Jimmie's Collage

Buying Flour

Jimmie — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:51:58 +0000

Baking is not part of traditional Chinese cuisine. Stir-frying, steaming, and braising are common. But ovens are still very much a rarity in a Chinese kitchen. The fact that I can make bread, cakes, and cookies is amazing to my local friends. They don’t realize how terrible the local bakeries’ bread is because they’ve never had quality bread or desserts. (Well, until they visit me, that is!)

I have to make our own breads in order to have something edible and somewhat nutritious. (The bread here tends to be very light and sweet. I think it is made with water instead of milk, all white flour, no eggs, and a lot of sugar. Think ultra sweet Wonderbread. Yuck.)

Some cities do have Western style bread shops, but our small city still has only Chinese-styled breads, things like buns stuffed with sweetened red bean paste or stuffed with dried meat floss. Things like tortillas, bagels, pita bread, raisin bread are non-existent.

So I use lots of flour. So much flour that I buy it in bulk at the bakery supply shop in the wholesale market. Here is my latest delivery — a 25 kg bag (over 50 lbs) of bread flour and a 23 kg bag of whole wheat flour. I don’t do it so much to save money (although it is cheaper this way) as to save the trouble of carrying home a 5 pound bag of flour every time I go to the grocery store.

The bakery supply shop has become so used to me that they will deliver right to my door. What a convenience! I just call them up when I’m running low. This much flour lasts us about 6 months. I spent 350 RMB on this delivery; that’s about $50.

This time they even brought me some muffin papers. My last package (all red) lasted me two entire years. I don’t know how many are in there– maybe 600? Looks like this cycle will be yellow.

The whole wheat flour has to be special ordered since none of their other customers uses it. (That tells you a lot about the quality of bread in our city, doesn’t it? Four million people and I am the sole user of whole wheat flour.) I store the flour in big plastic bins in my bedroom beside the chest freezer. I’ve never had any trouble with weevils or other pests since the bakery’s flour is much fresher than what is in the grocery stores.

Blogs With Substance Award

Jimmie — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:47:37 +0000

Aren’t I feeling special? I’ve been given the Blogs With Substance Award by Nadene, Barb, and Alex.

AND Colleen also gave me a Sunshine Award.

PLUS Suji bestowed a Versatile Blogger Award on me.

Thanks so much to all five of you. I’m very flattered.

Blogs With Substance Award Rules

Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using ten (10) words.

MY TEN WORD ANSWER–

Be real but positive; no one likes complainers. Share generously.

Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.

I’ve already outlined my picks for group blogs at Best Homeschooling Blogs. So I’ll stick with just two individuals’ blogs.

Camp Creek Blog — an “out of the box” philosophy to homeschooling that always makes me THINK.
Buntglas – an Italian blog, but you don’t even have to understand the words to be impressed. Amazing timelines, nature explorations, and sketches.

I read a lot of great blogs, but these two are ones that you probably don’t know about but that I’d really like you to visit and glean from. With just two (instead of 10) you’re more likely to actually click over, I think. So go click.

Summer Homeschooling CurrClick Contest Winner

Jimmie — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:21:21 +0000

The winner of the Summer Homeschooling CurrClick Contest is Amy @ Hope Is the Word!

I had 28 comments, and comment #20 was the randomly chosen number at Random.org.

You get your choice of a $25 gift certificate or one audiobook of your choice from CurrClick.

Congratulations, Amy! CurrClick will be contacting you soon.

Thanks to all of you who participated. We are an amazing group of homeschool mommas! The learning never stops.

And don’t forget to enter the CurrClick Travel the World Photo Contest. Five finalists will receive the entire Map Trek Series from Knowlege Quest. And the Grand Prize winner gets a Garmin Nuvi 205W GPS Navigation system.

Funny Chinglish Signs & Mushrooms

Jimmie — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:19:00 +0000

Three lovely Chinglish examples for you today.

These two are signs near our home. I walk by them often but usually without my camera. They are just too good not to share, so I deliberately took my camera one day.

I think this is a fancy name for what is in essence a tea house or maybe even a bar.

Yummy. Now doesn’t that name just make you want to go right in and order up several bowls?

And this one is thanks to my dear husband. He’s a gem about picking up a few needed grocery items on his way home. I texted him, asking for peppers and mushrooms (for pizza).

When he got home, I was surprised to find these dried mushrooms in the bag. He explained that the grocery store had no fresh mushrooms. (It’s very common to not be able to buy certain things at the supermarket. The choices fluctuate greatly.) The ladies in the store explained that these would work if I boiled them in water for a few minutes. (“What do they know about making pizza?” I wondered.) As I grabbed some scissors to open the bag, I noticed the wonderful Chinglish on the package.

My husband said that he knew I’d like the crazy English, so he bought that particular brand. Good man! And they worked okay on the pizza. A bit chewy, but maybe that was just from our mind.

Our Yellowstone Family Vacation and Ultimate Field Trip

Jimmie — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:07:18 +0000

my husband, daughter, and mom

Personally I think that our vacation to Yellowstone is the best vacation we’ve ever had. The vacation to Xian ranks second, but it’s in no way a contender for first place after we’ve seen our country’s first national park. Granted, they are both dream locations, sort of “can’t go wrong” spots.

Yellowstone's Grand Canyon

Why did I adore Yellowstone?

The natural beauty is so varied and gorgeous.
The geology of the place fascinates me.
Wildlife is everywhere!

Plus, we took my mom along with us. Spending time with her in such a beautiful location was truly priceless. (Love you, MOM!)

Actually, when you think about it, Yellowstone (Montana & Wyoming in general) is about as different from a Chinese city as you can possibly get. And I needed that. We all did. We needed a place where there are more animals than people. A place where there are big open skies — blue skies with clouds or stars. A place where people use manners and respect the wonders of God’s creation.

On Lake Yellowstone

Near Lake Yellowstone

Mammoth Springs

At Mammoth Springs

Surreal Landscape at Mammoth Springs

The Geology Nerd Loved Norris Geyser Basin (note thrift store windbreaker)

The Geology Nerd also loved this Boulder. We had to pull over for a pic.

Old Faithful Geyser

I have to say that I saw a Chinese tourist spit — hawk a big loud loogie kind of spit — into one of the geyser areas off the boardwalk. I was horrified, and other American visitors were too. I wanted to pull a “citizen’s arrest” or a junior ranger arrest and tell them a thing or two about how we treat our national parks. But they were already down the boardwalk when I picked my chin off my feet. There were loads of Chinese tourists in the Old Faithful area. In the cafeteria I kept thinking I was back in China as I watched them slurp the food straight off the plate just like they do here. I overheard conversations in Mandarin. It was almost disconcerting, like a “this does not compute” moment.

Check out the bear claw marks on this tree. We found this on our hike. Sort of scary. There are signs all over Yellowstone and Grand Tetons telling you to be “bear aware.” We were told that bears have never attacked people who were in groups of four or more. Ah ha! So that’s another good reason to invite my mother along on the trip. (Just kidding, Mom.)

I have lots more Yellowstone Photos, so if these samples aren’t enough, go soak in the beauty of that Flickr set. I uploaded only 200 of the 1000 that I took. Our trip was ten days, so that’s only 100 photos per day. And although it took me a very long time to organize them all, I often wished I had taken more shots.

Life in China Note –I took my 212 selected images on a SD card to the photo processing shop to have prints made. I told the clerk I wanted all the photos on the card. As she glanced over the thumbnails she said, “You want to print all these without any people in the pictures!?” It made me laugh. This is such a cultural difference. Westerners take mostly photos of landscapes and monuments. Asians take photos of themselves in front of landscapes and monuments. So to her, it was a waste to print out a photo of “just a landscape.” Actually, as the workers started looking at the full size images, they were impressed with the beauty of Yellowstone.

Yellowstone River

Elk

The bison were my absolute favorite animal at Yellowstone. I think they are beautiful animals. And I guess their comeback from near extinction appeals to me somehow. Is it bad to admit that I thought buffalo meat was delicious? We had buffalo pot roast, buffalo meatloaf, buffalo chili, and buffalo burgers. All were delicious.

Buffalo (Bison)

Since it was “summer” in Yellowstone (how 40-50 degrees F can be summer, I’ll never understand), the buffalo were shedding. In lieu of touching a buffalo, I hoped to find some of this shed fur on the ground. While on a hike along Lake Yellowstone, I found a clump! It was much softer than I imagined. I was sorely tempted to take it out of the park. But as a Junior Ranger, I know that taking anything from a national park is against the rules. Also the ranger told us about all the small animals who use this fur in their burrows and nests. So I was surely not going to steal a little warmth from cute chipmunks and marmots. We kept it a few days and then discarded it back into nature before we left the park.

Trying on Shed Buffalo Fur

Speaking of “summer,” having a snowball fight in June was quite a novelty for us.

Even though I had read to be prepared for cold temperatures, we had no idea it would be so cold all day long. Some days I wore my pajama bottoms under my jeans for extra warmth. And we stopped in a thrift store in Bozeman to stock up on fleece sweaters. My Chacos stayed packed in my suitcase the entire trip.

Buffalo and Baby

Horse Riding Outside the Park

On our horse ride, early in the trip, I discovered this sage plant that grows all over Yellowstone. The air is full of the fragrant smell. Heavenly.

Sage

The park rangers at Yellowstone are amazing! Helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, they made our trip really educational.

We all four got our Junior Ranger badges at Yellowstone and at Grand Tetons. (There is no age limit contrary to what the publications state.) To get them, you can go to any visitor center and pay a small fee for the newspaper which you read and fill out as you explore the park. You also have to attend some ranger programs or take a ranger led hike. The Junior Ranger program at each park was very well designed. It really gave our visit some purpose besides just gawking. (Gawking is okay, of course, but it’s nice to have a goal in your gawking.)

We were looking for answers to questions, or filling out routes on a map, or timing Old Faithfuls’ eruption, or sketching things we saw. The newspaper is pretty much a nature journal workbook. Once you’ve completed it, you take it back to any visitor center and ask a ranger to look it over and issue your badge. It’s a proud moment when you finally get it.

Measuring Heat of Shooting Geyser

Sprite also did the Junior Scientist program at Old Faithful. She was loaned a backpack with rock samples, information about geysers, a stopwatch, and most fun of all a digital temperature gauge. She had a ball measuring the heat of the geysers and hot springs. She took notes of all her findings and reported back to the Old Faithful Ranger’s station.

A Moose in Grand Tetons Park

Roaring Mountain Really ROARS

Sunset Lake

Beautiful Feet Support Group

Jimmie — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:38:35 +0000

We are going to be using Beautiful Feet again soon. The plan (and you know how plans are) is to begin BF Ancients in August.

Since there is no BF forum or support of any kind, I began a Yahoo Group for BF users. Please join us if you are a BF user or someone who wants more information about this literature based curriculum.

I’m pleased to say that Rea Berg, the owner of BF, and her son Josh who works for the BF company both have joined the Yahoo group. In addition there are several experienced BF users available to answer questions.

Why the switch?

We’ve used Winter Promise for American history. Before that we used Sonlight. I love them both. But I realize that I don’t need as much structure as those companies provide. I can wing it and make my own plans with a set of good books. But then again, a schedule is quite nice to have as a basic guide. BF is a nice middle ground. Their guides are complete but not overwhelming. There is plenty of room for adding books and for going off on tangents. And that’s exactly what we intend to do. We’ll use BF as a base, and add in selected books from the Winter Promise Ancients program.

Another factor is that I don’t want history to take up quite so much of our academic time. We need to leave more time for language arts and math. Of course, history is interwoven into those areas; nothing is studied in isolation. But it seems that in the past, history has had the tendency to overwhelm our studies. Sprite wants to be a nurse, so this year I also want to spend quite a bit of time on a human body course (that I’m designing). If she really loves medicine, I want to be ready to prepare her in her high school years.

Beautiful Feet History of the Horse

Studying the Civil Rights Movement

Jimmie — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:47:30 +0000

Normally I think it’s best to study something and then take the field trip. But when a chance to tour a museum presents itself, I certainly wouldn’t turn it down because we hadn’t reached that part in our curriculum. Actually, for the Civil Rights topic, I think that having our visit to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN was better before our book study.

Books We Used (mainly the first three)

If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Don’t Know Much About American History
Lift the Flap Timelines — American History (notice the yellow timeline below)
Childhood of Famous Americans series — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Amazing African American History
Children’s Encyclopedia of American History

Sprite remembered the main gist of many of the exhibits. So as we read our living books, she already had some understanding of the events. Then she used the postcards I bought at the museum as the meat of her notebooking pages.

Of course, we had to watch the inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech by MLK, Jr. during the 1964 March on Washington. Then I gave her both the printed text and this notetaking guide to analyze the speech a bit.

For more language arts tie ins, I assigned Sprite The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 (downloaded to her new Kindle 2, but my DX is pictured here) and this proofreading page with a MKL, Jr. theme.

Wrapping Up the 50 States Notebook

Jimmie — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 06:35:51 +0000

We have been studying American history for a long time now. (I first posted about this notebook in October of 2008.) After the American Revolution, when the colonies became states, Sprite began her 50 States Notebook. My idea was to add each state as it entered the Union chronologically. Well, we are finally finished. With Hawaii and Alaska gaining statehood in 1959, we have now wrapped up the notebook. What a rewarding project!

Look at how thick it is! Almost four inches!

Each state has a two cardstock notebooking pages filled with information about the state, including the state flag, state bird, a map, etc. Most every state also has at least two postcards — a map card and a card with the state capitol building.

Here is page one, front and back.

And here is the second page, front and back.

At the beginning of the notebook, we added information on American currency, Washington D. C., the three branches of government, and all the things that President Bush sent us.

No offense, Obama. We haven’t written your letter yet. We’re giving you time to make some nice glossies of you and your White House pets.

During our two months in America, I let Sprite work on a collection of US license plates. She used the Ultimate Sticker Puzzles: License Plates Across the States: Travel Puzzles and Games! (yeesh, that’s a long title). Although she discarded the other puzzles, she kept the pull out map with all her stickers. We never found Hawaii, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Nebraska, and maybe a few others. But the vast majority were filled in by the time we were ready to leave.

For how to make your own and for links to state notebooking page templates, visit this 50 States Notebook lens.

Other tasks Sprite did to wrap up the 50 States Notebook:

Completed all the US Presidents matchbooks which I got from Notebooking2Learn. (No, this doesn’t directly relate to the 50 States, but it seemed the best place to put the collection we’ve been working on since good old George Washington.)
Added state rock/mineral/gem information to each state.
Added Yellowstone brochures, maps, etc in page protectors.
Added various brochures received from flat traveler exchanges and from our summer travels (The Hermitage, for example) behind the appropriate state pages.
Added a list of the 50 states in chronological order by when they entered the union

Summer Homeschooling CurrClick Contest

Jimmie — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:35:52 +0000

Want a chance at a $25 gift certificate or audiobook of your choice from CurrClick? Keep reading. I’m having a contest. Here comes the fancy introduction…

I consider us year-round homeschoolers just because we like to be able to take breaks whenever interesting opportunities come up. That means that we do homeschool off and on during the summer.

measuring the heat of a geyser at Yellowstone

But since homeschooling means far more than just reading and doing written work, we actually are learning even when we’re not “doing school.” I laughed when Sprite expressed relief at having a break from homeschool during our two months in America. My mom noticed the irony of her comment too and gave me a knowing smirk.

During that time we did lots of history and science learning– all hands-on and real-life.

Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN
The Hermitage in Nashville, TN
Two zoos — Columbus, OH and Memphis, TN
Mud Island Park and The Museum of the Mississippi in Memphis, TN
Yellowstone National Park where she became a Junior Ranger and a Young Scientist
Grand Tetons National Park where she became a Junior Ranger
National Wildlife Museum in Jackson, WY
Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT

So what are YOU doing this summer for homeschooling? Share what you’re doing here in a blog comment to enter in my Summer Homeschooling CurrClick Contest. Better yet, make an entire blog post on summer homeschooling and link it in your comment. It can be “normal” book work, field trips, special projects at home, or vacations that integrate learning.

Currclick is sponsoring this contest with a $25 gift certificate or an audiobook of your choice to the winner. Isn’t that nice of them? (And because all of CurrClick’s products are available for immediate download, this contest is open to anyone in the world!)

Did you even know that CurrClick sells audio books? They do.

We are big fans of audio books and stories. Sprite has quite a collection of CDs and MP3s that she listens to often. I love that she’s hearing great literature rather than watching mindless movies.

Want to learn about audio books? Here are some links –

Listening to audio books is a great way to sneak in some summer homeschooling without anyone realizing that it’s happening.

I’ll choose a winner on July 26.

And while you’re at it, find a photo from your summer homeschooling travels to contribute to the CurrClick Travel the World Photo Contest. Five finalists will receive the entire Map Trek Series from Knowlege Quest. And the Grand Prize winner gets a Garmin Nuvi 205W GPS Navigation system.

More Fun in USA

Jimmie — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:53:02 +0000

Catching up on our fun in America…..

We visited a deer farm where we petted and fed deer,

rode four wheelers,

and the highlight — bottle fed baby fawns.

Later, Sprite got her ears pierced!

She celebrated her birthday not once,

not twice,

but three times in USA. Her actual birthday was spent in Yellowstone. (Photos to come.)

And we had a wonderful fun day/field trip at Mud Island in Memphis with some good friends. Here is the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River from Tennessee into the State of Mississippi. I always think of it looking like an M for Memphis, but maybe it’s for the Mississippi River instead.

The Mississippi River Museum that is part of Mud Island is a really great learning experience. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. (But we couldn’t take photos inside the museum.)

Mud Island is a topographical replica of the Mississippi River. It’s fascinating to travel along the river’s path and see familiar cities along the banks.

Of course, we had to get a family shot at “mini-Memphis” on the Mississippi River map.

ONLY in Memphis…