Cooking With Sparrow

Today I bring to you a semi-regular segment entitled, "Cooking with Sparrow". 

Actually, truth is, this was a school assignment and took pictures because it was so stinking cute.

The name of the recipe is: Bananas with Wheat Germ



STEP 1: Peel the Banana

 STEP 2: Chop the Banana

 STEP 3: Roll Banana in Wheat Germ

That's the finished project in the Rubbermaid container there!

And in case you need a recipe to print... check this one out!

All the sweetness and all the crunch.  There you have it, Cooking with Sparrow!



Happy Veteran's Day

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

John 15:13

I know that Veteran's Day is a celebration of those who bravely fought, and returned.  (Pardon me I've already started tearing up.) I still use this Scripture to describe them, because it's still true.  All of our military families are laying down their lives for us.  Gather round kids, it's story time.

This is a true story of someone I knew on the Internet.  For privacy and practical purposes, I'll call her MilitaryMamaWanna.  She had problems getting pregnant and was on a long term course of fertility drugs that they had saved up a couple years to be able to afford.  They were about 3/4 of the way through the treatment when her husband was called up.  She, seemingly without much complaint, gave up those months of injections and raging hormones because well, contrary to popular opinion, you do actually need a man to make a baby.  This was something they should be doing together.   A little while after he was shipped out, he got to come home on leave.  After he returned to duty, his wife e-mailed him some amazing news.  During that short visit, they created the baby they had been trying so hard for.  Now this man is overseas receiving this by e-mail, unable to hold his wife and cry tears of joy with her.   He was not there to help her prepare for the baby, take her to the doctor, hear the heartbeat.  For whatever reason, he was not able to receive calls or e-mails for a couple weeks.  When he got back, he found the two e-mails from his wife- one dated a week or so before the other.  The first one bore that horrible news that the baby they had hoped for would not be, she had miscarried.  I can't imagine the grief, and yes guilt, the poor man felt.  It was followed by a second e-mail that the woman had gone to her usual Sunday church service, seeking comfort and solace.  She had forgotten it was Mother's Day.  At the door there were kids handing out flowers to all the ladies who were mothers.  She accepted it with tears in her eyes and sat down, thanking the Lord for recognizing what was going on.  As she sat there, another woman (ok soul-sucking bitch) came up to her and had the nerve to ask for the flower back because she "wasn't a mother yet."  (And yes, the woman knew about the recent miscarriage.)  Subsequently, she sank into a deep depression.

What would your husband do?  I know what FarmerGeek would have done.  Let's just say that lady would be taken to task and the pastor spoken to.  FarmerGeek would have demanded something to be done and at the very least an apology issued.  He would have gone to battle for me.  The problem was, her husband couldn't do that.

Because he was already going to battle for the rest of us.

Martha frickin Stewart

Let me just tell you right off that I can't friggin stand Martha frickin Stewart! I hate the commercial placement and the constant name dropping. I was devastated when the Hallmark Channel pretty much turned into the Martha Stewart Channel. I don't hold the whole jail thing against her, I mean, she's paid her debt to society so now it's between her and God. However after the things she said in my hometown I swear I would never watch her. Ever. EVER.

And yet I watched it...

You are now shaking your head and wondering about the DivaHick now aren't you? Well here's my thoughts on the matter, as politically incorrect as they are. Women turn houses into homes. It doesn't matter if you are married, single, have kids, have pets, or it's just someplace you fall into at night after working a 20 hour day. We crave comfort. We crave coherency and balance. I mean, you can watch Clean House and Hoarders where the rooms are piled full of cr@p, but underneath all those layers- you can find a decorating scheme.

Not to many years ago though, we made the decision that women were trapped into wanting to do that. We were being wasted by turning our attentions to home and hearth. Women should be doctors and lawyers and accountants and company presidents! And of course, we should. IF WE WANT TO! Martha Stewart's success lies in the fact that the schools pushed out Home Ec because CEO's don't need to learn it. The truth is, we do NEED to know home ec and even if we didn't there are so many, many women who WANT to learn it. We want to take care of our homes, even if we are also working 10 hours a day. (Although truth be told, no woman only works 10 hours a day.)

Don't believe me? Been to a Jo-Ann's lately? They're stuffed to the brim and doing an insane amount of business. Ask yourself why...

Homeschooling Mama

So last week I, quite snarkily, posted something on Facebook. It went something like this, "Now that I'm a conservative, Christian, Homeschooling mom, am I required to wear denim jumpers- or is that optional...?" I mean, come on people, I am the DIVAHick right? I actually went out and bought pink and brown work boots to match a pink and brown baseball hat (with rhinestones). I wear fashionably, yet functionally, cut jeans and an ultra-cute apron. (And I wear shirts to- this ain't that kind of farm kiddies!)

I am the very portrait of farmgirl chic. :P

So seriously, I started looking up denim jumpers to laugh at all those other moms. I mean go to Vermont Country Store and take a gander. All those dorky outfits...
But then I saw this...



Hey that actually looks comfy... I could work with that... a scarf, some awesome dangly earrings, kick a$$ boots...

Not to bad either... it's a good throw on to go out and about. Again, I'm seeing a scarf and some funky bangles. Maybe some hair chopsticks. Then again this might be all about the purse.

Ok this one is desperately, impossibly dorky. But it's a flannel dress. I mean, really, blessed warmth in the middle of January. I think we can work it. I think with some of the perfect accessories we can get it to the hot librarian look. High heel black boots? Long ropes of glittery black beads? I don't know, I can't get past the thought of black hornrimmed glasses with rhinestones and a messy upsweep though.


And don't worry. Even I'm not finding an excuse for this.


Somebody save me.


(For the record, I'm still in my pajamas... one kid homeschooling, the other one home sick.)

*As far as I know, Vermont Country Store has no knowledge of me or my blog. I am not being endorsed or compensated in any way

I know I keep saying it...

But I really oought to get back to blogging...

Here's our newest update- Our adoption finalized in September and we are the forever, permanent parents of Del (13) and Sparrow (who's now 7). FarmerGeek turned 30. We decided that public school simply wasn't working for our girls and put them in Catholic school, which in turn ended up not working for one Miss Del who will start homeschooling next week. For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, we're using the Sonlight Curriculum. She really wants to learn more about American History, so we went with Core 3/4 which in some ways will be too young for her, but we can supplement with older books. I went with a younger curriculum because they have read a-louds which will promote our holding therapy.

Our garden did end up being a bust. The worst part is that the things that DID grow- certain minions would go out to play, pick them and leave them strewn about the yard.

By the way, I may be a Conservative, Christian, Homeschooling Mom- but I don't wear denim jumpers...

Oh and PS- Chuck Norris homeschools his kids- don't make fun of it...

It's that time of the year again...

When I totally give up on the garden. I have fought a valiant fight, honest... we spread 50 POUNDS of milky spore to kill the Japanese beetles, I sprayed, He plucked, and yet they are here. Which is extra creepy when I hang out laundry. We never had to worry before about the evil little bastards also known as woodchucks, groundhogs, whistle pigs... Yet twice I've had to release the minions to chase them out of the garden- and that's the only the times I saw them. Then during a storm half a crabapple tree fell on our fence and took it out so our poultry is running free through ours and the neighbors yard and into my garden. The cukes are destroyed, the strawberries ravished, and the melons- Dear Lord, let's not even talk about the fate of the melons! Not only that- a piece of personal advice from the Diva Hick. NEVER PLANT A GARDEN WHERE SHEEP USED TO GRAZE! The stuff they eat (they poop out and it) spreads and is horribly pervasive, no matter what you do! Of course if certain chicken would stop making dust baths in the mulch I'd have a shot, but.....

Add to all of this 90+ days, shitty air quality, allergies, and asthma and I don't want to spend hours and hours repairing the damage.

Sigh, it's a good thing we have a farmer's market...

Oh if I had three wishes...

I do, I really really do wish I had three wishes. You know the Genie style-rub a lamp-catch a leprechaun-pot of gold wishes? (OK maybe not the leprechaun thing, them buggers are NASTY.)

1) I'd like three more rooms added to our house. (Actually, I would have to wish it "I wish I had three more rooms added to my house at no additional cost to myself, my family, my friends, my acquaintances, my enemies, or those I have yet to meet without structurally or aestically impairing my house and that the rooms were located in well-appointed and servicable places to make them usuable and that no ill effects come from addition of aforementioned rooms. I could totally take on those pesky lawyer-esque Genies.)

2) I wish that Del would make a healthy attachment to us in the form of real parental bonding without adversely affecting her future or other relationships or forever alerting the future in a negative fashion.

3) I wish I had a magic wand that came with an alarm system that would warn me about bad wish choices before I made them. That way I could wave my magic wand and *poof* no more weed or *poof* new clothes/jewelry/hairstyle.. or best yet *poof* the living room is rearranged and redecorated!!!