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Sewing and school supplies

Monday I went and got all the stuff I needed for school this year. Since we are trying some journaling this year (new to us) I need alot of binders, paper, dividers and such. I also got a label maker...oh. my. goodness. I have been wanting one of these for a long time. I got a great deal too...I got a $40 one for $20..Yay!! Can you see it there on the left? :-)





I also got a dress pattern and some fabric. The blue is going to be for my 3 yr old and the purple is going to be for my 9 yr old. I am going to do buttons instead of the zipper it calls for and I also am going to add a good bit to the length. But I am so excited...I have no been able to sew anything in quite awhile. And I finally get to use my new sewing machine that DH got me for my birthday last year...woo hoo.

Our 2008-2009 school year

O.k. This looks like ALOT but I am not doing all these things at one time. These are just the things that somewhere within the school year are going to be used. Lest any of you think I am a slave driver...he he. I will be updating this late too as I don't have the read alouds and any of the other literature included yet as I am still figuring that all out.



3 year old

Now my 3 year old mainly has all these things because she INSISTS on doing real school work...and there is no fooling her!!

Little Hands to Heaven

About three-workbook series

ABC Series Work books

When she is finished with those we will move on to Horizons Preschool Curriculum.



7 year old

BIBLE:Narrow way, note booking, Alpha Omega & adventures in MFW

MATH: Saxon math 1 & Daily Math Practice

PHONICS: Explode the code book 1/ Phonics Pathways

LANGUAGE ARTS: Language from Queens home school

HISTORY: Adventures in MFW

ART: Baby Lambs book of Art and creating a notebook about famous artists

SCIENCE: Adventures in MFW & creating a nature journal

SPELLING: Spelling for A Reason Level A( I am not going to have him start this till January)

HANDWRITING: Handwriting for A Reason - finish up book K and then do book manuscript A

HEALTH: Alpha & Omega

WRITING: writing strands

HOME EC: Responsibility For Boys from Pearables

MUSIC: Adventures in MFW and creating a Composers notebook



9 year old

BIBLE:Narrow way, note booking, Alpha Omega & MFW

MATH:Finish up Saxon 2 and then do Saxon 3 & Daily Math Practice

Now my 9 yr old has really struggled with reading and we were both getting frustrated so I decided to let her go at a slower pace. This has helped her so much and she is really coming along.
PHONICS: Explode the Code books/ Rod & Staff


LANGUAGE ARTS: Language from Queens home school

SCIENCE:Adventures in MFW & creating a nature journal

SPELLING: Spelling for a reason book A

ART: I can do all things from "How Great Thou Art"

HEALTH: Alpha Omega

WRITING: Writing Strands

HOME EC: Pearables Home EC course

MUSIC: Adventures in MFW & create a composers notebook

HANDWRITING: Finish up Manuscript A and then do Transition Book

RECIPE: Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Pancakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 T. brown sugar, packed

1 T. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 t. ground ginger

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1-1/2 cups milk

2 T. oil

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl; set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl; mix well. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture just until moistened. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface; turn and continue cooking for an additional 2 to 3 minutes, until golden. This make about 16 small pancakes. I usually double or triple this recipe.

Through the eyes of a child

I let my 9 yr old take my camara and take pictures. I think it is fun to see her perspective on things.

So much excitement!!

Call me crazy if you will...but I get so excited to get school books (or any kind of books really) in the mail. These are the books we have got in the last week. I am just waiting on a few more that are back ordered and then we are good to go!! Yay!

Recipe: 7-Spice Sticky Chicken & Twice-baked Potato Casserole

7-Spice Sticky Chicken

(slow-cooker recipe)

3-lb roasting chicken (I use a 7 lb chicken and adjust the ingredients accordingly)

4 t. salt

2 t. paprika

1 t. cayenne pepper

1 t. onion powder

1 t. dried thyme

1 t. white pepper

1/2 t. pepper

1/2 t. garlic powder

1 cup onion, chopped

Pat chicken dry inside and out with paper towels; set aside. Combine spices in a small bowl; mix well. Rub spice mixture well into chicken, inside and out. Place chicken in a large resealable zipping bag, and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, place chicken in a slow cooker; top with chopped onion. Cover and cook on low setting for 8 to 10 hours.

Twice-Baked Potato Casserole

6 potatoes, baked, cubed and divided

salt and pepper to taste

1 lb. bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled and divided

3 cups sour cream, divided

8-oz pkg. shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

8-oz. pkg. shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Garnish: 2 green onions, chopped

Place half of cubed potatoes in a greased 13"x9" baking pan; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with half each of bacon, sour cream and cheeses; repeat layers. Bake for 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions before serving.

My Menu

I went grocery shopping today with just the baby..my sister came over to do laundry and offered to keep the other three kiddos. It was nice to just be able to get in and out quickly. My grocery budget was pretty tight this week so my meals reflect that..he he. Actually all these meals will be served two days so this is 10 days worth of meals :-)

Hot dogs with macaroni and cheese

Meatloaf with mashed potatoes

Italian sausage & penne with garlic bread

Barbecue steak sandwiches with baked beans

7-spice sticky chicken with twice baked potato casserole

I will also serve salad or a vegetable with each meal.

Some of the things we are having for breakfast are:

Overnight oatmeal
Pumpkin pancakes
Egg sandwiches
peanut butter and jelly toast
Yogurt and fruit
Bagels and cream cheese
Sunday brunch casserole

And some baking I am going to be doing:

Apple pie
Creamy rice pudding
Banana bread

Planning and Organizing

I am "officially" starting school on September 1st!!! Although we do school year round, summer is very sporadic and unorganized. I have all my plans laid out and all the school work on it way to my home :-) Yay, getting school work in the mail is as good as any present to me. But I am weird like that..he he.

I am in planning, organizing and re-vamping mode. Schedules are getting overhauled, school work plans are getting made, the house is getting a good organizing. I have so many thoughts fluttering around in my head right...it makes me slightly crazy at times. Times like these I tend to remain more silent then usual....... lost in my thoughts and plans.

I have many things to share....however, till my mind stops going like crazy, I will keep those thoughts safe inside my head..he he.

I hope to share what we are using for our home school this year..maybe I will get some time tomorrow. Well I am off to do some more organizing and planning....everyone enjoy your day!!

Inspiration

I am so very happy that the most inspirational and beautiful blog ever has re-opened. Jewels from "Eyes of Wonder" has the most inspiring blog I have read!! If you have never visited Jewels..please do now. You will be blessed, inspired, encouraged and a ton of other wonderful things. Her writings makes me want to be closer to God, love my family more, cook, sew, live simpler, enjoy the moments ....I could go on and on but I will let you go check it out for yourself!!

Homeschool Mothers: The Beatrice Brigade

This is so inspirational!!! It is a little long but well worth the read!!


Homeschool Mothers: The Beatrice Brigade

Whenever I feel very bad, I make sure to speak to home school mothers. These women represent something new. They are not feminists, a phrase they most often reject with scorn. Most live in very traditional households where the husband is the head of the family. However, they are certainly not Donna Reed door mats waiting at home in pearls and high heels for their lord and master to arrive home. They are very strong and fiercely opinionated. They are incredibly well read, devouring more books a year, than most U.C. students read in four years. Book a talk with Plato scholar to hear about big ideas and they show up.


So what are they? They remind me most of the strong women of my great-grandmother’s generation in West Virginia, who could run a farm, fix the roof, write hymns for the church, and who had never heard of bulimia. They did not worry about their body image, because they were secure in the love of their strong men, none of whom would have been allowed a metrosexual makeover if they had wanted it. Those strong women could never have burned a bra, because they never bothered trying to wear pin up girl underwear. Ask those women what they thought and you heard more than you wanted to hear. I knew a few of these women, the last of the old pioneer stock, but only when they were old and tired.


The home school mothers of California are not old. Sometimes their brutal schedules may make them tired, but they are up for more in the morning. When I talk to them I quickly realize, they care more about idea than rhetoric. These women solve problems every day. They educated their children in highly creative ways, inventing curriculum, programs, and social events out of nothing but their talent. They are neither dowdy nor fashion conscious. Their dress is most often sensible, but feminine. They innovate, but within the bounds of tradition. What are they? God bless us, they are ladies, a group many thought had gone extinct around the time of the sinking of Titanic.


In one sense, their lives are a bloodless martyrdom. The media mostly forgets them except for the occasional condescending piece in the Times. They fit no stereotypes, being too numerous and too interesting, so they are ignored. They sacrifice for the welfare of their children.

Talents that could vitalize a corporate board room are turned to teaching children to read. Their children, of course, take such sacrifice for granted. Their mothers make it safe for them to be blissfully unaware of their blessings. So these strong women sacrifice everything our culture deems important. They have no resume inflating career. Yet they give new life and meaning to all the Victorian platitudes lodged, because they are true, in the back of all our minds. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”

These are kitchen table Socrates. They don’t trust the government schools that spend billions to produce cookie cutter children. These women use cookie cutters on cookies not children. Like Socrates, they despise uniformity in education and people who teach for money and not love of students . There children are producing reams of stories, hours of music, original plays, and a whole new civilization. If our boys are overseas defending the West, these women are home renewing it.


Home school mothers are the heart of a traditionalist revolution that is driving life back into the homes. To these women, and the men blessed to be married to them, homes are no longer assets or places to share a microwave dinner at the end of an exhausting day of separation. Spreading like some beneficial virus, men and women are returning basic educational, economic, and social functions to home where they have always belonged.


A great poet was brought to see God through the example of one godly woman. Dante had his Beatrice and it was enough. It is harder for men in our materialistic age, so God has raised up thousands of such women. It is time to take a good hard look at what these heroes without epic poets are doing in quiet. I put very little trust in princes, whether elected or not. Rather, if the oldest stories are true the fate of the Republic rests more with these home school mothers.
There are now millions of these strong, independent, God fearing women in the United States. They ask nothing of government, but to be left alone.


These women are not impressed with stardom and glamor, many do not even own televisions. Their men work long hours in their own, often not very glamorous, businesses so that their wives can save the West. The men they admire get things done with decency and honor. They are often quiet men, but as sound as the state credit used to be. Their wives chose them for their virtues, not their muscles. Home school mothers are fiercely liberated and proudly traditional.
Seeing God in Beatrice allowed Dante to find his way back from darkness. Seeing God in these home school mothers could show any man the way back to decency and honor. I know, because I am married to a home school mother and she fires my imagination, gives me hope, and is educating the future of our line.


Mayhaps the West is in for difficult days . . . I could be wrong and Hillary (!) might win, but I would still bet the children of the Beatrice Brigade will prevail in the end. The sacrifice of such matrons cannot be for nothing . . . and there is more real life in one of their questions than I have ever heard in a Hillary (!) listening tour.


Take heart gentleman. They are out there, our Beatrice Brigade, doing the work of civilizing the next generation of culture warriors. My wife, I realized one day, was to me the Fairest Flower in all of Christendom . . . and so she is and so every Beatrice is to the one who sees her well. The land, every corner of it, are filled with such gentle souls . . fair flowers of Christ’s kingdom doing God’s work for God’s pay.


Thank you.

John Mark Reynolds

Fun at the zoo

Yay..we went to the zoo last Thursday and it was fun. I love the zoo!! This time we bought a season pass so we can visit more often. My silly kids like the train and playing at the playground more than seeing animals though. The slide show wasn't working so I just had to post the pics..oh well.

RECIPE: Nopales Con Carne

Or in English.....Cactus with meat. Yes. I said cactus...trust me it IS delicious!!!

Nopales Con Carne

2lbs pork tenderloin (or chicken breast if you don't eat pork)

chopped up in bite size pieces

and seasoned with season-all or Lawry's.

2lbs Tomatillos (they look like this) peeled and washed

2 med jars or 1 large jar Nopales (cactus).

place in strainer and rinse WELL

(this is important)

3 cloves garlic peeled

1 med onion peeled and chopped in half

1-5 serrano or jalapeno peppers

(if you don't want it spicy at all don't add any)

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

4 large potatoes peeled and chopped in bite size pieces

1/2 cup water

Put the tomatillos, garlic, peppers (if you are using them) and onions in a med sauce pan.

Cover with water and bring to boil.

Boil for 15 minutes.

While you are waiting for vegetables to boil. Put enough oil in the bottom of a medium or large pot just to coat the bottom, heat to med-high. Place meat in an and cool till browned. When finished remove from heat and set aside.

By this time your vegetables should be done boiling. Strain and place in a blender blend till smooth.

Now add the sauce, the cilantro, the potatoes and the water to the meat...add salt to taste.

Simmer over low-med heat till potatoes are tender!!!

Serve with Corn (or flour..we like corn) tortillas and re fried beans..YUM!!

Don't forget 1 yr old little boys LOVE re fried beans...by the way :-)