Friday, July 29, 2011

Mom's House Rules

1. If you sleep in it......make it up
2. If you wear it......hang it up
3. If you drop it.....pick it up.
4. If you spill it......wipe it up.
5. If you eat out of it.....wash it.
6. If you open it.....close it.
7. If you empty it.....fill it up.
8. If it rings.....answer it.
9. If it howls.....feed it.
10. If it cries....love it.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Menu Plan Monday

Photobucket

Monday: Eggs, Bacon & Toast
Tuesday: Pan Roasted Chicken with Veggies
Wednesday: Eat @ Pioneer Club
Thursday: Meatloaf with oven browned potatoes & kale
Friday: Sweet N Sour Chicken w/Rice
Saturday: Chili w/ Cornbread

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Granola "Bar" Aldi's Style

Trying to feed your family "healthy" on a budget can be very difficult. One thing I have been thankful for these past years is a Aldi's 5 minutes from home. One of my children's favorite breakfast foods is dry cereal - not exactly healthy but convenient on those busy mornings. My alternative has been to make granola. Since each child has personal likes and dislikes, I have learned to make a granola base with a topping bar of dried fruits and nuts so that each can personalize and all the ingredients are found at Aldi!

Granola Base

1 tub of old fashioned oats (= about 12 cups)
1/2 cup of oil or 1 stick of butter
1 cup of sweetener (honey, maple syrup, brown sugar - I make a brown sugar syrup from a cup of brown sugar and 1/8 cup of water)
1 TBSP of cinnamon (optional)
dash of salt

Mix dry ingredients together then add liquid ingredients. Mix well. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake on a flat cookie sheet - spread flat (will need to take turns doing this) until granola starts to brown. Stir in between times. Let cool and store in air tight container.

Keep on had your favorite chopped nuts and dried fruit. Only add a TBSP or 2 / bowl. Top with milk or yogurt or just eat plain.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Layers of the Earth & Volcanoes

Sapphire Girl is studying Geology & Astronomy this year. For her first science project she had to make a clay model using a different color for the different layers of the earth.



Her volcano project was actually for history where she was studying the destruction of Pompeii. I think it looks pretty cool

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Traveling with Children

I have family that lives all over, so for vacations we do a lot of traveling. We are not hip with the times and do not have a TV & DVD player in van - so how do I survive traveling 10+ hours with 5 children? Here are some ideas:


Play games -

I Spy Alphabet game - who can get through the entire alphabet using letters from road sides only (can include retail businesses as well), first.

I Spy Color game - self explanatory

Card games - great time to play go fish, old maid, crazy 8's etc.

Travel Games - Connect 4, TicTacToe. They even have travel size Scrabble, Monopoloy etc.

I came across a great website called Mom's Mini van. She has games like auto bingo, paper battleship, scavenger hunt lists etc. I printed them out and put them in page protectors. I then put one of each in my child's vinyl folder (with the brads for adding pages inside). My children are color coded, so each child get his/her color folder and dry erase marker. They can play, wipe them off and play again.

Books on cassette/CD. You don't have to spend a fortune of them if you have a good library nearby. Somehow getting lost in the story helps the miles to just melt away.

In my effort to get and stay organized, I have a created a travel bin with the aformentioned items in them. All I have to do is grab it (add the tapes we want to listen to) and go.

Also sing songs - folk songs, kids songs, songs that are playing on your favorite radio station and/or CD.

So have fun and create a lot of good memories traveling in the car!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Ultimate Summer Menu

Here is my ultimate summer menu with all our favorite dinners on it!

You can download it here: Ultimate Menu

and my shopping list to go with it!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Sunscreen

I have been looking for some easy homemade recipes for sunscreen this morning and came across a couple this morning that looked interesting.

One uses basic, easy to get ingredients:

How to make natural homemade sunscreen

This one requires a lot more harder to find ingredients (actually you can order all the ingredients from Mountain Rose Herbs ) but uses all natural ingredients

Homemade Herbal Sunscreen

Haven't tried them yet!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Summer Menu Planning

My goal is to have an "ultimate" summer menu which includes non repetitive meals for a month. Preferably they are quick, easy, healthy, low carb and contain no beans (dh doesn't like them). Here is what I have so far (note that it may not be all healthy or low carb ;0))

Hamburgers (wheat buns or pita)
Gyros (Ground Beef Gyros)
Chicken/Beef Fajitas
Danny's Dinner (taco salad)
Tacos
BBQ Chicken
BBQ Beef on a Bun
Cheesesteaks
Hot Roast Beef Sandwhiches
Kabobs
Fish
Fried Chicken
Chicken Ceasar Salad
Turkey Ham w/ Pineapple & Rice
Tomato Basil Squares
Steak, Potatoes & Salad
Tuna Fish Sandwhiches
Hot Dogs (yeah I know)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Giving Thanks

"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

After a "difficult" week last week and listening to Phillippians about giving thanks and rejoicing I was convicted that I need to change my attitude toward my circumstances. Well God provided an opportunity for us on Mother's Day. We were taking a drive and were about an hour from home. We decided to investigate a dirt road that went toward the river. It was bumpy but the kids loved it. After we finished exploring we continued down the road to our destination. Suddenly, the right hand side of the vehicle went bump, bump, bump. I said to my dh "flat tire" to which he responded "that is more than a flat tire". He pulled over and took a look at it. The tie rod which connects the wheels to the steering wheel had broken. We had passed an Advanced Auto a couple of miles back so we slowly turned around and headed back to the Auto Parts store. My husband ran in to see if they had the part he needed, while he was in the store the kids started getting restless. This verse about giving thanks popped into my head and I said to the children "What can we be thankful for?". We had answer like "no one was hurt" and "daddy is good at fixing cars". We then sang some songs. When my husband returned (they didnt have the part, but he had some things he thought he could use as a temporary fix) I decided to take the kids for a walk. During our walk, we spotted a playground through the trees and made our way to it going around several blocks. It didn't seem to have an entrance but we finally came to the road that led right into it. We spent about 10-15 minutes at the playground then went back to van (now know the shorter route). He was unable to fix it and called a friend to pick us up and we went to a diner to have dinner and wait for our ride.

The next day my oldest dd said to me "I had a lot of fun yesterday singing and playing and walking". I was thankful the Lord had reminded me of the verse and instead of sitting around and whining about being stuck we were able to create a positive memory with our family.

Monday, May 10, 2010

History Lesson Plans

I have now finished my lesson plans for history this year. We will be using Mystery of History Vol 2. I will be supplementing with Peril & Peace, Monks and Mystics, Diana Waring's What in the World Vol 2 etc. (there is a complete list of resources used on my lesson plans). Here is the link for download for those who would like copies. :D

MOH2 Lesson Plans

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Lesson Planning - Science

Doing some lesson planning for my 7th grader next year. Thought I would post mine in case they are helpful to anyone. :D

I am using Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space (CKEE&S) and Exploring Creation with Astronomy (ECWA). I am supplementing CKEE&S with "The Weather Book" (TWB), "The Geology Book" (TGB) and "Exploring Planet Earth" (EPE). We are doing Science 2X a week (Tuesdays & Thursdays) for about 30-45 minutes per lesson.

I am having trouble copying and pasting here. So I uploaded it to Media Fire. Here is the link:

Media Fire CKEE&S Lesson Plans

Friday, September 25, 2009

Simplified Economics

Got this as an email:
An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

--------------------------------------------

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich - a great equalizer.


The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".


All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade, so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.


After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.


As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.


When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering,
blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.


All failed, to their great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail, because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.


Could not be any simpler than that

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Filing Cabinet & Closet Update


Here are some pics from my closet and filing cabinet organizing:

Front of Closet
Green bin is books to sell & and blue bin is sewing stuff

organized my construction & other papers by color

Mailing supplies drawer (use my old HOP boxes for mailing and cover with brown paper, I almost always reuse my bubble envelopes. Saves money and the environment. :D


Puzzles in front
Bin of Art Supplies in back


School supplies such as crayons, pens, pencils, glue, and scissors etc.

Filing cabinets in the back of the closet

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Using Canning Jars for Organizing

A friend of mine posted this on her blog and I thought it went perfect with my organizing theme. Thought I would pass it along.

Organizing with Canning Jars

Monday, August 31, 2009

Crockpot Zucchini Bread

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, but thankfully there are those who have gone before who have needed first and left their finding for us to use......since I am unable to bake in my temperamental oven, I made zucchini bread in my crockpot from this recipe:



http://southernfood.about.com/od/crockpotdessertrecipes/r/bl19c13.htm


Here are some pics of it:

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Filing Cabinets

I will be spending the next few posts (although I may throw in a recipe here and there) dedicated to organizing. This post is dedicated to filing cabinets.

Next to bookshelves, I think that filing cabinets are my best friend when it comes to organizing and even more versatile than bookshelves. Not only are they great for filing papers, but they are also great for storage of craft, school, sewing and other supplies, as well as clothing, tools, canning jar and equipment, toys etc. They also help to hide the not so aesthetically pleasing plastic bins that are also an organizers friend as well as alleviate the incovenience of having to sift through a stack of bins to find the one you want.. I personally don't like plastic, but in this day and age they are a necessary evil...so I try to hide them when I can. Filing cabinets help me to do this. If you don't think that filing cabinets themselves are attractive, grab a can of $2 spray paint and change the color and add some other decoratives to it to personalize it. Filing cabinets they can become your new organizing friend! :D

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Cleaning My Closet


Well my school room is driving me crazy and all the clutter from the kids so I am starting to go through organize and throw/give away things. I am starting with my closet off the schoolroom for storage to help get me organized. I have already cleaned it out and here are the bare bones of my closet. I am looking for some good organizing ideas. I hope to keep in here my craft/art, sewing and other supplies. I do have a couple of 2 drawer filing cabinets that I am hoping will fit in there. Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!



Inside my cover, hooks to hang coats on and a shelf above


The Bowels of the closet
(yes it is a really old home)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ground Beef Gyros

This week I am focusing on Ground Beef and trying new recipes with it. This is one I made tonight. It was yummy. For those on a low carb diet, you can eliminate the pita...make a base salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, and onions (if you like onions), crumble up the meat on the salad and use the cucumber sauce as dressing. I got this recipe off of recipezaar.com.

Ground Beef Gyros
This is a great summer meal and quick and easy to put together and tastes wonderful. Refreshing served with the cucumber sauce and is even low in fat. I think this came from Quick Cooking. It's a favorite in our house. SERVES 4

Ingredients

Filling

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine first 5 ingredients.
  2. Cover and refrigerate.
  3. In separate bowl, combine ground beef and seasonings.
  4. Mix well.
  5. Shape into 4 patties.
  6. Grill, covered, (you can also use a toaster oven or broil these) over medium to high heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until meat is no longer pink, turning once.
  7. Cut patties into thin slices.
  8. Stuff into pitas.
  9. Add lettuce, tomato, and onion.
  10. Serve with yogurt sauce.

Friday, August 07, 2009

Zucchini Manna

Do you have zucchini coming out your ears?


Not sure what to do with all the zucchini manna from your garden?


Well it's time to think outside the box......Zucchini, it's not just for eating anymore.


Zucchini Pets

Zucchini Baseball





Carving Zucchinis


and don't forget all the yummy recipes you can make with zucchini.....all you have to do is google "zucchini recipes"!