It's not all rainbows and unicorns

I know this now. I found myself last week thinking about all the advice I had gotten from veteran homeschoolers. One mom had told me that if both Alec & made it 3 months without wanting to kill each other then we would be good. We had had so many good days since the beginning I thought all these people were just scaring me, or maybe I was doing something wrong.
Well, yesterday was a day. It was a hard day to say the least. He just wasn't feeling it. It would take him 30 minutes to do 1 very short activity in his language arts booklet and fought it the entire way. He took so long to do 3 math problems. And every 5 minutes he needed to go to the bathroom, get a drink, re-sharpen his pencil, get a tissue, you name the excuse to not do his work and he tried it.

Yesterday I wanted to scream and rip my hair out.

I did not however. My hair and vocal cords are intact. Instead we closed the books, put them back on the shelf. He went to his room to read, build legos whatever. I went to my room, sighed heavily and prayed for a better day.

And today was better. Much better. He busted through his work and we were done by 12:30. I know now, every day can't be like today, or like they have been. We won't always finish on time, we won't always work all day. Not everything on my lesson plan will get done when I have scheduled it. I feel the pressure of needing him to have a perfect day every day, and get through all this work as quick as possible since he is a bit behind of where he "should" be. Should by whose standards? Well, that I need to let go of too. It's just us. In our homeschool there are no TAKS tests, or STAR tests. There is no model for him to live up to. It is more important to us that he actually understands what he is learning and retaining it rather than blowing through as many lessons as possible.

So that was my last heavy paragraph for the day. I promise.

I have been working on so many things the past week, it's crazy. At work last week I made Ricotta cheese, it was amazing. I never made cheese before, but came across a recipe from Nancy Silverton for ricotta. It looked so easy! and there was less than 5 ingredients! I made it at home this weekend and we have been eating it almost non-stop.

So 4 ingredients. That's it. Full fat milk, heavy cream, lemon juice and kosher salt.


You combine everything (don't stir) in a pot and place it over medium heat. bring it just to slow bubble. Remove it from heat and allow it to sit at room temp. for about 15 minutes. Use a solid spoon (not slotted) to spoon the curds and whey into a strainer lined with cheese cloth set over a bowl.

Let it drain for an hour or so on the counter, then you will get this:

I then tie it up so It can drain for the last hour in the fridge

After it is done this is what you get:

Creamy, thick and delicious! My personal favorite is to smear it on a toasted baguette piece, top with sliced strawberries and a little drizzle of really good balsamic vinegar or honey. Sunday night I made Derek and I calzones with it. At work we sampled it out with a drizzle of basil infused olive oil. DEE-LISH!

Here is a link to Nancy Silverton's recipe from Bon Appetit Ricotta Cheese

Next up Mozzarella cheese!!