Anyone Who Knows Me Very Well

Good morning!

Anyone who knows me very well knows how much I do not like public school. It’s all about making all types of children, triangles, squares, circles, ovals, etc., fit a uniform learning style, circles. There are a very few schools out there with personalized learning for individual students but unless class size is small, which almost never happens, it doesn’t really work out very well. Also, there is a very limited amount of recess. Even when I was in school a million years ago, we did not get as much recess as we should have. I seem to recall morning and afternoon recess along with a sizeable chunk after lunch. Assuming that amounted to an hour and we were in school from 8:30 to 3, it wasn’t enough. Now, students are lucky to get one fifteen-minute recess in the morning and another fifteen minutes after lunch. There is just too much crap they have to have shoved at them. And all too often, recess is denied them as a form of punishment. Then there is homework. We won’t even start on that at the moment.

Anyone who knows me very well knows how much I dislike school lunch. I remember when I was in elementary school that I preferred taking my own lunch and I know that I did at least part of the time. I remember one time in particular when I had this sandwich. My parents had a lot of NeoLife stuff and one thing was this cheese powder. You could mix it with water and spread it on bread and have a sandwich. I loved the stuff and this sandwich was made with whole wheat bread and these cheese spread. I remember this particular lunch because I had a conversation with a classmate about the sandwich. I no longer remember if she thought it sounded good or not, I just know that we had a conversation and the subject was the sandwich.

There were times when I had school lunches, too. I don’t remember liking many of the menu offerings. There are actually only three things I remember being on the menu: canned green beans, canned corn, and pumpkin cake. I probably shouldn’t tell you the story of the pumpkin cake because it isn’t very nice. Maybe another time. Or not.

What are we trading for public school and school lunches?

In a perfect world, all teachers would love what they do and would be paid well for what they do. In a perfect world, students would get fifteen minutes of recess for every forty-five of classroom instruction. In a perfect world, school lunches would mainly consist of food grown at the school by the students. In a perfect world, there would be no homework other than possibly classwork that was not finished. In a perfect world… But we all know we don’t live in a perfect world.

Yesterday was a day unlike any other. It also wasn’t all that spectacular or anything.

I did discover that the elderberries I thought were gone weren’t. I picked all the ripe ones and put them in the juicer. I didn’t get as much juice as I thought I would but still, every little bit is more than nothing.

Before I went to Utah, I had about three blooming calendula flowers on a rather small plant. When I got back, the plant was huge in comparison and there were literally dozens of flowers. Yesterday I went out and picked most of them that hadn’t gone to seed; they are now in a bag drying.

Most of our beans were ready to be harvested and eaten or preserved while I was gone so rather than pick a whole lot of overripe ones, I left them. We should have a few to save for the garden next year as well as some to cook.

I also looked at the corn (because who could not when the beans are planted with it) and picked four ripe ears. Paul bought a dozen late last week and then another six Saturday even though I told him not to. I’d much prefer to eat those from the garden and will be much annoyed if they end up too ripe because we waited until the inferior corn from the store was eaten. I guess it’s up to me to make sure that doesn’t happen. The problem is that Paul seems to be the only one who doesn’t seem to care if it’s from the store or from the garden. Such is life. Corn will be for dinner tonight.

There is a lot of basil that needs to be harvested and dried. It might be fun to see if I can make some last all winter.

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I love my goats and it is now time to get myself outside and take care of them. They followed me all over the place yesterday and ended up in the fruit trees on the hill. Paul was getting some wood from someone in Hubbardston and they would come over to help unload and I guess one of them attempted to make friends with Zoey or Goldilocks. The goats weren’t in favor of this and took off. Smart goats; they know better than to trust strangers.

Have a fantabulous day!