Today's Adventures

Redwood Park/Stream Trail
Jake had some homework to do for his outdoor education class so I figured this was another great opportunity to get out and explore! I actually came to this park Monday night for a photo shoot with my friend parents. There are beautiful picnic grounds here, but also miles and miles of trails.

While Jake did his 'sit spot' homework. Megan and I took some pics. These photos still don't look right to me on blogger, but oh well.

He was not into taking picture today. Or maybe this is just his new "cool" way of posing. ?

He looks so uninterested and tired. Poopy head.

I can't remember what these flowers are called. Anyone? They were gorgeous. Right along side the trail.

Isn't it beautiful?

I think it's my new favorite place.

Little Lioness.

Her hair just reminds me of a lions mane. Man, I wish I had that much hair!

Exploring.

This coming July is going to mark the start of our THIRD year here in Oakland. How can that be? Sometimes it feels like we've been here forever and other times it's like the blink of an eye. Megan was still only 3 when we moved here. (nearly 4, but still 3!)
Anyway, so we've lived here for 2 solid years now and I know I've spent way too much time in my little house, or staying near the little places I know, but not really ever venturing out. There is SO much to do around here. I feel like we've only scratched the surface. We are so lucky to be in an urban area full of culture, museums, parks; a 20 minute train ride from SF, the beach etc... But not only that...There are literally hundreds of hiking trails within 5-10 minutes of our house. That's the beauty of the Bay Area!
So I want to make an effort to get out more. Explore. See what there is to see around here.
Tuesday Pete text me and said: It's a beautiful day, you guys should go to Lake Chabot. We go to this lake often, but hadn't been there lately. So instead of just saying maybe or maybe tomorrow, I said OK and had the kids pack up a lunch. (don't let anything sneak in and tell you otherwise, just do it!)
We had such a nice time. The kids brought their scooters and raced down all the hills on the walking path. I was reminded how much I love being outside. I love exploring. Finding something new. Taking the long road. That spur of the moment Sunday drive. I decided right then to make a conscious effort to do this more. We've been to Lake Chabot a hundred times. And while it's a great place to go, I wanted to explore other places too.
So the next day I got on Yelp and found us another place to go. This time it was Joaquin Miller Park. It's a huge 500 acre park right here in Oakland, just 2 or 3 minutes away. And we'd never been there before! There's a nice playground, a huge amphitheater, loads of walking trails and even mountain biking trails. The whole park overlooks Downtown Oakland, the bay and San Francisco on  a clear day.
The park had great reviews on Yelp but I was sad to see when we got there, this gem of a park had really been let go over the last few months? years? who knows?

This is the view from the amphitheater looking down on what is supposed to be these cascading water falls that flow into several different pools and then down to 3 reflecting pools and a fountain at the bottom. Unfortunately though, the only thing we found was dried up mud, lots of weeds and thousands of tadpoles and frogs.  

It's the tiniest frog I've ever seen!

Of course the kids didn't care. They were perfectly happy catching frogs and would have stayed there all day had I let them! 

But I could see how beautiful this park must have once been. It was sad to see it in such disarray. The hiking trails weren't marked well. There were fallen trees and overgrown weeds on many of the paths.  Some of the people we talked to said this is their favorite park. I could see if you'd known it forever why you'd say that. I did overhear one of the park workers say they were trying to get it back up to par again. I hope they do. It was still a good day. I don't regret going one bit. That's what this exploring thing is all about. How will I ever know if I don't go see for myself? 

Going to check out Huckleberry Nature Preserve next week. 

Tuesday Things.

* Oh these chickens. They were about to drive me to drink last night. Pete and Jake and left to go to the archery range and left the chickens out, wandering the hillside. Not usually a big deal. I was fully prepared to let them stay out there till the boys got home. That is, until Megan came in screamin' about a fox in the yard. I'd been standing at the sink washing dishes when she came in. I left the water running and ran out the door. It took us at least 45 minutes to get 20 of them back in the coop. They just didn't want to go in. I tried real hard not to cuss but I'm pretty sure I said damn, hell, SOB, effing (but no actual F bomb) and shit, several times. Did I mention I was wearing a maxi skirt and flip flops whilst doing this chicken chasing? Stop laughing. We also have 22 chickens. I was sure those last two must have got eaten by the fox. (and i did not care) But by the grace of God my neighbor spotted them about an hour later down by her house. All is safe and sound today. Although the thought of getting the shotgun and blasting the lot of 'em certainly crossed my mind!
* We went to the rodeo last Thursday night. I guess maybe technically it wasn't the real rodeo. It was just the qualifying rounds for team roping. It was free, so what the hey, right? Only it was FA-REEZING out there. The fog rolled in and the wind was blowing and we were sitting on metal bleachers. I only lasted about an hour before I finally said we had to go. I don't like cold, but I actually kept my mouth shut and didn't complain. I think actually the kids were colder than me. They whined the whole time.

* Sunday Pete promised the kids he'd take them up to the school so Megan could ride her bike and Jake could practice baseball.

(I haven't edited any of these pics and blogger sure is making them look extra crappy. From what I understand is blogger is compressing the file even farther (than a normal jpeg compression) and making them look horrible)
* Then Sunday evening we experienced a solar eclipse. It was actually way cooler than I expected it to be. Around 6:30 all of a sudden....well it just looked like the Earth was underneath a giant tinted window. It was kind of eerie and awesome. We made a pinhole in a paper plate to look at it. I was surprised you could see it so clearly. Here in the photo to up and to the left of what looks like the sun, and in that little red sun flare is a crescent like shadow that is the eclipse.

* Today we went on a picnic. 

* Friday was our last official day of school. But we're still going to keep on truckin' until about June 8th. Then we're headed out for a wedding and a little vacation. That's when summer officially begins!

* It's my sister in laws wedding we're going to. Originally she just asked me to take some candid type shots, because she was hiring a professional photographer. I was totally cool with that. I honestly didn't want the pressure of a wedding. But then.......She asked me to shoot the whole thing. AHK! I'm nervous and excited. But that same weekend I have another huge photo shoot too. A family reunion. Crazy town.

* About a month ago I ordered our 'butterfly larva' AKA: caterpillars for our science curriculum. All 5 of them have now hatched. I'm telling you, I've know the butterfly life cycle for as long as I can remember, but experiencing it first hand....it's like witnessing a miracle.

* We (Pete and I) started reading Lonesome Dove a few weeks ago. Yes, that Lonesome Dove. I never read books when their actually on-trend. We're on chapter 5 and they haven't even left town yet. If you're familiar with the movie/mini-series, then you know we've got a loooong way to go. Check back with me in a year---that's probably when we'll finish it!

* Feeling good about our garden. Planting seeds is pretty cool. I love how you can see such growth each day. So much is already poking out of the ground. It's exciting. Can't wait to eat home grown food!

Where I/we have been...

I just keep ignoring this little blog of mine. I don't really mean to, I do love it and all 8 of my faithful friends that read it. :)
Here's a little bit of what's been going on around here lately:

*Little bit of spring cleaning. I cleaned out my closet alone and got rid of 4 giant bags of clothes.
*Lots of enjoying the weather. I'm starting to realize after 2 years here that Spring and Fall are the best. But I still can't get used to the drastic temp changes. Saturday it was a gorgeous 75-80 degrees. Sunday I think the warmest it got was 64*. That's a huge change for one day.
*Play-dating. I've never really been a play date mom. But when you homeschool, sometimes you've got to get those friendships (both for them and for me) whenever you can. Besides my GPS taking me to the wrong spot at a gay men's "meet-up/quickie" place (yes, really O_0 ), it was really awesome. I found my way by using natural instincts rather than GPS :D The mom and the kids were both great. Doesn't happen all that often!
*Hiking. Jake's outdoor class had a field trip to a hiking trail right near our house that I've never been to before. It was so awesome. Megan and I decided to go back early to hike around ourselves and then convinced Jake to stay another hour or so after. I forgot how much I love to hike around and explore. All the wildflowers are blooming right now. I absolutely love wildflowers.

*Entertaining. We've had a few dinner and dessert guests lately. It's fun. And definitely keeps us busy.
*Still taking a photography class. I can not say enough good things about Karen's class. She is extremely knowledgeable. Not that I doubted that, but she takes this class very, very seriously and it is evident in the way she teaches and involves herself in the class. Still 5 weeks to go, but I can say totally worth the money.
*Trying to get ready for a wedding (Pete's littlest sister) and a vacation (to our church camp) and a 50th wedding anniversary (for close friends parents) all happening the same week in June. Why do people do this to me! LOL! It'll be fun though.
*Finally finding a dress for afore mentioned wedding.
*Smoothie making. I just got myself one of those Ninja blenders. Have you seen those? For less than $100 I can turn ice into snow. It's pretty awesome.
*Gardening. Thanks to the help of my green thumb mom, we got our garden planted finally this weekend! We got going a little late in the season, but I really think it's going to be fine. We wanted to start off with seedlings this year instead of seeds, but the garden centers around here didn't have much selection. So seeds it is. We've got more tomatoes that we'll know what to do with, squash, zucchini, potatoes, watermelon (per Jake's request even though I don't think it will grow here), strawberries, carrots, onions, OKRA!, beans, a variety of lettuce, and a whole bed that's nothing but herbs! Oh and bell peppers. Yes, we're taking CSA orders now. haha ;-)
* There's been so, so much more. Lots of enjoying life around here, that's for sure.

Meatballs and Rigatoni

Another recipe from Pioneer Woman's second cookbook. In case you are wondering, no, I haven't become a food blogger ;-) Just review recipes from the new cookbook and trying to make myself get back into blogging a little more regularly.

This one took a little more effort than the last two, but still not terribly difficult. I again, made a few adjustments. I can't ever seem to follow a recipe to the T unless I'm baking. What does that say about me? Hmmm....

The first adjustment I made was the breadcrumbs for the meatballs. PW makes her own breadcrumbs with day old crusty bread, toasted and then blitzed in a food processor. I guess this is great if you find yourself without any breadcrumbs in your pantry and you're 30 minutes from a grocery store or you just simply don't want to go out. But I just don't find it necessary if you DO have breadcrumbs in your pantry. I did, and that's what I chose to use. I also don't have a food processor and I broke my blender a few months ago and haven't replaced it yet. So Panko breadcrumbs from Trader Joes it was.

Meatballs (with my adjustments):

aprox. 1/2 cup bread crumbs (unseasoned)

1 lb ground beef (PW uses 3/4 lb of beef and 3/4 lb of ground pork)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 egg beaten

1/4 cup fresh minced Italian parsley

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/24 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

olive oil for browning. 

Mix all the ingredients with your hands and then shape into balls. I used the medium cookie scoop from Pampered Chef to help make the balls. Place on a plate or a dish and then put them in the freezer for a few minutes to firm them up. 

In a heavy pot add the olive oil and heat on medium high heat. Brown the meatballs on all sides, working in batches to not crowd the pan. You don't have to cook them all the way through. When they're browned just put them on a plate and set aside til later. 

Start the sauce.

Sauce:

1 yellow onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup red wine (I used white and this step is totally optional)

1 28oz can crushed tomatoes

1 28oz can whole tomatoes

1/4 tsp salt

black pepper to taste

1 tsp sugar

1/4 minced parsley

12 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

I also added a dash of red pepper flakes to add a little kick.

After browning the meatballs, add in the onion and garlic and cook until the onion begins to soften. Add in the wine and cook for another minute. Add in tomatoes, salt, pepper, parsley and basil. Stir and cook for about 30 minutes.

Add the meatballs into the sauce and cook for another 30 minutes.

Serve over cooked rigatoni. 

Verdict:

I had 2 goods, one OK and one good, but too 'tomato-y'. Megan and I really liked it. But you can't really go off what Megan says because she pretty much likes everything. Jake liked it but prefers regular spaghetti always. Pete liked the meatballs but found the sauce too 'tomato-y' and watery. Pete is funny about tomatoes. He doesn't like any chunky tomato sauce. He won't eat a fresh tomato on anything. But he loves ketchup and spaghetti. The sauce just tasted like your basic tomato-basil sauce. I really liked it. But I like tomatoes. Pete just prefers a more thicker, heartier sauce. 

I'd definitely make the meatballs again. They were really yummy. But next time I'd probably use my regular sauce recipe or a jarred sauce to keep the boy happy. 

Grilled Corn Guacamole + BBQ Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas

We LOVE avocados in this house. And we really love guacamole. And hey, we even like corn. So when I saw this recipe, I thought hmmm...it's either going to be really good or kinda weird, but it can't be bad, right? Dude. It was excellent. Again, PW's recipe makes enough for an army, or at least a party so I adjusted it to fit our family of four.

Grilled Corn Guacamole
2 ripe avocados
1 Tbsp chopped onion (i used red cuz it's what I had)
1 Tbsp diced fresh tomato
1 tsp fresh jalapeno, minced
juice from half a lime
dash of salt
dash of ground cumin
1 Tbsp cilantro
1/4 cup grilled corn, off the cob.

First, grill the corn. Corn isn't in season right now so what I did was get out some frozen sweet white corn from Trader Joe's. I defrosted it on my counter for a while, then put it in a dry cast iron skillet on medium high heat until it started to char a little. As that was cooking, I got all my other ingredients ready and in the bowl. Mash it all together and BAM! Guacamole.

Verdict: Man, it was good. The corn adds a nice texture to what usually is kinda mushy. And a sweetness too, that we all seemed to like.

We pared the guac with BBQ chicken, pineapple quesadillas. I've made these before. Probably when PW first posted them on her blog. But my family had forgotten, I think, so it was new to them. ;-)  This was another one of those recipes where I just happened to have everything already in my fridge so I went for it.

BBQ Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas

1/2  fresh pineapple cut into small pieces (PW actually grills her pineapple, but I chose not to.) 

2 Chicken breasts pounded out flat, seasoned with salt and pepper

1/3 Cup of your favorite BBQ sauce

butter for the pan

8 flour tortillas (soft taco size)

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar cuz it's what I had)

First grill your chicken. Season it with the salt and pepper first, throw it on the grill for about 5 minutes each side (depending on how thick it is) at the last minute or two, brush with BBQ sauce. When the chicken is done, let it rest a few minutes then slice thinly.
Assemble your quesadillas: layer with cheese, pineapple pieces, chicken, jalapeno if you want and then drizzle with a little more BBQ sauce. Top with another tortilla. Melt a little butter in the pan, then grill your quesadillas. (you all know how to do this right? ;-)

Verdict: We really, really liked it. Pete is a huge fan of the spicy + sweet combo and he puts BBQ sauce on just about everything so I knew he'd like it. If you've ever had a BBQ chicken pizza, it's kind of like that, only in a tortilla. These were so good we had them the next night too.

Cookbook review/ Sloppy Joes

I picked up the Pioneer Woman's new cookbook at Costco the other day. I just couldn't help it. I've read her blog for years, I have her first cookbook and I just felt like I needed to have it.

I posted this pic on Instagram earlier this week and both Jude and Nicole requested a review. I decided right off that I would pick something new each day from it and review it here on my blog.
First impressions of the cookbook: There's a lot more food in it than the first one. That's a good thing. I like food. However, just like the first one, if you've been reading her blog for a significant amount of time, you will recognize many of the recipes. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, you can't expect her to come up with a slew of brand new recipes, when her M.O. has always been to showcase recipes she uses in her daily life. Anyway, I think there's a nice mix of familiar recipes and new ones. Enough new ones to make everyone happy, I think.
The first recipe I tried was Sloppy Joes. I don't have any pics of this because I wasn't thinking far enough in advance at that point ;-)
Sloppy Joes is listed under "lunch". I would never put this much effort into lunch unless I had company so we ate it for dinner. Not that it took much effort at all. It was very easy and I had everything I needed in my fridge and pantry.
The original recipe serves 8 but I don't need that much so here is the recipe with my adjustments. I'd say it serves 5 to 6.

Sloppy Joes
1lb ground beef
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp brown sugar
red pepper flakes to taste
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Tabasco sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste
Kaiser rolls or burger buns

Brown the meat, drain the fat. Add the onions and peppers and garlic. Add the ketchup, 3/4 cup water and mix. Add in the brown sugar and all the other seasonings. Stir and let simmer for 20 minutes. Serve on buttered, toasted buns.

Verdict: For as simple as this was...it was dang good! Everybody really liked it. Even Pete who often is the toughest critic. Will definitely make again.

Up next: Grilled corn guacamole and BBQ chicken pineapple quesadillas.

Easter Saturday

Saturday we were invited over to our friends house with some other friends to have an Easter egg hunt and dinner. They have the perfect place for it. It's country kind of like our place is....only it's not on the side of a hill! It's much more flat out there which made for perfect egg hunting. :)

Here's Carolina giving instructions to the big kids about how the hunt is going to go. Please do not ask about Jake's pants and or boots. I have no answer. 

 And they're off! Each kid was supposed to have 7 eggs to find that had their names on them and then 8 extra. This proved to be very confusing for most! ;-)

 I spy with my little eye a blue egg. :)

 Counting eggs and comparing loot.

 After the egg hunt was done, we adults had a little fun of our own. Carolina set the guys up with the 'ol egg and spoon race. From right to left is Oscar, Pete, Mike and Joe.

  Traditionally this race is conducted with a real, raw egg. But we used all the real eggs to make deviled eggs. Opps. So instead the guys used plastic eggs filled with rocks. This made the whole game entirely different. The rock in the egg made it incredibly balanced on that spoon allowing the guys to run full out without it dropping. You'll notice Pete takes a quick lead off the starting line...

 But Joe sneaks up on the outside, almost edging him out. 

 But Pete is very, very competitive. There was no way he was going to let Joe win! He ran full out and just barely made it over the finish line first. We all got quite a laugh out of that one. 

 We also did a couples 3-legged race. But since I was participating in that, I didn't get a picture. It sure was funny though. Oscar and Kathleen were total pros. It's like the practice in their sleep or something. They beat the HECK out of the rest of us. At one point Pete and I just stopped and watched in awe at their masterfulness! (that is a word)

This pic is just cute. These girls are besties. Inseparable. 

 We ended the evening with a little campfire. It made me ache for summer. It just can not get here fast enough.

Anyway we had a great time hanging with friends this weekend. And I'm still totally shocked these guys played the games without much egging on or complaining. I'm thinking we need to do this more often! 

Hello blog. I haven't forgotten about you.
Since it's been forever and ever I think I'll just go with list format. Of course a list of randomness as I can't seem to keep a straight thought.
* I had a big fun photo shoot a couple of weeks ago. I think the more of these I do, the more I learn and see where my mistakes are and where I need to improve. That said, I think each one also gets a little easier and a little better.
* If you'd like to see a sampling of those photo's you can do so by clicking here. I did change the name of that blog in order to be able to fit the web address on a business card. However I think that blog may just go bye-bye because blogger just seems to make photos look crappy. I think it compresses them or something and detail is lost. I don't know. I think if I decide to make a real go of it, I'll have to find some better web host.
* I decided to reinvest the money I made on that big photo shoot right back into my 'business'. Not that I really have a business so to speak, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I had been sort of thinking about taking a photography class and trying to figure out just how I could do it. The online ones that I was interested in seemed way too expensive, or SOLD OUT, or too basic, or too blah. Local college or community classes ran about the same way and many of them required a class in film photography first. I'd have to buy another camera. Why would I do that? So anyhow, I just happened to be browsing my favorite blogs the other morning and low and behold, one of my favorite photographers decided to open up a few more spots in her very popular, sold out photography workshop. I thought it must be a sign so I went ahead and signed up for it. I'll be starting Karen Russell's Photographers Workshop next week! I'm pretty excited about it.
* One more thing about photography then I'll shut up. What's with senior girl photos these days? Some of them I LOVE. But a lot??....um....kinda borderline trashy. I think what is so great about some senior photos is the youthfulness, the innocence (believe me I know most 18yr olds aren't innocent but still), the coming of age etc... but NOT the sexkitten. I mean come on. Arms up over your head, pouty lips, sultry eyes and booty shorts??? Parents approve of this? The pose I absolutely can not stand is the girl in stiletto heels, crouched down with one leg straight out, hand up to her pouty lip. Can I just say: No way in hell would I let my 18yr old daughter pose like that.

Other randomness:
* I just wish the sun would come out. I know I complain about the weather a lot. I just require sunshine is all.
* I have not been a very good homeschool teacher these past few weeks. I don't think we've had a full day of actual school in two weeks. I think maybe it's a sign I'm burning out a bit. Which is normal. But for some reason I don't want to take a break. Technically school is out May 18th so I figure I should just keep plugging along.
* I'm very behind on Project Life :-/
* Chickens are not the smartest animals. But they sure are funny.

* I don't know why, but I just think this pic cute. Such a little girl thing. She just loves Miss Kitty. She even got a book from the library today entitled: Three Stories You Can Read to Your Cat.

* This post is borderline really long and boring. So I'll just end it here for now. More randomness to come, I'm sure! You can count on me ;-)

Review of Nancy Larson Science 1

I'm doing this review mostly for Chrissy, but you never know who might pop in here on a google search and find this review helpful to them too.  I'll try to give an overview as best I can and then throw in my opinions about it as I go along.
This curriculum was developed by Nancy Larson who has many years of experience in the homeschooling curricula. She is also one of the authors of Saxon math. I'm actually not that familiar with her other work, other than I know what Saxon Math is and I didn't particularly like it when I looked through it at the homeschool fair 2 years ago.
Ok, let's get into the meat of it.
We're currently using Science 1. It's recommended for ages 5 to 8. I would say that level 1 is definitely leaning towards the younger end of the spectrum. For us it has been PERFECT for Megan. It is EXTREMELY easy for Jake. Not to say that he's not learning from it, or not enjoying it; he is. But it's not challenging at all. I'm ok with that. He actually really likes it and begs for science every day. I think at this point (3rd grade) it's important to just keep them interested and not bored. I don't think he should be memorizing the periodic table. ;-)
The curriculum is separated into 6 units: Life stages of human beings; Observing Trees; Exploring sunlight, water and soil; Animals and their habitats; Human body; and Life cycles of insects.

 The teachers manual IS scripted. I know some people hate that and some people love it. For subjects like Math, I hate it. But for this, I think its ok. And actually helpful. I don't read the script word for word. The lessons are short enough and concise enough that a quick read through before giving the lesson is good enough for us.

 You can see in this example above just how scripted it is. "put your finger on the number 3..." I don't do that. Maybe if I were just teaching Megan I would. But I usually just make Jake do all the reading.

Each unit has an accompanying student workbook. This is where the 'reading' is and the activities are. There's usually some drawing and labeling to do with each lesson. My kids really find this fun. They love coloring :) 

There are also "review" pages that go along with each lesson. You can do these the same day as you do the lesson, or before you start the next lesson as a uh...review ;-). They're very easy. One nice thing is that usually one question is from a prior unit, so it helps them to retain what they've previously learned. There are also tests or "assessments" too. They are pretty much exactly like the review sheets. Sometimes they even have the exact same questions. For Jake they are laughable. Way too easy. For Megan it's perfect. 

 One of the best things about this curriculum is that you don't have to go looking for or buying anything extra (usually). Everything comes with it. This is a look at our box of "stuff".

There are a ton of these cards. Which seem a little "preschool" to me, but it is helpful to not have to look at a textbook or find a photo online. It's all right there for you.

 There is also several resource books and some insect cards: (also not pictured a set of real x-rays)

 Other things that come with the kit: A butterfly garden and ladybug hotel. These also come with 'coupons' to order butterfly and ladybug larvae. There's a bag of plastic bugs and spiders, a magnifying glass, some pine cones and a tree cookie. There hasn't been a whole lot of "experiments" per say with this curriculum. It's more like looking and observing. I'm guessing the next level would get more into actual experiments.

Ok so the long and the short of it:

Would I recommend it: Yes, for Kindergarten or 1st grade.

Am I going to purchase this again: Probably. My kids love it and they are learning. Level 2 looks pretty fun.

Drawbacks: It's very expensive. $225 plus $27 for the student materials. 

Advantage: Everything is included. Very little planning is required for the parent. Kids like it. 

I hope this was helpful.