Bonjour!

Yesterday I found this blog and was so excited. Erica has been wanting to learn French and my attempts have left her bored stiff. I'm hoping to find some inspiration from Katie! At the very least, it will give us some reading about all thing Francais. 

Katie also has an amazing give-away--a Rosetta stone French level one curriculum. Perfect for us homeschoolers! I hope to win, of course (which is one reason I am posting this) but it's also fun to share other people's blogs. If you are interested in french cuisine, culture, history and language, check it out!

Way back (way, way, way back) in high school I took two years of French and loved it. I was also concurrently on my third and fourth year of German. I loved French. German, well not so much. But my siblings had taken German and I think grandpa would have been very disappointed had I chosen not to continue in their footsteps. Whenever we went to their house for a gathering he would ask us "Was willst du haben?" (what will you have?) as he served everyone their drinks. I will never forget that, but most of my four years of German have leaked out of my brains.

There was something about French though. Perhaps it's just the way the language sounds, that I really loved. So I continued in college and briefly considered it as a major (that's a whole nother Oprah!), but I didn't. However I did learn how to make kick-ass crepes from the French club crepe sale. Oooooh, la la! Again, without using the language, it has dried up in my memory. Things come back, but good resources are very helpful.

One of the great things about homeschooling is the learning that you can do with your kids. I can't remember most of what I learned in elementary and middle school. So really, these past years have been like a review for me:-) Hopefully, working together, we can help each other learn to speak French. Then we can converse with each other and HE and the boy won't have a clue what we're saying (tee, hee, hee!)

Yummy Cheesey Bread

I made Mama Pea's Italian bread the other day and it was yummy! Follow the link for the recipe--I'm too lazy to copy it all down here. Plus, I'd like to send some more traffic her way and make sure to acknowledge that it is her bread and not mine.

I actually did not knead by hand, but used my stand mixer instead. (yup, too lazy). After the prescribed 20 minutes, I divided, shaped and placed on the oiled and cornmealed pan.

Then I threw it into the fridge. We couldn't wait for cheesey bread, so we only left it in the fridge for 2 hours.

Baked and viola!

So pretty!

We turned 2 loaves into cheesey bread.


Ya know how Homer Simpson drools and moans over donuts?


Insert that sound here:

Big Fire

The snow arrived just in time for our annual Christmas tree burning party.

Thank goodness..... I was a tiny teeny tad bit nervous about the open field of brown, crunchy and very flammable looking grass.

Plus, snow always makes a winter bonfire party much more festive. I can't begin to imagine what the kiddos would have done to amuse themselves if they didn't have snow to throw, dig and light fireworks in.

We made fire. Big fire.

We made chili. Big chili.

We made fun. Big fun.

Looking forward to next year....

Balmy in Wisconsin

The smell of springtime was in the air as we made our way down to the mailbox today.

I admit, it was nice.

Though at the same time, it's unsettling.

40 degrees on January 5th in Wisconsin just doesn't feel right.

It's not the first time for warmish weather this time of year, but given the lack of real cold and snow... well, it's just weird.

I was born and raised (mostly) in Wisconsin.

I love the seasons--all four of them.

When it's winter, I want it to be winter.

Bring it on--cold, snow, wind.

I don't like this.

No, I don't like this at all.

........but the bees do.

Humph!

Well, I am no PW.

This morning I had decided to make a somewhat decadent breakfast--a pear tart using pie dough that I had frozen a couple weeks ago. It's PW's (Pioneer Woman, aka, Ree Drummond) recipe and she claims that if you freeze it in a nice disk shape, you can take it out of the freezer, allow it to rest on your counter top and then roll it out.

Mine did not go that way.

It did not go that way at all.

The dough was hard, even after sitting out for two hours.

When I attempted to roll it, it was more like mushing and pushing and then I had several large chunks of pie crust sitting there.

I sort of pressed them all together...

kinda like putting the pieces of pangea back together again.

Then I tried to roll again.

More breaking apart.

Then I sprinkled on some water, hoping that would make the dough stick together.

It did, a bit.

But it also stuck more mightily to my rolling pin.

Add flour.

In the end, I just sorta pinched all these pieces together and scraped up the crust and slapped it onto my parchment-lined baking tray.

Before attacking rolling my dough, I had sliced up my pears and stirred in some lemon juice, light brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. If I hadn't already made the filling, I think I would have given it up as a bad job and tossed the dough into the chicken bucket.

So, then I poured the pear mixture into the middle of my dough. Then I (gently) folded over the edges of the dough...

but the dough cracked and split and all the juice poured all over the pan.

Great.

So I threw it into the oven, set the timer and drowned my sorrows in the shower.

No photos, because my fingers were essentially glue.

People who bake always make it look so easy.

*sigh*





Note: Despite my frustrations with my frozen pie dough,  I do enjoy PW's cookbook--she's not afraid of butter. And the "fresh" dough I made was easier to roll, though I still have to pinch parts together. 

I think I have a mental block when it comes to baking. 

Tippy

A little over four years ago (has it been that long?) we adopted "Tippy". We were looking for a medium-sized dog, but other than that we didn't have any other parameters. Neither HE nor I had ever owned a dog.

When I was a kid we had several.

"Went through" is really a more accurate term. Unfortunately our home closely bordered a road that was not too frequently traveled, but the speed limit was 55. Most of our dogs seemed to think that the road was part of our property and therefore they needed to chase off any large metal intruders. We lost several dogs this way and for some reason in the early years my parents never tried to prevent this by erecting a fence or tying up the dogs while they were outside. We had 5 acres, so I think they wanted the dogs to roam freely on our property and the dogs didn't understand that the road did not fall into the category of our property.

Anyhoo, never owned a dog as an adult. Never had to think about temperament, length of fur, breed characteristics....

And as we moved through the phase of looking for a dog, we didn't spend a whole lot of time looking at those factors either. We spent some time investigating the types of dogs we thought would be better for a family with cats and small children, but we figured if we adopted a puppy, we could train the dog from the start, rather than having to re-train someone else's dog.

We found her on Petfinder. It was love at first sight.

Actually, we fell in love with her and all of her 8 brothers and sisters.

The local Petsmart worked with local shelters and rescues, hosting "meet-n-greet" types of events. The shelter or rescue organization would bring their adoptable animals to the store and folks could adopt them, if you had all of your paperwork in order.

I had already taken a look at these adorable puppies online and hoped that by the time we got to the store, at least one of them would still be available for adoption. I had contacted the rescue and filled out an application ahead of time, thinking that if one of these puppies didn't work out, we would be "pre-approved" for the next time around.

As the kids and I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed a woman filling a shopping cart full of puppies (how cute is that?). We quickly jumped out of the car and "oohed and aahed" at those puppies. The kids wanted all of them. We followed the woman into the store, giggling and melting over those 9 cuties.

Once inside the store, the puppies were placed in an enclosure, wherein every person in the store descended upon them.

I stood back and watched my kids.

And watched the puppies.

Okay, okay--I was in there too, petting and playing with the little balls of joy.

But I was also observing.

Some of them were barking and jumping. Others seemed frightened and nervous. Some were chewing on the enclosure.

One of them seemed interested but calm.

That was the dog I wanted. I checked with the woman from the rescue and discovered that "Tippy" (the name her foster mom had given her) was available. Several of her litter-mates had already been spoken for. I filled out the actual adoption form and handed the woman a check for the adoption fee.

Then the kids and I went through the store and bought about $2,000 worth of dog supplies.

We paid for our store purchases, loaded them into the car and then went back inside to get our puppy.

I couldn't believe they were just going to let us take her home! Didn't we have to pass a test or something? It was kinda like taking Erica home from the hospital-- I was a nervous wreck!

Tippy was shivering in my arms as I carried her to the car. The poor thing whined the entire way home. We all talked to her and told her it would be okay--that she was going home and we loved her so much.

We are so fortunate. She has been the best companion we could have hoped for. She's smart, sweet and obedient (well, most of the time). I don't think we can take a whole lot of credit for her amazing personality: I think she was just born that way. 

We discovered that she was part australian shepherd, part lab. She stays close to home (the road and cars are too far away to bother with) and mostly wants to be around her people. She barks whenever someone comes over, but settles down quickly. She protects us and we lavish love and treats upon her.

She was cute as a button when she was a pup:

She got along with the kitties from the start:

She loves a good cuddle:

She adores grandpa (and pretty much everyone else):

She's smarter than me:

She is loyal and takes her job quite seriously:

Beautiful Tippy, we are so blessed to have you in our family.

And we love you so much.

Merry, Merry Christmas