Alma Mater: May 2012

Friday, May 25, 2012

Filia's Day ;-) By: Stella

Hello All!

More pictures of Filia! Want to know how she spends her days? Dive in! (IF you dare ;-) )

The night before begins with some snuggles with Eeyore...

AND...of course: Pooh Bear! :-D

Then it's time for bed!!
(Absolutely under no conditions are you going to convince me to wake up Filia by taking pictures of her in bed :-P)

Next morning it is time to get up and have some yummy breakfast...hmm...

Next it's time to get ready for the day!
First on the agenda: Teeth :-D

Wanna taste?

Then of course there are those adorable pigtails...

Next it's time for a trip to the potty... (Note: No-she's not potty-trained yet, actually she is in the progress of self-training :-) )

Okay, I just can't get enough of the tongue...Watch her concentrate as she unrolls the roll of toilet paper!

Those stinking cute pigtails again...

Let's peek out the window and see what the neighbors are doing for the day...Hmm, toast and orange juice...
(Note the change of outfit! Yes, this is the same day! She has to change outfits in order to use all of her A-dorable hand-me-downs!)

Let's watch some Pooh! Note the concentration on the above picture :-)

Later in the day, Filia goes outside to join her brothers!

Basketball, what fun!

Filia hangs out in the car!
My favorite pics. below:

~Fairy Princess~

Chores By: Stella

Hello All!
Recently I have changed our chore system. Many thanks to Erica at http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com
She had pictures and printables of her chore system, and I changed the set up a little bit. If you are interested, got to:
http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2011/01/chore-chart-cards.html

*Note: We printed ours out as colored, but you can print yours out as black and white if you want...

The layout is very, very simple, but also extremely effective! This chore chart is currently for the three boys: Leo (10) Rus (6) and Tert (4). They love it :-)

The top row shows the days of the week plus the (Name) and Rewards. I'll get to the rewards in a minute...

Here are some samples of the cards! I have the layout being:
Top Row- Week Days, Name Cards, Rewards
2nd Row- Orange: Leo
3rd Row- Blue, Rus
4th Row- Yellow, Tert
5th Row- Weekly Chores, done throughout the week, such as dusting the whole upstairs, etc. etc...
6th Row- Storage for Rewards and Best Bee-havior

(See below: This is a picture from the Confessions of a Homeschooler blog; this is a different version of the chart for some smaller kids ;-) )

So, the kids do their chores, looking at the cards and flipping them over when they are done. When they have finished all of their chores (CHEERFULLY!!) then I put the rewards card (aka the little colored tickets you see in the pictures) in the top row on top of the name cards. These are worth 25 cents each, or a piece of candy from a candy jar. The best Bee-havior is for the child with the best behavior! :-)

(Also, the bottom row is for keeping the extra chores-like cooking with Mom or something that are occasional. The cards are then put in the row for the correct child, and they know that they will cook with Mom!)

A different version of this is available. Each child doesn't have to have 1 single color. They can have a different color for each day of the week. Whatever works for you!
So that is about it! I hope you enjoy :-)

By: Stella

Enjoying the new chart :-)

Rock 'N Race

Hello Readers!

We have enjoyed the Rock 'N Race! (Sorry for this tardy post...I needed to upload my pictures but a certain little girl, rather cute, dimpled and blond, (you know her?) stole my camera memory card...I found it nestled inside one of our computer speakers...

Anyway...
It was a 5K (or 3.2 mile race if you are NOT into racing terminology, like myself :-) )

Dad, Mom, Leo and I (Stella) did it! It was really fun, followed by a yummy (free!) supper of hamburgers and vitamin drinks.

On race day everyone was scattered, busy doing different things!

Filia watched all the excitement from the corner...

Tert posed for me!

Rus wanted desperately to be IN the race, so I let him pose in front of my camera and have his own race...

Finally, we were together and ready to head out! :-)

GO ALMA MATER TEAM!!!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Gardenin' 2012 By: Stella

Hello to All My Readers!
Mater and I just finished planting our garden for this year! It is DEFINITELY the best ever! You've probably seen our posts before where we have gotten 16 zucchinis in one day; we hope this year will yield produce in huge amounts for freezing (and eating!) We have a moderate sized garden, and this year I started planning it early, doing a lot of research which I will post below :-)

Alma Mater's Garden

We purchased a Homestead Blessings DVD. It gives SO-SO many great tips on gardening, and we would definitely recommend it. Here are some notes from watching the DVD:

~Gardener's Gold~

We were rich this year! Our Gardener's Gold made for some amazing soil. What is Gardener's Gold? Well, it's mostly compost. We mix ours with manure: Moo-Doo it is called and the W's chicken poop! It works wonders!
As always: I have pictures...

Rus is in charge of taking the compost bin in the kitchen (which collects all of our kitchen scraps) outside to the compost bins. Now before I write about that I am going to list the different things you can (and can't) compost.

Inside the kitchen you can compost...
Banana Peels
Egg Shells
Lettuce
Coffee Grounds (you can also compost the filters! Just throw the whole thing in there. For a while you might need a list like we used to remind people, (like tired fathers in the morning groping over to the coffee pot and (oh no!) throwing the lovely compost into the trash. After a while it becomes habit.

Anything not COOKED. That is NOT good for compost.

Outside the kitchen...
Greens: Weeds...Yes! This shocked me too! I mean, putting WEEDS back into the garden? I had to gulp and throw the weeds in there. Also add grass clippings, anything like that :-)
Browns: Dry leaves from the fall...see there IS a use for everything...Sticks, and the like. But make sure you don't just throw tons and tons of stuff in there, just a nice layer.

Now here are the layers that you can use for composting once you have a bin or pile

Dirt, Straw, Leaves, Manure, Kitchen Scraps, Weeds and Grass Clippings, Twigs

And KEEP MOIST! This is important. And when too wet, add dry material, such as straw.

Here is our kitchen scraps bin

Here is our 'everything' bin!
Hope you enjoyed this 'Gardener's Gold' Section of

Container Gardening

If you don't have a nice plot of land, never fear! You can still garden :-D Here are some tips and hints for starting a container gardening.

The Golden Rule for Container Gardening is:

HAVE FUN AND BE CREATIVE!

Look at the picture below (note: I found this on Google) It is such a cute idea!

You can just take a box, drill some holes in the bottom. Fill with dirt, and then plants. You can lay the plants root balls on their sides; this will leave more room for extra plants. Wetting the roots before planting is also a good idea.

It's as simple as that!

Lasagna, or Pizza Gardening

This is just about the simplest form of gardening! Take some cardboard and spread it on a plot of land; it doesn't even need to be tilled! Then take some soil, (composted is best!) but potting soil will work too, or peat moss, etc. etc. Pull apart the layers and plant your gardens! You can make it a pizza garden by planting herbs, tomatoes, anything you need to grow your homemade pizza! (People always ask us how it can be a pizza garden without cheese and pepperoni!) ;-)

Our Garden

Now, I have talked enough about the different types of gardening: let's get to OUR garden!

Below is a list of some of our plants and which bugs they repel and where to plant them:

Petunias: Aphids

Marigolds: Many bugs, best to be planted by the tomatoes

Impatiens: Japanese Beetle

Sage: Plant by broccoli

Dahlia: Nematodes, plant by tomatoes

Lavender: Plant by the herbs

I found a site for 'Companion Planting'. Usually, (as you will see if you go back to earlier posts) we have done all of our herbs in one section. This is a little bit easier if you want to dash outside and grab that sprig of rosemary or cup of basil, but this isn't always the best for the plants!

Here is a list of Companion Plants:

Basil and Tomatoes

Beets and Lettuce, Onion, etc.

Lettuce and Carrots, Radishes, Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Onions, Cukes

Parsley and Tomatoes

Rosemary and Beans, Sage, etc.

Zucchini and Beans, Radishes

Here are some plants that DON'T do well next to each other:

Beans and Garlic or Onions

Beets and Pole Beans

Carrots and Dill

Cukes and Sage

Potatoes and Tomatoes

Fennel and EVERYTHING-I didn't know this, but this year we planted our fennel away from some of our plants. Fennel apparently inhibits their growth.

Here are our garden plants, waiting to be planted!

Now, you have seen the pictures of our front. It is packed with plants, some of which are attracting hummingbirds and butterflies! I go outside and see our Fuscia hanging basket and a little hummingbird flitting among the flowers and we have seen some unusual types of butterflies.

Below are some of the plants out front:

NOTE: We are trying to plant more perennials each year! I listed which plants were perennials below)

1 Phylox subulata Ronsdofer Beauty (Perennial)

1 Babylon Red (Annual)

2 Bugleweed (Annual)

1 Dusty Miller (Perennial)

3 Petunias (Annual)

1 Easter Star (Annual)

1 Helen Mount (Annual)

On the side of our yard, by the deck, I planted a lemon verbena and stevia, both fabulous in tea, and a strawberry plant.

Stevia and Lemon Verbena (left to right)

And on our deck Mom planted lettuce in huge bins, filling them with soil...

Here are our sprouts...

We have tried to make our actual vegetable garden more attractive this year! So I researched as you have seen above, the pest-control plants. These are in a strip on the front of the garden! (This also keeps little Filia from picking our tomatoes!)

Here is our garden before being planted...