Not Homeschooling

Not Homeschooling

As a Catholic revert, wanting to be serious about making faith a part of my  life and my family's life, I envisioned homeschooling my kids.  My husband also supported homeschooling.  He had briefly been an Elementary Education major in college and said that convinced him traditional schooling was lacking.  He also felt that homeschooling was what serious Catholics did.  We did homschool really for only one year, and then I panicked and enrolled our oldest in first grade at a local Catholic school. How could we have both rejected an ideal we held together?  That is a hard question for me to ask, because there is a sadness to it.

I guess we rejected the homeschooling ideal for many reasons:

• We live in a 3 bedroom apartment in Queens, New York.  We have 4 children.  It is not pleasant for all of us to be home together all day.  I got really scared when I had some older cousins visit from the Midwest and I realized that kids do grow and having a big kid cooped up it a little apartment would only get more unhealthy and more difficult.
• My child was nocatching on quickly.  It seemed like every homeschooled child I ever heard about, or read about was a prodigy.  I was so afraid I was doing a terrible job. 
• I have student loans to repay and really need to make some sort of living for my family.  New York is also so expensive, nearly impossible to live on one income.
• It created conflict between me and my husband because I felt it was one more thing he could critique me about.  Not only, since I was home most of the time, was I supposed to care for everyone, cook the meals, keep the place livable, but I was also supposed to create and administer, teach a ciriculim.  I did purchase one from a Catholic company, but it was inadequate  It was an additional responsibility I didn't think I could bear.  This is something I want to know from the other homeschoolers.  Are you able to meet expectations in all those areas?  do you need to lower expectations in some?  How do you bear that responsibility?

This list can go on, but I want to post this and come back to it.  I was to know are you happy that you were homescholed, or not homeschooled?  Do you think people choose homeschooling based on an ideal that it what a "good Catholic Family " should do?

I want to hear from moms:)

Healthier Hurricane Pear Coffee Cake

Healthier Hurricane Pear Coffee Cake

I adapted this from the Pear Coffee cake recipe on Allrecipies.  I emphasize the healthier here as I can’t in good conscience call something with a cup and a half or sugar and a cup of oil simply healthy.  But this really is an improvement from the original and it turned out perfect.  I reduced the sugar by one half cup and the oil by ¼ cup.  I replaced ¼ cup of flour with ½ cup flaxseed meal (I’ve used the Bob’s Red Mill brand I bought at Trader Joe’s).  Instead of the typical flaked coconut which is loaded with sugar I’ve used an unsweetened coconut powder that I purchased at local Queens Indian grocer.  The flax and the coconut powder combine to give a nice nutty taste which I often miss in cakes because I’m allergic to tree nuts.  
The pears I used were from our CSA and they were still quite firm, though not as hard as when we got them 5 days ago.  They were the perfect texture for the cake because very ripe pears would not have held their shape as nicely as these did. This recipe would be a great use for anyone with a pear tree that probably has many slightly ripe pears knocked down by the hurricaine:)  Since I live in an apartment, and thus no pear tree, this is my hurricance coffee cake because I was stuck in my apartment with those CSA pears!  The cake has made it worth it

1 and ¾ Cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ Cup Flaxseed Meal
1 and ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 and ½ cup sugar
1 and ¼ cup canola oil
3 eggs

1 cup unsweetened coconut powder
3 cups pears, peeled, cored, and chopped

Powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Butter and flour a bundt cake pan.  Prepare the pears and set aside. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  In the bowl of a mixer combine the sugar and canola oil.  Cream on high speed for 2 min.  Reduce the speed to medium.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Reduce speed to low and gradually add in dry ingredients until completely incorporated.  Stir in the pears and coconut powder by hand. Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 1 hour and 30 min.  Allow to cool in pan on cooling rack for 20 minutes.  Slide butter knife gently around edges of cake to help loosten edges of cake from pan.  Invert pan onto cooling rack.  Dust with powdered sugar.  

4 or More (Kids) in NYC

Just thought of starting this blog today in the shower while the youngest kid is napping, the oldest is at school and the middle two are watching 30 min of break-time-for-mom-TV.  So I'm going to quickly list ideas about why I want to do this:

• I have lived in NYC for only 2 and a half years.  We came with 3 daughters and now have 4.  I  have gotten some interesting (to say the least) reactions from both Midwestern family members ("You're crazy!" "How can you risk raising kids with all that crime?") to the NYC nannies on the playgound ("Oh! Four children. Must be rich family!  Can I work for you?")
• I'm not only picking 4 or More as the name because I think it's catchy with the rhyming, but because I think it is an honest reflection of the solipcistic nature of parenting.  I have 4, so why not?  (I also hope to find some sociological data on the US the shows that 4 children constitutes the definition of a larger family, but no time for that now since my kids brains are melting down as I write... which is why I need a blog, to force me to actually verify some of the things I spout!)
•  4 kids does seem to be a cut-off for some things like having to drive a minivan, and in NYC, outgrowing the two bedroom apartment, or any remotely affordable housing options for a family of limited financial means
• The "or More" is included in the title because I want to know if it's possible to do this with my four kids or even more kids!  We have loved having children and are continuing to discern if it would be responsible to have more.
• I wanted to use a blog format to connect with other mothers on topics that affect larger families in the city.  I like the idea of using technology to connect with people on topics, rather than spending time on Facebook, which I don't do.