Taco Seasoning Mix

This mix is salt free.  I season to taste as I cook. 

I've never tried to figure out how much salt to add to the recipe in order to make it "right," but when others have asked, I've calculated that maybe the 1/2 cup that would fill the jar would be about right.  This is based on an estimate of about1 tsp salt/pound of meat.

Taco Seasoning Mix
1 c chili powder
3/4 + c paprika
3/4 c cumin
1/2 c onion powder
1/3 c garlic powder
1/8 c cayenne or other pepper power (adjust to taste, depending upon variety of pepper)

Mix together and store in a quart jar.  Use 1/8 c for every pound of meat, or taco seasoning packet called for in a recipe.

Tip 1:  If you inadvertently get steam in your jar while measuring, a few grains (scant tsp) of dry white rice will help the mix from sticking together. 

Tip 2:  I labeled my jar with a piece of wide masking tape.  I wrote the name, "Taco Seasoning Mix" on the top with a sharpie, but I also wrote the recipe on the tape, too, with a ball point pen.  Then when I need to replenish my stock, I don't need to look up the recipe.

A Hike

We stopped along the way to Custer State Park to take this shot.

Part 1, Day Four, Thursday, August 22
I didn't write anything about this day before, so I find myself trying to reconstruct memories when so very much has happened since then.

This was our last day in the Black Hills.  I still had not gotten to do any hiking, and our bigger girls were keen to do some swimming or maybe even renting a kayak, or whatever they could afford.  We decided that we'd hike in the morning in Custer State Park.  We'd drive the Needles Highway over to Sylvan Lake.  And there we'd have a picnic lunch at the park by Sylvan Lake and swim in the afternoon.

Love this Man

Joe wanted to go to Custer State Park because of a fun memory he carries with him of a camping trip with a group of our college friends.  They had planned to do primitive camping at a hike-in location in the French Creek Natural Area.  As it turned out they got not only rained out, but the creek, which had to be crossed several times on the walk out, had become a swollen torrent and they had a bit of trouble getting all their people and things out.  One of their company was a very small woman who had to be piggy backed across the worst flooding. 

And so Joe wanted to share with his kids the area where this familiar family legend occurred.

Rachel picking some raspberries along the way,

The Abrahamson Parade

We had a very nice walk, although the access area had changed quite a bit in the 20+ years since Joe camped there.  There is a big horse camp area just adjacent to the trail head which through us off a bit.  When we asked directions from the horse camp hosts, they pointed us onward to the right spot. 

Sophie sparkling in the sun

We hiked far enough to ford French Creek twice.  Although there are log crossings at each ford, the weather had turned warm, so the littles wanted to play in the water.  The bigs just wanted to be done, so they could get to the real swimming.  But so it is when traveling with a wide range of ages.  We saw lovely wildflowers and mushrooms and trees and grasses.  We saw one big buck running through the hillside across the creek from where we had stopped to climb around a bit.  I had brought along our aluminum camp dishes and the kids "panned for gold" for a little while.  We took some individual photos in the beautiful natural setting.

Panning for Gold

Pretty hillside

John was very interested in the mushrooms during our trip

A primitive shelter we found along the way

Goatsbeard in seed, with Stella in the backtround

John and Mary

Some of John's treasures

And then we headed back.  By then the day had warmed up quite nicely. Ask any of the kids who were sitting in the back of the van as we stopped to visit.

But who did we visit?

As we were backing out of the parking spot after a potty stop at one of the resort/gift shops in Custer State Park, the kids said, "You have plenty of room, but I think that man thinks you're going to hit him.  He's just staring at the back of our van."

As it turned out, he was indeed staring at the back of the van.  But not out of fear of being hit.  He recognized the car dealership label from southern Minnesota.  So he came over to the driver's side window to ask us where we were from.  He and his wife are the parents of one of Joe's classmates.  Joe hadn't seen them for years, but knew them a little bit during his high school years.  Soon his wife came over to see who her husband was chatting with.  We had a very nice visit.  To make the coincidence one step more fun, one of their kids' family are members of the church in Olympia where my brother-in-law is a pastor.  Their Grandson is a friend of my nephew, Iver.

We visited for quite awhile.  While the kids in the backseat got progressively warmer.  But we were on our way to swim.  "You can cool off then," we reminded them.  "It's not every day you run into people from 'down home'."

Camping, The Abrahamson Way

This post is mostly pictures and links. The pictures are from this camping trip. Just shots from around the camp site. The links are to things either Joe or I have written in the past about how we camp.

Our two lanterns, the trusty Coleman that uses white gas, and a very cheapo one that uses kerosene.  We use tiki torch oil in that one, since it's so readily available.  The cheapo read one is easier for me, since I am a bit intimidated by the mantles and pumping, etc with the Coleman, but Joe, since he's the lamp maintenance guy, says the red one is much putzier to keep clean.

I like this photo, since it gives a little glimpse of so many parts of our camp life.  The clothesline, Clara foraging wood, the dishpan, the hot water pot and coffee pot and the stove.  All of us in various kinds of jammies, and etc. 

A closeup of our water heating pot and coffee percolator.  This one is kept filled all the time, and as soon as the food prep is done, it's put on the hottest part of the fire to have hot water ready for dishes.  The coffee pot is prepped for coffee the night before.  When it's not being used for coffee, it often has hot water, too, in case of need.

Kids always like to play with fire.  We have specific rules and try to enforce them diligently.

Joe uses leather gloves for cooking over the fire.  He finds them much safer than quilted pot holders.

This is Joe at our cooking/clean-up table.  It's a lightweight roll-up table from Cabela's that's very handy for traveling.  It gives us extra space to prepare food and wash up afterwards.

Our hand-wash station.  Since we generally camp in primitive campgrounds, we have to provide our own "plumbing."

The Dome Tent.  This was our big extravagant purchase about seven years ago.   It's been very well used.  The selling point on this one is that if fits a playpen in the middle.  But, ... this trip marks the first time in, oh, 20 years that we didn't need to camp with a playpen.  And the dishes bin sitting by the tent.  This is our Kitchen on the Road.

This is the newest addition to our camping gear.  This style of tent is notoriously leaky in the rain, but it's spacious.  The three oldest girls were able to share the left room and the next two girls the smaller room on the right.

Joe's favorite camp cooking equipment.
Joe tries a new primitive skill, cooking with moss.
Cheap grilling pans.
For a look at a different kind of primitive camping, Joe documented our cabin camping trip at Glendalough State Park several years back, in part 1 and part 2.
And check out the "camping" and "vacation on a dime" index tabs on this blog for more glimpses into camping the Abrahamson Way.

Teaching. Sorting. Digging. Finding. Harvesting. Magic Schoolbusing. Not Finding.

Uffda!  So far this week for school for Sophie and Clara, I've been filling in with busy work: reading and dictation, and grammar by identifying parts of speech in their dictation; some unused pages ripped from Elsie and Jeremy's Thinking Skills books from way back when; penmanship, again unused pages from other used books;. and some math and geography lessons I had at one point printed up from on-line sources that were never used.

But today!  Today.  This afternoon, after the girls had worked on the above sorts of things for an adequate amount of time, so we got to some chores that needed to be done.

We had found all Jeremy's old Magic School Bus computer games that he had gotten for Christmas from Uncle Mark and Aunt Lisa.  Wow that was a long time ago.  Just a little context for how old these are, ... we had to change the setting on my Windows 7 computer to work at a Windows 95 level.  So Inge was able to travel through time to learn about dinosaurs while the rest of us worked.

Clara surprised me by harvesting the ripened tomatoes that I had been trying to get to.  She also picked the bushel or so of apples that our most mature but still young tree produced this year.  It's so fun to finally be getting fruit from it after all these years. 

While Clara was doing that Sophie and I dug through about 20 boxes of books that had been boxed up in the store room since we converted the school room to Louisa's bedroom.   Ooh, for mildew smell on the bottom layer.  Made me want to cry. 

But the good news is that we've found almost all we need for a successful school year. 

But we found unused spelling books and penmanship books. 

I found many science ideas.  I'll just have to decide which to use.  I have many of the TOPS science books, a very fun hands-on approach to science that I think the girls could do on their own.  This would be things like Electricity and magnetism, Light and color, studying life science with things like grains and beans, and I don't remember what all I have down there.

And they could also choose The Human Body (or introductory anatomy), for which I have many resources.  My favorite of these is Daryl Vriesenga's Human Body workbook that has basic and detailed fill-in worksheets for all the body parts and systems, plus a cut and glue model of the human body, layered from drawings of all the various body systems. 

I also have Apologia General Science, but I think that would be better a few years from now if I want both girls to be able to work together.  It's a little advanced for Sophie to reap the full benefits.  And I think Clara is probably still just borderline ready for it when I remember the homeschool necessity of independent work.

I had asked the girls whether they wanted World History, American history, or an in-depth study of a smaller period like Renaissance/Reformation/Enlightenment, or Medieval History, etc.  They both agreed they'd prefer World History so that makes it easy.  I found the Level 6 and 7 Sonlight boxes and the box that had all the teacher's guides and reproducibles.  Those will have all we need for grammar, writing, reading, and World History I and II.  We'll have to see how far we get.  

Clara is interested in learning Spanish, and I have many, many resources for that.  I think the one most appropriate to her age is the Elementary Powerglide program.  We also have a Standard Deviants Spanish DVD; and an Instant Immersion Spanish set of discs, that I think we got with our first HP computer.  And we have many, many Spanish picture books, including the Adventures with Nicholas books from Berlitz.

Sophie wants to study Latin, so I had to order that.  I decided upon Getting Started with Latin, which is designed for independent homeschool learners whose teachers are entirely unfamiliar with Latin. Sounds like just the thing for us. 

I didn't find the aBeka Pre-algebra book that I know I saved.  Jeremy had used only the first handful of pages and then went into 8th grade in Oklee.  I can't imagine I sold it.  But where?  Where would I have stored it?  I hope I don't have to order another of those, since they're kind of expensive.  But I also don't want to wait much longer before ordering...  What to do, what to do.

And I'll also order some Singapore Math workbooks for Sophie.  We have the text books, but no workbooks that are unused. 

It feels good to be ready.  And it's nice we have so many things we don't need to purchase. 

Is this really art?

This is from the Nick Jr. show, Yo Gabba Gabba.  I know nothing of the show.  I stumbled upon this video because of a list of recommended children's youtube channels.  Yo Gabba Gabba was the favorite of the person putting together the list. 

I watched a few episodes with Inge.   Yes, she was interested.  Yes, she was involved.  Yes, she was stimulated. 

Strange.  At first glance, the whole show seemed to me little more than a retro hippy drug induced creation.  And at second glance.  Third....

As I watched the above clip, I was reminded of a discussion going on in worldview and education/homeschool philosophy circles many years ago.  Perhaps it still is.  I mostly no longer have the energy to pursue such intelligent philosophical banterings, so I can't say for sure.

The idea was that 20th century art is widely a reflection of the wider 20th century tendency to forgo rules and order.  What appears in this video to be a bunch of adults clowning around and making a huge mess, is called art.

I don't deny that art is everywhere.  Creativity abounds in humanity.  Beauty abounds in the earth.  Interesting and challenging ideas can be portrayed visually.  Touching moments, hardship, violence, accomplishment, virtue, etc.  These can all be portrayed through visual media.  That to me is art.  At least visual art.

But the above definition of art?  Really?  I think we as a society can and should do better than this.  We ought to hold higher standards before our children. 

Mt. Rushmore and Patriotism

Donna, Inge, and Stella; with Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln in the background

Louisa is holding Donna; our friend, Rachel, is holding Inge; and John, against the backdrop of Mt. Rushmore National Monument.

A mama and young mountain goat along-side a trail at Mt. Rushmore.









Day 3, Wednesday, August 21
We saw Mt. Rushmore, had a picnic lunch, and explored Keystone. Then we came back to our home away from home for supper.

My kids, of course as is typical, made friends with one of the only other campground guests.  This time, Louie from Canada, who is traveling the US for perhaps seven months.  I'm always a bit nervous knowing my kids are so friendly and will talk to pretty much anyone.  But I was thankful that he came over and introduced himself, and we visited a little while.  I know where my kids get their friendly ways.  After Louie returned to his campsite, Joe asked me whether we should invite him to have supper with us. 

Joe gets that gift from his Mom and her parents who make friends wherever they go.  The day our oldest son, Jeremy was born, the rest of the family was hosting a surprise 70th birthday party for Grandpa Kindler.  After the party, Grandma and Grandpa headed west for a little vacation.  I believe they were actually on their way to Portland for an annual Marine Corp gathering of WWII vets who had served together. 

Grandma and Grandpa were hoping to have word of the arrival of their first great-grandbaby before starting out.  But alas there was not yet any news.  When they stopped for supper, they called the hospital to to check in.  As would become apparent, they had shared their joyful news with the other diners.  After Joe's mom told them of Jeremy's arrival, they hollered out, "It's a boy!" which announcement was met with cheers all around.

But returning to the tale of this trip, and to our campground, I was tired.  And we had evening plans.  So I when Joe asked if he could invite Louie, I asked Joe if he would feel too bad if we had a simple family dinner.  Or at least as simple as a family dinner for eleven, cooked over a fire, at a picnic table, with the dishes in a nearby camp bin, and washing up with water heated over the fire can be. 

After said simple family meal, we rushed to get the dishes done quickly, in order to hit the road once more.  We planned an evening trip back Rushmore for the nightly lighting ceremony. Wow, was that good! Really! I'm sad, though, that we didn't get any photos.  We had forgotten the camera in the van. 

The evening started out with a patriotic and informative film which focused on the ideals that has made America great.  And on the four presidents whose faces grace the stone monument, and how these men forwarded American ideals. After that, the big beacon lights were turned on, lighting up the mountain.  The film showed snapshots of our American life. The background music on the film curing that part was a vocal rendition of America the Beautiful. The second and third verses of that anthem never cease to catch me in the back of my throat.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet   Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat   Across the wilderness!
America! America!  God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,  Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved  In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved  And mercy more than life!
America! America!  May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness  And every gain divine!

Those two verses seem to capture much of what is best about America.

A park ranger then came up on the stage and asked us all to stand for the singing of the National Anthem. That was hard enough. Man! I love my country. I think we are a great land that has served humanity well. I feel especially blessed when traveling, seeing all the beauty of the land. Such riches in soil and minerals, and simple beauty to gladden the hearts or man. And the people!  Truly a great and glorious citizenship!

So of course I got all teary-eyed. Inge got a little rambunctious and started climbing around on the benches, which was a good thing. It focused me back on reality, and my job as a mother, rather than continuing to blather over how blessed we are.

But then...

After the National Anthem was over, the Ranger invited all active and retired service members to the front for the colors ceremony. All these many, many people who have served us. Provided our defense. Cared for us. Offered to give their lives if necessary. All these people. Probably close to fifty of them. They got to descend to the stage of the amphitheater. They stood at attention while the ones closes to the flag got to lower it and help fold it. When that was done, the ranger had them all introduce themselves and tell the branch of military of which they are or were a part.

It was very, very touching. Especially at this time of my life. On my way to my son's USMC graduation. I was undone. 

  America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates, Melody by Samuel Ward
  O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

Of flattened air mattresses, Storybook Island, and a Stavkirke

Day 2 Tuesday, August 20  

My last update ended with this, “Then we tucked ourselves in and slept like babies.”  That was not technically true.  I slept like a baby, which I generally do no matter where I am.  But there were various reports upon waking, of Joe's snoring waking up the different kids.  When I was young, I was already a very deep sleeper.   I remember my mom and others saying that once I had kids, that would change.  But it has not.  I sleep very deeply.   And don't hear a thing.  There were many times when Joe would have to kick me to feed one or another of our babies when they cried from their cradle right next to my bed.

But I see now that it's a gift from God.   This sleeping deeply thing.  When Joe stayed with another pastor friend of ours, Pastor Thompson said in the morning, “I've heard snoring before, but this, … this was incredible.”

But I hear nothing.

Thankfully the campground had few enough other campers we were in no danger of getting kicked out for breaking the quiet time rules.

Oh, and even after all our careful work patching the air mattresses, we still had two that were flat by morning. Joe's and mine included. I still slept soundly the first night. But each subsequent night was a bit more difficult. My hip bones or upper thigh bones or something became very sore. Who would think a little sleeping on the ground would leave me with areas feeling all bruised and beaten? This middle age stuff is definitely not for the faint of heart. I feel like such a wimp. But even just having the kids slide up on my lap tonight was painful after a few days, if they hit my upper legs in the wrong place. Sheesh. Maybe that means I need to do it more often to keep those thigh muscles properly toned for ground sleeping, … or something?

On our second day out, we drove around. That did not make our older girls happy, since they were all keyed up to swim. The day was very hot, but overcast. We needed to stock up on a few grocery type items and pick up the few things we'd discovered we'd left behind, or the ones we had didn't work. We needed milk and butter, since we didn't pack it from home. I had forgotten my swimming suit, John's flip-flops fell apart by the end of the first day, and Joe needed a new saw, since his did not work. That saw though, that was a good deal. For the cost of eleven bucks for a new saw, we were able to forage enough wood for our cooking fires. At $5 a bundle of wood from the campground hosts, that paid for itself in two meals.

So we drove around. We saw many miles of pretty scenery, taking a somewhat circuitous rout into Rapid City. We wanted to check out some area lakes so we'd know what ones fit our recreational wishes. Once we finished our shopping in Rapid City, we had a picnic lunch, and then went to Storybook Island, a free child oriented park in Rapid City. We went there once before, with Matt, Jeremy, Louisa, and Elsie. The girls were too young to remember, but Matt would probably remember having to go sit in the car with his dad because he ran ahead of us.

The Abrahamsons, doing Piratey things

Storybook Island is a wonderful little place that even the teenaged girls enjoyed. I wouldn't say they'd beg to go there again, but they did have fun.  I was pleased with them and proud of the good heart the showed when they would have rather been doing other things. The park has little houses or displays from many famous childhood stories and nursery rhymes. A child for instance, can go in one house and look over the Cat in the Hat's shoulder and read from the book of the same name.  The walls of the little house are decorated with pages from that story.

You can climb a tower or walk through a tunnel in Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood.  Or perhaps you'd like to board a Pirate ship, or go into Giupetto's workshop where he's busy working on Pinocchio. There are many other little houses and scenes that the littles love exploring.

See, Sudesh, we did follow the Yellow Brick Road

After Storybook Island, we headed for our Campground, but on the way, we stopped at the Chapel in the Hills, a reproduction of a Norwegian Stave church. Boy was that beautiful! And it was fun to see a little pocket of Norwegian culture in amongst all the wild west flavor of the Black Hills.

"The Chapel in the Hills is an exact replica of the famous Borgund stavkirke, of Laerdal, Norway. The Borgund stavkirke was built around the year 1150 and is considered the most completely preserved stave church still standing in Norway."

"Another characteristic of the stave church is the woodcarving which abounds in muchof the architecture of Norway. Woodcarving was a prominent part of building traditions before churches were built. The vikings brought their woodcarving skills along with their construction techniques to the building of the Stav Churches. As more and more stave churches were built and dedicated to the worship of God, a rich symbolism grew up, with elaborate explanations of the spiritual meaning of the various carvings and parts of the building."

---

We then went to the campground where Joe made us a lovely supper of grilled hamburgers, roasted potatoes, and onions. Those who chose to, could eat their hamburger in a warmed corn tortillas (we eat primarily Gluten Free due to at least one and possibly others in our family who suffer from celiac disease.)  The others simply ate their burgers sans bun.

After we washed up the supper dishes, we roasted marshmallows, and then hit the sack. I think Joe played his guitar a little while, to help everyone sleep.

Joe showing off his muscles while blowing the fire to start a new section going. He found out the push-up method was maybe not quite so great, because when he'd give a gusty blow the debris from the kindling would fly up in his face. This was a bit challenging when in the "down" position of a pushup.