Spacewalk

Have you been following along with the Discovery Space Shuttle Missions? We have! We have been watching via the internet using the Spaceflight Now website. You can read the online journal statuses and follow along with the mission from this site. You can also watch from the NASA website. 

Yesterday we watched live interviews with the Discovery crew and some of the International Space Station crew. We also learned how Stephen Bowen and Al Drew the two astronauts participating in today’s space walk, prepare for their spacewalk.  They spent the night in the  Quest air lock to prepare their bodies to wear the decompression space suits. They use oxygen masks that give pure oxygen which purges the nitrogen in their blood stream. Doing this protects them from decompression sickness. So interesting!

There are two scheduled spacewalks this week. Today at 11:15 am EST and Wednesday March 2 at 10:15 am We are excited today to watch the spacewalk and watch the astronauts working. This first space walk is scheduled to last 6 hours.

You know as much as Justin loves all things space and we follow a lot of what is going on in space. I did not realize that the space shuttle program was coming to an end this year! I am really saddened by this. I had no idea. Or was not paying attention. But after 30 years of service the space shuttles are being retired this year.  

I want badly for Justin to see a shuttle launch in person and I know that space shuttle Endeavor is scheduled to go up later this year. I have thoughts of going to Florida to see a launch in person.

Yesterday as I was listening to the astronauts being interviewed, it makes sense that they would retire the space shuttle program (it still saddens me)  I do understand that NASA’s focus is to explore deeper into space. To Mars and beyond. In order to do that things must change.

It is very expensive to run the Space Shuttle program. 200 million dollars per month! 

One of the astronauts put in a way that I never thought about. Most of us have grown up in a time when flying in an airplane is an everyday occurrence. Something that just is. Airplanes. If we want to go somewhere we get on a plane. It is as common as driving a car or taking a train. No one really thinks anything of it. It just part of our everyday life.  Not so very exciting as it was when  the Wright Brothers first flew their airplane at Kitty Hawk, NC.  

They want space flight to become an everyday occurrence, something that is just part of our everyday life. I guess that makes sense. Although I find it absolutely amazing that a huge ship like Discovery has the ability to launch and haul huge payloads and return to earth.

It seems that the direction future space flight is going to take is commercial space flight. It will be interesting to see that come about. The goal seems to be to make space flight and working and living in space and perhaps on the moon just a common everyday occurrence.  When I was a teenager this time seemed so far into the future and now look at where we are! 

I hope I am alive to see that first man on Mars.  If not my lifetime than surely in my boys’ lifetime. What an adventure!

One really cool thing we did learn is what will be come of Discovery once she has completed her final mission.  She will be residing at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. I’m excited about that and know we will be making a trip to see her.

One question that they answered was about future missions to the International Space Station (ISS). How will astronauts get there and back. US astronauts will ferry back and forth from earth to the ISS using the Russian Soyuz Rocket.  They already do this!

So it seems the times they are a changing.  I it will be interesting to see those new changes to the space program.

Homemade Crockpot Yogurt

I love yogurt. I do not like all the artificial ingredients and additives or the price.  I wanted to make my own but do not own a yogurt maker. I wanted  this one but the high price kept me from buying it.  I liked this particular model because it made the yogurt in one container. It did not have a bunch of small cups that many yogurt makers have. Still, I could not justify the hefty price tag.

I decided to try making my own yogurt in the crockpot (or slow cooker as some folks refer to them) after coming across this recipe. I tried it and it works but there were too many steps and lots of time involved. About 13 hours from start to finish.

I went back to buying store bought yogurt but still kept thinking I wanted to make my own.  Then after reading a discussion about homemade yogurt on a forum I belong, I decided to give it another go.

Once again in the crockpot. This time I decided to use a different recipe and a smaller crockpot. I also wanted to eliminate some of the steps and shorten the time involved.  

My biggest problem was my crockpot. It is 7 quarts. Yeah I know, HUGE! I love having a large crockpot and it does great for most of my slow cooker needs. It is just way too big for making yogurt.

While I was trying to figure this out, it occurred to me that I had a small crockpot that would be perfect for yogurt making.

I bought this little gem at a yard sale a couple of years ago for $5 and stuck it away in the cabinet. It is really small only 1 1/2 quarts. I actually thought I would use it for keeping gravy warm or using for fondue or something. I’ve never used it. Until now. 

It is the perfect size for making yogurt! I am so excited!

My friend Kendra shared this recipe and I have adapted for the crockpot.

Yogurt Recipe

• 4.5 cups of milk (whole, 2%, 1%, skim, whatever you like)
• 4-8 ounces of yogurt (high quality. Make sure you use yogurt that contain live & active cultures)
• 10 Tbsp. powdered milk
• 2-4 Tbsp. vanilla
• sweetener~2 Tbsp. honey or maple syrup (or the sweetener of your choice)

Pour 4.5 cups of milk into your crockpot. If you are using vanilla and sweetener. You would add those items at this point. *see my notes below

Turn crockpot to high. I let this heat for about a half hour or so.  The milk had little foam bubbles around the edges.  I checked the temperature of the milk and it was about around 160 degrees.  Turn off the crockpot and unplug it.

Add 4-8 oz. yogurt.  Add 10 tablespoons of powdered milk.

Cover with a thick large bath towel. I tucked the towel all the way around and somewhat under the crockpot.

Leave it for 7-8 hours. When you remove the towel you will find yogurt!

Very thick and yummy yogurt!

You can leave it like this or strain it to make Greek yogurt. I strain it with a mesh strainer and a coffee filter in the refrigerator.  The longer you let it strain the thicker it will become. You can make yogurt cheese so that it is spreadable.

I store my finished yogurt in a large canning jar.

*A few notes:

• Making yogurt using this method, I was able to reduce the time from start to finish from 13.5 hours to about 9.5 and I do not have to wait for my milk to cool down as you do using the recipe I linked to above.
• The yogurt is very tart before it is sweetened. (I love it this way)
• I sweeten our yogurt after it is made. I like to eat my yogurt unsweetened and just add some fruit or jam.
• I do not add vanilla to my yogurt most of the time unless I am specifically wanting to make vanilla yogurt. I like plain the best but do make vanilla for the boys.
• Be sure to keep a cup of yogurt out of your current batch of yogurt to make your next batch.
• you can add your own fruit or even a bit of jam to sweeten your yogurt.

This article has been submitted to The Christian Home weekly online magazine. 

 

 

Blast From the Past Meme~Week 1

My friend Debbie over at Debbie’s Digest hosts a really fun meme called Blast From the Past. I have been wanting to post some pictures and stories from the past and I thought I would join Debbie’s meme! You can too! You can go to her blog and read the rules to join her meme. I will be putting up my Blast from The Past posts on Sundays. That is a pretty quiet blog day here.

Justin has always been such a happy boy! He gets so excited about the things he loves! Space, history and in this case water! We were in Atlantic City at Holt Day in August 2006 Justin had just turned 5! He was so excited to be on the beach and near the ocean! Can you tell?

 

Again in the fall of 2006. I just love his open mouthed smile! I can feel his excitement!

My Sweet Boy!

Nordic Ware Roasting Pan & Chicago Cutlery 2 piece cutting Board~CSN Review

Back when I ordered my George Forman Grill from CSN Stores, I had some money left on my coupon code. I ended up ordering two additional items for my kitchen.

Nordic Ware Roasting Pan

This is a Nordic Ware Oven Essentials 16 inch medium roasting pan. I was quite surprised at how heavy it is! I didn’t expect such a heavy pan. This pan is red enamel on the outside and has a non stick coating on the inside for easy clean up. 

I love this pan! It cleans up so easily. Nothing sticks to it. I have made bbq chicken legs in it a few times now and clean up is a breeze. I always had to soak my glass pan in order to get it clean. The handles on this pan are very well made and make removing it from the oven very easy. I love the red color! It does recommend hand washing which is not a problem for me since I do not have a dishwasher.

This roaster can easily hold a 7 lb. chicken.

Chicago Cutlery 2 piece Rubber Wood Cutting Board Set

I was in need of a new cutting board. I have a plastic one I have been using for years. I used to have a wooden one but that one became unusable after many years of use.

I found this Chicago Cutlery 2 piece set. I had forgotten how nice it feels to cut on wood instead of hard plastic! This is a very nice cutting board set. The large piece measures 10” x 14” which is a nice size for everyday use.  The smaller piece measures 6” x 8” very small but great for things like cheese or when you just need to cut one stalk of celery or a carrot or something of that nature.  I have only used these a few times but already I love them and know they will get a lot of use in our house. They have a juice groove to catch any messes that may occur.  These boards are very comfortable to cut on.

Both of these products from CSN stores are wonderful and will get a lot of use in my kitchen. CSN stores have very fast shipping and their customer service has been very good!

disclosure: I received these items from CSN in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received. I was not required to give a positive review. All opinions in this post and on this blog are my own.

 

Homemade Laundry Detergent Questions

I have had a couple of my readers as a few more questions about making homemade laundry detergent and I thought I would answer them here for anyone else who may have questions.

Question: You’re boys grate the soap for the laundry detergent. Don’t you worry about them cutting their fingers on the grater?

The first time I had them grate the soap I showed them how to use the grated and explained that they needed to be careful not to get their fingers to close to the grater.  I was close by in case they had a problem. We have had no incidents to date with hurt or cut fingers.

I was searching around the internet yesterday and I came across a few other blogs that showed how to make laundry detergent.  One blogger suggested using a hand held cheese grater.  This would be a great alternative to a regular box grater if you are worried about fingers getting cut.

Question: Can you still use homemade laundry detergent if you do not have a food processor?

I do have a blender/food processor. It is an Oster just like this one. Nothing fancy. This is not really a true food processor, it is more like a chopper.  It mixes my laundry detergent beautifully.  I think if you do not have a food processor that using your blender might work.

I also searched around the internet and found that many folks who make their own powdered laundry detergent simply blend the ingredients together without the food processor.  Using the food processor just makes a finer powder.

Question: Do you have to allow your grated soap to dry out a bit?

I never have. We grate the soap and I mix it right away.

Question: Doesn't it make a lot of dust when you grind it up in the food processor.

Again I have never had a problem like this. No dust or powder going all over. I give it a few grinds and dump it into our storage containers.

Question: Do you have a problem with the powder dissolving?

No I have never had a problem with the powder dissolving.  I use cold water for all of my laundry and we have no issues with soap residue or un-dissolved detergent.

I hope this is helpful to you. If you have more questions please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

 

 

Lego Creation Thursday~February 24

Welcome to another addition of Lego Creation Thursday.  I guess I’ll call this edition the sickie edition. Both boys have been sick all week with colds and lots of coughing.  I was not sure we would even get any Legos created this week but they managed to come up with something!

Before I show the boys’ creations I did get that blog button made! Ta-da! Let me just say I am not good at making blog buttons but I finally figured it out! It has been a long time since I made my other blog button and I had forgotten how! A big thanks to Debbie for sending me those very neat Lego clip art links!  If you want the button you can grab it over on my sidebar.

Ok on to this week’s creations! Kaden is up first with his Statue of Liberty.

This Statue of Liberty is very unique in that she is bald an her head seems to be much smaller than her body! But I think she is cute!

Next we have Justin’s creation. Two planets, Venus and earth. It is very difficult to make round objects with Legos. I think Justin did a pretty good job though. In the past he has made the entire solar system out of Legos but was not really up to it this week.

Earth and Venus

I’m really excited. Last week we had a some new families join us. If you cannot participate each Thursday just stop by when you can! We love seeing all of your kids creations! Whether it is once a week or once a month!

What Lego creations have your kids come up with this week? Please join us! We would love to see their creations! You can link up below using Mr. Linky! I would appreciate it if you would link this post in your post or share our Lego Creation Thursday button in your post. Be sure to join us each week!

 

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal~February 22

In my life this week...

This week we are pretty much homebound. I really need to get these posts done over the weekend since I am mostly talking about last week!

Last week Kaden came down with a bad cough and cold. Kaden is recovering and has passed it on to daddy and Justin.  Justin seems to have it the worst. Poor boy. I feel so bad for him. He is just coughing, coughing, coughing!

In our homeschool this week...

We are having a light school week with all this sickness in the house. We are focusing on a bit of math and lots of reading. Justin does not feel up to doing much so we are continuing our reading of Miracles on Maple Hill and reading a story about Abraham Lincoln.  I also did go ahead and purchase a ticket to The Heart of the Matter Conference and am enjoying listening to the speakers.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

We’re not going anywhere this week.  Although I did go the library last night to return books, pay my fine and pick up additional books for school and just fun reading!  Last week we went on a wonderful field trip to learn about maple sugaring! Larry and I have a dinner to go to on Saturday night provided the kids are feeling better. I am looking forward to a night with other adults but we will wait and see how everyone is feeling. I don’t want to inflict any illness on my best friends who will be watching the boys.

My favorite thing this week was...

Maple Sugaring. Hands down it was the highlight of our week!

What's working/not working for us...

It seems that Justin is not happy with the way we are doing school. He wants to read more books and do lapbooks less often. So we are thinking of really changing things up for him to allow him more time for reading. I have to give this some thought and decide which direction we want to go. I am open to suggestions.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I guess as I just mentioned above. I am thinking of cutting back the lapbooking and maybe moving more toward a bit of notebooking or just using the lapbook components we really want to use? Justin is not a fan of writing and I am not pushing him to write at this time. He does write but it is far from his favorite subject.  He wants to read, read, read and be read to as well. We are going to go for more hands on type activities with him.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

I just started reading Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by Elizabeth Foss and this quote has stuck with me:

Our vision for a well-educated child is a child who has a heart for learning, a child who has the tools he needs to continue to learn for a lifetime and a child who has the love to want to do it. 

 

Homemade Laundry Detergent Update

I thought I would share a quick update on the homemade laundry detergent I made back in September.  I love it! I made a quadruple batch at the end of September. Last Friday we used the last of that batch! 

I average 4-5 loads per week. So our laundry detergent lasted 4 months! I am very pleased with the way it cleans our clothes. Today we made up a new quadruple batch and it took us less than twenty minutes to make with the boys help. I use just two tablespoons per load and only wash in cold water.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bites

 

I love granola and granola bars. I rarely buy them though for some reason. I guess mainly it is because of all the preservatives in them.  Not long ago I ran across this recipe and knew I wanted to give it a try.

They are really good! I followed the recipe exactly the only exception was that I did have to add an additional teaspoon of honey to help them stick together.  I also used regular size chocolate chips as I did not have any mini chips on hand.

I also did not have the mini silicone muffin cups but I did have regular size muffin cups. I filled them half way. I only had 12 muffin cups and ended up with some leftover granola.  I decided to use some mini loaf pans. I just lined them with parchment paper. I had enough for three. So I ended up with a total of 15 granola bites/bars.

(there is one missing. Larry was my taste tester)

Here are the ones I did in the mini loaf pans. They are about 2.5 inches long. The perfect size for a granola bar.

I wrapped them in waxed paper and store them in an air tight container. They are all ready for snacks for the week!

The next time I make them I am going to try using my mini muffin tins for a smaller granola bite.

The Christian Home Magazine

 

The Christian Home is a new blog magazine that started about three weeks ago. There are 12 different categories in this magazine. You will find my submission  in the hospitality section. There are some wonderful articles in this week’s edition. The Christian Home is hosted by The Legacy of Home and is posted every Monday.

You can read the previous issues here.

Howell Living History Farm~Field Trip Part II

Welcome to the second part of our Howell Living History Farm field trip. You can find part I here. 

After learning about maple tree tapping and collecting the sap to make syrup our next stop was the winter kitchen! This kitchen is equipped with many of the staples and kitchen tools used in a late 1800-1900’s kitchen. We learned about the wood burning stove. Some of the children brought in wood for the wood box. In the late 1800’s there were no such things as convenience stores.  Most farms grew what they needed and only purchased what they could not grow or make themselves at the general store. 

While coal was available to burn in the stove, the only place you could buy it was at the general store and it was expensive. Since trees were abundant on the farm, wood was used as the main source of heating the stove. Coal was saved for emergencies.

Everything was done on the farm, grinding the wheat into flour, corn into corn meal and then sifting it as well as churning the cream to make butter.

Sugar was also expensive and so foods were sweetened with honey from the bees kept on the farm and maple syrup from maple sugaring. Another neat thing we learned was that you can create maple sugar. When most of the water is boiled out of the sap you are left with a solid sugar that can be used to sweeten recipes.  If you need maple syrup you can add water back into the maple sugar to create syrup!

The lady of the house talking to us about the workings of the kitchen. You can see she has everything laid out and ready to make pancakes for us.

Notice the butter churn on the table and the bowl of flour ready to be sifted.  Can you see the two brown crocks on the back of the stove. Those were used to keep the pancakes warm as she made them on the griddle. You can see her dropping batter onto the griddle. We got to try homemade wheat pancakes and homemade butter and maple syrup! They were so good and piping hot! Yummmm!

All of the children had a turn at sifting the flour and churning the butter.

After being in that nice warm kitchen it was time to head out and chop the firewood! We learned that the children living on the farm did many of the chores. From collecting eggs to feeding and milking the cows to chopping the firewood, cleaning the chicken coop, feeding the chickens and much more.

Justin learning how to use a wedge to split the wood.

Larry getting to use the wedge

Next it was how to use the two man saw.This is a very flexible saw and it really takes team work to use it. (I know this seems backwards since you would cut the wood before you split it but our group was large and they split us in two smaller groups and the group we were in went to split wood first.)

A little help from the instructor. Larry eventually had to get down on his knee so he would be at a more even height as Justin. The instructor told us that it really didn’t matter so much about the strength of the two people using the saw. It was more important that they were evenly matched in height.

See the heart in the middle of that piece of wood? This was cut by a previous group and the instructors thought it was very neat that it was discovered on Valentine’s day week! Very cool!

This was out last stop! I hope you enjoyed our day! It was really fun. It is really worth your time to visit if you are in the area or near the farm. We live about an hour and a half away and we would love to go back and participate in some of the other activities.

Some suggestions if you go for maple sugaring.

• Wear appreciate clothing. It was in the 40’s when we were there and it was a bit cold. Be sure to wear warm clothes and take some gloves. 
• Wear boots! Even though there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and in many parts it was icy as well, it was muddy. I was so glad we took our boots! We needed them.
• Be prepared to walk. A lot. You have to walk to the farm from the visitor center.
• Most of the activities are outside. We spent the better part of two hours outside. Hence the suggestion for dressing warmly!

The folks that work on the farm were so nice and took time answering our questions. The guides that escorted us from one part of the farm to another were wonderful! They really seem to enjoy their work and took interest in our group.

If you enjoy history and want to experience a working farm you’ll not want to miss visiting Howell Living History Farm.

 

Howell Living History Farm~Field Trip Part I

Tuesday we went on a fabulous field trip with our homeschool support group to Howell Living History Farm.  What a fun day!

Howell Living History Farm is a working farm that portrays what farm life was like in NJ between 1890-1910 time period.  The farm hosts many programs and hands on demonstrations of many aspects of farming life including ice harvesting, blacksmithing, bee keeping, sheep shearing, wheat harvest, sugar tree tapping, maple sugaring and several other aspects of a working farm from this time period.

Our day included learning about maple sugaring and sugar tree tapping.

We started our day by walking from the visitor center out to the farm. This was quite a walk and the scenery was beautiful. This area of NJ has a lot of hills compared to here in more southern part of NJ that we live in which is quite flat. The grounds were still fairly snow and ice covered as well as a bit muddy since the temperature was above freezing during out visit.  

Our first stop was a visit to the evaporator room to see how the maple sugar is made into syrup. In order to get syrup from the sugar the syrup is boiled down. You need a lot of sap to make maple syrup.  It takes 10 gallons of sap to produce one quart of maple syrup!

As each child went into the evaporator room they took a piece of firewood and gave it to the gentleman that was in charge.  The evaporator is heated by a wood fire. Each child got to view the fire which is in the bottom of the evaporator.

This is the evaporator. It is a very large piece of machinery that boils the water out of the sap.  Can you see the steam rising?

While we were learning about the syrup making process we were each given a piece of Staghorn Sumac which is a type of scrub tree. It is ideal for making tree taps (called  a spile) for collecting sap.  Today metal tree taps (spiles) are mainly used. This gave us an idea what is must have been like many years ago to make and use this type of tap.

Staghorn Sumac

 

Staghorn Sumac makes an ideal tree tap because it’s center is very soft and can be easily removed with a nail or other metal object. The brown in the center is what you would remove to create a hollow yet sturdy tap.

Next we moved on to tap the maple trees. Do you know there is only one type of  maple tree that you can get sap from to make maple syrup?  The Sugar Maple.  Do you know that sugar maples only grow in one part of the world? Yes they only grow in North America which include parts of Canada and mainly North Eastern part of the United States. There are sugar maples in some of the warmer climate states but they are unable to produce maple syrup because they lack the cold nights and warm days required for producing a sweet sap. If the weather is too warm the sap will be bitter.

creating a hole to tap the tree.

We learned how to tap a tree and we learned that the tree forms a scar just like people do when they have a cut. The area where the tree is tapped heals and a scar is left showing where the tree was tapped.

drilling the hole for the tap (spile)

Both boys having a turn at drilling. Everyone in our group had the opportunity to drill.

buckets for collecting the sap

Hanging the bucket on the tap to catch the sap

can you see the sap dripping from the tap? As soon as this tree was drilled even before the tap was inserted sap was pouring out. Amazing! (click on the picture to enlarge it)

The buckets are covered to keep animals out of the sap.

There were buckets hanging all over the farm collecting sap. It was really neat if you listened carefully or were standing very near a bucket you could hear the sap dripping into the buckets.

The children were able to remove the full buckets of sap that had been hung the day before and replace them with fresh buckets to collect the remaining sap.

This is how they collect the sap on the farm with horses and bob sled!

can you see the milk cans on the back of the bob sled?

Meet Jack (L)  and Chester (R) Two of the workhorses on the farm. These are Belgian horses.  We learned about the work they do on the farm and the types of shoes they were depending on the weather. They had on ice shoes on their front hoofs the day we visited to keep them from slipping on the ice. These shoes have little spikes on the bottoms (like cleats) that dig into the ice and snow.

Time to collect the sap! Some of these buckets were filled to the top with sap! This is one of the ladies that work on the farm and guided us through our tour.

Stay tuned for part two of our visit to Howell Living History Farm!