A Case Against Standardized Tests

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I’ve been arguing for years that parents have been hoodwinked into believing that standardized test results are relevant. They aren’t.  This article supports my opinion.Because I homeschool, people always ask whether my children have to take standardized test. They do in 3rd, 5th and 8th grade. They do very well and even though I know this has nothing to do with what they’re learning-truly-nothing. It always seems to reassure those people who really think I’m surely ruining my children by not sending them to the local public school (at least for now).

When is everyone going to realize that standardized tests are a business? Period. They are nothing but a measure of how well an industry has convinced a nation that test scores are relevant to a child’s intelligence or future success-which they aren’t. They also are a pretty accurate measure of how much a student has practiced taking any particular test. I scored respectably on the SAT’s way back when but I took it cold without ANY prep. I didn’t have the resources or the support. I barely got to the test and barely afforded the sitting fee. This is not to minimize anyone who scores well. I commend their dedication. The industry also has powerful lobbies and corporate influence. It’s the primary reason President George Dubya pushed “No Child Left Behind”-which has done more to discourage great teaching than any other factor in my view. That’s my 2 cents.

Decommissioning the Freezer

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Remember this post  about purging the freezer last year? (Yeah, same photo). I went to sleep last night or woke up this morning thinking that we probably don’t really need the extra freezer space that much. At least not enough to justify the extra space in the garage AND the cost to keep it running.

Now that I’m looking at the photo from last year when I cleaned it out, I’m really embarrassed to say that a LOT of the same things were still in there. Let me just tell you what wasn’t in there and you’ll get the idea. The butter, parm and 2 of the containers on the door were not in there. Everything else you see on the door was (the berries had been used up or pitched from last year and we did bag up our crop from this summer-hopefully we’ll use them)

In the main part of the freezer, the hot dogs, ham, pierogies and the bags of frozen homemade pasta sauce were used. Also that yellow bag of something was probably eaten. Everything else was still in the freezer today. I pitched it all. Yikes!

Aside from the 50 lbs. of grass-fed ground beef that we stored for about 6 months, this freezer is not worth the cost. I’ll make room in my kitchen freezer.

I will give you an update as to the energy savings-if there is one. If I regret this decision, I feel fine about finding a new, smaller, more efficient appliance.

The Perils of Decluttering- Another Camcorder Update

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I purged my camcorder a while back because the door was broken and I didn’t feel like investing the time, money and energy to get it fixed. A few months later, Mark asked about it. OOps, but he was ok with my explanation (see above). I think I purged it sometime in the early spring of 2010.I was sorting through a file box where I keep some important papers, household receipts, insurance policies and apparently, warranties. Can you tell where I’m going with this?It turns out, I likely wouldn’t have had to pay anything to have the camera repaired since it was still under the extended warranty that I bought with it. I wasted $50.00 on a warranty that I could have used and didn’t. I probably could have even gotten a refund (prorated) for the unused warranty but didn’t discover it until the warranty had expired.

When I think about it, I still wouldn’t have wanted to spend the time and energy to fix the camera but I would have and most likely would have tried to sell the camera afterward. Those tapes are cumbersome and now that the kids are older, I really don’t video tape that much. Most phones, ipods and Mark’s ipad has video capability so I’m only regretting my error a little.

What’s the lesson? Declutter so you know what you have. Would I rather have never remembered I had purchased an extended warranty? Maybe, but I think I learned something.

Have a good weekend.

Biscuit Pot Pie

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I have lots of work to do to make this blog blogworthy. (So, so sorry to anyone who tried the link last week from the Shabby Nest-totally forgot that this was still marked private-oops).
I’ve been wanting a depository for the things I make in the kitchen. So, I figured I should start with a “6 for 6”. That is, everyone loved it. Making pot pie in this form works for a family our size. The 9″ traditional round pot pie just isn’t enough when everyone wants seconds-which everyone did with this dinner-and making 2 pot pies isn’t practical.
A few other things I like about this recipe:
1. It worked and I kind of made it up. Go me!
2. I used leftover chicken, homemade biscuit dough, homemade chicken broth. For the most part, this was economical.
3. It was easy to put together (in spite of the homemade biscuit dough) and baked quickly.
All of the above make it a winner all around. A perfect dinner on a cold winter night.
Biscuit Dough*:
4 c. all-purpose flour
5 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 c. shortening (or some combination of shortening and butter)
1 1/2 c. milk (or some combo of buttermilk and any kind of milk adding up to 1 1/2 c.)
extra butter to grease the pan and some melted to drizzle on the top biscuit dough.
mix flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture is well-blended and shortening is evenly distributed in small beads.
mix in milk. dough should be evenly wet. add more if it’s too dry. (Too much liquid will make a heavy biscuit, too little will make them dry).
Butter a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Press half of the dough (probably need well -floured hands) into the bottom of the dish and a little up the sides to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
For filling:
2 c. cooked, shredded chicken (more or less if you like)
2 c. (or eyeball it) frozen (or fresh chopped) mixed vegetables (I used the organic mixed from Costco)
2 cans cream chicken soup
1 can chicken broth
Mix these ingredients and microwave for 30 seconds at a time to get lumps out of cr. chicken soup, stirring in between. Sometimes, 30 seconds is enough.
pour mixture into prepared baking dish
With the remaining biscuit dough, tear off pieces and shape into flat biscuits of any shape and place on top of mixture. It’s fine if some of the mixture is still showing.
Bake at 450 for 20 minutes. Halfway through baking, brush or drizzle melted butter over top biscuits.
Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes covered.
*I’m sure this would be just as good with refrigerated biscuit dough or crescent roll dough and of course, refrigerated pie crust. I tried this version because the 9 x 13 feeds our family better.
I have to give my friend, Alicia, credit for the pot pie filling. She told me about it years ago. Again, it’s a slightly easier version than making your own filling with flour, butter and chicken broth. You can go that route if you want to avoid the cream soup.

Trying to link up to Frugal Fridays at the Shabby Nest with a button: 

A Cheap Bathroom Fresher-Upper

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We are a family of 6. We have a TEENY bathroom. No storage, no drawers, no shelves, no closets. I measured the walk-around floor space (because who hangs out between the toilet and the sink?) and it is 4′ X 4′. We did have the bathroom remodeled (new sink, toilet, floor and paint) about 7 years ago. The “before” wasn’t completely heinous, I was just ready for a change.Yellow walls-white beadboard and trim. (Sorry ’bout the lighting-this room has one wierd, tiny window and would never have suitable light for photography-but you get the idea. YAWN!)

Yes, those are my paint swatches on the far left…I just slap it on.
Those hooks are just utilitarian. I love friends and family but there are no rules about hand-towel use.
I do love this floor
Simple, right?
 
Welcome to the “after”. 
 
I know, not that different but to me it’s a nice, big change.
Mark said this was my best paint job. Not to depress him, but these walls are the only ones that are relatively scar-free. Painting the rest of the rooms has been humbling and slightly depressing. Picture elephant skin and imagine yourself painting over it. Compared to that this was dreamy.
 
Wanna see what Kate did? She was saying one night that she wanted to paint a mural. If you know Kate, this is the kind of thing that she always says and never expects a “yes”. I had been wanting to paint a simple tree silhouette in the bathroom. I was partly inspired by this project at “Just a Girl” and this nursery. (No, I’m not expecting, this was linked a few months ago at one of the blogs that host DIY link parties and I loved the look-that’s inspiration.)
Even though I was initially inspired by Chris’ tutorial, which was done with a projector and more exact, Kate did this free-hand. She sketched a diagram of our bathroom complete with all the fixtures and showed me her design. I tweaked some things, told her what I had in mind and she went to work. She did a rough sketch with chalk-easy to correct- and then painted the outline and filled it in. I had to do the high parts. We want to add 2 more birds-one hanging upside down-which would roughly represent a certain member of the family. These are not angry birds but very calm and content.
Impressed by the symmetry? I was. Kate didn’t measure and I did not give any instructions to that effect. This girl has an eye.
The bathroom still needs a few more finishing touches (maybe gray towels, new shower curtain and rings) but it makes me smile every time I go in.
The gray color is Sherwin Williams “Morning Fog”. The tree was painted in slightly watered down SW “Westhighland White” and the birds are just an orange acrylic craft paint.
Linking up at:
shabby creek cottage
and
The Shabby Nest
 
 
 

Us, too (St. Andrew Novena)

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Hail-and-blessed

 

St. andrew

 

We’ve been praying this for about 4 years. I love the calm cadence of this prayer. Somehow,  the words make it very easy to meditate on circumstances of the Nativity. One of the kids made a chaplet similar to the sliding St. Terese’ sacrifice beads and sometimes we still use that to keep count of the 15. One of my favorite things is to begin the final chaplet on the way to midnight Mass and finish it on our way out in “piercing cold”. I’d love to hear stories of answered prayers. Join Elizabeth if you have any. Or you can comment here, too.

One thing I love about St. Andrew is that as an apostle of St. John the Baptist, he met Jesus before his brother, Peter. Having recognized him immediately as the Messiah, he introduced Peter to Jesus yet he must have humbly accepted Peter as the one chosen to lead the Church. I could be wrong, maybe Andrew did have a temper tantrum over it but I’m thinking not. Refreshing.

 

They’re real and they’re SPECTACULAR!

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….these photos of the sunrise that is. We went to the mountains after Thanksgiving and Saturday morning, I woke up to a wierd orange glow through the blinds. I looked out to see the craziest sunrise I’ve ever seen. I knew I couldn’t capture it with Hannah’s camera so I woke her up. I thought she’d be interested but would have totally understood if she had opted out of this photo opp. So glad she captured it. The other wierd thing was how warm it was when we stepped outside.I know these look enhanced or edited but really, they’re not. It was breathtaking and awesome.

Have a great week!

I heart Craigslist AND Costco!

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Mark purchased a bench for me about 8 years ago at a local unfinished wood place. They also have finished wood pieces and this was one of them.

It didn’t have the nicks and scratches on it when he bought it but that’s life. We haven’t really used it THAT much. I love this bench and I think he bought it because I was telling him how much I liked the bench my mom had that seemed to be the only piece of furniture that survived us 5 kids. Just before that Christmas, I asked my mom for the bench and I brought it home. Poor Mark had no idea that I made those arrangements and 2 benches sort of migrated to my house simultaneously.
Well, that didn’t last long. On the first family get-together at my house, my youngest brother pipes up with these words exactly…”I have a bone to pick with you.” Good-natured but he did have a bone. “What?” was my honest response.
He wanted to know how I ended up with the only vestige of our childhood-the bench-(totally “Madmen” before “Madmen” was on the air)-when I already had a bench. Luckily my brothers and I all get along and can talk about anything and I explained the mix-up with Mark’s best intentions. Since he was the only one with the guts to bring it up and I had possession (we all know that’s 9/10 of the law), I gave it to him. No offense but he and his wife did not waste any time hauling that little thing out of here.
I didn’t have room for 2 benches and as the kids got older, the bench Mark bought got kicked around the house like a red-headed step child (I love red-headed children and would NEVER kick a kid around-just relying on a euphemism to give you an idea). So I turned to Craigslist.
I vaguely remembered what Mark paid for it, knocked a tad bit off that price and listed it. My theory with this particular piece is that while I don’t use is a whole lot, I still love to look at it. Looking at it is not a good reason to keep it so I listed high. If I didn’t get the price I wanted, fine, it could live here and we’d use it occassionally.
I won’t lie to you, I originally listed it about 6-8 months ago just to see if it would get bites. That’s what I love about Craigslist. Listing is not that time-comsuming and unless your desperate to get rid of something, it pays to be patient. It sat online or in my account for a while then I listed it again-maybe for higher and a nice lady a few towns over LOVED it. She didn’t blink an eye about the price but the day she was arranging to drive over to pick it up, she asked “It’s black, right?” I guess she had the ad on her iphone and it looked black. “Uh-no, it’s sort of colonial blue green.” Oh well, so sorry, I told her. It could easily be painted. She agreed but she didn’t have the time. And I let it go.
On a whim, I emailed her back to see if she’d still be interested if I painted the bench black and she was thrilled. 2 weeks later, it was gone.
Now for my Costco story. I have to admit, there are a handful of items that are so much cheaper at Costco than the grocery store that I keep renewing my membership. I tried the “executive membership” for the 2% rebate but it’s been so borderline that this last renewal, I just did the basic membership.
I’ve always been impressed with Costco’s customer service and return policy, even though I’ve only used it a few times. I recently purchased a Christmas gift that I thought I might have to take back if the recipient wanted something else. We have believers in this house (probably for the last year) so I can’t post a photo or give any more detail than that-even though the believer does not read said blog). Anyway, when I purchased the item, I asked whether I’d be able to return it if the recipient did not want it. Of course. Then I lost the receipt. So I asked again…could I return it after Christmas without the receipt if the recipient was disappointed. No problem.
Next thing I know, the Costco coupons come in the mail and the item is $30 off! I was pretty confident that I’d be able to get the discount. I called and they said if I didn’t have the receipt, I’d have to bring the item back, return it and repurchase it. I totally understood. Seemed reasonable and I was happy to do that.
The day I was going to jump though those hoops, I found the receipt while decluttering a kitchen catch-all basket (it pays to declutter). I walked to the service stand and the nice lady cheerfully…..I mean cheerfully…handed me $42 and change in return. When I told her the coupon was only for $30, she said that sometimes the manufacturer changes that after the coupon books go to print. Wahoo!
The thing was, she was so nice about it and seemed to be as happy about the windfall and the exchange as I was.
The same day, I tried to return a $2 “satisfaction guaranteed” store brand item to my local grocery store without a receipt and the young girl at the counter looked at me like I was pond scum. Sorry but this is the same grocery store that I spend nearly $1000 per month for food and $400 per month for fuel using their bogus “fuel perks”. (I’m realizing the inflated grocery prices is not worth the fuel savings-but that’s a different post). But really, she copped an attitude over $2? One might ask why I’d bother to return a $2 item. I get that. It just so happens that I’m there nearly every day and these things were unedible. You bet your A*&% I want my 2 bucks back. I ended up getting a different container of the same brand as an exchange because she couldn’t give me a refund. That’s ok. Hannah likes the mandarin oranges for her lunch, the pineapple bits, not so much.
So there’s my endorsement…..use Craigslist and Costco and avoid G?ant Ea>gle! Boo Gia?t Eagl>!

Craig’s List-I LOVE YOU! (And some tips)

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I’ve posted before about selling on Craigslist. It has its disadvantages for sure, but recently we’ve had some luck unloading some things. We finally sold 2 pieces of machinery + miscellaneous parts up in the mountains. On the home front, I sold a bench that I love but that I just don’t have room for any more.

Doesn’t it have a lovely shape? Even with the chips and scrapes, I sold it for a great price. The woman who wanted it needed it to be black and didn’t have time to paint it-so I did it for her. It was worth it.
What I love about listing things on Craigslist is that it takes very little effort to throw something on there and for the most part, forget about it. I love this particular piece enough that I would only let it go for a very high price (70% of its original price). I’ve mostly sold furniture pieces and have always been satisfied.
I have a few tips if you’re gonna try it:
1. Have a price in mind that you’d want to get for a piece and what you’d accept and be satisfied then list higher than what you’d like to get for it.
2.  List the terms of sale, pick-up, payment in the ad. This seems obvious but is easy to forget to say “cash only”.
3. Read up on scams, they usually involve someone offering to pay more by check or telling you to delist your item.
4. Be honest about defects. As you can see from the photo above, the bench has knicks and scratches and I included that information in the ad.
5. Minimize spam by insisting that responses to your ad include the date or some other specific piece of info in the subject line.
6. I always try to google names or email identities to determine if the person exists.
7. I’ve learned from experience say “first to get here with the cash gets it” but I’m always honest about others who are interested. In some cases, if someone doesn’t want to pay what I’m asking, I might tell them, I’ll get in touch if I’m willing to let the item go for what they’re offering. I don’t fake bidding wars.
Always use your judgment and every precaution before having a person come to your home. So far, I’ve never had an uncomfortable situation but you never know.

What she said…

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This photo has nothing to do with the post but it makes me happy

I’m not sure how I clicked over to this blog but I’ve enjoyed reading it. Maybe because “Jules” also is an attorney and she admits in her “about” blurb that it made her grumpy, too. (I was miserable when I was working in a big firm). She recently completed a series in which she purged and organized for 31 days in October. Right up my alley.

The post explains what motivated her decision to begin the project. Basically she is helping a friend deal with her deceased parents’ possessions. This quote in an email from the friend struck me:

Well my friend…I’ve spent the day looking at the petrie dish of my parents’ life, known as the boxes from Lake Arrowhead. The fact that everything has a musty smell just seems to add to the experience. I think everyone’s goal in life should be to not end up in a box for others to analyze. 

I’ve been so frustrated that my in-laws, who each died in their 80th year, left behind the petri dish of their own lives for my husband (and me) and sister-in-law. All the papers, half used tubes of this and that in the recesses of drawers. Clothes that hadn’t been worn in years. You name it, it was left behind-never dealt with. Surprisingly, the above quote reminded me of that but it didn’t churn it up for me again. Instead, it made me consider my own petri dish. I’m almost 43 and as I’ve learned, life turns on a dime. Not to be grim, but any of us could go at any time or be seriously disabled. It’s true. I just think it would be rude and so inconsiderate to leave Mark and the kids with the remnants of my indecision.

I will attempt to embrace Jules’ battle charge, a popular and relevant quote from William Morris”

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”

Seems simple enough. I’ve seen that quote a lot. One of my problems is that when I think of having something beautiful, I almost always think to myself that I will most definitely get sick of it. Which is why I’m not great at decorating. But this is a good start (restart).