I started answering the questions asked during the giveaway, and thought I would wrap it up today, except for the homeschooling question. I saved that for tomorrow.
Whitney asked how to pronounce Silje’s name. First I’ll say the right way, and then I’ll tell you the cheating American way that most of us use. In Norwegian, “j” is pronounced like the English “y.” An “e” at the end of the name is like a subtle “a” sound in English. So think Sill-ya. Except the Norwegians kinda flip the “l” in a really cool way, and most Americans aren’t that good at that. So we compare it to the name “Celia” as the quick explanation to people. If I’m with a Norwegian friend and they overhear that explanation, they do correct me that it isn’t the same. Silje’s pet peeve is when people ask her what her name is and when she says it, they call her “Sylvia.” She hates being called Sylvia. Her middle name is Grace, and we’ve given her clearance to go by that if she chooses. I have heard her introduce herself as Grace a few times, just to try it out, and it doesn’t bother me one bit.
Elysia asked how Silje mangages the pronunciation on Rosetta Stone. You can adjust the bar on that. What I mean, is you can adjust how perfect it forces you to go. For the first month or two, Silje was really struggling, and another mom suggested I mess with the accuracy feature, which Knut was kinda against. Silje was near throwing in the towel, when we at least looked up what it was set at, and it was really high. It was defaulted at a perfection level, which might explain her frustration. Now, I know it’s the goal to get there, but she’s just in 1st grade. She had never been on a computer before, spoken Chinese before, or studied grammar in English yet! It was just so much that was new that we just pulled back a bit. We didn’t move the bar down to easy. Lets say it’s set at 100% accuracy in pronunciation, and we moved it to 80% percent-ish. It’s a bar/toggle thing and I honestly don’t remember how to change it. I do remember that once we did, she started flying through. I don’t regret doing that one bit.
Monique asked if I have any kids’ sewing projects in the mix. I’m always on the look for that as well. After the cross stitch project, I think that I’m going to have her use the 1 1/2 inch hexagons that I have similar to the 1 inch ones I’m using for the “Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt” and have her hand stitch her own pillow to decorate her bed. I have this super girly/glittery/fairy/princess fabrics that I got for this project for her and she’s so excited for it. She really wants to work through the sewing book that we got, and is especially excited about a felt purse in there.
Penny asked for my favorite go-to meals. I pull new recipes from Everyday Food 
Chili and rice is another favorite meal around here. I always grew up with chili in a bowl with cheese, and Knut grew up pouring his chili over a pile of rice. As our own family, we do brown rice, then chili, then cheese. It comes together in less than an hour and everyone likes it. I usually make a triple batch so I can have some to freeze for later. Here’s my chili recipe(1 batch):
(When doing a single batch, follow the recipe for beans. When doubling recipe, use only 3 cans of beans. When tripling, use 5-6 cans, [2 kidney, 2 chili, 1-2 black can of black beans] Also, sometimes I substitute roasted tomato paste from the freezer for the can of tomato soup)
1 lb hamburger
1/2 med. onion, chopped
1 can tomato soup
2 cans of beans (I like Bush’s chili beans in medium sauce, and 1 can dark kidney beans)
make paste of:
2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 Tablespoon flour
1/8 tsp salt
3T water
brown hamburger with onion. Add soups and beans and paste. Cook for 45 minutes, stir occasionally.
That’s one of our family favorites! We often make a big batch and freeze half or more. That way I only have to do the cooking dishes once!
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