Eggs and Bacon... Yum

How does handle meals when in a hurry to finish school? Eggs and bacon that's how.

When we have days in school where it seems nothing is going to get done and then we still need lunch, we usually stick to something fast and easy. Today it'll be eggs and bacon. Our family is large. We use almost one dozen eggs and a pound of bacon and nearly a loaf of bread. My older brother eats two helpings of everything and my younger brothers follow suit. Eggs and bacon don't take a long time to prepare and have an abundant amount for empty stomachs. What doesn't get eaten goes to the dogs. 

When we finish eating I'll clean the kitchen, kids will go down for naps and Mom will finish school with my other siblings. As it gets later in the day dinner will be prepared and Mom will go pick up Dad from work. Our van that we bought yesterday needs to be taken back to have its two back benches screwed in. Its a 12 passenger white van designed like a truck. In fact it's labeled as a truck. We got the most basic van we could find. There's a radio but no CD player. No back seat heating or cooling and basically no trunk. It's a stark white and very large but comfortable vehicle. Unfortunately the dealer unscrewed the two back benches to clean it for us and failed to screw them back in so we have to take it back to have him screw them back on. Right now our 12 passenger van fits five. 

Tomorrow our dog needs to go to the vet to have her annual rabies vaccine. Our vet retired due to reoccuring health issues and sold the clinic to another vet. She changed the schedule so tomorrow is the only day available in our schedule. That means my Dad will have to taken to work again and very little school will get done, but we'll get caught up over the weekend and on Monday. 

People have a misconception of what homeschoolers and homeschooled kids are like. Some questions I've had asked and assumptions made are as follows:

"You guys must not get out a lot and not be very social right? "-actually we get out quite often and some of us are TOO social at times. Just because we don't go to school doesn't mean we don't know how to act around people. 

" You guys get to sleep in and do school in your pajamas and lounge around whenever you want?! "-no. Not at all. We get up between 7-8am, get dressed,do chores, eat and start school. There's no lounging until school is finished. And pajamas are a major no. 

" You probably only do events with other homeschoolers Right? "-that's a fair one. But no, we don't.  We tried once but it didn't go well and the others weren't very friendly or organized. We do any event that's free and/or educational. 

" You guys are into growing your own food and making clothes right? "-yes. But not because we're homeschooled. Our family is big. We grow a medium garden and my dad hunts deer and farmers at his job give us deals on beef and pork to stock up on. My mom is a very talented knitter,crocheter,and sewer. She makes our wash cloths and gloves, scarves,hats and if time some clothes as well. I can sew and crochet but I can't knit(except finger knitting. I can finger knit like nobody's business.)

We're not a typical family. We have a big family in a small house with a big vehicle and we homeschool too. But that's Okay. Not everyone needs to fit in or follow the status quo. I'm a homeschooled and proud of it. I'm a Christian and won't deny or hide that truth from anyone regardless of what is popular or going on. If everyone stood up for what they believe and what they believed was right the world would be different and the people too.
See ya tomorrow! 

A Day With The Vet

I was priveleged with the ability to shadow a veterinarian who does horses. His name is Dr. Esterline and we spent the day together doing various farm calls. Above you can see that Dr. Esterline has got a big tool in the horse's mouth which is being held open by a metal speculum. The tool is a filer that he used to file down a few sharp teeth. Dr. Esterline has a 'head band' on with a light so he could see all the way into Harvey's mouth. I was shown two teeth that are in the beginning stages of rotting and allowed to feel two teeth. One that was very worn down and smooth as glass and the other was sharp not really worn at all. Dr. Esterline explained that when a tooth is as worn down as what the first tooth was, it doesn't wear the other teeth down. When a tooth is too high it'll begin to push another tooth forward which can cause discomfort and prevent eating. A horse's teeth should be checked every month and filed as well. I also found out that teeth that are rotten get fillings. Horses get fillings like people too. How cool.

 

We did another horse's teeth at a different farm. That horse hadn't what his teeth floated for two years almost but it wasn't affecting his eating, however he was very uncomfortable with a bit in his mouth. While there were no rotten teeth he did have some towards the back that were sharper and a bit high and I believe crooked. Dr. Esterline filed them all down and called it good. When we finished Ringo's teeth we moved on to a mare named Mata Hari who needed an ultrasound on her leg. 

Her superficial flexory tendon was swolen and sore making it painful to wall and work on. Because it was a tendon Xrays wouldn't work as they show bone and not muscle, fat, or tendon. So Dr. Esterline used an ultrasound machine, pictured above, to look at her leg. Her right front leg when examined looked fine and like normal. Her left front leg however was bowled out and clearly swollen. Dr. Esterline then went to his truck and came back with that black machine above. This would provide laser therapy to her leg. He held the small tube like structure(first picture) to her leg and it made a series of popping noises as he moved up and down where her leg was sore. Mata Hari will need to be walked daily and will not be able to be shown this year, but her leg will get better. 

Before I went on the road with Dr. Esterline I had to stay at the clinic for a while. So I watched them spay a young dog named Elsa. The first picture is her uterous when removed. It's in a folded mess but picture a small, pink, Y shaped structure. I was surpised when I saw how small it was I figured it would be bigger than what Dr. Beach pulled out. After she got the uterous out Dr. Beach brought her bladder up and showed me how full of urine it was. She applied steady pressure which cause Elsa to involuntarily pee while under anesthesia. Elsa's colon was also filled with poop but Dr. Beach didn't squeeze that out. When she finished draining her bladder Dr. Beach began sewing her up. There were three layers to sew. The abdominal wall needed to be sutured. The fat wall came next and lastly the skin needed to be sutured. Dr. Beach put a surgical glue over top to make sure the stitches didn't come out should Elsa lick at them. The sutures inside will eventually dissolve into nothing. I also got to see the technicians perform an Xray on a dog and Dr. Hermann explained to me what I was looking at, some, much to her delight, I identified on my own. 

It was a very fun and educating day. 

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into veterinary life, hopefully I'll shadow again and get better pictures and more experiences to share with you guys! 

Taste of Science: Enzymes

I recently performed an experiment demonstrating enzymes and how they break things down. Here are the steps I followed:
1 fresh pineapple
Blender
Three small bowls
Small box of jell-o, any flavor
Pot 
Stove
Refrigerator
Two tablespoon measurers

*objection-to see how easily enzyme function can be destroyed 

You'll cut the skin off the pineapple and then cut it into cubes. One cup of pineapple needs to be blended until its a thick pulpy mixture. Take one Tablespoon of the pineapple and put in a bowl(keep that tablespoon with that bowl) . Label this bowl 'room temperature pineapple'  I used duck tape for that. Now follow the directions on the jell-o packet and prepare as listed. When that's done pour one - third of it into each bowl. Good. Now using your other tablespoon measurer take some more pineapple and put it in a pot on a stove and heat for five minutes on high. If it starts to boil that's okay,just keep stirring. I set a timer for five minutes to help keep track of time. 
When that's done heating put the pineapple(keeping the tablespoon for that pineapple with it) and put it in the jell-o. Mix it together(Label this one heated pineapple) and when finished I put plastic wrap over top to keep debri out and put it in the fridge. Jell-o takes 2-3 hours to set so you'll have time to kill. There should be one bowl that has no pineapple and only jell-o, that's good. Take the remaining jell-o and put into a bowl and in the fridge to set with the other three bowls. 

*if you do this experiment don't read on until you've checked for yourself. If not than please read on! 

So what did we see when we checked the jell-o? The bowl with plain jell-o and no pineapple set like normal. So did the bowl with the heated pineapple. But! The jell-o with the room temperature pineapple didn't set. Why?! If it did set your pineapple wasn't fresh. 
There is an enzyme in pineapple that prevents jell-o from setting. When we heated the jell-o acted as a catalyst and destroyed the enzymes, which is the jell-o set like normal. Do you see how fragile enzymes are? They are so fragile most food processing destroys them. Canned or frozen pineapple wouldn't work because their enzymes wouldn't be in existance. This is why the pineapple had to be fresh. Pineapple also contains enzymes that break down tissues in your teeth which is why your gums may bleed when you eat pineapple. Enzymes are very fragile and break down soon after being formed,the pineapple used still had some enzymes that were destroyed when put in the blender. Because enzymes break down so easily and quickly our body is constantly making more. That's why it's very important to eat protein(meat,which is why we have canine teeth. We weren't meant to be vegan or vegetarian either). The protein we get gets broken down into constituent amino acids,and those acids are sent to the cells in your body so that they can produce the enzymes our bodies need. 

You can take the rest of that pineapple and eat it or freeze it our make pineapple upside down cake with it. I froze mine for smoothies and the plain jell-o and jell-o with the set pineapple are very edible and very tasty. 

There's your taste of science. I hope you enjoyed this bite of education and do this experiment, it's fun! 

This is me

Before we get started writing, allow me to introduce myself please. 

I am a simple girl who loves horses and is homeschooled with my two sisters and four brothers. If your jaw hasn't dropped at all my siblings then perhaps when you hear that we live in a two bedroom house, my sisters and I in one, my brothers in another, and drive a twelve passenger van it'll drop. No? Wow either your jaw is tough or you have an even bigger family than mine. Two dogs, a doberman named Athena and beagle Mix named Hunter, a crested gecko and occasional turtles and snakes and frogs make up our pets. I'll be in my last year of highschool next year and my brother is finishing highschool this year. I have an older sister and one niece. Yep, there's more of us, but don't worry, my little sister Ruth is the last one. Our age range from 2yrs to 28 years of age. Okay now your jaw has dropped, right? 
I have been homeschooled my whole life. We all have except my older sister. I wouldn't choose anyother kind of schooling if you paid me. It can be hectic at times but at the end of the day I've learned something new and that's all that matters. My favorite subject is science and actually math. I score an A in science and B in math which is pretty good since math doesn't always make sense but science comes natural. I enjoy grammar and obviously writing but literature and history bore me to death. I'm not sure about government since I have yet to take it but it's only three months so I'll survive either way. I get up between seven and eight in the morning and start off with math. My siblings eventually wake up too and we'll start doing chores,getting breakfast and beginning or finishing subjects. It gets kind of crazy with a five year old, seven year old and two year old but we work through it. Some days we finish school at four and other days we finish at six o'clock in the evening. It all depends on attitudes,subjects and how many errors we run in to. After math is grammar class. I'll be done with grammar this year and I finished my literature already. In science my older brother and I share a biology book. It's not that he's behind it's that I skipped a book and he didn't. Where I'm a science whiz my brother is a math whiz. He's super good. After science I'm done and will go do homework or experiments for my science. I recently did one but that's for later. My siblings are all in different grades but we've all skipped a few here and there. When I graduate highschool I plan on studying to become a DVM that specializes in horses and cattle at either Findlay University or MSU, although I'll probably attend MSU. 
My hobbies are all different and none consistent. When we go to the beach I collect unique sea shells. I enjoy going for one mile walks with our dog and my sister and I love to explore the woods for deer and other wildlife. When I'm cooped up in the house I write and draw pictures of horses. I'll read anything as long as the content is mild and wouldn't make your drunk and crude Uncle blush with shame. Oh, yes, and I adore horses. I have a drawer under my bed filled with horse books and more horse websites book marked than you have hair. I draw horses, read about horses, write about horses, dream about horses and, Oh, I ride a horse too. He isn't mine but he's a moody sweetheart and gorgeous too. I mean who doesn't like a buckskin with attitude? His name is Cody and he's a ten year old Quarter Horse gelding. He puts the 'u' in stubborn and will drive me crazy just for sport. But that's Okay because I'm fairly athletic when I want to be and more than wiling to take what he's got for me. His pasture buddy is a Thoroughbred gelding named Gentleman Jac and his 'big sister' is an Azteca mare named Rose. He shares his home with three cats and a dog and a crazy cat lady takes care of him. As feline obsessed as Julie is she's pretty nice since I ride for free as long as manure gets cleaned. I ride as often as I can but we're busy and my dad works 6am-6pm so my mom has to drop him off at work sometimes. 
Finally, we're Christians. I'll put that out there right now to save future offense that my transpire. We are Lutherans of Wisconsin synod. We use a Christian curriculum in school, attend church every Sunday and not ashamed of what we believe. 

Thanks for getting to know Me! I look forward to getting to know you and writing more each day or week!