A Return Home

I thought that I would share another family favorite recipe with you today.  Maybe I will just make it a practice to share a new recipe every Friday.  Since the Holiday Season is upon us, I wanted to share our favorite recipe for Candied Yams.  Prior to this recipe, none of us really liked Yams and Sweet Potatoes.  But when my sister-in-law share this with us, we all grew to love them and we make this every Holiday Season.  Once in a while, we even make it just because we crave them!

I think the beauty of this recipe is that it is just so simple. If you decide to try this recipe, let me know what you thought of it.  I’d love to hear!

Holiday Candied Yams and Sweet Potatoes

3 medium sized Yams

3 medium sized Sweet Potatoes

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Light Corn Syrup

½ Cup Butter

2 TB Water (more if needed)

Wash, peel and cube yams and sweet potatoes into a cooking pot.  Add enough water to cook yams and sweet potatoes until fork tender.  Remove from heat and drain off water.

While yams and sweet potatoes are cooking, mix brown sugar, corn syrup, and butter into a separate saucepan; bringing them to a simmering boil.

After draining water from the yams and potatoes, return to low heat or to a slow cooker or crock pot, and pour the sugar solution over them.  Allow combined ingredients to simmer on low heat for a minimum of 30 minutes (longer is better).  Watch carefully and add a little water to sugar solution to prevent it from becoming too thick.  Serve when ready to eat.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their ideas on my little Santa problem. I appreciate the blog responses, twitters and e-mails with many great ideas. I decided to try many of the different ideas, hoping one of them would work and that my son would finally grasp the Santa game. As you know, it was kind of tricky since my son has Asperger’s Syndrome and everything is very literal to him.

Well, I am happy to say that although none of your great ideas worked, that his Grandpa, my dad, came up with the solution. He was finally able to explain it to him in a way that he understood and accepted. He is actually quite cheerful about it now and trying to think of how he wants to implement the Santa game for his dad and grandparents. All I can say is, “Whew!” and “Thank goodness for Grandpa!”

Photo provided by snowbear

If I knew twelve years ago what I do now about my child, I would have handled Santa differently. As it is, I now have a 12 year old boy who still believes in the jolly man in the red suit. While his child-like faith is endearing, I definitely am finding myself in a bit of a pickle this year.

I have been trying to explain the facts about Santa, but to his Aspergerish mind, I am just a great jokester. He refuses to believe the truth, because deep in his heart, and for sure in his head, he knows that Santa is REAL. I appreciate the spirit of Santa, but it would be so much more fun if we could all play Santa in our home.

The problem with Asperger’s is that to an Aspie, things are literal. Trying to undo something from the past can be a bit tricky. If I knew 12 years ago what I do now, I would have developed Santa as a game in our home. I always envisioned that someday we would all play a part in bringing Santa to our home. Trying to get there now is turning out to be trickier than I imagined. Any suggestions??

Photo by (c) johnnyberg, www.sxc.hu

This week has been a busy one n our homeschool. We have been testing out several new products that we have received to review for the TOS Homeschool Crew. We have been putting the products through the paces and will be ready to report on some of them soon. So you can watch for that this next week.

We have also been busy with our NanoWriMo novels. It has been a fun adventure. My son has really taken to adding to his story each day. He wears a smile most of the time. It is nice to see the change in him as he was becoming such a reluctant writer prior to this experience. He has even asked if he can do this every month. We will see if his enthusiasm continues as I upped his original word count goal from 8,000 to 12,000 words. I felt that I needed to do this as he has already completed 4,248 as of today. Since this is only the first week, I imagine he just may surpass his new goal.

I am behind on my NanoWriMo novel. I need to focus on it. I have spent too much time working and making sure that things flow smoothly around here. So if you will excuse me for now, I need to go pound out a few thousand words. Hope you have a great weekend!

If you are a fan of the Terrestria Chronicles books or are interested in reading them, have I got a contest for you!  First let me say that Ed Dunlop has just released his first book in the new Tales from Terrestria series.  It is titled The Quest for Thunder Mountain.  This is the story of a young minstrel whose life is shattered when his career comes to an abrupt end.  You can see a review of the Terrestria Chronicles at www.TalesOfCastles.com.  

Now for the contest…

There will be 15 winners for this contest. Each of the winners will receive a copy of The Quest for Thunder Mountain.

To enter this contest you must be at least 18 years of age and live in the U.S. You can read full contest rules HERE.

This contest will end on November 9th.

To enter, follow the directions found at the hosting blog:  On The Company Porch

Good luck!  Let me know if you are one of the lucky winners!

So last night while watching the election results, I got into a bit of a yelling match with my mother. No, it wasn’t about the election or even the candidates. It was about my choice to homeschool my child and work at home.

I thought we had made progress in this area, but apparently I was wrong. She doesn’t understand that I am doing all of this for the betterment of my family. She doesn’t understand that the local schools can’t truly help my son with Asperger’s. In her mind, I need to get my priorities straight and send him to public school and get a real job. She thinks that I would have more time then.

I’m not quite sure how that is supposed to work, since I was always more stressed when we did just those things. I spent all of my time after work helping my son with his homework and taking him to therapy and taking care of the house, etc. And I hated my job. I like working for myself. I don’t think I could go back to having a boss other than myself.

I don’t have a problem meeting my income needs. But my work is invalid in her eyes because it isn’t traditional.

I let her know that things won’t be changing around here. She will just have to get used to it. Stuff happens.

Photo by (c) vierdrie, www.sxc.hu

One of the benefits of working and schooling at home is the fact that I can make something yummy pretty much whenever I want. I love it! So I thought that I would try sharing a new recipe with you that we have tried in our home every so often. These are recipes that we have decided just must be made again, they are so yummy. So what better way to begin this, than to share our newest favorite cookie recipe:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2 Cups Flour

1 1/3 Cups Quick Oats

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

1 Cup Butter, softened

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Pumpkin Puree

1 Egg

1 tsp. Vanilla

¾ Cup Raisins

Preheat oven to 350˚F; lightly grease a cookie sheet.

Combine flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter, brown sugar, and regular sugar in a large bowl until they are light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla, mixing well. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Stir in raisins.

Drop into cookie sheet by Tablespoons. Bake 14 to 16 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes before removing from pan. Enjoy! These are very moist and should make around 2 dozen yummy cookies.

Picture by greenchild, www.sxc.hu

Help Me 2 Teach is an Internet directory of websites that can be used for educational purposes. Here is the information from the Help Me 2 Teach website:

• Over 2300 Safe, Educational Links for Children, Parents and Teachers
• Updated Daily
• Pre-K through High School
• Use as a Complete Curriculum or to find Supplemental Material

One-month, three-month, trial, and annual memberships are available. The payment plans are as follows:

1 year@ $29.95

3 mos. for $15.95

1 mo. for $9.95

3 days for $4.95

Price includes Quarterly Newsletters and FREE research for anyone with a paid one year subscription or longer.

So What Do I Think?

At first I was a little on the skeptical side as I wondered why I would need to subscribe to a basic internet directory of sites when I was proficient with finding my own. However, I do have to say that I am impressed. The site is done very well and the owner is constantly adding new content each and every day.

While it may not be as valuable for a veteran homeschooler or someone who can research sites quickly, it is a definite timesaver. I also like how the directory is a safe place. I can let my son research on his own on this site and I do not have to worry about questionable content. That alone makes the price worth it.

They are running a special through the end of December. When you purchase a 1 year subscription, you will get one free. That is a savings of $29.95! So that is a great deal, in my opinion.

All in all, I would have to give this product a score of 3 ½ out of 5, with 5 being you just can’t live without it. If you decided to try this product, let me know what you think about it. Keep in mind that there are resources being added daily.

As you are already aware, I have been trying really hard to return to my own home. It has been an adventure I really never wanted to undertake. I know there will be a blessing here somewhere, I just have to find it.

This week finds me pretty much in the same place I was last week. The plumber decided to begin installing the drain for my bath. That is good. However, he decided to do it his way and not the way that we asked. That is bad. I want my tub in a specific place in my bathroom. I don’t want it pushed up against the back wall. I want it between the two walls evenly. He insists on pushing it to the back wall. This frustrates me. He will have to do it over again. After all, there isn’t a valid reason why it can’t be my way. He just doesn’t want to do it. He tells me ok, and then does what he wants and pushes it back. But since I am paying the bill…you catch my drift.

Ok, I am done grumbling about this for today. We will see what tomorrow brings.

I thought I would take this opportunity to announce that we are participating in the YW NanoWriMo program this year. So what is the YW NanoWriMo program? It is the Young Writers program for National Novel Writing Month, which is in November.

As a writer I participated in the adult program last year. I didn’t get too many words written. Only a couple hundred or so. So this year I planned on participating again and completing the 50,000 words in 30 days challenge. I wanted to be one of the winners. The best way I could accomplish this feat was to involve my son. If it was schoolwork, then I would have to be the good example and do my project.

When I signed him up for the Young Writers portion, I was able to set his word count to an age appropriate level. Since this is his first time, we negotiated the word count to 8,000 words. He is excited to try his hand at writing his own novel. We will work on editing his story in December. (And mine, of course!)

I’ll post updates on our progress throughout the month of November. It should be a fun project for both of us, albeit a challenging one.