Santa’s List

Can you believe there’s only 58 days till Christmas?  Yeah, me neither.  This year there’s a much smaller budget for presents – and quite honestly, I’m not very good with budgets.  However, Vurgood came up with another outstanding app to make my life just a little bit easier. You might remember how much I loved their Mimeals app and I have to say they’ve come up with another great one.

Santa’s List is a Christmas list organizer with some great features.  There are three categories, “Recipients”, “Gifts”, and “Settings”.  In the “Recipients” section, you can enter all of the people you’re buying gifts for – their name, and an image if you like.  You can even add them from your contacts list, eliminating the embarrassment of misspelled names.  Once entered, you can then set budget limits per recipient and gifts from the gift list… Which brings us to the “Gifts” section.  Here you can enter gifts, images, cost, description and store location as well as whether it was purchased and when. You can also delete items if you change your mind about a particular gift.

In the “Settings” section you can set your total budget, password protect your list if you’ve got nosy family members who’ll peek, and set your sorting options.

My favorite part is the “Actions” area though; you can create your own wishlist, email your gift list or send it as a PDF attachment, which looks so much nicer than plain email.  Especially if this is for your business, and you need to send it to someone for approval it’s just a small touch that makes it look so much neater and more professional.

Notice: Jim and Grandpa are left blank – that’s because they’ve been known to show up here and I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise!

So again, I’m a big fan of Vurgood.  This app is useful, easy to use and the graphics are bright and cheerful and the $1.99 price point makes this an easy addition to your holiday planning toolbox!

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this app and have not received any compensation, financial or otherwise.

Socialization, Really?

I’ve been homeschooling for a fairly long time; we’re in our 8th year.  In the beginning, it was difficult to tell people.  I wasn’t very confident and was just muddling through some very murky waters and at the end of the day, I didn’t feel like justifying myself to strangers, but still I tried.  A couple of years and some great experiences into it, I was much more confident and could hold my own in any discussion or debate, whether it was friendly or not.  The most common argument I faced was the socialization issue.  Total strangers would confront me in the supermarket and demand to know what I planned to do when my children couldn’t handle public places.  Never mind, that we were in a public place and my children seemed to be “handling it” just fine.  I had some real experience to share with people and some pat one liners for the rude questions, but as time wore on and homeschooling became more of a mainstream choice, the rudeness stopped and people, when they even mentioned it, were more curious and open and truly interested in what we were doing.

I enjoyed years of no confrontation.  People would comment on how well my children behaved, how polite they were, how well they spoke.  It happened so often, that while nice to hear, it became a bit trite if I’m being completely honest.

Recently, in the last six months or so people are starting to confront me again.  Again, it’s the socialization issue.  I can’t wrap my brain around why people
a.) feel that it’s any of their business
b.) think that they can say things without any real data to back them up
c.) are so blind that they can’t see what’s right in front of them

My children have lots of great friends from all different walks of life.  We see them very often.  They have different backgrounds, different religious views, different political ideas, different everything.  The children that I have met (and I have met hundreds of them) are by and large the most social people that I have ever seen.  They can speak publicly, they can have conversations with adults and very small children and everything in between.

I could take the low road here and attack other education choices, but I won’t.  I think that’s really what the problem is.  People aren’t respecful of other people’s choices and their rights and that’s a bigger problem than any socialization issue.  Supposed free thinkers, who I thought were progressive are spewing the same rhetoric at me that I heard 8 years ago.

The difference is that I no longer feel the need to justify my choice.  If someone has questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. The real question is, do you want to discuss it, or do you just want to fight?  I’m ok with it either way, but be clear what your intentions are.

Roasted Potato Salad

So, remember the other day when I made roasted potatoes and onions with scrambled eggs for dinner? Well, the day after I bought the bag of red potatoes, I got a bag of organic potatoes in my organic buying club share.  I could no more let them go to waste than I could fly, so a couple of days later I decided to try to take the flavors of the roasted vegetables and put them into a potato salad.  It came out really beautifully, so here it is:

Really, all measurements are approximations.  Use your own judgment, but be adventurous.  It’s really easy.

One bag of potatoes (mine were regular, smallish brown potatoes, but since we’re cutting them up, it doesn’t matter)
5 (or whatever you have) large yellow onion
2 leeks (not necessary but it needed to be used, so in it went!)
1 head of garlic
salt
pepper
dried herbs (I used oregano, basil and parsley)
white balsamic vinegar (really you could again, use anything you have)
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 375.

cut washed potatoes into small chunks (I cut in half lengthwise, then half again, then cut the rows about three times)
cut peeled onions into quarters
trim and clean leeks, cut in half lengthwise and then slice in 1/4 in. slices.
arrange potatoes, leeks and onion on a large, high lipped baking sheet.  Pour olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs over top and using clean hands, toss to coat.

Prepare the garlic for roasting recipe can be found here: roasted garlic
close up aluminum foil and tuck the garlic into a corner of the baking sheet. Bake for at least 45 minutes, possibly over an hour depending on your oven.  When the onions start to get dark brown on the edges and potatoes have some crispy bits, you’ll know they’re done.  Take them out and set aside.
When the garlic is cool enough to handle, unwrap and squeeze the cloves into a small mixing bowl.

Using a fork, mash until garlic is a creamy paste.

add about 3/4 of a cup of white balsamic (or whatever you’re using) and whisk to combine.

Transfer potato mixture into a large bowl, allowing the oils and juices on the pan to transfer as well.  Pour the garlic/vinegar mixture over the potato salad and very gently combine.  You could serve this immediately while it’s still warm, or at room temp. or the next day refrigerated.  It’s delicious all three ways. Really, really delicious.

The one thing I’d do differently next time is to slice the potatoes rather than chunking them to make it more of a potato salad texture and look.

Give Unschooling A Try

Please welcome my very good friend Joanne Greco, who is not only a terrific writer, but a wonderful advocate for unschooling and adoption.  Her experience and strength are a great resource to me and I’m thrilled to be able to share her with you!  She has a wonderful website dealing with all things “unschooling” at AnUnschoolingLife and a very popular adoption forum at ForeverParents.

Unschooling. Just the word alone can make some homeschooling parents sweat. I’ve seen it. But then again, I live in Florida so anything can make us sweat.

In it’s simplest terms, unschooling is homeschooling without a formal curriculum, and the tests and grading that usually goes along with it.

The term “unschooling” was coined by former teacher, John Holt. He became a fierce advocate for education reform, but eventually became disillusioned and decided that schools could never be reformed because they were so flawed. He then became a supporter of homeschooling but urged parents not to recreate school at home. Holt believed that children didn’t have to be coerced into learning. He said that given the freedom to follow their own interests, along with having access to a rich variety of resources, children will naturally learn.

For those of us that unschool, it’s more than not following a curriculum. It’s about how we, the parent, view learning and it requires a shift in your own thinking first. What are your personal views on learning? Are they based on your own school experience? When I removed my children from school and began homeschooling, I went through a deschooling process (which still goes on in some form or another to this day, five years later). During that time I read a lot of blogs and sites by unschooling families about how their kids were learning, and it interested me.

I started to see learning in things I hadn’t before. I realized that:

Real learning is not being able to memorize or regurgitate facts and meaningless information.

Real learning requires interest and meaning to the person learning.

Real learning requires access to the real world (something school can not offer a child).

If you’re thinking of relaxing your homeschooling methods and giving unschooling a try, here’s some tips for you to help make the transition smoother.

1. Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. Apply that to your homeschooling. Be the change you want to see in your kids. If you want children that are interested in life and learning, be that kind of parent. Wonder about things outloud, ask questions, learn new skills and invite them into your world.

2. Be interested in what your child is interested in. If your child likes cars, taking him to the library to borrow books on cars is fine, but don’t stop there. Go to antique car shows, rent movies about cars and visit a local race track.

3. Look for learning in things your child does. If you’re having a hard time seeing the value in their interests (such as a video game), look for it. It’s there. Keep a notebook to help you remember it all.

Unschooling can be a wonderfully rewarding experience for you and your family. It has been for us. It’s not as scary as you might think.

Joanne Greco has been unschooling her kids since 2004 and writes about it at An Unschooling Life.

Roasted Red Potatoes and Onions

I am not a breakfast person; meaning that I’m not ready to consume solid food till about noon.   I do however, love breakfast food, so sometimes we have breakfast for dinner in my house. There’s nothing like some crunchy roasted vegetables alongside some cheesy scrambled eggs.  Yum. I’m sure you know how to make scrambled eggs, but here’s my recipe for roasted red potatoes and onions.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Peel and quarter a bag of onions (however many you have is fine)
Wash and DRY (important, don’t skip the drying) a couple of pounds of red potatoes, then chop them up pretty small.  I halve them lengthwise, then halve them again, then cut each of those pieces into three or four pieces.  Cutting them this small lets them really caramelize and get crunchy.
Spread out on a large, high lipped baking sheet.

Pour about 4 Tablespoons of EVOO over the potatoes and onions, then add two Tablespoons each of dried basil, dried oregano and dried parsley.  Add a liberal amount of kosher salt (they really need a lot, I put at least 5-6 Tablespoons – I really just cup my hand and fill my palm – so it’s all by eye)
Using your hands, gently toss to get oil and herbs and salt all over each and every piece of potato and onion.

Put the sheet in the heated oven and set it for 45 minutes.  Depending on your oven, this could cook anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes, it’s completely up to you.

I checked mine at 45 and then put it in for another 20.  It could have even gone farther, if you like them really crispy, but this was enough for us.

Truth be told the kitchen smelled so good that no one could wait any longer.

I quick made a pan of scrambled eggs and tossed in just a little bit of shredded mozzarella, plated and ate it up.

Easy and scrumptious… It would be really good for breakfast too, but I can’t function well enough to cook that early.

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