Reservations.
Since my kitchen and dining room currently look like this:

And neither of our bathrooms has a toilet, we have decided it might be more fun to eat out this year. I am not usually a fan of restaurants on Thanksgiving, but this year, I’m looking forward to it. We plan to enjoy a nice meal with Walt’s mom, go the movies and then maybe check out a few black Friday (on Thursday?) sales. Low key.
And the best thing? No chance of ruining the turkey.
Unlike the one a from a couple of years ago…

The following originally ran just after Thanksgiving 2009.
I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family and the occasional friend nearly every year for the last 14 years. There have been only four exceptions: two fun years when we were vacationing over the holiday and two depressing years where I decided that a restaurant might be a nice change. For the record, it was not.
In addition to the 10 Thanksgiving turkeys, I have frequently prepared a Christmas turkey. Over the years, I have honed my technique, from oven roasting to smoking on the grill. Without exception, they have all turned out beautifully. For a woman still in my early thirties I have impressive turkey credentials.

I tell you these things, not to boast, but to prove that I am no turkey rookie; I am experienced.
Which is why yesterday’s disaster is so funny.
This turkey’s story did not begin on Tuesday, but that is the day it came into my life. That is the day when it was lovingly placed into my arms by our local butcher. It was just as I had imagined when I ordered it: Ten to twelve pounds. Natural, no additives. Fresh, not frozen.
I brought the bird home and placed it on its own specially cleared shelf in my refrigerator. Then I got busy preparing a brine. I use a concoction of my own invention (salt, apple-cider, whole allspice, whole peppercorns) placed in a cooler lined with a large browning bag. After immersing the bird in its lovely bath, I tied the bag closed and filled the cooler with ice. Before closing the lid, I taped a thermometer to the interior cooler wall, thus enabling me to monitor the temperature and keep the nasties at bay. No one is getting salmonella on my watch. That’s a promise.
The next day and a half were quiet for the turkey, but busy for me. My lovely assistant, nine year old Newt, and I busily prepped all of the recipes in my repertoire and created a lovely edible centerpiece. Meanwhile, my other lovely assistant – my husband, cleaned and prepared the grill.
Finally the big day came. I lifted the turkey from the brine and gently patted it dry. Tenderly, I massaged a mixture of melted butter and olive oil into its skin. Parsley, fresh from my garden and a specially prepared poultry spice rub were then liberally applied. It was ready for the grill.
I decided on three hours of smoking with an occasional spritz of apple cider to caramelize the skin. Then I turned up the heat and watched for the meat thermometer to reach exactly 175°. I pulled it out, knowing that the temperature would climb to a safe 180° while the turkey rested.

After resting for 15 minutes, the bird was transferred to its place of glory. Our family gathered around and gave thanks. A hush fell over the room and my husband took up his carving knife.

Reverently, he made the first cut for our daughter – white meat, please. Only…it wasn’t exactly white. It was a sort of translucent pink color. And a bit…jiggly.
The whole family stared first at that bit of meat and then at each other.
Raw.
The turkey is still raw.
Everything else is ready. We’re starving. And the turkey is raw.
This has never happened before.
I shouldn’t be happening now. The thermometer said 178°!
Raw?
What do we do?
I was the first to recover my senses and I instructed my husband to slice off a few small portions. Those would go in the microwave for a few minutes to finish the cooking process. The rest of the turkey was returned to the grill.
We began our meal as I kept an ear out for the microwave ding. Once the turkey was deemed to be fit for human consumption, I passed the plate around. There was enough for each of us to have one small slice, but there were so many side dishes that a small slice really was plenty. And even with the microwaving, the turkey was juicy and flavorful.
We quickly forgot about the meal’s rocky start and settled in to enjoy ourselves. Newt had the idea that we go around the table and each person share something he or she is grateful for starting with the letters of the alphabet.
She started with A – apples.
I was next. B – books
And so on…
My husband got T. He did not say turkey. We had forgotten all about it.
I wasn’t until two hours later when I was contemplating all of these…

…that I remembered. I asked my husband, “Honey, where’s the turkey?”
Crap.
And that is the story of how I managed to both under-cook and utterly burn the turkey. In the same year.

All that work, down the drain.
But I didn’t really mind. After all those years of great turkeys, I think I was due for an epic fail.
Besides, I don’t even like turkey all that much.

Yesterday, I shared with you thrift store shopping tips taught to me by a true second-hand guru. Today, I’ll show you how I put those tips to good use.

Are you ready for this? Newt and I had a little photo shoot in the yard.
It’s always nice to put on a show for neighbors and random passersby.

Look #1 The “Modeling in Your Front Yard is Awkward” Pose

The first pair of skinny jeans I have owned since the 8th grade
l.e.i. skinny
Cost: $6.99
Here’s a close up of the… ah… pocket details.

Chocolate brown cardigan
West and Vine
Cost: $6.99
cotton blend, looks new – no pilling (not even under the arms)
The white tank, necklace and boots came from my own closet.

Look #2 – The “I’m So Casually Leaning Against My Truck” Pose

Gray button up t-shirt
Mossimo
cotton-poly blend, great condition
Cost: $3.99
I love the sleeve detail. I paired this with the same jeans and boots, because I was too lazy to put something else together for my photo shoot.

Look #3 The “Yes, I Know I Needed to Pull My Shirt Down” Pose
I was just trying to keep Newt from documenting all the weeds. Looks like I failed there too.

Black jersey knit shirt with blue embroidery detail
I.N.C.
Cost: $6.99
Jeans
Old Navy Sweetheart cut
Cost: $6.99

Look #4 The “Using This Chair to Support my Leg Pop” Pose

Cotton skirt with ribbon detail
Merona
Cost: $4.99
Oatmeal colored sweater twin-set
Lands End
cotton blend, again looks brand new – no pilling
Cost: $9.99
This was my big ticket item, but it’s a twofer. Look at it without the cardigan in my “Just Hanging Out on My Wall and Newt is Making Me Laugh” Pose:

I didn’t leave Newt out of the thrifty-fun.
Newt Look #1: The “Just Climbing the Fence” Pose:

Jeans
She’s wearing them right now and doesn’t want to tell me the brand
Cost: $6.99
Here they are from another angle in the “Holy Cow, Newt Has Long Legs” Pose

The sweater came from her own floor closet.

Newt Look #2: The “Now Be a Tiger” Pose

Purple striped sweater
Same as the jeans
cotton blend, looks new, and bonus: it’s same size I wear so there may be some borrowing potential
Cost: $4.99

Newt also got a canvas belt ($2.99) and a pair of embroidered jean capris ($6.99). They are not pictured because the photo session got boring and the model refused to cooperate.
Models! [eyeroll accompanied by exasperated sigh]

Total spent: $68.89
Average cost per item: $6.26

I think we did great. What do you think?

Edited to add: I just posted outtakes to my facebook page. Hurry over, you won’t want to miss my Sitting on the Toilet Pose.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a request from Melissa, a long time reader. Melissa had published an article in her homeschool newsletter about a homeschooling trend that she has noticed. She feels passionately about the issue and wanted to get her thoughts out to a wider audience. Melissa doesn’t have a blog (though if she did, I’d read it) so she asked if I would publish her article here.  Here you go, Melissa:  Frantically Simple’s first ever community opinion piece.

Melissa is a 40-something stay-at-home wife and mom that homeschools her 9-year-old son. Her husband’s job includes a lot of extended travel which enriches their homeschooling lifestyle. Melissa pops right out of bed around 4am ready to take on the day (usually) and (usually) looks at the world via Pollyanna-inspired glasses. It’s a sweet life.
All opinions expressed and text written are Melissa’s.

A Homeschooling Trend

My family travels a lot.  We live in Rhode Island but my husband’s job takes us to many states for anywhere from 1-8 months at a time.  The longest time we have been in one state, thus far, was Oregon in 2008 when we were there for most of the year.  We made some lifelong friends in Oregon and enjoyed the local homeschooling community.  I found that homeschooling in Oregon was very much like what we had been experiencing back home in Rhode Island.  Sure, some things were different.  The biggest differences between homeschooling in Rhode Island and Oregon is that in Oregon you only have to send in a Letter of Intent once, then you are done forever whereas in Rhode Island we have to send in a yearly Letter of Intent along with an end of year attendance report.   Oregon also requires state testing every 3 years starting in 3^rd grade.

We did homeschool in New York in 2010 for much of the year but I sort of don’t count that because we were only 3 hours from home and traveling back and forth from our apartment in New York to Rhode Island almost weekly so we didn’t end up involved in New York homeschool groups at all.    I think everyone has heard how difficult it is to homeschool in New York.  Lots of regulations, including detailed quarterly reporting and time-on-task and evaluation.  Eeeek!

So here we are currently living in California for a long while.  We have found the homeschoolers to be very welcoming and fun and it’s been a very positive experience.  But there are differences here that are making it very interesting to learn about the homeschooling communities.

Every homeschooling family in California has to register as a “private school”.   Up until the last 5 years, that is what most people (other than those staying under the radar) were doing.  But recently that has changed, dramatically.  It’s a world of charter schools now.  As one mom explained to me, if someone belonged to a charter school 5 years ago, they would have been looked down upon from the homeschooling community and not considered to be homeschoolers. Now, from what I have seen, it is the norm to belong to a charter.  The questions homeschoolers ask each other when they meet isn’t if they are in a charter but rather which charter they are in.  It’s that prevalent.  Why?  Money.

What Does Charter School Mean To You?

When most of the country hears “charter school” we think of a brick and mortar school, owned and run by some sort of independent organization (whether it is non-profit or a business).   In most of the country, if your child gets into a charter via a lottery and you drive them to the school building and drop them off each day, then you would not ever think of calling yourself a homeschooler.  Of course not.  You don’t pay for school (so it’s not private).  Your child’s school is mainly funded by the government. Your child is public schooled but at a charter.  In simple terms.

Now go ahead and say charter school in California.  It’s a whole different scene. Yes, there are traditional site-based instruction charters but there is also what is called independent study charter schools.  These independent study charters are the ones that homeschoolers are using.  Independent study means that there is no building that you go to, that the teachers will come to you, monthly for the most part, to check in on you.  So, public schooling at home.  One popular charter even mentions on their main page (as if it’s a selling point) that their teachers are trained to support the “No Child Left Behind” program.

Let’s get back to the money behind all this.   Most independent study charter schools give a yearly spending amount per child.  One charter, for example, last year gave each child $1,600.  This money is to spend on curriculum and classes.  There is a huge list of approved vendors that you can use this money to pay.  Vendors range from Oak Meadow for curriculum to local tutors to the neighborhood dance studio.  I counted 542 approved service vendors on one of the charter schools.  And that’s just the service vendors (classes, tutors, field trips), I didn’t take the time to also count all the approved product vendors.   In Sacramento County, according to two resources, there are 8 or 9 charters to choose from.

A large industry has grown out of the popularity of these charter schools.   All those students…with all that money to spend.  That part is nice actually.  The part where you can easily find science classes, art, language and P.E. classes to sign up for.  Lots of museums offering homeschool days.  Homeschool resource stores!

Selling Out?

I tried to think of another way to say selling out without sounding over-the-top negative.  But nothing else felt right.  When I looked up the definition of selling out, here is what Wikipedia says: “Selling out” is the compromising of (or the perception of compromising) integrity, morality, or principles in exchange for money or “success” (however defined)…. Selling out is often seen as gaining success at the cost of credibility.

So, I guess I have to stick with that term because compromising principles in exchange for money is what I fear is happening.  But, perhaps not all of these families are compromising.

I guess it depends partly on what your goals are and what the reasons are that your family is choosing to homeschool.  If you simply don’t want your child to sit in a brick building five days a week for 12 years and that the only reason that you homeschool them perhaps this is a viable option and you aren’t compromising your principles.  If you don’t mind the idea of public school in general but aren’t comfortable with the local school your child would be attending, then independent charters do sound like a good option.  Maybe your child has social anxiety or a serious illness and cannot flourish in the mass education setting.  And of course there are the parents would toy with the idea of homeschooling but never find the confidence to actually take that step.  Independent study charters could be that safety net they need to get there.  There are as many reasons for homeschooling as there are homeschoolers.  Not all of us are trying to keep the government’s input out of our child’s education.  Not all of us feel the confidence that we can, at least, do a better job at it than the government can.  I get that, but at what cost?

When I first heard about this charter school trend my mouth fell open and I just couldn’t get my mind wrapped around it.  Homeschoolers letting the government tell them how to educate their child in order to get $1,600 a year.  Willing to be public schooled at home (yes, since all charter schools in California are public schools, so I guess legally they are not homeschoolers at all, right?).  No longer being in charge (to some degree) of their child’s education.  What do I mean by that?  Well, along with that nice bunch of money come a whole lot of hoops.  The number of hoops varies from charter to charter but basically there are guidelines that must be followed and monthly meetings with your family’s Education Specialist (a California credentialed teacher) to review each child’s progress.  Some charters require specific curriculum be used (or at least the list is very limited) and other ones are much more open.

There is an actual school calendar to follow as well as report cards and yearly testing.  One, admittedly extreme, story I heard about a charter was that a child turned in a required writing assignment and it was denied because it was “over grade level”.  Huh?  Why would homeschoolers put up with that sort of thing?  It reminds me of a story I heard when I was first researching homeschooling.  A little girl, Zoe, had written her name at the top of her paper in public school and she was told she was not allowed to write her name because they had not gotten to Z in their handwriting lessons yet!  Oh my aching head.

Independent study charter schools are funded by the government just like brick and mortar schools are.  So they are being held to all the same regulations.  They are graded for “No Child Left Behind”, testing results and graduation percentages.  And I see complaints that things are getting worse each year.  The restrictions are growing, the requirements getting more and more constraining.  Homeschoolers are jumping from one charter to the other in a grass-is-greener sort of way.

One of the questions that I asked was how do homeschoolers and unschoolers deal with the oversight charters require.  The answer I received is that many of the Education Specialists take what homeschoolers do during the course of a month and turn it into “educationese”.  The report that the Education Specialist turns in will have the right verbiage to sort of “play the game” that ensures the students are meeting the requirements.  Some Education Specialists are more willing to bend the rules, and creatively make real situations fit requirements than others are.

A Back Door into Home Education

I haven’t been among the California homeschoolers long enough yet to have a final opinion about this charter school trend.  I do see the positive aspects but my knee-jerk reaction is that the majority of them are willing to deal with the school department’s rules in exchange for chunk of money. Access to my child in exchange for cash.  It’s not that I don’t understand why they’re doing it (all that money can be used to help enrich your child’s life) but it scares me that the government is going to find a way through this back door to get into all of our homes, to get into all of our lives, to get into all of our curriculum choices, and to start to define what homeschooling is.  I almost feel that it’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing with the money playing the part of the costume.

Why Should You Be Concerned?

I’m sure some people are reading this and wishing that independent charters were available to them as options.  I admit there are those who do want, and would benefit from, the support that comes with the oversight, the hoops and the rules.  I understand the desire, for some, to have guidelines, and someone to meet with to assure the parents that they are on the right path.  I understand that the opportunity to spend that much money on your child for curriculum and classes each year sounds almost decadent.

If my guess is correct, no matter where you are homeschooling, this will be a choice you will be given in the coming years.  These charters are businesses.  They will expand.

I do want to re-iterate that not all California homeschoolers are in charters.  I don’t know the percentages, not at all, but I do see a trend…a trend that could spread like wild fire all the way across the country and that worries me.

***

I hadn’t heard of this trend before.  Have you?  What is your opinion? 

Walt and I went out the other night and left Newt with a babysitter. I picked up my camera this afternoon and found a couple dozen of these:

This one has a bit of a Red Riding Wolf vibe.

I’m getting to kind of a fuzzy area with the whole babysitting thing. Newt is old enough, and more importantly, responsible enough to stay home alone. If there are errands to be run during the day, and she does not feel like tagging along, I have no problem letting her stay home. I’ve even occasionally left her for an hour or two in the evening when I’ve had a meeting and Walt was working late.
I know girls, only a year or so older than Newt, that are accepting babysitting jobs. So why do Walt and I still get a sitter when we go out?
Well, for one, an hour or two is not long enough for dinner and a movie. I’m not sure I’m ready to leave her alone for longer at night. And she would be alone. If she had siblings, even younger, I think I’d feel more comfortable. Not only is there the “safety in numbers” thing, but it just sort of seems less… lonely.
Hey Newt, Daddy and I are going to the movies. Maybe we’ll even get ice-cream. You can’t come. Bye.
At least with a sitter, she has a good time too. I have the evidence on my camera.
Any other parents of tween onlys out there? What do you do when you go out?

***

Saturday morning I got up and almost immediately saw a rare and beautiful site: a blank square on the calendar. None of us had to be anywhere. We decided to just go for a drive and see what adventures came up.
We began by stopping in on a 9-11 commemoration at Riverfront Park. There were flags for each of the victims of that day, as well as local police, firefighters and military personal that have lost their lives.

I won’t say that that was a “fun” event, but it felt good to be there and gave us an opportunity to continue talking with Newt about what happened that day, what has happened since and what it means to be a hero.
After, we continued our wandering. We stopped at a few garage sales, more to look-at than to look-for (one had a 6′ table completely piled high with vintage porn. It made me wonder about the grandmotherly looking proprietress.)
We stopped at several sales, but only bought one thing:

$8.00! I can’t wait to show you what I have planned for it. (oh and don’t let the grin fool you. I am far more excited about this project than Walt is.)
Our window purchase created a need to go to Home Depot for project supplies. On the way there we came a cross a a gun store that Walt has always been curious about. We had no other plans, so we stopped in.
I can’t decide if I find this picture kind of funny or kind of disturbing.

You?
We wrapped up the day with a trip to the drive-in movie theater. Newt wore her pjs and we packed blankets and snacks. I remember doing the same thing when I was her age, and seeing… wait for it… Rambo III. Yup – good clean family fun.
We saw Grease. I can’t say is was much more appropriate than Rambo. I had forgotten how much innuendo dirty it is. There’s nothing like seeing a movie with your ten year old to make you see things that might normally go unnoticed. Luckily, most of it went right over her head. The parts that didn’t made for some interesting conversation on the drive home…

Unplanned days are really fun. I’ll have to unplan another one soon.

***

Anyone know what time it is?
Time to announce the winners of my Labor Day Work Party!

Thrifty Texas Penny wins the book – Parenting A House United.

Amy wins the adorable little Dust Bunny.

Melissa R and Camille each win a scrubby.

Rebecca wins the duster.

And Tina S. wins the chore dice.

Congratulations to all the winners. Each has been contacted and has until tomorrow morning to contact me (or I’ll have to choose someone else. Don’t make me turn this car around, young lady!)