School-Week One!

I make no promises about posting weekly.  For one thing, my camera is busted.  Right now I have a borrowed camera but I'm going to need to return it soon.  It is hard to not have a camera but I want to wait to buy one when I can afford one I really want.  Secondly, promises like that are just made to be broken.

But that isn't what this is about.  Our first week of school was FABULOUS!  We've finished our work each day.  School lasts longer than it has in the past but we have older kids so that day was coming anyway.  Science went great (i didn't get any pictures of our experiments).  We learned about matter, mass, and density.  The kids have jumped into seat work with great attitudes and ready to learn it.  I am so proud of them.

I know that we won't always have great school days.  I know there will be days I want to run away.  I know there will be days where every stinkin thing is a fight and a battle.  But this week, is an encouraging start to the year.  And it shows me that they CAN do all of this.  My expectations are NOT too high.  I had mixed feelings about starting school this fall.  So ready to jump in and yet didn't feel quite prepared.  And it has all gone well.

Now I just need to lesson plan for next week.  HA.  I'll try to get that done by Sunday night.  :)  Next week we will be adding in our 15 minute "dash n stash" and our daily cleaning duties....gonna work to "reset" the house back to mostly clean over the weekend.  Although we jump into school work with both feet, we are taking just a little time to rebuild our school time routine...I can only pray it continues to go this well!

A is coloring "Mitchells map" for history.

Reading the "Mayflower Compact" - see how nice the projector works.  That's on my white board so we can highlight and circle things we're projecting.  I love it!

L is all about the markers these days.  So far she's only used them on paper so that's cool

More map work

G doesn't like to use a chair for school work at the table.  

The car seat is in the living room since we are getting a new van and she likes to sit in it to read her stories.

She picked out some puzzles to do.  And took off her dress.  Sigh.

All three boys are doing some computer learning this year.  G is doing typing here.  They are also learning spanish with Rosetta Stone on the computer.

Spelling "test" time.  

This is my FAVORITE school picture I can ever remember taking....This is what it looks like when 2 boys get ALL their spelling words correct.

working on his model of Jamestown.  This project gave us all some fits.  But we persevered thru it.

G and his finished Jamestown model.  Woot woot

M and his finished model of Jamestown

I don't know why the last 3 pictures won't center....I am done trying to fix it.  HA!  Great week of school in the books!

Recent appointment with the Doctor. :)

We recently spent at a nearby library for their Doctor Who event.  We made bowties and watched an episode of Doctor Who.  It was a good time!

the kids waiting to head in.

Bowties are cool!

A and the sonic screwdriver.  (I let him borrow it.)  

Looking good there

L is ready to be a companion ;)

Today was hair day!

Today was the day to redo L's hair.  I try to get a style to stretch over 2 weeks and sometimes it makes it even longer.  I took out her previous style yesterday, washed and conditioned her hair.  Put it in big braids to stretch the curls and then did this style this afternoon.  It took about an hour and she was not happy by the end (note to self: right before nap is not hair time).  It is one continual two-stranded rope twist starting just above her left ear and looping all around her head into a little bun.  It is great protection for her hair and makes getting her swim cap on very easy.  I can add a flower for decoration!  I'm hoping to make this one last till next friday!  We'll see.

I clearly need to finish my yard work.  Oops!  HA!

She wouldn't look at me and smile.  But she liked sitting in front of our pretty purple flowers!

Mini Vacation #1

This year instead of one big long vacation, we are doing several little mini vacations....and we had a chance to do the first one a few weeks ago.

We took all the kids to Medieval Times.  We also stayed in a hotel with a pool.  What more does a family need for a little get away?  Oh yeah, hotel also had a really nice hot breakfast.  :)

Everyone had such a great great time!  The food was phenomenal and our serf was totally great with the kids   "dragonblood soup for you sir"  or "Here's your baby dragon....it tastes a lot like chicken."  The boys loved eating with their hands.  I wasn't sure L was going to eat cause she LOVED the horses.  LOVED them.  It was a perfect mini vacation.  I didn't get many pictures (cause I was eating with my hands too).  But I got a couple.

Ready to head in.

waiting for them to unlock the gates

So excited!  yay

All the kids got swords and shields....I tried to get L to get a princess hat but she wanted a sword and shield like her brothers.  I have a feeling she is going to be a tomboy  ;)

Announcing the start of the games.

bring on the horses

bring on the knights

bring on the food

We wear green crowns because we are in the section of the green knight...

presentation of the knights....and time to put the camera away.  :)

Our family is growing......

Meet Betty and Lois.  (l-r).  Our newest "kids"....they are so cute and fun and friendly....and LOUD!  :)  These are a dairy breed so hopefully by next spring we'll have more babies and fresh milk.  I'm sure goat milk will take some adjustment but I'm excited about it.  :)

And "Bacon"....he is also friendly and the kids love chatting with him cause he always snorts back.  But they also know his name determines his destiny....I am sure some people think that is cruel or mean but so many have no awareness of where our food comes from.  Unless a person is 100% vegetarian then everyone eats animals that started out as cute little babies...and many times not in the 5 star lifestyle our animals grow in.  ;)   

And our ducks....One is Donald and another is Aflack but I don't know which ones...the rest are probably named too but I don't know what.  We are looking forward to seeing how many males and females we got here and trying duck eggs....and then hopefully having duck babies....we will not be butchering these cause duck meat is icky....and I'm sure it's similar to butchering chickens which is a job I loathe.... :)

The kids were bummed when they figured out this kiddie pool wasn't for them.
But the ducks LOVE it!  And the kids literally sit out there and watch them play.  Who needs tv?
HA

We also got our garden in.  And they helped a little.  :)

I love spring.  It is such a time of possibilities.  I am always excited to garden and I pray this year that the garden is successful.  I've planted zucchini, cukes, onions, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, green beans, peas, cantelope and watermelon.  Fingers crossed.

Back to work I go!  :D  Happy spring to everyone!

Life in pictures

Lots of pictures this week.....not much else to say!

Practicing Twinkle twinkle little star (clearly shoes and shirt are optional)

drummer boy.  We opened a can of worms with this one and I love it!

We do chemistry on mondays....this monday we tested the pH of several liquids we found in the pantry.  

Oh sweet mother of gluing.  While the boys used the cut and glue method to label a crayfish, L used glue to fully saturate felt letters and stick them to pretty much everything.  :)  (See those orange and yellow scissors in the lower right corner - BEST TODDLER scissors EVER)

G and a happy school moment.  :)

We got out some different "tot trays" this week.  Here L is sorting different shapes of noodles in an ice cube tray.  She also strung them on a pipe cleaner.

Giant lacing (Those are pool noodles cut into beads)

 Sometimes boys just don't wanna sit and do school work.  I'm not sure at what point sitting became necessary to learn.  Boys are boys are boys....and sitting nicely at the table is just not hardwired in.  This is what learning looked like at different points this week.  (there are so many other possible photo ops of this....but these are 2 I got this week.

See the chair behind M....he pushed it out of the way so he could stand to do his math.

This is also math.  Yep, that's my rocking chair.

Shifted to finish math....maybe his head was tired so he needed to prop it up.

Freezer baking! Muffin edition!

I was talking about this on facebook yesterday and people seemed interested.  One person even said they would read a blog post if I did one.  It is hard for me to do posts like these because I don't really think about what I'm doing....I just do it!  I tried to take pictures but that didn't go so well...partly because when I'm cooking I forget to take pictures and partly because I just have so much "help"  but I did get a few.

So this is what I did.  We like to eat muffins of all sizes and varieties.  I use them for breakfasts and for snacks.  I do not always feel like making muffins first thing in the morning.  So I make lots of muffins and freeze them.  They thaw and warm up nicely in the micro.  So today in just under 2 hours I made 2 double batches of muffins.  I make some regular sized muffins (2 plus fruit or yogurt=breakfast).  And I make mini muffins (2=snack).  This (with the few that I have left from my last baking frenzy) will be enough to last me about a month unless I get a wild hair to make another flavor...

Ok, where do I get these recipes?  The 2 I used today (recipes included at the end) were from Country Baking by Gooseberry Patch.  One is peanut butter muffins and the other is Oatmeal.  Both are yummy. Of course, I very very rarely follow a recipe exactly.  And today was no exception.  I will publish the original recipe and then share my changes.

But first....here are a few pictures I did take!  

My little helper putting the liners in the muffin tins.  To freeze I ALWAYS use a paper muffin liner.  Makes cleanup easier and freezing nicer. 

Finished oatmeal muffins.  I did not get as many as I'd hoped for from this double batch. 

Peanut butter muffins.  YUM!

OATMEAL MUFFINS

1 T lemon juice
1cup milk
1 cup quick cooking oats
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar , packed
1/2 cup shortening, melted
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda

 Add lemon juice to milk and let stand at room temp for 5-10 minutes.  Soak oats in milk mixture for 1 hour; then add egg and beat well.  Blend in brown sugar and add cooled shortening.  Sift flour with baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Combine with oat mixture and stir by hand 20 strokes.  Fill greased (or paper lined) muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

And for my changes.  I double this first of all.  Except I only bump the brown sugar to 3/4 cup and they are plenty sweet.  I also use 1/2 whole wheat flour.  And replace the melted shortening with melted butter.  Adding a teaspoon of vanilla is nice too.

PEANUT BUTTER BREAD

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 t vanilla
1 3/4 cup milk
2 1/4 cup flour
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

In a large bowl, blend together sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla.  Gradually pour in milk; mix well.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; add to peanut butter mixture.  Spread batter into greased 9X5 loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

My changes-  I double the recipe and use half whole wheat flour.  Other than that the only change is to bake in muffin tins (greased or with paper liners-PICK paper liners).  They took about 25-30 minutes but I just check every couple minutes after 15...toothpick should come out clean.

So for freezing just let them completely cool (COMPLETELY COOL!!! or your bag will fog up and then freeze and it is icky).  Bag them in gallon freezer bags labeled with the variety and the date.  And freeze!  Pretty simple.  I accidentally undercooked a batch the last time I did this and although they are fine they do not freeze as nicely so make sure they are fully fully cooked and the top isn't shiny (does that make sense?)

To eat from frozen; take whichever muffin you want...or one of each because the kids all want something different (another reason I like doing this this way)...pop them in the micro for a few seconds and eat warm.  YUM!!!