Vaccine movie

I've watched about half of this video already, and it is excellent!

http://vimeo.com/31036452

Car names

Instead of singing songs, lately Levi has wanted to play cars on his bed with me before his nap time. Today, my car asked his cars what their names were. Levi thought for a minute and said, "Marshmallow and Cough." So Marshmallow, Cough, and Rouge (my car) drove up the mountains (a pillow) and had a great time together.

Nate's baptism

A few weeks ago, after hearing that the church had a baptism service coming up, Nate approached Jon and me and said he wanted to be baptized. We've been talking over the past couple of weeks about what that means--that it isn't what saves us, that it is a public profession that we believe in Jesus, in obedience to what Jesus says in the Bible--and today Nate was baptized. He was nervous about the actual going-under-the-water part of it, but he did great!

Here's the video:


After the service, we gave him his first "grown-up Bible" as a gift. He loves it and said it is "just like Randy's"--one of the older boys at church.

 Oh, and when we told Lucy that Nate was going to be baptized today, she asked, "But what about me? When am I going to get bath-tized?" :)

Proud

In preparation for some family pictures today, I wanted to try to make a necklace similar to the adorable Allora Handmade rosette ones. Amy has a green one and let me borrow it so I could copy it.

I followed what I could tell from this necklace that I hadn't done with rosettes before: fold and iron the first part of your strip like it's bias binding and don't start twisting the fabric at first. Just make a super tight "snail." I really like how mine turned out!

I bought this lace trim a couple of weeks ago at a craft fair I went to with Colleen. This was the perfect use for it! Here's a side-by-side comparison of the necklaces. Mine isn't perfect, but I love it for a first try:

Yay!

On Monday Levi went to Disneyland for the first time--with Grammy and Grampy.

Autoreply

Nate wrote an email to Jon. Since Jon was out of town, his email autoreply message came back. Here's Nate's response to that:

On Oct 19, 2011, NateV wrote:
i don"t know what you are talking about but i will talk to you later ok ! love nate


Dear Howard CDM contact,

I will be out of the office Tuesday Oct., 18 to Thursday Oct., 20. I will be checking email and voicemail while I am out, but my response may be delayed. If you need immediate assistance please call Christopher Duvali at 562.427.4124.

Thank you,

Jonathan Varela

Hi

Homeschooling update: charter school

Over the summer, I tried to get Nate enrolled in a charter school. We would still have been homeschooling, but with the charter school enrollment, I would meet once a month with a teacher and show her the work we were doing. She would sign off on each subject area and attendance. This would mean I wouldn't have to file an affidavit with the state saying we are our own private school in our home, since Nate would technically be enrolled in a school. It would also mean we would be able to use funds through the charter school to purchase curriculum and supplies and enroll in classes (like sports classes, music lessons, or other extracurriculars like this awesome one).

I chose a particular charter (Sky Mountain) because it was the most pro-parent, the most open to whatever style of teaching/learning the parents chose for their child.

But the application process got majorly stalled in July because of Nate's special ed history. There was lots of back and forth, with emails and calls to various people at the charter and also at our school district trying to get the appropriate proof that Nate no longer needs services. The school year start date came and went, and we didn't get enrolled, so I moved on to plain old homeschooling and planned to file the affidavit in October, figuring that, at best, we would have to wait until January for the charter.

Then at the end of September I got an intake interview phone call, then an enrollment meeting call the next day, and then I signed the enrollment paperwork the day after that! Woo hoo! So Nate is enrolled in Sky Mountain.

I really like our Education Specialist (ES), the teacher who meets with us once a month. She has good ideas and is totally on board with how we "do" school around here--some formal (textbooks, worksheets, curricula), some informal ("natural" learning through cooking/making recipes, talking about stuff in our regular day, etc.).

As for using those funds we are allocated, I've sifted through the huge approved vendor list and found several great things. Nate is most excited to do a sport (which he never asked to do until he saw Lucy do gymnastics); what I've found so far either doesn't work with our schedule (on Mondays when I'm working or on Wednesdays during AWANA) or will have to wait until January to start. BUT it's so nice to have all these possibilities opened up to us!

Before & After

Before (I couldn't find anything taken from the right angle that really shows how stained the carpet was...)



During (Sunday)



After! (I left Levi's cars and ball there since that is the natural state of things anyway.)

Another Tanaka Farms day

On Saturday we went to another CSA day at Tanaka Farms. This one had a wagon ride, petting zoo, and small tour of the farm to view the pumpkins. The kids also played one game each. It was actually quite a warm day and a fun family outing!

Kitchen adventures

I tried pickling for the first time several weeks ago, and I've been on a pickling kick ever since. It started when I got some cucumbers in my CSA box (Lucy and I ate the first ones today--delicious!).



I've also tried radishes (easy recipe here--SO good), green beans (also delicious, recipe in the same place), and garlic (ask me if it's good in 3 months when it's ready--I think it will turn out sweet! It's supposed to be a treat to take when you're getting sick with a cold).

Here's the pickled garlic recipe. Making it this way preserves the raw garlic benefits (mostly from allicin, which is formed from garlic when a compound called alliin in garlic comes into contact with the garlic enzyme alliinase when raw garlic is cut, crushed or chewed. When you heat or cook garlic, alliinase becomes inactivated, preventing the production of allicin).

Fresh garlic cloves (several bulbs worth)
Tamari or soy sauce or apple cider vinegar
Honey, raw if possible
Jar with lid
Wax paper

Carefully peel the cloves of garlic without nicking them. (If you nick them, they will look funny but are still usable). Peel enough to fill a jar. You can use any size jar.

Fill the jar with either tamari or apple cider vinegar. Not sure which you'd like the best? Make a jar of each to compare! If the jar's lid is metal, cover the mouth of the jar with wax paper and then screw on the lid. Place a label on the jar. Shake daily for 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks, pour off half the vinegar or tamari. (Save this for using in cooking). Add honey to fill to top. Recover and shake. Shake daily for another 6 weeks.

The garlic is now ready to eat! You can eat them as a treat or take at the first sign of illness. Delicious! The liquid can be used in cooking. It makes a great marinade for meat.