Author: pamela

Another homeschooling year

So, yes… another homeschooling year has begun.  We’ve already had the usual variety of commitments — planned and unplanned, absences and extra-curricular activities: some sick, some tardy, some cutting class (uh, that would be two of the teachers :-O ), etc., etc.

  • Three days into the new school year:  We’ve already had to revise our expectations — both raising and lowering them regarding courses of study and assignments for different students.  We’ve had to do this many times through 22 years of homeschooling.  We seem to forget this every year!
  • Three days into the new school year:  We’ve discovered we have too many of some and too few of other materials we need for each days’ work for each student.  Again… this is a repeat of the previous 22 years.  Someday we will “get it!”
  • Three days into the new school year:  The teachers have forgotten, missed, or been late to the kitchen table class.  Ditto, the students.
  • Three days into the new school year: For what can be accomplished in any given amount of time, we’ve had to revise our expectations.  Up and down.
  • Three days into the new school year:  We’re saying:  we are off to a great start! This is going to be a wonderful school year: we can just tell!!

Aebelskivers

My husband’s birthday was on Tuesday — we began the day’s celebration with aebelskivers for breakfast for him!  I make aebelskivers for special breakfasts — but sometimes, when it seems it’s been ‘awhile’ since I made them, someone will ask for them for breakfast (or dinner!).  We serve them with powdered sugar (as you see here) and raspberry or blackberry jam or maple syrup.  I’ve been making these for many years — and though at first they are a bit tricky to make, after some practice, they’re a very, very easy and fun breakfast tradition.    I have some more photos and the recipe here! My favourite pan is the  SCI cast-iron aebelskiver pan — you can purchase from the Solvang restaurant here.  They’re often out of stock, though. 🙁  You can also purchase aebelskiver pans from Williams Sonoma.  And I wouldn’t bother with two ‘hand tools’ for turning the aebelskivers.  Just get a #4 knitting needle and use it for turning the aebelskivers.  Medium heat to medium-low heat seems best (but you’ll get the hang of it and what temp works best on your stove).  And use 1/2 butter-1/2 oil for the ‘cups’ of the pan.  Too much butter makes them brown too easily and too much oil is… too much oil. :o)

As the years go by, I’m sure thankful for family traditions — I think everyone ought to have special traditions they look forward to and fondly remember from days gone by.  I love hearing my children’s “we always ______ “ (but those comments are sometimes followed by an older child saying: “O, yes, we always did that.  One time.” 😉

Well, for us, Aebelskivers are a many-many time thing.  And, when we go to Spokane we always have at least one breakfast at The Olde European restaurant and always have at least one order of ‘skivers.

Wes's Birthday breakfast: Aebleskivers!
Wes's Birthday breakfast: Aebleskivers!

MM Fondant

I’m learning to make some pretty smooth fondant for wedding cakes — well, any cake, actually! This is so easy to make and tastes so nice, I can’t figure out why I ever bought “ready-made” fondant! Not to mention the price. Okay, I will. The cost to make fondant is *significantly* less than the retail price of packaged fondant. Another thing I love about making fondant is the ease of colouring and flavouring the fondant!

I don’t have my A Bella Cake site ready yet, but I’ll be adding photos of cakes there. I’ll link to it when it’s up and running. I have a cake I’m dreaming up right now — a wedding cake for an October wedding. It’s not an autumn themed wedding… so, no need to try and come up with the majestic hues of autumn, but maybe more difficult for me will be to make this cake look as beautiful as the one I’ve dreamed of making. I’ll show you some photos when it’s made. The bride is a precious friend and I want her cake to be a blessing to her. I so wish I had had more skill and more experience when I made her sister’s wedding cake a few years ago — it was very, very important to me to make that one special, too — but I’m not so pleased with the outcome. Maybe I can make another cake for her someday. An elaborate anniversary or birthday cake or something.

Anyway… have a look at Marshmallow Fondant — It’s really fun!

—pamela

Did you say Change or CHAINS?

The words on one protester’s sign.

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words…  millions around the country have gathered, spoken out, marched, in protest of the snowballing debt, sweeping policy changes (chains), etc., etc.

Hundreds of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest this past weekend.  Dozens of issues were being protested by people of all ages.  These, from the lens of Barbara Curtis… see hundreds of photos here.

Saturday, September 12, 2009 — the day after the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attack on America September 11, 2001.  It’s interesting that that attack and the threat it revealed is still very fresh in the minds of the American people — regardless of a person’s political stand or even for those who say it was a covert operation of the US government, the ‘anniversary day’ was a reminder of the serious threat of terrorism, the horrific loss of life and preciousness of faith, life and freedom.

And so it goes…
♥ pamela

So… things are working…

It feels like we’ve been in a sort of relay with changing and adding and moving our domains to a new account.  I now have a ton of catch-up work to do on the A Christian Home website, the Welcome Home Company Store website the A Bella Cake website and this blog!

In many ways, the ACH website that was begun ten years ago(!) still has the clunky old style look and feel — whereas most sites today have the ‘blog’ format or the pretty polished and well designed format — the ACH site is definitely “homegrown!”  I started that site with very little web design and very little formatting/html knowledge and really had to work at every step of the production!  Thus, every now and then I see a complete fiasco of links and mess and want to just delete the whole thing… but then I stop and want to protect it like a pitiful old friend and want to, in some way, revive and preserve what’s taken ten years to accumulate and arrange.

So… much is needed — but the necessary changes will have to wait for long, cold winter days when I can just sit here at the table and comb through the site culling all the dead wood, the dead links and no longer needed articles, etc., etc.  But those cold days a still a ways off!  For this, I am grateful: God is good and His mercies are everlasting.  how thankful I am today for all of this.

At this ten year point… I just want to say thanks for the memories and thanks for all who’ve written through the years.  I’ve been so blessed!

———-pamela

still reworking…

For the next few days we’ll be moving the rest of our sites to a new account and so there will likely be some interruption in service and website availability.  In addition to all that, we’re trying to be sure not to lose any more files in this transfer.  And… in addition to all that, I’m just learning how to use this new program and it’s been a bit of a challenge to learn the protocol.   So… for tomorrow, I think I just might make bread, read some of my new cake books and sew for the girls.  These are a few of my favourite things… 🙂

A Christian Home website might be down for a bit.

My email might be down for a bit.

Thanks for reading!

♥ pamela

New Look, New address

As you can see, we’ve made some necessary changes. Problem is, these changes have sort of incurred some problems of their own. As with every web change for me over the years, there is that learning curve and the time required to become familiar with the programs. Thank you for your patience. The Welcome Home blog will have sort of a new look and I’ve decided to use it more for homemaking, marriage, family, motherhood, etc., though I cannot say for certain that I won’t make a comment now and then about ‘the church today’ and ‘politics’ in general. :o)

with love, pamela