean, she is utterly devoted to me!  While I harbor no illusions about this being a cakewalk, she certainly did jump at the chance to stay home with me. 

I've always thought homeschooling would be a great option.  For a while I was overwhelmed with four very young kids very close together, and then we decided that our best option upon exiting the public school here was a private school.  We love our school family.  But I am looking forward to choosing how to teach some things, like writing, and I'm also looking forward to integrating some topics together, like history and literature.  And D is looking forward to learning cursive a year earlier than planned!

We are losing out on one big benefit of homeschooling, namely being on our own schedule, since we'll still have three at school.  (Oh how I hate an early-August start!!) But it is a real blessing to have the flexibility of looking at each child's needs and talents, and then figure out how best to educate each one.

I don't know if we'll do this for a year, or three, or ten.  But I am excited to start a new season in our family, and to be able to shepherd D through the next year.

East or west, home is best.

In my last post I mentioned our vacation, and then the blog was quiet.  Well, we're back!  What a great time we had.  This summer we went to New England, beginning with Maine and ending on Cape Cod.  Lobstah, lobstah, lobstah, plus a fair amount of ice cream and some awesome clam chowdah thrown in there.  (It was also fun for us Southerners to imitate that dry, dry New England accent!)

We had so much fun!  My kids are the absolute best to travel with:  they get along well, they're pretty tolerant of LOTS of museums, and they only get hungry every two hours or so.  I had fun posting about our trip to France last year, so I'll probably do a couple of posts about where we stayed.  But I wanted to put a quick post up to share some of our impressions.

First:  I love small museums!  I think we all did...from the Seacoast Science Museum in Odiorne Point State Park, New Hampshire, to the Old State House Museum in Boston, to the Sandwich Glass Museum on Cape Cod, these were little "bites" of information, enough to keep us all interested for an hour or two.  None of them demanded all day, but each one rewarded us with some interesting glimpses into whatever they were trying to teach us.

Then:  History is chock-a-block full of amazing people you have probably never heard of, people like Dr. Joseph Warren, a young doctor and spy killed at Bunker Hill; and Commodore Isaac Hull, brave captain of the U.S.S. Constitution; and Captain Cassin Young, awarded the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, killed at Guadalcanal, with a destroyer named after him.  So many stories, and if you stand still and listen you will be moved to tears by the incredible bravery and fortitude of these men.  At least, my husband and I were.  I could name so many others...Dawes, Parker, Hancock (okay, you've probably heard of him, but talk about someone who had everything to lose).

And:  We in the Southeast are blessed beyond belief with our beaches.  Not to sound ungrateful or like a rude guest or anything, but all the beaches that we saw were kind of, well, small.  And shelly.  Or seaweedy.  And COLD!!  I grew up heading to the Florida panhandle, mile after endless mile of pure white sugar sand and warm Gulf water.  And Bill went to high school in St. Pete, so he has his own opinions about a proper beach.  We did see the beach on Martha's Vineyard, and it was pretty, and the beach in Ogunquit is huge and flat, but, truly, Florida is special.  I guess you don't know what you have til you see the other possibilities.  (And now we are planning a long weekend to the Gulf!)

More to come, I think.  And I'll say this, too:  Tripadvisor ROCKS.  This is our second trip booking all of our accommodations based on their recommendations, and it was spot-on again.  I'm writing reviews of our lodgings and some restaurants over there as "PeachtreeMom4" if you're interested.

Consistency

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately:  how to be consistent between my long term vision of what I want for my life, and the short time things I want to do now. 

When I sold the shop, I was very clear on my purpose.  I wanted to be home with my family, to take care of them and my home, and to enjoy things that I had set aside because I was "too busy."  I am a horrible balancer--that is something that I see now!  On vacation last fall, I realized how much I truly love and LIKE my kids, and that M is two-thirds of the way to leaving home.  The others will be hard on his heels.  How did that happen?!  Days turn into months and years while I'm not looking.  I turned to my home life resolving to be mindful of the days.

For the most part, it's been great.  We have had a fun, jam-packed summer.  But I do find little inconsistencies creeping in...like when I need to get chores done before we go play, but then I sit down to read, or check someone's blog, or knit one more row.  And pretty soon an hour is gone.  Or a morning!  And that kind of thing bugs me.  I think it is just fine to read or knit, but I want to do it on purpose.  Maybe this post should be titled "Intentionality."

Anyway, I need to be packing!  We are headed on a very fun (I hope) vacation, and we are all looking forward to hanging out together and eating lots of lobster and ice cream.  I've been mulling this idea of acting consistently with my aim for our home, and I think I will welcome the change in perspective.

Victory!

We spent the weekend on the lacrosse fields watching J and his team.  We didn't even get the initial schedule for the tournament until two days beforehand, so I was in deep denial about actually spending the entire weekend watching ten- and eleven-year-olds run around with sticks.

During the first two games, our boys played like they'd only practiced once in a couple of weeks.  Which, in fact, had been the practice schedule.  Hmmmm.  Terrible ball skills, no catching and weak throwing.  They lost the first two games by a combined 15-3, or thereabouts.  Pretty miserable.

Since our team was at the bottom of their bracket, we had to stay around for a 4 p.m. game to see if we could come back and play in the elimination rounds the next day.  On the good side, they won!  On the less-good side, we had to come back the next day (an hour away) for an uncertain amount of play.  Well.

J got really sick that night.  So sick that I won't say anything else about it.  His mama (that would be me) wanted him to consider staying home the next day but he would have none of it.  Back to the fields.

First game of the day...they won!  A close, back-and-forth game, fun to watch.  Who were these kids?  Why were they only showing up halfway through the tournament?  So we played again.  We jumped out to an early 5-1 lead, with a wicked attack combination that scored three quick goals.  But the other team figured that out, battled to an 8-8 tie, and forced us into sudden-death overtime.  We lost...but still had to play one last game for the third place medal. 

We were down quickly to a better team.  We kept them close but couldn't touch them for a while.  Then one of our boys found a way to score three quick goals, tying things up.  One last goal with 53 seconds left...J's team won!  Third place felt very sweet after the struggles of the earlier games.

No more thoughts (although I have them) on kids' sports.  Just going to let my sweet boy bask in the glory of a hard-won medal:

And basking in the glory of a hard-earned medal IS what it's all about.

Regarding the debt limit.

I looked at actual numbers this week, to see if what I believed squared with the numbers.

What I believed:  That George Bush spend a LOT of money.  Wars (justified, I thought for the most part) and also ridiculous "compassionate" uses of my money, like a freakishly complicated Prescription Drug program for seniors, the now-notorious No Child Left Behind, even steel tariffs.  And TARP.  Lord, don't get me started on TARP.  But I also believed that Barack Obama spent even more.  Mind-blowing amounts on things like Cash for Clunkers, first-time homeowner support, and my very own car company.

I found this:

See the line with the dots?  That is debt limit as a percent of GDP.  Even though GDP was growing over those years, the debt limit was pretty much a stable percent of GDP.  It bumps up in 2008.  That was TARP.

But what happens in 2009 and 2010?  Spending blows up.  There is no end in sight to the spending.

Over and over I heard how this debt limit problem is another Bush issue.  But it simply isn't.  We went from about $5 trillion in 2000 to about $10 trillion in 2008.  That is all Bush.  But we now stand at $14.6 trillion, an increase of $4.6 trillion in only 30 months under Obama.

And now, as our "professional political class" negotiates a new debt limit, our President can only propose tax increases.  They have not offered one spending cut.  Not one.  Do you see that?  Nothing.  I have scoured the news wires and can only find references to tax increases and loophole closures.  In fact, there are only new programs just waiting to be implemented.  Just this week Kathleen Sebelius offered the new guidelines for insurance exchanges.  This proposal will involve the creation of at least fifty new regulatory agencies.  This is only one depressing example.

But it is Saturday night, I've spent all day at the lacrosse fields and it's time to rest and be ready for a full day of it tomorrow.  Sleep well, and let's all take a Sabbath rest from the news tomorrow.

Edited to add:  Of course Victor Davis Hanson says it all better today here.

Here I am...

with a President who apparently thinks he governs a nation of first-graders.

I happen to LIKE peas, and I'd be happy to eat them.  Carrots, too.  And, yes, even broccoli.

He also thinks the other elected members of government are more childish than his own girls:

I wonder...have you ever had a co-worker, much less a boss, speak to or about you in this way?  I have not, and frankly can't imagine a situation where that would happen.  So, is our President trying to get laughs from the press pool (which he does)?  Because there really is no other reason to be so ugly toward his fellow elected officials.

Remember, these are supposed to be three CO-EQUAL branches of government.  Our President might have the bully pulpit but he does not occupy the superior branch of government.

Maybe he is starting to be concerned about the election in 2012.  After all, this just came out today:

Of course, we don't care.  If it isn't concrete and right in front of us, we really won't think about it.  All these numbers, they're really meaningless.  Right, David Axelrod?  Just like a bunch of first-graders.

Oh, and another one of Obama's advisors doesn't think we can be trusted with our own money anyway:

Last week, Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the case for the incandsecent bulb ban last week claiming, “We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money.”

I don't know about you, but if I choose to waste my own money on a great pair of shoes, or a boat, or LIGHTBULBS THAT ACTUALLY GIVE GOOD LIGHT, I think that is my own business and no one else's.  (Except my husband's, of course.)

A palette-cleanser:

Okay, I'm feeling better now.  We are actually having a lot of fun this summer and I'll share some of that, too.

...Jokers to the [East]

And I continue to be Miss Merry Sunshine...

East:  As the Western world has muddled through the last few years of recession/depression/stagflation, China has been admired for their vitality.  Spectacular growth, and huge investments in infrastructure.  Except that, well, maybe it isn't.

Back in 2009, the Chinese government loosened lending restrictions on banks, with the intention of re-igniting the economy.  It worked!  Kind of.  Local governments took on massive debt, because they could, and embarked on infrastructure building like crazy.  This helped heat up China's GDP.  Of course, other unsavory characters, of whom there are many in the local Chinese governments, also used money to speculate in the stock markets and other business ventures.  Local governments planned on paying the money back mostly by selling off land.  It looked like a sure thing, because China has been in a land-craze for a couple of years now.  However, as more real estate has come on the market to pay back the debts, the price of it is going down.  So local governments are on the hook to banks for billions and billions, and their major source of cash for repayment is drying up.  The banks only recourse will be to go to the Chinese government, which has promised to back up these loans.

NONE of these loans are booked as part of China's debt!  And an offical audit, just completed, may have understated the outstanding local debt by 3.5 trillion yuan.  That would be a 30% increase over the audit's total of 10.5 trillion yuan.  Even the lower number is 27% of China's GDP.  (The comparable number in the U.S. is about 20%.)

What does this mean for us?  Well, we all know that China has been the biggest purchaser of United States bonds.  However, if they have troubles at home and need to cover these delinquent local debts, there won't be nearly as much for them to buy our bonds with!  Financing our bloated, out-of-control government will become more of an issue, driving interest rates up.  Tax rates may go up as well, as our elected officials scramble for additional revenue.  (Unfortunately the scale of our debt dwarfs our ability to repay.)  Finally, the Fed may try a third Quantitative Easing, which entails printing money, then using that money to buy our own bonds, thereby swamping our economy with even more dollars and adding to the inflation.

On the other hand, this guy (who knows a heck of a lot more than I do, maybe), thinks that maybe this won't be such a bad deal for America:

Why does China's debt matter to its central government in Beijing, and why does it matter to Americans and others outside China's borders?
Americans probably wouldn't be hurt that much. Some people worry that if there's a debt bubble that somehow bursts, then China will redeem its large holding of U.S. Treasuries to bail out Chinese banks. That is a possibility. I think that if that were the case, others would snap up those Treasuries. Interest rates may go up a little bit, but probably not by that much.

Don't worry...there's news at home, too.

Clowns to the [West] of Me...

This is the second downer post.  I kept starting it but then it would spin off into too-long-land.  I finally decided to break it up into two posts.

West:  Have you been watching Greece?  Melting like an ice-cube on my deck (98 and sunny today).  The Greek government, feeling rich as they joined the EU, decided to increase the benefits paid to various "deserving" layers of society and bureaucracy.  Check here for some unbelievable examples, including bonuses for showing up at work on time or using computers.  Greeks have always had a culture that didn't emphasize actual work so much.  Once they got to link their currency to the harder-working Germans (and others in Northern Europe), well, why not spend all that?  And then, who's to say we don't make big fat promises to pay later, too, because the money's going to keep rolling on in.

Except that it didn't.  A slowing economy, extra debt from the 2004 Olympics, and ever-increasing payments from the government have come home to roost.  Greece no longer has the money to pay back its loans, in Euros or drachmas or clams or any other form of payment.  So the other countries in the EU are having to figure out how to make Greece settle up on their obligations.  The International Monetary Fund is also in on the negotiations.

Dry, so far, which is why you don't hear too much about it.  But Greece is merely the first tentacle of Leviathan of our economic problems.  Here there are a couple of things to watch for. 

First, not many Greek bonds were sold to American holders, so there is not much at stake in the U.S. should Greece go under.  However, lots of credit-default-swaps WERE sold by American banks on Greek bonds.  Tons, really.  (A CDS is a complicated name for "bond insurance.")  The CDS only pays if the Greeks default on their bonds.  The problem is that the CDS doesn't usually apply to a systemic collapse such as this.  So watch to see who seems to be coming out ahead in the Greek debt negotiations.  A "hard" landing will fall on the Germans, mostly, and also the rest of the EU, but a "soft" landing will mean huge payments from American banks. Payouts from American banks mean less money available to lend, should our recovery ever start.

Second, watch Portugal.  Portugal, while lovely, is not on the same industrial level as Germany, or Spain, or even Greece.  And they've spent like crazy, with Spain financing most of it.  As Portugal stumbles, the EU is not in a position to step in with further assistance.  The contagion has spread to Italy, as well.  Here is the bond yield in Italy.  Remember that higher yields are a reflection of, among other things, higher risk:

You know, I feel very said about the Casey/Caylee Anthony murder trial outcome, but it shouldn't have dominated our news like it did.  The problem is that it is much easier to program trial coverage than to discuss hard things like the economy, especially when it seems so far away.  I get it.  But we should demand more from our news coverage.

Happy Fourth of July!

What a wonderful day!

 Enjoy your friends, family, and our wonderful Country.

We'll be getting candy at the parade, and then eating, and swimming, and eating, and swimming, and then watching fireworks.

And we'll do this.

(Man, the kids are getting big.  They are in middle and elementary school now!)