Valentines Day 2014

This evening I look over to see E cutting out hearts.  "What'cha doin'?" I ask.  "Cutting out hearts to decorate the house for tomorrow." is her reply.  Now, I am not big on decorating for holidays.  It is just not my thing.  But here I have this little girl who is excited about tomorrow and wants to make the house look pretty - even if it is just for us.  Idea pops into my head (thank you, Lord!) and I come back with string and tape.  While I am putting the hearts on the strings, E decides to make the LOVE ... she only makes L and O before it is time for bed.  And so after putting them to bed I finish it up and hang them in the front entryway for all to enjoy tomorrow!  I am so glad that I was blessed with a beautifully creative little girl who feels free enough to act on her ideas as they come to her!

Mesopotamian loom

We have been studying ancient civilizations this year.  Today we made a mesopotamian loom. We worked on it at a park with a few other schoolmates.  We then brought them home and the littles have been working on them ever since we arrived home at 3:30 - except for the time that they spent eating dinner!  Now they want to make a bigger loom and make more "scarves"!

Phonics Lesson

Yesterday's phonics lesson was a riot!  I am using, ALL ABOUT SPELLING with J and he sometimes throws a little bit of a fit when it is time to do it.  We are currently reviewing all the 3 letter short vowel lessons we had done before Christmas.  I have magnetic tile letters set up on the fridge and after teaching him the consonat teams th, sh & ch (he loves that one), I decided I needed to make it fun.  So after my energetic boy would spell a word he would run over to me put his head between my legs and give me a super big "leg-hug", laugh with delight and run back over to "build" the next word.  He built 10, short i words perfectly that way!  I have got to be creative when it comes to schooling that one and what worked one day may not work the next!!

After phonics we went over to the school table to do his handwriting.  I am using HANDWRITING WITHOUT TEARS which he is doing quite well in.  Again, we reviewed all the letters that he learned prior to Christmas break.  First on the chalkboard with a wet sponge (he makes the letter with the wet sponge - just a fun and different way to practice), then I had him write all his letters on a white board.  He did so well ... until he got to the F.  For some reason he got stuck there and kept saying that it didn"t look right.  I told him to write it a few more times and then pick out his best one.  He told me that they all looked the same.  I circled the best one for him and decided it was time to move on!

sweet boy

Yesterday I ran! First time in 5 months plus!  I've hiked the hill, ridden bikes with the 'littles', even rollerbladed once or twice, but getting up the motivation to run?  It just wasn't happening!  That said, I was EXHAUSTED at 7:45 when we sat down to read, Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories.  I had finished two stories (about 2 pages long each) and was just about to start a new one, when daddy called to tell the littles good-night and pray with them.  They went into the other room to get better reception ... they came back to find mommy almost passed out on the couch.  I couldn't even keep my eyelids open another minute!  I sent them both to bed with love and hugs and finally made it to my own room 45 minutes later.  Slept SOUND, until someone woke me up to tuck her back in bed because she wiggles around too much at night and looses all her blankets!  Finally got up just before 6 this morning came out to the kitchen and the cookies that we had made the night before, and that I had forgotten to put away were all covered!

My first thought was that my husband had covered them all up when he got home from work - which is a good assumption, he has doen things like that before ... altho I knew he wouldn't take the time to wrap them individually.  In the morning I asked both children about it and Mr. J told me it was him.  He had gone in to the kitchen before bed, seen the cookies on the counter and thought, "Mom would want these put away so I will help her out".  What a compassionate little boy I have.  I vaguely remember him also patting me and trying to wrap the blanket around me better before he went to his bed.  He loves to take care of others and is very quick to look for ways to help others when he senses a need.

Tonight I am alone in the house.  My friend picks up my children every Thursday to take them to AWANA.  I have the next two hours alone.  I am going to tackle my 2-hour house cleaning checklist from Money Saving Mom.  And maybe I will sit down for a cookie and tea at some point along the way!

New day

It is another new day.  A day to seek The Lord with all of our hearts.

He is more than worth of our praise, admiration and of our lives.

Have we given Him everything?  Have we given Him ALL that we are?  The good, the bad, and the ugly?

Our hopes and dreams ... are they His?  Let us only pursue that which He is leading us in.

Listen to His voice, hear Him speak, "this is the way" - and walk in it.

Thanksgiving in pictures

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving celebration. Did you know only 52 pilgrims were at that first celebration & 90 Native Americans? We painted the pilgrims follwing an idea I found online. Then the littles started drawing the Native Americans. They only made it to 18 ... we'll have to add more next year. I was hoping to get a family picture but what you see at the end is the best Uncle John gave us. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Tortillas

We aren't gluten free but ever since my dad made the switch to being gluten free I've been trying to mix it into our diet here and there.  I have a little boy who LOVES bread - he's just like his momma!

A few weeks ago I ran across a blog called: Yammie's Gluten Freedom.  I've tried a couple recipes from her already and have been pleased.  Tonight I tried her tortilla recipe and I was surprised at them being quite bendy!  Although, I didn't have a cake lifter and I think I really need one of those if I plan on making these again.  Also, I subbed glucommenen powder for the xanthan gum ... seemed to work just as well!

Here is the recipe!

Technology

I gave into technology tonight. What does that mean? Well, I had a lot of emails, etc to catch up on so instead of waiting until my children were in bed to catch up on all that, I chose to do it while they were awake. Not a good idea. Ended up w over-tired children in the end because I wasn't cognasent of the time but rather absorbed in getting my tasks accomplished. They are worth more than that.

Tomorrow is a new day. 

:)

Pantry organization

I have set out to organize a new part of my house every week. I began with the kitchen a few weeks ago then took a little break, organized the small part of our garage and this week I tackled the pantry! Emptied everything, got rid of a few things & then put it all back in a way that made way more sense. 

This weeks organization will probably be the craft room or laundry room...if I'm ambitious maybe both? Realistically ... Probably just the craft room. Yaay for organization!

Falafel and Pita bread experiment

I recently purchased a bunch of dried garbanzo beans and was super excited about making falafel with them.  Started out by soaking them overnight and then the children and I set to work in the afternoon making them using THIS recipe that I found on Pinterest.  

We also made our own pitas using THIS recipe from Budget Bytes.  Unfortunately only one pita rose well, but I think that may have been because I had to keep opening the oven to see how they were doing - we don't have an oven light!

We made a yogurt sauce with Greek yogurt, feta cheese and a bit of seasonings from the pantry: lemon pepper, oregano and parsley (I think).

We LOVED them!  The falafel was a bit dense and we can try adding some baking soda to the next batch to see if that lightens it up a bit.  I might try that tomorrow!  We only cooked up half the batch, ended up eating half of that batch and froze the rest.  All in all a wonderful experiment.  

However, I have learned that making messes in the kitchen on Saturday night is NOT the way to go!  I like to take Sunday off so today (Monday) was spent trying to get my kitchen back in order!!  

All those spices smell SO yummy!

Reading 'A Horse and his Boy' while we wait for the Pita dough to rise and falafel to chill.

Getting ready to cook our pitas

cooking the falafels

The Spread

My dinner ... a falafel salad with pita on the side

My girl eating her falafel sandwich

Our Fall "to do" list

The kids and I saw this cool Fall "to do" list on Pinterest and decided we just had to do it!  We put things on the leaves like:  

• have a bonfire
•  Nature Scavenger hunt
• camping trip
• roast marshmallows
• make hobo packs

We made a list of about 10 things we want to do, added them onto our Fall "tree" and will let the leaves "fall" as we accomplish each fun Fall thing!

Dinner was SO tasty!  We are planning on doing it again when we go camping next weekend!

Playing with pastels

In case you are wondering this was not an "original by Tara".  No, I owe this fun project to Pinterest with the help of our cousin Joy who gave the kids some wonderful pastels!  Josiah went a little overboard and decided to draw his tree picture with the pastels before I caught him!  I told them both that they can use the "fake pastels" from their little art sets ANY time they want - but NOT the real pastels!  As you can see the project was a success and I think their favorite part was the blending of the colors together!

 

E's experiment goes ... mushy

I canned tomatoes earlier this summer and then I canned tomatoes again today!  Yaay!  I have about 10 pints of tomatoes for spaghetti and soups for the winter ... and we still have a dozen or so green tomatoes waiting to ripen on the vine!

What does this have to do with my daughter's experiment?  WELL ... she took a look at those beautiful tomatoes sitting on the counter-top yesterday and decided that she wanted to see what would happen to a tomato if she put it in the freezer.  She didn't tell anyone what was going on in her little head, she just went with her idea.  Chris opened up the freezer last night and thought - why is there a tomato in the freezer?  I opened up the fridge this morning and thought - why is there a tomato (& a very mushy one at that) in the fridge?

We got to the bottom of our mystery when we asked the kids and E sheepishly said, "It was me"!  We had fun talking about how she needs to run her experiments by us in the future and she got to see what happens to a tomato after it freezes (rock solid) and then defrosts (yuck).

The best part about it all is that the little experiment is totally unlike E and so it was fun to see her do something we would expect of ... her brother :)

Favorite morning pastime

It's the beginning of a new week!  I've been enjoying my morning cup of coffee along with my journal, Bible and book by N.T. Wright: Surprised by Hope.  The dog got "fixed" last week so I was hanging out with him on the kitchen floor and yesterday I sat outside on my front porch.  But wherever I am it's always good to start the day out this way!

There are how many continents?

To go along with our study of history from the beginning of time we've been also studying the continents for geography.  The kids ALMOST have them memorized in order of largest to smallest.  They have a hard time with all the "A" continents ... and Europe is a tough one for them to remember too ... but for a Kindergartner and First grader I would say they are doing rather well!

My attempt at cutting all the continents out of felt.  I didn't do so well w/ Europe!

"...let the dry land appear."  (Gen 1:9b)
E and J working diligently on the dry land "cookie"

They created one big land mass as well as mountains and a few Islands

All finished and boy are they ready to eat it!

E's song about butterflies!

E was so inspired by watching the butterflies grow that she made up her own song!

Butterflies!

We started out the school year by getting some caterpillars, watching them grow, form chrysalises and then turn into beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies.  The kiddos had a ton of fun reading books during that time about the life-cycle of a butterfly!  We even took our butterflies out with us one day to shop and hang out at the library.  There was only ONE cocoon left and we didn't want to miss it breaking free (like we had all the rest).  However, it seems like our butterflies like their privacy and the last butterfly came out in the middle of the night!  We were sad that we missed it but we had a lot of fun none-the-less!

 

Getting ready to let the butterflies go free in our backyard!
E even had a butterfly land on her before it flew away!

My journey with reading

I just finished listening to "Kisses From Katie" with my children.  We all loved it and were inspired and encouraged by the work that Katie is doing in Uganda.

Currently I am reading the following books:

Watership Down (audio cd) for enjoyment

Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson

Trim, Healthy Mama by Serene Allison & Pearl Barrett

Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright

The book of Matthew in the Bible
and
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis

With the kids I'm currently reading, "The Magicians Nephew" by C.S. Lewis

With all these books to read I've decided that it's time to do what I've known I need to do for a couple months now and take a break from "solo" movies!  My husband works late so sometimes I just want to "veg" and I end up watching a movie ... more nights in a row then is really good for me to be doing!  I have felt for awhile like I need to pull the plug, not ever watching movies again, BUT for this season in my life I need to not watch movies ALONE.  With all the reading material that I mentioned above it's obvious I really don't have time to waste on watching movies!  Therefore, coinciding with my facebook "fast", I will also be taking a "fast" from movies during this time!

Also, for those late nights I think an audio cd and sewing machine will go well together!  I'll let you know how it goes!

Middle of summer garden

These pictures were taken in late July.  We've harvested acorn squash, corn, carrots, pepper of all kinds, cantaloupe, tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini and lots of green beans.  I'll take an updated picture of our garden this month and write about it.  Gardening is so fun! I'm thankful to the Lord for all the produce he's given!

corn and sunflowers!

Green beans growing around the corn!

This one just fell off when it was ripe and ready!

harvest about 1 cup of black bean ... carrots are growing in between the plants

These cantaloupes have been so yummy!

we harvest potatoes from our tower last week ... going do a tower in straw next time!

We were able to can about 7 pint size jars ... looks like we'll have another harvest this month

Roma tomatoes that we grew from seed.  Not a whole lot harvested tho.

Our beautiful peppers!

huge caterpillars that were getting into our tomatoes - yuck!

A couple of the first carrots we planted!