She did it!

 

Last Saturday was Julianne's commencement ceremony.

Julianne and her friend, Samantha, were the only graduates, which made for a small ceremony, but it was a very special day.  One of the big co-ops here offers a graduation ceremony to any homeschoolers who want to participate-but you don't get to choose your own color cap and gown.  I still find that strange, since homeschoolers by definition are independent thinkers.  So we had to do it ourselves.

Allison played the piano for the ceremony, then sang with Julianne while Julianne played, in lieu of having to fit a piano recital into our too-hectic schedule this spring.

Emily made Julianne toss her cap into the air when we were outside for pictures.  Some traditions just can't be broken, ya know.

Julianne's cap, by the way, is a Dr. Seuss "Oh, the Places You'll Go" cap.  When I saw it on Amazon, I knew it was perfect for her.  She agreed.

Some of our dear Five in a Row friends made the long drive to spend the day with us.  Unfortunately, a ninja snuck in and knocked Max out of the picture.  Looks like Molly is in imminent danger, too!

We are so proud of you, Julianne.  You've worked diligently to reach this milestone and we look forward to seeing what you accomplish next.

Making Ricotta

While the Mozzarella making was underway, the kids were also making a batch of Ricotta.



They used citric acid in the milk, but they didn't need the rennet.

Julianne stirred and stirred to keep the milk from sticking as it heated.  Max was the temperature-checker, which was a worse job because he had to hold his hand closer to the hot milk than she did as she stirred.

They strained it through cheesecloth, then hung it from a wooden spoon to allow the whey to finish draining.

It was quite tasty with crackers.

And again, the process was actually simpler than I would have expected.

Mama's Bank Account

I've been remiss in blogging about our FIAR co-op days.  For March, we read the book Mama's Bank Account, a book the girls and I really liked.  It was made into a play and movie titled I Remember Mama.


At our day together, we discussed bank accounts, cash vs. credit, and the kids did some interest computations to see the power of compounding interest.  We compared the book to the movie and talked about reasons for the differences.  For snack, it seemed like I had hundreds of choices but I ultimately settled on making gingerbread.

 In the book, it mentions Mama making cheese and our friends offered a cheese-making kit to use for the occasion.  We started out by making mozzarella.



Adding the rennet...

cutting into cubes...

lifting the cubes out of the whey...

squeezing more whey out after microwaving the cheese.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make mozzarella.  That ball of cheese in the last picture is the amount we got from a half gallon of milk.

We also tried making ricotta but I'll save that for the next post.

My latest project

Ah, another long absence from blogging for no good reason.  I seem to have stopped using my camera, which means I don't even consider posting anything on my blog.

I nearly forgot my camera the other day, and I had actually completed a little project!

The girls have a dear friend who is turning 16 this week.  A party was planned in her honor, by a friend who enlisted help from Julianne and Allison.  They decided on a music theme, as music is one of Molly's passions.

It so happened that I recently checked out a library book called Fabric by Fabric One-Yard Wonders.  One of the projects in the book was a guitar, which I decided would make a nice addition to the decorations the girls were putting together.




It made a cute display next to the banner Julianne made out of old albums.

Molly arrived home to shouts of "Surprise".

Sadly, there was one surprise none of us had anticipated.  Both my girls ended up sick on Sunday and couldn't attend the party they had had such fun helping plan.

The girls have talked to both Molly and their co-conspirator, Sarah.  From all reports, the party was a success and Molly enjoyed herself.  

Happy Sweet 16, Molly!

My most unique Christmas gift

I know, it's New Year's Day and I'm just talking about Christmas.  I've been part of an email list of homeschool moms for several years and, the other day, one of them asked what our favorite Christmas gift was.  I've been short on bloggy inspiration for so long that I decided to answer her question here.

I visited a new store a while back and was telling Clarence about all the cool things I saw there (including a cute chair I got for the living room).  The item I kept thinking about was a vintage clothes drying rack.  I'd never seen anything like it before.  You lift the dowels up, pull them out, and a ring on the end serves as a stop so they don't slide too far out.  Ingenious!


 I love how little space it takes up when not in use.  I love that I can hang something to dry on it like I would on a hanger.  I love that it's just so different than anything I've seen before.

I especially love that he remembered I'd mentioned it and found a way to get it for me, from a store that closes before he could get there after work.

So, moving on from Christmas...Wishing all of you joy and peace in 2013!

Farewell, faithful friend

Our 19 1/2 year old cat, Belle, passed away during the night.  It wasn't completely unexpected-last night it was obvious we didn't have much longer with him-but I am so thankful that we all had a chance to say goodbye.  In fact, we've had four bonus years with him that almost didn't happen, which I am very grateful to have had.



So many memories run through your mind-how he'd come and sit on my feet when I sat down in the living room...the way he'd lay down and nap on the back of the girls' legs whenever they laid on the floor while we were doing school...how much we'd laugh at our algebra-loving cat because he'd sit with the girls and seem to watch their algebra video with them-we just knew he enjoyed, and understood, their algebra lessons...the way he'd meow so loudly in the middle of the night if he ran out of food or water-or if we'd had the nerve to leave him home alone while we went out of town...the not-so-subtle hints that he wanted us to start a fire in the woodstove because he liked it toasty.

He was the best of cats.  We will miss him.

Pinterest inspired wedding gift

My niece, Lauren, got married last weekend.  Although our standard wedding gift is a check, I decided to add something to unwrap for this, my first niece to get married.

I saw this idea back in August, which was just in time for the wedding, scheduled for September.  Unfortunately, the poor groom ended up in Texas for mandatory training when he was supposed to be getting married.

I was anxious to see what the new date was going to be.  I was constantly looking for new numbers, trying to assure I'd have the digits I needed once I knew the revised date.

 I was very relieved to find exactly the house numbers I needed but even more delighted that the happy couple finally got to enjoy their special day and begin their new life together.

We love you, Lauren and Brian, and wish you a lifetime of love and happiness together!