Little House on the Prairie Wrap-up

We have spent this year in a small co-op with the Prairie Primer. For those of you who might not be familiar with the curriculum, it is written to spend a year going through the Little House on the Prairie books. It is written like a unit study with all subjects based around these books. We had an awesome group this year and had prairie dresses and lunch pails that we used each week in co-op. There were some awesome field trips...nature center, square dancing, weather center, train ride and many more. As a final trip to wrap up the year we decided to take a four day vacation as a group and go to Independence, KS and Mansfield, MO to visit two of the locations that she lived in.

We started met up and were ready to hit the road at 7:00 am. OUCH!! We are not early birds.

After a brief stop in Bartlesville, OK for a break, we arrived in Independence, KS at the site that the book Little House on the Prairie is based on. There is a replica of the house the Ingall's lived in based on the description given by Laura Ingalls in her book and others that lived in the area and had similar cabins.

Reagan just couldn't believe that all five of them lived in a house smaller than her bedroom. We also took a wagon ride out to the prairie where we had a guide talk with all of us about the differences that would have been found on the prairie back in Laura's days in comparison with what we were seeing now. It was really interesting to hear.
We then drove in to Joplin, MO for the night and spent the evening swimming in the hotel pool. We got up on Saturday morning and drove into Mansfield, MO to the home that Laura shared with Almonzo and also the place that she wrote the Little House books. She actually did not start writing these books until she was 65 years old. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the home, but were able to take several outside the home.

When Laura's daughter Rose was an adult, she used money she received from selling one of the books that she wrote to have a retirement home built for her parents. This home was purchased from the Sears catalog for $2,000 dollars and put on another area of the farm. Rose had many extras added on such as running electricity from the city of Mansfield to this home (they were the first outside of town to have electricity). In the end, the home ended up costing $11,000, which was a huge sum for that day and time.

We then took a side trip to Branson, MO for one night and then to the Tulsa Zoo and Oklahoma Aquarium on the way home.

This was a REALLY great trip. It was both fun and packed with so much history! We had a great time and I highly recommend visiting these sites if you get the chance.

Reagan and her hot pink cast

Thanks to an inflatable slide and a little bravery, Reagan has a new hot pink cast. Well, it is not exactly new...this happened about 2 1/2 weeks ago. We were playing at a place here called the PlayZone and decided to go down the slide hands first instead of feet first. Reagan hit a pocketed area at the end of the slide and it broke her pinkie finger at the growth plate, I believe this is called a green break because it is more of a buckle than a break which must be common with younger children.

We will be returning to the Orthopedic doctor on Thursday afternoon. Reagan will be so happy to get the cast off, wash her hand and arm and scratch! At this time they will determine if there is a need to continue on with a new cast. We have been fortunate that they now have water casts that you can swim in, bathe in, etc. We already had a vacation planned that I will post about later that involved lots of swimming that we were able to continue on with in spite of the cast!

Here is the cast:

Struggling

I am going through something right now and I am not sure what it even is. All I know is that I feel angry, unhappy, tired and like I am going one day to the next to just get through life. It is effecting my marriage, family, homeschool and my house sure does seem to show it.

I hope to pull it together soon and share about what we are doing in homeschool right now, and the few fun things we have done lately.

Please pray!

Bubbly Pizza

3 cans of biscuits

1 large jar of pizza or spaghetti sauce

Toppings of your choice (pepperoni, hamburger meat, veggies, etc)

Mozz Cheese

Preheat oven to 375. Take 1 1/2 cans of biscuits and cut into fours. Drop into 9 x 13 pan. In a sauce pan heat sauce and toppings (cook burger meat first). Pour half of sauce mixture over biscuits, top with cheese. Repeat above and cook 20-30 minutes and serve!

Hope you enjoy!

Workboxes are working for us!

We have been using workboxes around here for a little while. I can see that they are becoming very popular. If by some chance you have not heard of them yet, you need to check out Sue Patrick's ebook. She started the craze and it has help us stay so much more focused!! We get a bunch more done each day and we have even added in a bunch of fun stuff we didn't seem to have time for before! This is what our workboxes look like. When you purchase the ebook, you get access to the numbers to put on your workboxes, but I thought I would have some fun and scrapbook mine :)

Anyone else using this system? I would love to visit your blog and see some of your ideas!

Cheesy Chicken Supreme

Cheesy Chicken Supreme

4 slices bacon

4 chicken breasts

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

4 slices gouda cheese

Cook bacon in skillet until crisp. Remove bacon and drain. Add chicken to grease and cook 3-4 minutes on each side. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender crisp. Add soup, milk and cook until chicken is completely cooked. Top each chicken breast with slice of gouda, cover and cook until cheese is melted. Top with crumbled bacon and serve.

Good with gravy on mashed potatoes.

Coconut Cake Recipe

Coconut Cake

1 box white cake mix (and ingredients to make cake)

1 can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

1 can coconut milk

1 tub coolwhip

1 package coconut flakes


Cook cake according to directions. Remove from oven and cool for about 30 minutes. Poke holes in cake with straw. Pour sweetened condensed milk over cake. Wait five minutes. Pour coconut milk over cake. Wait 15 minutes. Top with cool whip and sprinkle with coconut flakes!

This cake ends up being REALLY moist! YUMMY!!