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.