Weekly Wrap-up: First week of 2013 (Week #13?) & Cranberry Pomegranate Pork Pot Roast

What a week! It went fast. Time just keeps speeding up…

Sunday- we had church, where it seems most families with children have been sick. Somehow we’ve missed it. Thankfully. It was the start of the winter schedule where we have morning service, lunch and fellowship followed by a shorter service. We usually get done about 2pm. We didn’t stay for the lunch and following because we’d forgotten that it started that Sunday. We plan on staying tomorrow. That was about all that happened on that day.

This might have been the day that I finished the book Kindred, but cannot be sure. It was …different. I was able to check it out from the library for reading on my computer- that’s never much fun for me. But it wasn’t available for Kindle. Anyway, moving on.

Monday- Back to school! Our first day back since…goodness before Thanksgiving I believe. That’s one reason I don’t know what “week” of school we are on. We did have school sporadically from the week after Thanksgiving to a week before Christmas but I don’t know how much. It is all written down, recorded, somewhere.

Monday’s are still babysitting day for Lee so we had less school. Actually *I* had none. All their work was independent. It was so nice and quiet. They were good and stayed on task.

About noon, however, I started having some strange lower back pain. By the time we got ready to go to Mentor, I could just hobble around. By 4:00pm, I just couldn’t really get around any longer. I sat in the car at Lee’s babysitting house for about 15-20 minutes in the car because I couldn’t stand to move around any more. And no, I didn’t ‘do’ anything to my back. I had been sitting in a kitchen chair for awhile. Before that, just my usual activities- no twisting, pulling or strenuous activity. It’s a mystery!

Tuesday- As far as school goes that’s when stuff started to get tough- for Lee at least. We now have a google document for schedules that we can both see and edit- even at the same time. I don’t think Lee has any more than she did before the break but those long weeks between, she’s just not used to it yet. Got out of the habit, I guess. Fox was done with his work around lunch time and that just irked Lee terribly.

Oh, and that back issue from Monday? It was very much worse on Tuesday. I laid on the couch pretty much all day. None of our together subjects got done; I just wasn’t up for it (no pun intended!). We didn’t go anywhere that day- not sure I could have made it to the car.

I think this is the day (but it may have been Wednesday) we went to the library and the store. I sat in the car while the kids did my bidding

I started and finished a couple of books while confined to the couch. I read The Time Traveler’s Wife (checked out from the library) and The Time Machine (free for the Kindle). I liked both but had qualms about both as well. It’s difficult to find good fiction, in my opinion.

Wednesday- School, school, school. Fox did his without too much effort (and that’s just what I mean *sigh*) and Lee was overwhelmed. That’s about all I can say about that day for school.

Fox had Young Marines, after a few weeks break. Lee and I were going to go to evening church, Lee to teen discipleship and I to prayer meeting, but my back wouldn’t allow me to drive. We stayed home instead. Fun.

Thursday- It’s interesting how other days, farther past, I can recall more vividly than a day just two days ago. I do know that most of school was done although not without some fussiness. Otherwise, we didn’t go anywhere or do anything spectacular that I can recall.

Friday- Fox and I got up earlyish to buy some coffee- I have to have my coffee, you see. Well, no, not really but I sure do like it. I’ve gone months without it –just to see if I could, and I did, so now I drink it when I want –so I know I don’t ‘need’ it.

I downloaded Cozi to my Kindle Fire (it’s free), in the hopes of being more organized. I’m not entirely sure it’ll do any better than a piece of paper and a pen. I put in our shopping list and even messed that up Leave it to me…

The most exciting part of Friday, in my opinion, was that I made a super yummy pork pot roast with cranberry pomegranate juice. Here’s the recipe (with my tweaks in parentheses):

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2 lb pork roast (mine was 3.5 lbs!)
• 2 TBS oil (about right)
• 1 1/4 cups apple cider or juice (I used 3 cups Northland 100% cranberry pomegranate- I also added 1.5 cups water)
• 2 tsp beef bouillon granules (I used wrapped 4 cubes)
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard (I used…lol… about 1 TBS Hickory Farms Sweet Hot Mustard)
• 1/4 tsp pepper (about right)
• 3 medium red potatoes, cut into large pieces (I used 5 potatoes)
• 3 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces (I used a handful of baby carrots, some cut in half but most as-is)
• 3 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (omitted!- not opposed to the idea, just have never bought a parsnip)
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges (mine was medium, cut in fourths)
• 1/4 cup flour (I used cornstarch)

Directions (more or less):

• In a skillet, pour oil and heat on medium-high. After trimming fat from roast, brown each side in the oiled skillet. It doesn’t take very long at all!
• While it’s being browned, place potatoes, carrots and onions in bottom of crock pot (mine is a 7 quart, oval –worked wonderfully; if you are using a smaller roast, a 3 or 4 quart will work better). Mix together the juice, bouillon cubes and pepper. Put browned roast on top of vegetables. Pour juice mix over meat and vegetables. I added some water because the juice was just enough to get the vegetables. It was a big roast!
• Turn crock pot to low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours. When meat falls apart, it’s essentially done. Carefully remove meat and vegetables. Make a gravy from the juice/broth by adding in 1/4 cup cold water mixed either the flour or cornstarch (cornstarch works faster and doesn’t clump as easily, imho –but flour adds a better flavor) into the juice/broth and stirring until thickened. I actually poured it into a pan and did it on the stove but it was troublesome. I believe my crock pot was warm enough that I could have left it in there to do the gravy.
• Pour the gravy over the roast and vegetables and serve. We had pizza dough rolls with this.

Super yummy! Tonight I am using the leftover pork for shredded pork I wish I’d taken a photo of the yummy roast but it’s just food and I have the recipe

Saturday- That’s today and… ah, the kids (well, Lee and I but Fox has to go along as well) have a writer’s workshop to attend this afternoon and I’ve a mountain of dishes to do! It looks very nice out so we might go to the park, which we’ve not done in quite  a long time. My back is no where as bad as Monday or Tuesday but I can tell I will have to take it easy today still.

So, that’s been my week. How has yours gone? I’m going to try to link up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Homeschool Mother’s Journal but if I don’t…well, there’ll be other opportunities I suppose. *I did!*

Have a good weekend!