Back To School 2026

 

 On Friday, August 14th we had a Back to School party. We looked over our new books. A few of the children couldn't resist and did a lesson. 

In a way it was also a Goodbye Summer party. We made individual pizzas for lunch, which is something that we can't do during the school year. It took a long time, especially because we had to take turns cooking them in our toaster oven, plus individual pizza making leaves a big mess, which would be too much to deal with during school time. For our final hoorah we had tea and croissants with jam and fresh blueberries. This was quite the treat for us!

Today is Saturday, August 22 and we have our first week of school under our belt. I have 4 students. I am teaching 5th grade, 4th grade, 2nd grade, and kindergarten. Some of my children are between grades in some subjects, but these are the grades we are spanned over. I am doing a few things differently than I have done in previous years. 

First thing, I am requiring the children to get dressed, make their beds, and finish breakfast before 8:30a.m.

 Second thing, I am doing a 10 minute children's workout before we start school. The workout is not required only suggested. I heard that students who engage in a physical sport before studying preform better. I am doing the workout myself to lead by example and to reap the benefits for by brain and body. The work out we used for the first day was a DannyGo video, but that didn't provide enough movement or exertion. The rest of the week we did a video by Fit with Frank made for children. The movements are mimicking the motions of summer Olympic sports. Each sport is given 60 seconds with no breaks between. There is running in place, boxing, tennis, shot put, high jumping, row boat, freestyle swimming, and sprint to the finish line. It can be quite hard! You can adjust the difficulty by moving at your own pace and deciding how much oomph you put into each movement. I go pretty hard. My dad was my coach growing up as a homeschooled child and he taught me and my siblings to give everything 110% of our effort. No slacking in my family. My legs are burning, my heart is racing, and sweat is dripping off of me by the end of this workout.

Third thing, I am starting our Bible reading (first subject the day) at 8:45a.m. instead of 9a.m. The 15 minutes headstart really makes a difference for us.

And the fourth and final thing that I am doing differently is recess! Up to this year I have thought stopping shortly into our school day to play would kill our momentum. After taking the children to achievement tests at a small Christian school last April and seeing how the administrators were able to maintain order and have good study habits by including a recess, I have been intrigued by the idea. Could I get the children to work harder for shorter periods by giving them a break? One of the potential problems is me getting distracted and not enforcing the time limit. This is a highly probable risk. To avoid me getting distracted or engaged in tasks and letting recess derail our school I have been taking recess with the children. And let's be honest, I can be a better teacher when I get some playtime, too. At 10:15a.m. I set the timer for 10 minutes and we go outside and jump on the trampoline. It's is also a good time to take a bathroom break and grab some pretzels for a pick me up.

I have written down some easy lunch plans to keep myself from going over time at lunch. We take an hour lunch break. 

Lunches:

Spaghetti 

Something Rice based (Dogfood Hash*, Rice and hard-boiled eggs, rice bowls,..)

Macaroni and cheese

Peanut butter and jelly 

Tomato soup and grilled cheese 

Quesadillas/tacos and beans

I try to include watching the current show of A to Z with Carl Azuz during lunch break. It is a classroom appropriate news broadcast.

In the morning I have been turning on some music to listen to. My favorites lately have been The Big Country soundtrack by Jerome Moross and a Bird playlist that I copied from a library book. The library book was an introduction to classical music with selections from music about or music that imitated birds. The book came with a CD. But the songs on the CD were only tiny excerpts, just fractions of the musical works. I found videos of all the pieces being preformed on YouTube and made a playlist. I have really enjoyed getting familiar with these pieces and having new (new to me) music to lift my spirits.

We are off to a good start. I hope to keep a good attitude and the right priorities and with God's help we will have the best school year yet!

Proverbs 23:12 

Apply thine heart unto instruction, 

and thine ears to the words of knowledge.

*I might need to offer an explanation for something called Dogfood Hash on the menu. A while back I developed a "recipe" for some hash and had the honesty to comment that it looked like dog food. Everyone liked it, though, so I guess it was pretty good dog food.

I browned a pound of ground dark chicken meat in a lump chicken fat that I had saved in the fridge, added a can of drained, and chopped carrots, seasoned with garlic powder, soy sauce, and salt, and mixed in about 3-4 cups of cooked leftover rice and heated it through.

I make variations on this basic premise and still call it Dogfood Hash because I think it's a funny name.

Ham And Cheese Braid

 My mom made these every year to pack for our lunch when we went to the State Fair. We'd walk around the fair for a few hours. We'd see the biggest pig and some teams of Clydesdale pulling polished coaches having a competition in the Coliseum or watch a demonstration of dogs doing long jumps into a big pool. There were so many things to see! The 4-h projects, a marching band, an old fashioned threshing machine, a historic village, fiber arts, giant fish in the conservation center, antique tractors, live music, mammoth pumpkins, and a specially carved pumpkin with a scene of the fair or something iconic about our state, large tractors driving shuttles that we'd have to scurry out of the road to let pass, and on and on. The lunch hour would come and then we'd head back to the van and have a picnic. We'd pull the cooler out, lay down a blanket and feast on slices of Ham and Cheese Braid dipped in horseradish sauce, homemade cookies, fresh grapes, and chips, maybe some baby carrots, too. After our bellies were full and the water bottles had been replenished we'd go back and see more of the fair. State Fair days were always long and hot and full of sights, sounds, and smells. The feeling on the drive home was so raw: I couldn't wait to get back to my happy, quiet home, but I was glad to have so many memories of the big, wide bustling fair in my mind. And I was just so grateful to have my family around me; of all the people that I had bumped shoulders with in the crowds during the day, I got to go home with the best people in the whole wide world - my favorite people - my family.

This year I made Ham and Cheese Braid to take to our State Fair. We don't do the whole picnic at the van. We bought corn dogs for lunch.  We had Ham and Cheese bread for a snack and to keep us from having to buy supper from the vendors, though.

I had fun making Ham and Cheese Braid after so many years. I thought it would be fun to make a video about the process and it was a fun project. Here is my little video. You can see how to make a Ham and Cheese Braid. My mom uses ham, provolone, and deli salami. I substituted summer sausage for the salami because I am to cheep to buy anything from the deli counter. Sorry for being so stingy. 

Applesauce Pancake Recipe!

 

It has been an apple-y time of year! Last week I was processing apples Monday through Friday. I froze 19 bags of applesauce. There is about 2 quarts in each freezer bag.

We like applesauce plain but also in treats like Applesauce Cake and Applesauce Pancakes.

(Follow this link for my favorite Applesauce Cake recipe.)

Applesauce Pancakes 

3 cups flour

1 Tbsp.+1 tsp. baking powder 

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar 

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/4 oil
2 cups applesauce 

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Combine milk, eggs, and oil in a 2 cup liquid measurer. 

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients along with the applesauce.

Mix until nearly smooth.

Cook on a hot skillet or griddle as normal pancakes.

Enjoy!

This Blue Dress Took 3 Years!

 I cut this dress out back in August 2023. This January(2026) I pulled out the pieces to start working on the dress.

This is how I put in a centered zipper. I find the best results are achieved when I baste the zipper in with a spiraling zigzag stitch that holds the zipper teeth directly on the seam.

It turned out pretty good on the first time. I didn't have to do any stitch ripping. Yay!

I usually put an invisible zipper in this pattern, but I didn't find one right away so I went forward with the centered zipper. Sometimes you've got to keep chugging and not get derailed on the details.

I tried machine sewing the button holes. They were awful. I had to take them all out and hand stitch the button holes.

Much better! 

I also added 2 more buttons because I had smaller buttons than the pattern called for. I had to change the placement of the button holes to add the extra 2 buttons.

Because this dress took me so long to finish I had gotten it soiled dragging it around from sewing station to sewing station: from the kitchen table, to the living room, to the van for road trip sewing sessions, to the picnic table. I hope the spots come out.

This is after the wash.... Not too bad. Not too bad.

I see some issues with the fit. 

I'm pretty sure I need to learn how to do a full bust adjustment. I can see some pull lines and the waistline is riding up in the front. Those are signs that I need a full bust adjustment. I have watched how-to videos and read tutorials, but I am still super intimidated to try customizing a pattern.  

I have one more dress already cut and ready to sew. Since it is already cut out I am going to put off learning how to do a FBA yet again.

Have you ever had to adjust a pattern to fit your measurements? How did it turn out? Was it easy to learn?

These institutions don't seem too hard. 

If you want to see another dress that I made from this same pattern, check out this blog post from 2024.

Nature | July

 I forgot to update you on our tadpoles last month. They took much longer to grow legs than I had expected. All of June they were growing. I first noticed back legs July 1st. After that they grew fast. They have all hopped out of the water and gone on their froggie way. It was a new experience for us to watch them grow from egg through all the stages to frog.

This weird little spiral of eggs (I think) was floating in the surface of the tadpole pool. You can see the dead fly for a size comparison.

I was amazed and flabbergasted by this bug that I saw one day on our house siding. I ran like I was on an emergency mission to go get my phone camera. This is a Wasp Mantidfly. I had never heard of it before or ever seen anything like it. It has arms like a Praying Mantis and a body like a wasp. But it isn't a wasp and it can't sting. 

I foraged and tried Woode Ear Mushrooms for the first time. I dried them first as recommended and then cooked them in a soup. I found the crunch and chewiness quite pleasant. I will keep an eye out for more Wood Ear Mushrooms.

This Sphinx Month gave me a nice shot. I kept my fingers in the frame for scale.

We visited a historic village and I was drawn to the period garden. I saw tobacco and cotton plants up close for the first time. The cotton really captivated my interest. At first I thought it was okra based on the structure. Once I saw the flowers I was even more convinced that I was looking at a plant closely related to okra. The flowers look like any mallow family flower.(Think Hibiscus, Rose of Sharon, Marsh Mallow, Okra,....) I had never imagined that cotton flowers would be so showy.

The funny thing about the tobacco is that I never would have guessed that it was a nightshade based on what it looks like. I saw no resemblance to the other night shades that I am familiar with; tomatoes, potatoes, black nightshade, horse nettle, ground cherries, and peppers.

This iridescent beetle crossed my path. It made me think of fancy hats in the old days that were decorated with pretty beetle shells like this. It made me wonder how they found so many of these iridescent beetles back then because I hardly ever see such beetles. Certainly there were people that studied them and figured out how to farm them for hats and stuff for profit back at the time. 

My favorite picture this month is this moth that I found on the window one morning. The lighting is good. The focus is good. The reflection on the glass adds some nice colors. And, best of all, the subject. This moth is captivating. It looks like bird poop, but weirdly in the most attractive way. And, it is holding out one of it's front legs like some kind of diva pose.

The smoke from the wild fires up in Canada and Minnesota have given us some hazy days. I liked the strangeness of the sunrises and sunsets during this time.

These next two pictures make me feel summer-in-the-midwest, especially the corn field. It leaves me with a nostalgic feeling for the fleeting youthful summers.

My son caught this lizard at a park. Unfortunately, he accidentally pulled the tail off while he was trying to catch it. Thankfully, lizards grow their tails back. It was very interesting to see the place where the tail broke. It looked like a connection joint for a lego or something similar, like it was perfectly meant to snap in that place.

I don't know what kind of flower this is, but I see it on my morning walks and I enjoy its beauty.

Do you have a favorite picture from this month? I have to say my favorite picture is the diva moth with second place being the driving by the cornfield and third place being the tadpole graduation.

I am ready for whatever August brings!

Stitches | July

I really like the way this dress fits and flows. 

You can see I am having a little fun with the pose.

I have only worn it twice since I acquired it, because I had a couple issues.

The first problem I ran into was the buttons slipping out of the button holes. That wouldn't do.

I stitched each of the 14 button holes a little smaller.

Next I restitched all the buttons on the dress because they were egregiously machine stitched and threatening to pop off at any moment.

I wore the dress for a day. The buttons stayed buttoned the whole time. 

I was feeling quite successful until I took it off. That's when I noticed a slight problem. 

The lowest button had put enough stress on the dress to rip the fabric that it was attached to. Having strengthened the button hole and the button to the point that they were stronger than the particular fabric I guess I was to blame. Not to mention my movements are what caused the stress. 

The dress went back in the mending basket.

Now, hopefully, I can keep my stride in check enough not to rip the button off again. I hate having my stride bridled, but I like this dress enough to try. 

Sewing

 My daughter spied a skirt at a thrift store that was the exact matching print to a skirt that I had bought and altered for her last fall. I mentioned it in October 2025 Stitches post HERE.

The skirt for myself was a XXL so I had to make a casing and add elastic.......just as I had to do for my daughter's skirt last October.

Now we have fun matching in our matching outfits!

Bookmark

 The library printed my bookmark design!

It's not really a competition. They print every entry unless it is super terrible. They print them and laminate them and then put them in the normal place for bookmarks on the checkout desk.

I took a few copies.

My 6 year old made this cute design. The theme was "Reading is Delicious." See how she put books on plates and gave the girls knifes and forks to devour their books. Hehe! It makes me smile!

I am using it to mark my place it the read aloud book I just started reading to the children.

John Paul Jones is the book. I wrote a review about the book back in December (click HERE.) I had only read it to myself back then. Now I am ready to read it to everyone.