Pickled Beets--Aaron wants these

  Pickled Beets Recipe for Aaron (this years garden project) original copied from allrecipes.com saved here for future use
  Recipe Yield 10 (1 pint) jars

 

Ingredients

• 10 pounds fresh small beets, stems removed
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 tablespoon pickling salt
• 1 quart white vinegar
• 1/4 cup whole cloves

Directions

1. Place beets in a large stockpot with water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes depending on the size of the beets. If beets are large, cut them into quarters. Drain, reserving 2 cups of the beet water, cool and peel.
2. Sterilize jars and lids by immersing in boiling water for at least 10 minutes. Fill each jar with beets and add several whole cloves to each jar.
3. In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, beet water, vinegar, and pickling salt. Bring to a rapid boil. Pour the hot brine over the beets in the jars, and seal lids.
4. Place a rack in the bottom of a large stockpot and fill halfway with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then carefully lower the jars into the pot using a holder. Leave a 2 inch space between the jars. Pour in more boiling water if necessary until the water level is at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Bring the water to a full boil, cover the pot, and process for 10 minutes.

Mindfulness

I attended a Spiritual Care Seminar at work for health care professionals. I immediately found that mindfulness was the name for what I was trying to do all on my own for Tippy-toe and his anger issues. I am going to develop my own "therapy-play" with a mindfulness emphasis. Since there isn't a therapist nearby that specializes in RAD and taking the kids to just any therapist that isn't trained to deal with RAD could have devastating consequences those 27 college credits in psychology have come in handy making me become a parent with informed drive and a specialization in RAD. I am going to try ABC yoga for kids, and some meditation exercises to help Tippy-toe with his anger outbursts. When I got Tippy-toe his only and ever emotion was anger. He has grown so much and blossomed but anger is still his first emotional reaction to everything, even happy things. I think we can use mindfulness more in our "therapy" in an organized way. I have been teaching him breathing exercises and using calming music and body wiggles. Now we have a label for our type of play therapy.
If you are interested in the speaker  I heard she is Elana Rosenbaum at www.mindfuliving.com out of the University of Mass.

Ipod apps

I set little man up with a couple preschool apps on my phone and was astonished to see how well he did with the touch screen. I will be searching and listing a few in a post soon.
All the other kids enjoyed a gift of colored construction paper from a coworker. Christina,Cam,and the littles made welcome home posters and pictures for Trent who comes home on saturday. I just set them up and the table and let them do art anyway they wanted it was fun. No project just free art time. What a way to see what they like, learned, and retained. Everyone should have time to create.

Presents in the mail

I bought a box of books from ebay.  All of them are FIAR books. In no order they are Roxaboxen, Another Celebrated Dancing Bear, Three Names,  The Bee Tree, Climbing Kansas Mountains, Grandfather's Joourney, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Day, and Follow the drinking gourd. I am so excited to get the first manual which I also ordered this week. We have really enjoyed rowing and have jumped in with both feet and committed to using it for most of our curriculum this term. I know we already did stopping by Woods last year but these are all library editions. these books are in great conditions.

Quote for the day

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean." -John Muir

Pattern blocks

Little man is working on his  shapes with pattern blocks and cards.  He just picked them up and started work on his own, matching the shapes to the pattern card. No instruction just figured it out on his own. I need to pick up more foam pattern blocks at the education store after work tommorro so all three can do this work at once. Our set is from discovery toys and I have owned it for a long time.

Summer learning Bucket list

1.Go on many more nature hikes
2. Ride the Rail-Trail on our bikes
3. Play and explore in the Pine River behind Grandma's
4. Visit a botanical garden-Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids?
5. Look for four leaf clovers
6. Experiment with a prism
7. Roll down a hill
8. Go Rock/Fossil collecting--May be with Paleo Joe?
9. Picnic at the Gravel Pits
10. Swing in the back yard
11. Drawn in nature journals
12. Go fishing
13. Camp at a park in our new camper
13. Ride on a pontoon boat
14. Watch a sunset
15. Go Geocaching
16. Go berry picking
17.Plant a garden and watch it grow
18. Hang a bird house

New Years Changes

Sorry about the long blog absence but there have been many changes around here. First I have a new job with more pay and fewer hours but also more responsibilities and much to learn. The kids are doing quite well and we have been using games to teach math. Little man is counting. Two one, so cute. The littles have been studying with Aaron more than me. I purchased more of the FIAR books  with manual on ebay and am waiting their arrival.