Gingerbread Baby

We are doing a homeschool share unit study this week on Gingerbread Baby. My daughter has loved this book!

We have really enjoyed the lapbook components available from homeschool share. You need to check it out!

One of our fun activities was making a gingerbread house. We purchased a kit from Walmart and it was so much less stressful than baking it myself.

I also found these adorable little marshmallow gingerbread men, and the marshmallows really taste like gingerbread! YUM~

Counting my blessing - Day 10

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

...my sweet puppies!

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Counting my blessings - Day 9

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

...my children and their unconditional love for me

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Counting my blessings - Day 8

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

...the blessing of having a home to live in

...the blessing of heat and air

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Counting my blessings - Day 7

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

...a hard working husband

...a marriage that has survived the ups and downs

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Fall Fun

Counting my blessings - Day 6

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

...the wonderful Christian blogs I visit that inspire me to be a better person~

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Counting my blessings - Day 5

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

...the freedom to worship God without punishment~

...the freedom to vote~

...my husband having a steady income this winter~

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Favorite Food Fridays

French Steak

2 lbs. round steak

Flour

Salt/pepper to taste

2 large onions, thinly sliced

1 cup beef broth

1 cup white wine

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 clove garlic, minced

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

1/2 cup sour cream

Cut steak into serving sizes. Dredge into flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown on both sides in butter and oil in heavy pan. Remove steak, add onion and sauté until golden. Stir in garlic, wine, broth, Worcestershire, soy and pepper, stirring up all brown bits from bottom of pan. Return steak to pan, cover and simmer slowly 1 1/2 hours until meat is very tender. Stir in cheese and sour cream. Heat until sour cream is blended, but DO NOT BOIL. Serve. Good with rice or egg noodles.

Counting my blessing - Day 4

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Praising God today for my many blessings....

....kind words spoken in a moment of they were needed most desperately

...friends (both online and in person)

....the moments when I feel most connected to God

....the moments when I don't and feel that incredible craving for Him

What blessings are you thankful for today?

Counting my blessings - Day 3

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Thank you God for the blessing of...

.....family

......children

What blessings are you thankful

for?

Counting my blessings - Day 2

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

Thank you God for the blessing of........

...my job

...my husband who loves me no matter what

...the cool breeze and fall weather today while I was mowing

What blessings are you thankful for?

Counting my blessings - Day 1

Tamara, at Branch of Wisdom is having a giveaway. To participate every day from Sunday, October 24th through Wednesday, November 24th, simply write a post of Thanksgiving (share something you are thankful for). You can keep it simple with one line, or be creative with pictures, ideas, crafts, etc.

First I have to say WOW!! This couldn't have come at a better time. I have been so absorbed in the negative in my life right now that I am glad for the opportunity to turn my thoughts to the things that I should be concentrating on which is the blessings!

Thank you God for the blessing of........

...my family

...the time I get to spend with my children

...the gift of being able to homeschool

What blessings are you thankful for?

Favorite Food Fridays

This is a family favorite around here! There is absolutely NOTHING low fat about this. Feel free to substitute low fat or fat free in the cream cheese, sour cream and cheese areas, but I have never been brave enough to do that and look my kids in the eye :)

Party Enchiladas

2 chicken breasts cooked and cubed

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

9 green onions, chopped

4 oz can of chopped green chilies

1 cup shredded Monterey jack cheese

1 package flour tortillas (20 count)

Sauce

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 cup picante sauce of choice

Cream together sour cream and cream cheese. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Set aside. Mix soups and picante sauce together in sauce pan and simmer. Grease 9 x 13 pan and spread one cup of soup sauce on bottom of dish. Put 1-2 tablespoons of chicken mixture in tortilla, roll and place seam side down in dish, continue until dish is full. Pour remaining soup on top and sprinkle with cheese. May also sprinkle on fresh cilantro if desired. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes to get everything warm and melty.

Summer 2010 - A post in pictures

Favorite Food Fridays

I thought I would share some of our favorite recipes with everyone. From time to time I do once a month cooking and have a nice little stash of dinners in the deep freeze. It is a huge undertaking at the time, but it is always worth it later on when I don't have the time or energy to cook something.

This is one of our favorites and in fact it was dinner tonight. At first I wasn't really sure about making a homemade BBQ sauce. We have failed at this many times and I was a bit concerned, all the worry was for nothing though because it has a great flavor! This freezes nicely and since it is totally cooked, all you have to do is heat and eat!!!

BBQ Meatballs
2 lbs. lean hamburger or ground turkey
2 eggs
2 c. quick oatmeal
1 c. minced onion
1 c. milk (whole or cream)
1 tsp. cracked black pepper

Mix and make 72 walnut sized balls (any larger and sauce won't cook through). Place in flat pan in a single layer.

SAUCE:
3 c. ketchup
2 c. brown sugar
3 tbsp. liquid smoke or Kitchen Bouquet
1 tsp. salt

Mix sauce over low heat and pour 1/2 of mixture or less over meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Add meatballs and remaining sauce to 1 gallon freezer bag and lay flat to freeze.

Homeschool 2010 Curriculum

We are several weeks into our "official" school year. We technically school year around, with the summer being a much lighter load. This year I made a few changes and so far most everything is going well.

FIAR - We did some of this last year and of course we have always loved FIAR.

RightStart Math - This is new for us this year. We were recommended this by a couple of other homeschooling families we know and so far this is a big hit. My daughter acutally ASKS to do math??? What is that??? I am sure as this gets more difficult that she might not always be so excited, but for now it is awesome that she loves it so much. I love it also, because everything you need to do is right there in front of you as far as teaching goes. You do have to be there working it with your child, but there is not much planning. If you don't know much about RightStart, check it out here www.alabacus.com.

Apologia - We have used this for the last several years and we continued this year and are currently doing Young Explorers Zoo 3. We have a fabulous co-op group that we meet with once a week and have been for the last several years. I will continue with them until their kids graduate as far as I am concerned.

Oklahoma History - We are doing our first year of OK Hist this year (3rd grade) and then we will repeat in 9th grade as we are required for the highschool credit. We are using an online program through Cindy Downes and meeting up with our previously mentioned co-op group. The online program is very informative and we really like it.

Reading - This is something my daughter struggles with and we are using the Well Trained Mind recommended method. I will let you know how this is going as we get farther along.

We also originally started using Story of the World (SOTW) and it just became to much with the Oklahoma History etc. We LOVE this, but will probably wait and start it over (since we didn't get very far) in the summer when the load is a little lighter. If this works, we might even consider making this our normal summer program.

Thanks for stopping by and catching up with me!

I am back!!

I took a break for awhile from blogging. I went back and forth with myself about whether or not I would continue to blog. But when it came down to it, I just missed it too much! So I am back and boy does this bring a big smile to my face!

I can't wait to catch up with all of my blog reading (even though I did continue reading blogs, it just wasn't as often).

I will post an update to our homeschool in the next day or so.

Giveaway!!

A blogging buddy of mine is having a giveaway. This giveaway is homeschoolers and it is fabulous!! You can enter until Feb. 22nd., so click over there and get your name in the drawing.

http://candacemercyisnew.blogspot.com/2010/02/give-away.html

While you are there you might spend some time looking around her blog. She is on my blog list on my sidebar so that I see every update she makes because I love reading her blog so much!

Reagan Loves these books!!

We just recently discovered the Usborne Young Puzzle Adventures and my daughter is hooked!! She can not get enough of them.

You know whats even better? I found them on Paperback Swap for FREE!!

If you have never heard of Paperback Swap, all you do is click over there and start an account for FREE, then list 10 books you no longer need and they will automatically give you 2 points. For each point, you can pick out a book you like and it will be shipped to you for free. When someone requests one of the books you listed, you ship to them Media Mail (about $3) and get a point for each one you ship to use on a book you would like!

Is there a book that you have really been wanting to purchase? If they don't have it on hand right now, you can put it on your wish list and when someone lists the book you will be notified.

Sledding Fun

With all of the snow we had this past week, we decided to go sledding. This was the first time that my daughter and I had done this. We were really excited (and kinda nervous at the same time), but once we got started we both loved it. My husband had done this before and practically had to push us down the first time, but after that he had a hard time keeping up!

I Wish You Enough by Bob Perks

Life isn't easy. There are times when we all need a little inspiration, mixed with a lot of hope, to live with a small dose of reality. In I Wish You Enough Bob Perks presents eight wishes in a magical collection of true, inspirational stories filled with invaluable lessons about seeing the good in the mundane, and recognizing the abundant gifts God provides every day. You'll value what you already have and a little more, and begin a new journey of gratitude no matter what challenges you face. You can always find 'enough' to get you through.

This book is divided into eight categories and each category is filled with short true stories to inspire you. The categories make it easy to go right to the area in which you have a need for inspiration. I like that the stories are short so that you can take a moment of your day to read a story or two if that is all the time you have.

I would recommend this book and enjoyed it. There are several of the stories that are embedded in my memory and come to mind time to time during the day just when I need them most.

A must read.

Winter Weather Update

First off, thank you for your prayers. We were very blessed to not get the ice as intensely as expected in my part of the state. We didn't lose power and I was able to get home from work on Thursday without as much trouble as I was expecting.

We are staying inside (with the exception of some snow fun) and keeping warm. I think that today we will try some snow ice cream for the first time. Here are some pics of the beautiful scene outside of our house.

Bracing for impact

We have a big winter storm headed our way that should arrive here on Thursday. The next few days will involve preparation. We have firewood being delivered tonight in case we lose power we still have a source of heat. I am going through the cabinets and taking inventory of what we will be able to eat without power if that happens.

I also happen to work Thursday and I pray that I don't get stuck at the hospital overnight. I am one to try and drive no matter what the weather, but if they close down some of the roads then I will have no choice.

Thursday my husband and daughter will snuggle in and keep warm during the weather and I hopefully will join them early evening. By Saturday we will be out of the worst of it.

Keep us in your prayers. :)

Exciting Changes

I am in the process of making some exciting changes to our homeschool curriculum. I will be posting about it as soon as it is all organized.

I am soooooo excited!

The Science Museum of Oklahoma

We went to the Science Museum of Oklahoma last week. This is Reagan's first time to visit the museum and she had a blast! We spent about 4-5 hours there and didn't even come close to seeing half of it. We will be returning soon and hope by spring to have seen it all and then start over again :)

The day of fun begins.

She loved all of the magnet stations.

Reagans favorite part!!

The Rag Coat Day 2

Today we reviewed The Rag Coat by having Reagan narrate to me what she remembered. Reagan did really well and there were only a couple of points I thought it would be good to remember that she left out. We continued by reading Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds, I feel like this is such a great book to read when studying the Appalachians, and the only way I know to describe it is to say that the words bring to such a vivid picture in your mind of what the Appalachians must look like and the people that live there.

We looked at and talked about the compass rose and then we looked at a blank map of the United States and marked N, S, E and W. We found the Appalachian Mountains and marked them on this map, then found where we live and talked about the distance from us to the Appalachians, which direction we lived, the direction the Appalachians are in, etc.

Tomorrow the plan is to talk about coal.

Tea with friends

The Rag Coat Day 1

Today we read The Rag Coat and Silver Packages. I can't recommend Silver Packages enough either as a great Christmas book or a great go along for The Rag Coat. We then found the Appalachian Mountains on the map and looked at how many states this mountain range covers.



I decided to focus mainly on quilts today. I have a couple of quilts and we spread them out on the floor and really looked at the material and sewing. One of the quilts I knew the story to and the other quilt is probably over 100 years old and we know nothing about it, so we looked at each piece and thought about what that fabric might have origianlly been used for.



We read about the actual Santa Train. We talked about how neat it would be to send a gift that would be on the Santa Train and put into the hands of a child in need. I think we might make this a yearly read around Christmas.