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.