Friday, November 17, 2006

Field Trip to D.C.

Lunch break in front of the G.W. Memorial
We recently took a field trip with our homeschool coop to D.C. The kids and I took the metro and got off at the Archives station, where Eric got to see the originals of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, all of which he has been studying about in his Social Studies Curriculum. We then met up with our group for a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Most interesting fact from that tour: The Bureau prints about $700 mil a day, 95% of which replaces worn currency that is out of circulation! We then made the long trek back past the archives and spent a little bit of time in the Gallery of Art. Why did we want to go there? Well, since the kids are such big fans of Little Einsteins, they wanted to see some of the art that they are familiar with from their favorite cartoon :) Although it was a cloudy and rain-threatining day, we really enjoyed ourselves, wore out our feet, and learned a lot! I am including Eric's journal entry from his field trip journal. If I can get my hands on my mom's scanner, then maybe you'll see a scanned image of his artwork he drew from the day.

In his own words: "Yesterday, me, Mom, Bay and Leah went to Washington D.C. We drove up to the Metro station and rode for half an hour! When we got off the Metro, we walked across the street to the Archives. We saw the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights and lots of others. I liked it a lot. Then we walked to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and saw them make money! Then we walked to the National Gallery of Art. My favorite one was a boy and a shark. We saw the presiden't motorcade go by and then we went back to where we started, the Metro! I think I had a great time at Washington D.C. I hope I can go there again."


Outside the Archives building
In the National Gallery of Art

Snack while waiting for the train


Wednesday, November 08, 2006

68 Pints of Salsa!!!

My mom and I just finished making and canning 68 pints of salsa from our garden tomatoes this summer. We have found that it is easier to cut up and freeze the tomatoes as they come off the vines, and then turn them into salsa and spaghetti sauce in the fall, when it is more conducive to heating up the house with the canner. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, and this is only 12 gallon bags worth, there are at least that many left to turn into spaghetti sauce next week. I am including our recipe, it started out as a family fun magazine recipe, and has been tweaked over the years to make it more like we enjoy.

Salsa

4 large tomatoes
1 diced jalapeno pepper (I use my own pickled variety, but fresh works too)
1 4 oz. can tomato paste
1 cup fresh chopped cilantro, or 2 T. dried
1 diced onion
2 T. lime juice
1 t. cumin
1 t. salt

Chop tomatoes, onions and jalapeno. Combine all ingredients. Serve fresh or process in pint jars at 10 lbs. pressure for 25 minutes. 1 recipe makes approx. 2 pints.

Saturday, November 04, 2006



Leah's Striped Dress



Here is Leah's latest outfit. I think it turned out pretty good, it went even faster than the last one since I was familiar with the pattern. I made the little headband with some extra fabric. Another change I made was adding the loop and button on the back instead of a hook and eye.


I have a friend who asked me if you can sew with knit without having a serger; it seems that you can. Although I would say the the places where I had the most difficutly with it being a knit was at the beginning of each seam, the fabric wanted to bunch up and despite my feed dogs being all the way up, it didn't want to feed. I usually had to start sewing a little further down the seam and then backstitch to catch the beginning. Trial and error. I think the other advantage was that this is a pretty heavy duty knit, meaning it is fairly thick, like a heavyweight t-shirt.


Well, she sure is cute and I sure am enjoying sewing for her!!!