Pink and Green Homeschooling

Assalamu alaikom
MissPink has turned so Green that she is now a homeschooler! No, I'm not homeschooling because I think it is good for the environment haha, but I'm sure I could find some arguments for the case :)

I wish I could make an awesome blog that is organized and full of printables, links, and articles like other cool homeschoolers, but I just don't know how and don't feel like learning how right now. Any free time I have is spent poring awesome homeschooling resources, saving them, printing them, or figuring out how to use them.

I've spent Ramadan teaching Islamic Studies, Quran, and Salah (praying), to the kids. It's been a great transition for all of us. They are getting used to sitting at our table and doing work. I am getting used to my new role, and little Aisha is getting used to seeing us busy in a new way. She will be the biggest challenge, I think, because she wants me all for herself, but I hope with time she will get used to our daily routine.

Our first day of school will be Tuesday September 14, insha'Allah. I have all the books lined up and have lesson planned for a month ahead. I am impressed with how the Math books are designed to complete one lesson a day. Each lesson builds on the previous one. All the subjects have a similar logical approach. This makes it easier for the child to pick up and start rather than wait for Mom to sit and talk talk talk.

I'm learing about various local businesses who have special programs for homeschoolers. Canyon Creek Gymnastics has a 2 hour class for homeschooler every Thursday. You pay $5 per child and they get to play with an instructor. The kids loved it yesterday when we went for the first time. It was also fun to be in a room full of other homeschoolers!!! I found out about other similar places, so next Thursday we'll be going to the Heritage Farmstead Museum to learn about pioneer living!

Hopefully I'll be able to come and blog about our new adventure. I would love to link up all the resources I've been using. I'd love to talk about curriculum and stuff like that... we'll see how much time I'll have!

New adventures

Assalamu alaikom

I tried something new this past weekend. I canned figs. I tried three different recipes, and they are all good. My favorite is the third one I tried, otherwise known as "Batch C". I was always afraid of the process of canning as each time I read a recipe I felt like it too much of a fuss. But somehow, this past weekend, I felt like I could handle it. Perhaps it was the 200 fresh figs sitting in my fridge that needing tending to? I don't know, but I knew I couldn't eat them all! It was fun, and I"ll do it again if the fruit and time are both right. Just not for a while, probably!

I'm trying something else 'new', and that is homeschooling my children. 3 of the 4 will be in school this year, so I have done my research, ordered my materials, and now just need to figure out the scheduling. So many things lead up to this decision, and now looking back it seems more and more reasons add up for it. And, you know, I won't go into those details here because, really, it is a very personal decision to make and those reasons I might list could easily sound petty or insignificant to some. But all together, combined, and multiplied by 4 (are you doing the math now?) it made sense for my family. And I do intend for it to go on for a long time, hopefully all the way through graduation. But.. if for some reason one or all of them ended up back in public school, I would (try) to be OK with that, too. Currently, though, I feel very strongly about teaching them in the home, together, with our values, our rhythm, and our expectations of behavior and character. They are so different when they don't go to school every day. Compared to their attitudes during the school year, their summer time selves are sooo much nicer to live with. They are more relaxed, they play together, and they don't seem as cranky or stressed. So that's about all there is to that. I feel it's just another natural extension of my philosophy of parenting, and I pray it will be beneficial to me and to them.

I'm starting to check out what is good to plant in July for a fall harvest.

What's next

Assalamu alaikom
I still love my wooden garden box I got earlier this year. The crops I planted in it this spring didn't turn out well, but I think I can improve the situation for next time. For starters, I can block the air ducts where some parent birds set up house. I think they did the most damage to the new little seedlings. Secondly, I can make sure they get tons of water as I suspect I might not have given them enough at first. Third, I don't have a third. I'll just try, try again! I think July is actually a good time to put in seeds for fall crop, so I will get to researching that insha'Allah.

I also still love my wooden composting box I got earlier this year (or was it end of last year?) I filled it and it sure stank, but it finally turned into good ol' black gold. The only thing holding me back from starting it anew is that I'm afraid I don't have enough materials besides kitchen scrap, and that will cause more stink and more fruitflies. I noticed my neighbor has a lot of cut grass heaping up in piles in his yard! His grass got really long, and it looks like he had a hard time cutting it b/c he only cut some of it. And what he did cut is sitting there in piles. If I could guarantee that kind of stuff regularly I wouldn't hesitate, but I don't have that kind of grass.

Soooo.... I do have on big fat confession. Coming back from our (almost) 4 weeks in Jordan, I found it hard to cope being the sole grown-up with 4 young children. During the trip I had my mom and my husband with me at all times, and at my inlaws house I had my MIL and their maid around as well. So when I found myself alone with the kids the following Monday morning after getting back I felt like there surely was no way I could go back to doing it solo. What's the confession you ask... I buckled and let my husband buy paper towels again to make clean-ups a little easier. *gasp* I know, it's shocking. LOL I said 'yes' and then 'no', and then I said 'fine just get them'. He said to me: "You're really struggling with this aren't you". Yes!!! It's the principle of it!!!! So now I *sparingly* use the paper towels, and I hope it's something I won't buy more of in the future.

Till next time....
Z

Oh where did my garden go?

Assalamu alaikom dear readers,

I have a love/hate relationship with blogging. At times I think about many topics I'd like to blog about and share. Other times I wonder why on earth I ever created this thing. That's why you don't find me updating it very often. Sometimes I feel too busy with Life, and other times I am eager to share the busy-ness of Life. So.... this afternoon I'm excited to update about my compost situation. I started it a few months ago as many of you know. We went through some tough times. Odors, fruitflies, odors, and stagnation. No progress seemed to be in the future. I finally stopped adding to the pile and prayed that it would just rot on its own. A couple of months later I was overjoyed to peek inside and find a whole bunch of dirt! I stirred it some more and decided to let it sit a few more weeks just be sure everything got all rotted out just the same. Last night I emptied the contents over most of my garden area, and I finished spreading it over the front garden this morning. The bin was hardly half way full after all was said and done, and it yielded about a whole 20gallon garbage can. I will probably try for another pile later, but I want to be sure I have more than just kitchen scraps to put in there.

We have a gorgeous sunflower growing by the front door thanks to Maryam's preK class. They put sunflower seeds in a little soil back in March. The kids brought the little plastic cups with the seedlings in them home in May. I put Maryam's in the front garden and watched it grow. We were out of town for a month and were shocked to see the growth it had made in that time! I will hopefully post a picture.

The vegetables didn't turn out so well. Most were eaten by birds as seedlings. The ones that made it were probably not watered enough and were in too much sun. I will try again for some fall crops insha'Allah.

Alright, well, it's taken me about 3 hours to type up this short entry, so I will wrap it up now. hopefully I'll get pictures up soon. Thanks for reading!

May 1st Update

Assalamu alaikom wa rahmatullah

Well, the garden definitely has taken some unexpected turns! First, after I planted my little seedlings, I watered them and put up supports for them to grow on. My heart sank a few days later when I peeked outside to find most of them gone! Eaten all the way down. Cucumber, tomato, peppers, and lettuces. A couple were left. Then, a few days later, half of the basil leaves were eaten off! Shoot!!! I put a little pinwheel in the garden box, but would you believe that when I went to check on it the next morning, the birds had picked out one of the 'petals' of the flower pinwheel! These birds mean business. So, I have less things growing than I had hoped for. Each time my green pepper flowers it gets eaten off, so I guess it will never grow a pepper.

It's ok. I will possibly set up some tall stakes and put netting over it. Once we get back from our summer trip I can look to making the next growing season more successful. For now I'm not starting anything new since I'm getting ready for our trip.

My peace lillies are doing exactly what I had hoped! I repotted them into smaller pots after reading they like to be slightly rootbound. I then cut off all the browned and burned-looking leaves. Very quickly after that new, healthy leaves have been growing without turning brown. Success!

Back in January I blogged about talking to my children in a softer voice and about praising them more than correcting them. I just want to bring this issue back up for myself and for my readers. Anger provokes more anger, so I'm renewing my goal to guide them and teach them in a more positive way. Praise goes a lot further than rage! LOL

Okie dokie....that's all for today.

Oops plus a parenting tangent

Assalamu alaikom and peace to you lovely folks reading my blog!

I'm a bad bad blogger. I've been gardening and not taking pictures. I know. I'm sorry. Things are growing, and you're missing it. Ha! How will you ever move on? I will go find my camera and snap a few pics insha'Allah (God willing) tomorrow. I've already eaten from my green onions, and tonight use parsely in the dinner. I don't know how fast parsely grows back, so this is an experiment for me because I chopped off the entire bunch growing. No more parsley for a while! lol

I did get a pink 'knockout rose' for the front yard, but you'll get to see all that soon enough. I'm sure you drying to know what parenting topic is on my mind tonight.

Ok, so you know how people can have pretty strong opinions when it comes to how big (or small) a family should be. I've even been one of those people who has said it wouldn't be right to have a 4th child because of how the older 3 would surely not get the attention they need. (and I'm talking about families with children close in age, not spaced out like 5 years apart) I get the concern. But now that I have 4 children age 9 and under, I feel confident in this conclusion I've drawn.

I feel that everyone gets a lot more love and attention with the bigger family. There are more people for you to talk to or who will want to talk to you (not just parents, but sibling to sibling). This is great for playtime, afterschool, weekend mornings when mom and dad want to sleep in. It's perfect for after-dinner goofing off, having a helper while cooking, gardening, and folding laundry. And when you feel a little lonely, it's not long before someone will come around with something to talk about or do.

Also, a little parenting can go a long way, so you don't actually need to spend 4X the energy/effort just because you have 4 children (or 5 or 6). Actually, the trickle down theory works great here because the law of the land is already established and they often keep one another in check (except for the times they all encourage each other to be naughty!). Once the hard work is done with the first one or two, the rest of the family will follow suit. Of course, each child does still need some one on one time, but it's not as much as with the first child b/c a lot of the work has already been done.

Another nice thing is how much help you can get if you set the plan up right. I get so much help with household jobs, homework helping, and just with them playing together. Helping one child with homework is easier when the second child has a third and fourth child to play with instead of sitting there being jealous and wanting your attention. Telling 3 or 4 kids to go play outside has way more chances of happening than telling one kid to go outside and play (without you)

My point for this whole thing is not to say one way is better than the other, but to point out that having more children doesn't necessarily mean they will each lack in attention and love from the parent. They will feel all of that love because it has manifested itself into the entire structure that is called the family. They'll still get the attention they need, and maybe it is not as much as the other way, but who is to say that that is wrong or bad. And as a result they will have gained a lot of siblings!

Thanks for reading, and I didn't mean to offend anyone. Just realizing that my original fear of not having enough to go around isn't really the case. And the biggest disclaimer of all is that none of the above applies to the first year if you have a baby! But if you can survive that, then you'll be home free.

My Peace Lilly

Salam,

I had a very large peace lily plant with great big green leaves, and it hasn't flowered in almost a whole year now. A few months ago, I thought to split the plant in half and make two plants out of one. I did so, successfully, and bought nice looking indoor pots to put them in. Since then, the leaves have been getting brown and crunchy. They're not dying off or anything, just looking like someone put a match to the edges. New leaves come in nice and green, then turn brown at the tips later on.

Well, I did a search on this and learned that peace lily's like to be slightly root bound! I figured that when I separted the large plant into two smaller ones that the new pots were way too big for the roots. So this weekend I put the two smaller plants into smaller pots in an effort to make the roots nice and cozy.

I'll report back in a few weeks with an update. I'm hoping the leaves will stay healthy and that I'll get some nice white flowers out of them!

Here's a picture of a plant.

After the freeze

Assalamu alaikom

The average last freeze date for this city is March 15. Wouldn't ya know on March 20 we got a record 8 inches of snow in Plano! My tulips seemed to come out ok, but the little radish seedlings are all yellow now. I will see how they do this week, and either way, i will plant another row b/c it's been two weeks since the first planting.

I brought into the garage the little lettuce seedlings that just recently popped out of the dirt, and they are fine now. My onions are already well established (and almost ready to be pulled), so they're good to go.

In a couple of weeks once it's a bit warmer I will check around the nursery for my tomatoes, peppers, and cukes.

The compost bin is almost done turning. I have quit adding to it for a week or so now to give it a chance to finish up. Once I take out the current compost and distribute it in my yard I will reconsider if I want to have a pile going during the hot months (smell, fruitflies, etc..)

garden update

Assalamu alaikom

Two days ago I planted some seeds. I usually garden using transplants (the plant has already been grown to a healthy 6 inches tall), but this year I want to try a few of my items from seed. I planted basil and lettuce from seed. It's so funny b/c the seed is the size of half a crumb, and it just disappears into the dirt. Insha'Allah they'll grow!

I will probably buy the rest of my garden items as transplants: tomato, pepper, cucumber. Oh yes, I have seeds for parsley and radishes, but that's it.

The daffodils are so pretty, and the tulip greens are starting to come up too. I'll try to get some pictures together.

Did it!

Man, what a productive week. I'm getting the hang of things like they were in the old days. I haven't been like this since before I got pregnant with Aisha! Starting last week I keep Maryam in PreK til 3pm instead of picking her up at 11:30. Man. What a difference. I have cleaned closets, reorganzied toys and book shelves, and have cooked 5 freezer meals! Having that block of free time is amazing, and to top it off, little Aisha now sleeps for a good midday nap unlike before.

So I split a lasange recipe into two 8*8 pans and put them in the freezer today. I also just make two meatloaves (2lbs each), cooked them, sliced them, and then froze them. I have spaghetti sauce divided up for some jumbo shells and for a spaghetti dinner. Oh ya I also made a King Ranch Casserole last week :)

The toys were in a state of chaos. In the bottom of the buckets I found clothing, socks, hair accessories, gameboy games, and long lost puzzle pieces. Now that I have a toddler (sort of), I arranged a spot for those toys so that she could take advantage of 'em. For the older kids, well, they're very low on toys (which is good), so it was easy to put them into a few tubs. They don't play with 'toys' so much. They mostly 'misuse' something else in the house and make it into their latest passtime.