To the Moon and Back

The Case of the Missing Spectacle aka Why My House is Spotless

2012-01-26T15:48:00.000-05:00

It was a night like any other. The children were snug in their beds. All was quiet and I was sweeping up the floor (something I do at least three times a day here since we have only hardwood or tile floors) so that I could get ready to go to bed. I dumped all the dirt (WHERE does it all come from?!) in the trashcan, put the broom away, and headed into the bathroom to brush my teeth.

After burning my taste buds off with mouthwash(is there anyone out there who can swill that stuff without their eyes watering? If you exist, please tell me your secret!), I headed through the house doing my final checks before heading to bed. All the lights inside were off. The children were snoozing peacefully. The outside light was still on for when Hubs returned from work. The doors were locked. Off to bed I went.

I creeped into the bedroom so that I wouldn't wake my sleeping Sugar Plum in her playpen, took off my glasses and placed them on the nightstand, and crawled into the blankets to ~~pass out from sheer exhaustion~~ fall into peaceful slumber.

The next morning, Sugar Plum had a doctor's appointment for her 18 month well check. The alarm went off, but I pushed snooze. Sugar Plum, who had moved from the playpen to the crib that is sidecarred to our bed during the night, awoke and started yelling for her Sissy who just happened to already be hanging out in the living room reading a book (be still my book lover's heart). I changed her diaper, let her down and decided that I would take five more minutes to rest before ~~dragging myself out of the bed~~ rising cheerfully to get breakfast started.

When the snooze went off five minutes later, I discovered that I had actually dozed back off during the short interval between alarms so I had to shake off that thin layer of grogginess that settles on a person when a short burst of sleep springs itself upon them. I climbed over Hubs who was snoring quite enthusiastically, slid on my slippers and reached for my glasses. When I slid them on my face, something wasn't right. My left eye seemed to still be blurry. I though t I just needed to rub my eyes, but when I reached up to do just that, I realized that there was NOT a lens in that side of my glasses! No biggie, it must have just popped out when I put the glasses down on the nightstand, right? I turned around and looked. It wasn't there. Okay, so it fell in the floor. Nope. Oy. Not a great way to start a morning, but I figured it had to be lying somewhere nearby.

Fast forward to two days later and here I sit, leaning in as far as my poor back will allow into the computer screen, squinting so much my eyes look nearly closed as I type this blog entry. *sigh*

I have systematically dismantled my entire bedroom and that lens is absolutely, positively nowhere to be found in there! I pulled the mattress and box spring off the bed, pulled every bit of furniture away from walls, and swept every square inch of the floor. I have shaken the rugs, the sheets, and every bit of clothing that was lying in a laundry basket waiting to be put away. I even pulled every.single.drawer out of the nightstands and dresser and emptied them ALL. Nada.

So, last night I moved on to the living room and the bathroom. Chairs and the couch were moved, cushions removed, toy bins emptied, bookshelves cleared off. Still zilch.

Today, I went into the laundry room and scoured the shelves and picked up and shook every piece of dirty clothing that was in there. Nothing!

All that is left is the kitchen and the children's bedroom. I'm completely discombobulated (I love that word!). I am positive the lens was still there when I went to bed which would mean that logically the lens would have been somewhere IN the bedroom. Obviously, this lens scoffs in the face of logic because here I sit, barely able to see anything. I'm wishing (since I cannot go to get new glasses until late next week) that maybe, just maybe during that five minutes where I dozed off, Sugar Plum may have grabbed the glasses, carried them around the house and put them back sans the lens. This could give me hope, unless she put the lens in the trash (that has been carried off) where I've recently discovered some refrigerator magnets and books that she decided she wanted to "put away."

The good news is that all that deep cleaning housework that I had been putting off is getting done, and in record speed. FlyLady would be proud.

Have you ever lost something and not been able to find it?

When the Soul Mends

2012-01-24T19:36:00.001-05:00

I have reviewed and recommended the work of Cindy Woodsmall before on my blog and this time, my opinion will be no different than those!

When the Soul Mends is the third book in the Sisters of the Quilt trilogy. I had not read the previous two installments before receiving this one for review, but that was of no consequence. I was able to fully keep up with the storyline and there was enough background information supplied for this installment to stand all on its own. I will probably go back and read the first two books now after enjoying this one so thoroughly!

This book follows Hannah Lawson, a girl shunned by her Old Order Amish family and community when something unmentionable happens to her that the people view as shameful. She has established a new life in the Englischer world, but an unexpected phone call from her sister brings her back into the fold of those who turned their backs on her. As she begins to navigate the waters between both her new life and her old, she comes across many obstacles that threaten all the work she's done to move on with things, including an ex-fiance who seems to still hold some feelings for her.

This is not a typical romance novel. I'm not into those types of mushy sappy stories at all. While a love story unfolds throughout this book, all of the other elements included will keep you turning page after page to find out what will become of Hannah. I read this novel in three days flat and would have completed it quicker if I didn't have other things like, ahem children, to attend to!

Cindy Woodsmall is very skilled at capturing the essence of the Amish lifestyle in a way that does not at all feel contrived and makes you a part of their world. I look forward to reading more of her works!

If you'd like to take a glimpse at the first chapter of this book, just click here.

Also, Amazon (as of this post) has this book on sale for less than $6 here.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review. *

A Good and Perfect Gift...

2012-01-24T18:14:00.000-05:00

...Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny.

Amy Julia Becker was thrilled to find out that she was pregnant with her first child. As all first time moms know, even amidst all the joy and excitement that comes along with bringing a baby into the world, there also lies an undercurrent of anxiety. You don't know how to be a mother and you worry if you are going to "do it right." You worry about whether or not you can hack it or if you are going to be paying therapist bills down the road because you royally screwed up another human being. However, if you are a Christian, you also know that God chose you to be the parent of this child and so you also know that your life and the new one on the verge of entering the world were intertwined for a purpose.

This is what Amy Julia was experiencing during her first pregnancy but then her journey takes a turn that most of us do not have to go on. After her precious daughter enters the world, she is unexpectedly diagnosed with Down's Syndrome. The Beckers are thrown for a loop as they navigate through all their preconceived notions about how their family would look and act. This book is a poignant memoir that follows them as they learn how to adjust to the new challenges that God brought into their lives. Amy Julia struggles with her tendencies to value things like intelligence and appearances, first turning away from but then coming back to God to help her learn how to be the best mother to her darling little girl and to view her as her daughter and not just her child with Down's Syndrome.

Although there are a few areas were Amy Julia Becker and I disagree as far as beliefs go, this book was an excellent read and full of honesty, raw emotion, and encouragement for parents of all types of children. I would definitely recommend adding this to your reading list this year!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review. *

A Sick House

2012-01-15T14:38:00.000-05:00

It all started with a prayer group.

A friend of mine had a great idea to get a small group of women together on a biweekly basis so that we could all get encouragement, support, and prayer and just have some time with other women. We could bring our children, but I decided to leave Sweetpea and Bub at home with Hubs because it had simply just been a rough week and I needed some time to recuperate and refresh myself. I took Sugar Plum just because this particular friend's house is over thirty minutes away from our home, so I didn't want to risk her getting hysterical about wanting to nurse and then have Hubs call me and still have to wait a half hour or more for me to return. (She is a nurseaholic....seriously, she will need a twelve step program when it's time to wean) Plus, one kid is so much easier to handle than three. It was a flashback to when we only had Sweetpea.

But, anyway, I took Sugar Plum and had a fantastic time chatting and eating brunch-style while all the little kids played. The next morning, the friend who had organized the get together put up a message on facebook that she apologized, but that some of her children had gotten sick, and that she hoped that no one else caught it. I didn't think much of it These things happen, and she had no idea that her kids may have been carrying anything. She is not one of those moms who brings her children around others all the while knowing they are sick (that really perturbs me by the way). No worries...

...until I spent nearly all night caring for an 18 month old who was throwing up the next day. Baths at 3AM are not generally my cup of tea, but Sugar Plum seemed to enjoy splashing about merrily with her rubber duck. Two days later, Sweetpea became ill and was so sick, Hubs slept on the couch in order to be closer to her bedroom when she inevitably came out of it to run to the toilet.

Yesterday, all the children stayed in pajamas and watched obscene amounts of television while I catered from one need to the next. Then this morning, I woke up feeling like a car ran over me, I'm nauseated, and just simply don't.want.to. move. Bub has a fever and has been complaining of a belly ache and has barely left his bed (which is HIGHLY unlike him). It's a sick house. Ugh. Hubs is the only one who remains unscathed...for now. But, he is also off at work while we all laze about moaning. (Okay, while the children laze about and I sit here blogging to keep my mind off of the insane need to dry heave). Wasn't that a pleasant read? :)

So, now hopefully it will end with a prayer group...any of you who want to send some up for us so that we can shake this awful bug and be done with it. Quickly. Thank you kindly. :)

Giving Goldilocks a Run for Her Money

2012-01-12T12:16:00.001-05:00

It's time for Round Five in the American Girl journey that Sweetpea and I are taking together. We finished up the fifth book in the Kirsten Larsen series, "Kirsten Saves the Day," and after we flipped through the pages of the corresponding cookbook, Sweetpea chose this traditional Swedish breakfast food as the recipe that we would pull together in our own little kitchen.

Swedish Rice Porridge is traditionally served around Christmas time in Europe, and can be left as a treat for Santa(instead of the milk and cookies option that Americans utilize) and is versatile because it can be a breakfast meal or a sweet dessert treat just by adding a little extra sweetener.

I'll be honest and say that I was a little hesitant to eat this. Porridge makes me think of some kind of gooey slop that bears eat when little blonde girls don't invade their space. But, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed this, as did the rest of the family.

So, how do you make this not so gooey breakfast? Just follow the directions below (*Be prepared: this takes a little time and is not something you can just whip up quickly.)

What You Need

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup white rice
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cinnamon stick( I couldn't find these anywhere, so I just sprinkled in a teaspoon or so of ground cinnamon)
1 large, firm apple, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
honey for drizzling

Melt the butter in a saucepan and swirl it around for a good coating. Put the rice, water, cinnamon stick(or ground cinnamon) and salt in the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed. (*Be vigilant here so that you don't scorch the rice!*)

Pour the milk into the saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a simmer(*Do this slowly. If you rush it the milk will curdle). When the milk begins to simmer, turn heat down to low. Carefully add the apple, raisins and brown sugar. Stir gently to incorporate.

Cover the pan and simmer the porridge for 30-45 minutes. As it cooks, it will thicken. Stir occasionally.

When the porridge is the not too cold, not too hot, but just right (had to do it), take the pot off the heat. Remove the cinnamon stick if you used one and stir in the vanilla .

Pour into bowls and serve with additional milk, cream, or honey.

Now on to the craft portion! Hooray! :) Sweetpea has had her eye on this pillow since way back at the beginning of this adventure, but I kept putting it off because I truly, truly do NOT enjoy sewing by hand and my sewing machine is out of commission for now. This time, I caved because she just HAD to have a pillow for her American Girl Samantha doll that she got for Christmas. Plus, it's more authentic to do it by hand. I definitely don't think the Larsens had sewing machines!

First we chose the fabric from my stash, which of course had to be pink and purple (duh, mom!). We chose a solid hot pink, a solid purple corduroy, and a pink and purple striped. Then I took the two solids and cut out an 8 1/2 inch square from each.

Then I used a ruler and a fabric pen to draw a line diagonally from one corner to the next on each square and then cut along the line to make two triangles from each.

Next I placed one triangle of each fabric together with the right sides (the side that will show on the outside of the pillow) together and then pinned them together along the bottom.

Using a running stitch, I sewed each set of triangles together along the bottom where the pins were and then Sweetpea helped me remove the pins. Then I ironed the seams on each triangle flat.

I set the triangle pieces aside and grabbed the striped fabric. Then I cut out an 11 inch square from it and set it aside.

Back to the triangles! I then pinned the right sides of the triangles together along the long bottom edge and sewed them together using a running stitch. Again, I ironed the seams flat.

Almost done!

I pinned the patchwork square(although we did ours a little differently and just made it with the same colors touching as per Sweetpea's request) to the 11inch square of striped fabric and then sewed three of the four sides together.

After removing all the pins, I turned the fabric pocket inside out, stuffed it with this filling and then sewed the pillow closed.

All it needed then was a button!

I had to do most of that in shifts, as my hands were screaming at me several times, but when Sweetpea woke up the next morning and saw the finished product, she squealed and ran to put it in her doll bed, so I guess it was worth the effort! Once my sewing machine is fixed ~~or Hubs lets me buy a new one~~, I might churn a few more of these out for the girls' beds. Cute!

Only one more book to go in the Kirsten Larsen series! Next time, I'll show you our finished Kirsten lapbook! Then we are moving on to read about Samantha Parkington! See you next time!

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A Quick Kid-Friendly Breakfast

2012-01-10T14:00:00.000-05:00

So, I have an addiction. I serious one.

I am addicted to cookbooks. Seriously. I cannot get enough of them and I collect them wherever I find them to the point that I should probably invest in a few bookshelves for them. They take up a good portion of my counter space in the kitchen and are also tucked away in various places throughout the house. Even with my frequent usage of sites like AllRecipes, Taste of Home, and Food Network along with great blogs with great recipes and now Pinterest(don't even get me started there!),I still love to crack open a cookbook and find something yummy to make.

I was on a quest for something new to make the kids for breakfast a few days ago. I was in a breakfast rut, similar to the lunch rut I was in not too long ago (What is is with tortillas bringing me out of a rut?), and wanted to find something fast, but healthy(or mostly healthy) to give the kids in the morning outside of our usual rotation (cereal, oatmeal, granola, muffins, pancakes, eggs). I rummaged around in a drawer and found a little cookbook from Dole that had this recipe in it and decided to give it a try. It was a hit! So, I thought I would share it!

First take a whole wheat tortilla, sprinkle it with a little sugar and cinnamon and then broil it just until golden in your oven.

Then spread about a tablespoon or so strawberry preserves, jelly, or jam. I used some that I had made recently (I'll have to post THAT recipe soon too!).

Drop a banana on the center of the tortilla.

And roll it up!

No muss, no fuss, and just a wee bit sticky. :)

This could also make a good lunch or snack and it's portable too!

A Soft Answer

2012-01-08T18:08:00.001-05:00

A couple of days ago, I wrote this post about how I have really felt led to change some things about the way I am mothering my children. I have become so tightly wound that some days I feel like one wrong poke and I'll become completely unraveled. So, with God's help and the encouragement that is sure to come from other women participating in The Gentleness Challenge over at Women Living Well, I am working to become more purposeful in my quest. One challenge at a time, I suppose.

This week, I'm going to focus my concentration on not raising my voice and taking time to truly enjoy my children. It is far too easy to get caught up in all the housework, the school lessons, and the general daily care that children require and completely miss all the opportunities that present themselves to really spend time with my little ones. I'm sure I'm not the only one who cannot shake the running list of "to-dos" out of her brain when you do sit down to attempt a relaxing moment. So, I feel it is also prudent to really focus on my children as well. I don't want them to feel like I'm always too busy for them or that they do not deserve my undivided attention.

I have heard several mothers speak of an idea that I also read in one of the Duggar family books: when you feel the temptation to raise your voice, whisper instead. Seems a bit ridiculous, but I think that its purpose is more to force you to focus on controlling yourself than it is on getting the child's attention. After all, if we yell and yell at our children, we are really only training them to do one of two things: 1. only respond when we have finally blown our fuse or 2. tune us out completely (ask me how I know this will happen).

The Bible says,

A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. Proverbs 15:1

and

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4

So raising our voices in anger or frustration will stir up anger in our children and we are admonished NOT to provoke our children to wrath. I don't know about you, but this really makes my heart hurt for all the times I've yelled(and there are more of those times than I'd care to admit). It also makes me more determined to put my best foot forward here and stop.the.cycle. I'm going to give this whispering thing a try. I'm also going to make sure that I don't slack off in my morning quiet time reading the Bible. After all, if I really need help, I need to go to THE source for answers.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil 1 Corinthians 13:4-5

Weird

2012-01-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

To say that I have been called weird in my life, is to make a very large understatement. I can be a little.....let's say, "eccentric." I'm okay with it, but there have been times in my life when the people around me were most certainly not. *shrug* What can you do to change other people?

Still, there's a little something to be said for being a little different from the mainstream. It shows your true character when you have to defend decisions, behaviors, etc., from the prying questions of those who are "normal." It helps you carve out who you really are in this great big world. Gives you gumption.

That's probably why I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Weird by Craig Groeschel takes being weird to a whole new level. He takes it beyond the style of clothes you like to wear, the foods you like to eat, the hobbies you enjoy to what's really REAL: your relationship with God.

One of the reasons that I believe so many people scoff at Christianity is because too many Christians are living their daily lives blending in to the crowd. You can't distinguish them from any unbeliever on the street. They mesh. And it is not all about physical appearance. We should be such a witness for Jesus that people stop and take notice. Not because we are standing on a street corner with a huge sign yelling at all the "heathens," or because we pass out tracts absentmindedly to the servers in restaurants, but because we actually, truly live what we preach and believe! Consistently, not just on Sunday morning or during Bible study.

Craig Groeschel takes five integral parts of human life: time, money, relationships, sex, and values and breaks them down into how these aspects of a Christian's life should be different from the rest of the world. We live IN the world, but are not OF the world, remember? Salt of the earth and all that jazz? Easy to say, hard to do.

Far from most "self-help" books that float around under the Christian living genre, this book really stood out to me. It is short of psycho-babble and full of godly counsel. I really enjoyed the down to earth way it was laid out. You felt like you were just sitting down and having a chat with a good friend, albeit a heavily spiritual chat, but a nice chat nonetheless. His advice is practical, but always related back to Scripture and I felt conviction stir within myself when I really took the time to test my life against these standards. This is a dangerous time we live in. It is easy to just go along with the flow than to cause a ripple, but how can we spread the Gospel if we don't live it?

Want to change your perspective on a few things in your own life? Then pick up this book. You won't regret it.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.*

Take a Breath and a Step Back

2012-01-07T15:04:00.000-05:00

Remember this post I wrote a couple of months ago?

Well, since that time I've had to continuously remind myself of that lesson. Over and over. I'm a wee bit hard headed, you see. I apparently like to take my time learning things. I'm still struggling. So much so, that on New Year's Eve, I told Hubs that something had to give. If I hear myself yell one more time, I'm going to send myself to the corner! I have to stop making excuses. Sure, I'm pretty sleep deprived. Yes, I just cleaned the kitchen fifteen minutes ago and now the floor is sticky again. No, I haven't had "me time" in more than two weeks. But, is any of this really relevant? I can't tell my children that whiny behavior is unacceptable even when they are tired, bickering is intolerable even when they are frustrated if I'm not being an example and showing them how to behave otherwise.

I realized that I'm being a complete and utter hypocrite in front of my children. I spend countless hours talking to them about how you should use respectful tones of voice, kind words, and try our hardest to keep an even temper and then I turn around and raise my voice in frustration to them, speak sharply (If I'm honest, maybe even harshly) and ensure that they see how exasperated I am with the behavior. This is accomplishing nothing but giving them the impression that the saying, "if Mama's not happy, no one is" is a true and reasonable statement, rather than a self indulgent one.

As I talked with Hubs, I also realized that I'm teaching them that the words I speak about Jesus and his love and how He wants us to interact with other people is not important to me. Actions speak louder than words and if my actions aren't backing up the precepts that I'm attempting to instill in them, then it really is all for naught. They will grow up and believe that it is acceptable to NOT practice what you preach.

Ouch.

So, as a New Year's resolution of sorts, I decided to really start to dig in and change. I want to spend more time in God's word, learning and re-learning how God wants me to mother my children. I want to find that balance between the meek and quiet spirit and the respected disciplinarian without crossing the line into a nagging, overbearing mother. Quite frankly, it sounds near impossible, but I know that nothing is impossible with God's help.

After pondering all of this, I came across this Gentleness Challenge from Women Living Well and it was like God handed it to me to aid in this transformation that I'm hoping to make towards my children. I decided to join in, because I can use all the help I can get! Join me and other participants on Mondays this January as we all learn how to treat our children more gently.

Chicken Pot Pie with a Twist

2012-01-04T15:15:00.002-05:00

This is a meal that I have posted the recipe for a few years ago, but it is so good that I thought I would put it out there again to share with everyone. It is a tad time-consuming, so save it for a day when you have time to spare and you aren't in a hurry to get dinner on the table. It is SO worth the effort.

It is a slight twist on a classic meal...Chicken Pot Pie. Although instead of putting all the ingredients on the inside of a pie pastry, you bake it casserole style with yummy cheesy buttermilk biscuits on top. Mmm, mmm good!

So, here's what you do...

Tie on your apron and gather up these ingredients:

4 chicken breast halves, skinned
5 cups water
3/4 lb red potatoes, peeled and cubed(you can use regular white potatoes as well)
1 3/4 cup diced carrots
1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

For the biscuits:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons shortening
1/3 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon buttermilk

Note: If you don't have any buttermilk on hand, use this trick (I do it all the time!): Put just under a cup of milk in a measuring cup and then add about a tablespoon of either lemon juice or white vinegar. Let sit for a few minutes and ta-da, you have buttermilk! :)

Alright, now that you have all your ingredients handy, you are ready to get started!

Combine the chicken and water in large pot. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer until chicken is done. You can occasionally skim the fat off of the top of the broth as it is cooking.

I usually use this time to go ahead and chop all my vegetables to get them ready for the next step. Once the chicken is done, remove it from the broth, and save the broth in the pot. Let chicken cool; bone chicken, and coarsely chop meat. Set chicken aside.

Next, add the potato, carrot, and celery to broth in pot. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 to 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Remove vegetables to a large bowl with a slotted spoon, reserving broth.

Add the chicken to the bowl with your veggies and set it aside.

Saute onion in 1/4 cup butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat until tender. Add 1/4 cup flour, stirring well. Cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly, making a roux. Occasionally, I'll add in more butter, but not more than another tablespoon or so.

Add parsley, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and stir well. Pour sauce over chicken -vegetable mixture, stirring gently to combine. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 11 x 7 x 1 1/2 inch baking dish and set aside.

Now you're ready for some biscuits!

I use my food processor for this:

Throw the flour, baking powder, baking soda, butter, and shortening into the bowl of the processor and just turn it on the lowest setting until it turns crumbly. Then add the cheese and process for a few more seconds. Mix the buttermilk and egg yolk and add to the processor. Turn on the lowest setting until the mixture turns to a dough and forms a ball.

Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface. Pat to 1/2 inch thickness; cut with a biscuit cutter. Arrange biscuits on top of chicken-vegetable mixture. Combine egg yolk and 1 tablespoon buttermilk, stirring well; brush over biscuits. Bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until biscuits are puffed and golden and chicken mixtures is hot and bubbly.

Bon appetit!

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5..4...3...2...1...Blastoff!

2012-01-03T15:17:00.001-05:00

Does your child love to learn about space and astronauts? If so, then you should definitely check out the Astronaut Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations. Jolanthe has many many preschool printables over at her site and you can find something to fit almost any interest your young child may have! A few weeks back when we took a week off from our regular school schedule to have a "lighter" week, I chose this pack to do with Bub as he loves anything and everything to do with spaceships. We were not disappointed!

Here are some of the highlights from our time with this unit:

Shadow matching with space themed shapes

Spelling words

Practice writing our name

Vocabulary words

Beginning letter sounds

At the end of the week, we had a neat little lapbook full of all our space memorabilia!

We checked out as many space themed books as we could carry from the library. Some of our favorites were:

If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith Mcnulty

And I, Astronaut, Yo, Astonauta by Maria Espluga

We also utilized some of the other resources mentioned on the Homeschool Creations site, such as this fun Astronauts to Earth game from Mama Jenn which Bub asked to play each and every single day. You can print out several game sheets and use them to reinforce shapes, numbers, colors, and more!

This jet pack craft was incredibly easy, using only a few household materials. It is a great idea for little boys or girls who want to "lift off" on their own and they can even store their own "moon treasures" inside! To make your own, check out this tutorial over at Along the Way.

One last fun craft to make if you decide to spend a week in outer space is this really simple for little hands astronaut craft from DLTK Kids.

One of the things that I truly love about homeschooling is being able to follow the interests of my children and make learning fun. This preschool pack definitely helped us in this department and I will continue to recommend them to anyone with a preschooler! (Check out some of the fun we had with a fall themed one here).

A week or so after this unit, we got the opportunity to visit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which brought much of this to life for Bub. He still talks about getting to go on a "real" spaceship. Here are some of our highlights from that visit:

The entrance

Getting ready to enter the spaceship

Model of a spaceship

Nearly life size replica of astronauts on the job

If you are ever in the D.C. area, this is a fantastic stop to make, even for small children!

One Potato, Two Potato

2012-01-02T16:03:00.000-05:00

Oops! I realized that it had been awhile since I've updated the American Girl journey that Sweetpea and I are taking together! *blush* We've actually completed the six books in the Kirsten series, but we've fallen a wee bit behind in the cooking/crafting part of our adventure because of vacation, holidays, etc. It had just slipped my mind that I hadn't posted the last segment that we did until today! So without further ado, here is our foray with book number four in the series, "Happy Birthday, Kirsten!"

After reading this book that details the birth of Larsen's newest addition, baby sister Britta and the party for Kirsten's tenth birthday, Sweetpea flipped through the pages of Kirsten's Cookbook and chose the recipe for Potato Soup to try out in our little kitchen.

We followed the recipe for the most part, but since I have a recipe that I use regularly when I make this dish, we did tweak just a tiny bit to more suit our family's tastes. We were excited to be able to still use potatoes that we harvested from our own garden this past summer.

After everything was prepared, we made some garlic bread to accompany the meal and Sweetpea set the table! It was a great and very filling meal for a cool day!

Want to try some potato soup yourself? Try this yummy recipe that adds in some ham from Allrecipes:

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
1/3 cup diced celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
3/4 cup diced cooked ham
3 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper, or to taste
5 tablespoons butter
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

Directions

Combine the potatoes, celery, onion, ham and water in a stockpot. Bring to a boil, then cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the chicken bouillon, salt and pepper.
In a separate saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour with a fork, and cook, stirring constantly until thick, about 1 minute. Slowly stir in milk as not to allow lumps to form until all of the milk has been added. Continue stirring over medium-low heat until thick, 4 to 5 minutes.
Stir the milk mixture into the stockpot, and cook soup until heated through. Serve immediately.

Mmmmm...

Now on to the crafty side of our project...

This time we decided on something that was less time consuming and not quite as Mommy-involved as the previous crafts. We decided to try our hand at drying out some flowers. Since Hubs had recently brought me two lovely wildflower bouquets that were near their demise, we had the perfect specimens ready and waiting!

We took the flowers and tied a piece of yarn around them. Then I took them into our laundry room which is actually a repurposed back porch, and strung them up from the rafters.

It took about a week for the flowers to dry out completely, but they still looked rather pretty and Sweetpea was amazed at the process. We haven't yet decided what we will do with our finished product. Any suggestions?

We didn't add on to our lapbook this time around. We have just had so much happening that it got put to the wayside this time. It's still been a fun time and a great bonding experience for Sweetpea and I. I look forward to sharing even more of our journey with you!

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God Gave Us Two

2011-12-31T10:13:00.001-05:00

If you don't know by now how much I adore this series, then you should take a minute to go read my previous reviews on the other installments here, here, or here.

I received the opportunity to share this book with my children and when it arrived in the mail, Sweetpea insisted that we read it RIGHT NOW! (I guess that shows that not only do I enjoy these books, but so do my children). So, Daddy sat down in the recliner and all three children piled into his lap and we all listened to this sweet, sweet story about how Little Cub asks her expectant mother questions about her sibling-to-be. The story poses the questions in a very child-like fashion, showing the genuine curiosity, worry, and slight jealousy that most children do feel when they find out that there whole world is about to change and that they will no longer be the "one and only."

I really loved how the parents always emphasized to Little Cub, that even though the new baby would make things different, ALL of the children were a gift and blessing from God. This would be a fantastic edition to your children's library of books even if you are not currently expecting a child because it still shows how a family's love doesn't diminish with the addition of more members, it actually grows to envelope everyone.

Another two thumbs up for Lisa Tawn Bergren here!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.*

What Happened to Customer Service?

2011-12-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

Here is my little bah humbug mini-rant for this Christmas season. I want to share this because I know that many, many people shop at this store both in person and online and I want anyone who might read this to be aware of the complete and utter lack care for their customers. Let me preface this by saying that I have worked in retail and other venues in the past that make me very familiar with how customer service SHOULD work. Here's a hint: not like this.

I ordered two items from Target.com on Black Friday for Sweetpea and Sugar Plum. I got the email confirmation giving me a estimated delivery date of 12/5-12/7. December 7th came and it was getting late in the day and still no package AND I hadn't received an email stating the items had been shipped like I did with some Target purchases I had made a few days before. So I called them. Got someone with an accent so thick, I could barely understand them and they couldn't even pronounce the names of the products that I ordered. I won't go into my views on outsourcing in this post, but regardless, I do believe that if someone is going to be employed with an American company, they should be able to speak and understand English fairly well. It just makes it easier when someone needs to call in. After struggling to describe the problem and get a response that acknowledged understanding of it, I received a lot of runaround and I was told that the package should arrive the next day. They gave me the UPS tracking number.

The next morning, I went to the UPS website, typed in the tracking number and got this message about how the shipping label had been printed and the system would be updated when the package was in transit. I called Target back only to be told that I should expect the package at any moment on my doorstep. At 6PM I called UPS and they told me that while they had record of the shipping label being printed, they had no record of ever even RECEIVING a package from the target distribution center!

I called target back, mildly, okay VERY irritated, only to be hung up on TWICE. Then I finally got some lady who was very rude to me about how the delivery date stated in the email was an "estimate." I said, "Yes, that would be fine if anyone could even LOCATE the package to even find out what was causing the delay." She asked me to wait 24 more hours. I did. No package, still no update with the tracking number, so I called and asked for either a refund OR for them to send me new merchandise since no one could seem to find the other merchandise. I was told they couldn't refund me because I paid with paypal, but they could give me a gift card. They wouldn't reorder the merchandise because they had to wait SEVEN days for an investigation with UPS to ensure that I hadn't received the package. I told them that was ridiculous since it took me less than 5 minutes to call UPS and speak to them about it. If I can do it, you can to.

I told them to just give me the gift card so I could reorder the products and move on with my life. We don't play up Christmas from the commercial side that much in our home, and this was causing me unnecessary stress. They were supposed to send it to me in my email, because Christmas is upon us and I didn't want to risk waiting for a physical gift card in the mail and not have it arrive in time. We don't have an endless budget for Christmas, and this money, while it may not seem like a lot to corporate bigwigs, was certainly a substantial amount to us. My husband works hard for this money and we just need it or its equivalent back so that we can finish up our Christmas shopping for our children.

They said it would take up to 24 hours for it to be in my inbox. 24 hours later...nada. I call, they "reprocess it." I wait. 24 hours later....still nothing. I call, they do some supposed "rush" on it and tell me I should have it in a few hours. 7 hours later...still absolutely nothing. I call and they actually tell me that they are only going to refund PART of what I paid.

I have to admit that I quite nearly flipped out at this point and so I handed the phone to Hubs to handle before I acted unseemly. He used the big man stern voice that says I. Mean. Business. They fixed the amount. Then they tell HIM that the gift card is marked as delivered and even though I am staring at my email screen while I'm on the phone, telling them it isn't there, they are arguing with him telling him that we must not see it. *sigh* Then they tell us about there being some sort of technical issue that is holding up the e-gift card, so they are going to cancel that order and just mail us one...which takes at least 5-7 business days and it is only slightly more than that many days until Christmas.

The story goes ON AND ON AND ON. Needless to say it has been WELL over a week, I still don't have my merchandise, a refund, OR a gift card. I even called the corporate office, which did nothing to help the situation. I will NOT be shopping with Target again online or otherwise.

It is such a sad thing that big corporate companies just simply do not care about whether or not their customers are happy. Greed has taken over to such an extent and given them so much power that they shrug their shoulders at the prospect of losing a customer. It's sad. Very sad. What happened to the days when business owners not only cared, but went the extra mile to provide good service so they could draw in repeat business and have news of their company spread through good old fashioned word of mouth praise? It would appear that expecting that sort of thing is only for the days of yore. *sigh* I sincerely hope that none of my readers have had to experience this type of aggravation this Christmas season and if you have, here's a big ((hug)) for you. :)

It's Not About Their Beliefs

2011-12-09T20:49:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting discussion with a facebook friend or two today about the controversial couple, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar that prompted this post. If you haven't heard yet, they announced a couple of days ago that they have sadly experienced a miscarriage. I cannot even begin to imagine what they and their family are going through at this time. I had a close encounter with Sugar Plum this last time around, but other than that, I have been blessed with having relatively routine and healthy pregnancies and deliveries. My heart aches for the loss of any child, even of those that I do not know, including the Duggars.

I understand there are people in the world, both Christian and not who disagree with the Duggars' beliefs on children and family size. Fine. I understand that there are people who think they are loony and religious fanatics. Fine. I understand that there are people who believe that they are exploiting their children by having a reality television show. Fine.

What I do NOT understand is how there are people that in a time of grief, loss, and pain can be so downright cruel and mean. I read comment after comment on articles and facebook posts where people were actually laughing and cheering because Michelle Duggar lost this baby. I read even more who went on and on about how this MUST be a sign from God for her to "just stop already." I read things that were horrible and degrading and so mean spirited that I felt like crying.

This isn't about whether or not you agree with the Duggars and their choice of lifestyle. This isn't about whether or not YOU would have that many children or if you think ANYONE should have that many children. This isn't about whether or not you think the Duggars dont' spend enough one on one time with each of member of their family. This isn't even about whether or not you agree with their religious beliefs.

It's about kindness. It's about people feeling empathy for someone going through a difficult time. It's about not spouting every hateful word that pops into your head out just because it's the internet and you can. It's about compassion. And mostly, it's about that precious little baby who God knitted together in the womb and who is rejoicing with Him in Heaven now. It's about a family grieving the loss of one of their children. And though I haven't experienced that for myself, I can still firmly state that it doesn't matter if you have one child or twenty, the loss still hurts.

So why don't we put a little forethought into our comments and posts about this family? Remember what Mama taught you, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Need a Good Read for the Christmas Season?

2011-12-09T17:53:00.000-05:00

I have reviewed one of Cindy Woodsmall's books before and also read many of her other titles. I have yet to be disappointed by any of her work. That is why I am happy to share with you her newest holiday Amish fiction book, The Christmas Singing.

To view a brief trailer about this book, please take a moment to watch this video:

Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

Want more?

Check out the first chapter here.

If that wasn't enough to hook you, I don't know what will!

Want your own copy of this must read? Just go on over to WaterBrook Multnomah and enter in the code CHRISTMAS11 at checkout for a 30% discount with FREE shipping! Do it quickly though, the offer only lasts until December 20th! Merry Christmas indeed! :)

God Gave Us You

2011-12-06T07:00:00.003-05:00

Oh, how I adore this book series! I have had the pleasure of reviewing some of the other titles in this set here and here. Naturally, I jumped right back on the bandwagon when I received the chance to review this selection as well.

In this installment Little Cub wants to know just where she came from. Mama Bear shares in a very young child-friendly fashion how she and Papa Bear prayed for a child and then were blessed with one. The story touches on how children grow during pregnancy and come from their mothers and fathers, but does so in a very tasteful, watered down fashion which I find highly appropriate for small children who do not need to know the mechanics of these things, but are curious about just how they arrived here on earth. This is a light, heartwarming story that emphasizes that children are indeed a blessing and a gift from God himself and would made another great addition to any Christian family's home library.

I received this book in board book form which proved very nice for our youngest "reader," Sugar Plum, who is only 16 months old. It is sturdy and great for handling my small hands. Another two thumbs up for Lisa Tawn Bergren, the author of this series!

*I was given a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.*

Please take a moment to rank this review:

Honey Nutty Rollers--Kid Tested, Mom Approved

2011-12-05T16:10:00.001-05:00

Awhile ago, I was in a lunchtime rut. We were eating the same two meals over and over and over again: either a cheese, cracker, and fruit plate or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Lather, rinse, repeat. Occasionally, there would be a day that we just reheated some of the night before's dinner, but that was not a regular occurrence because Hubs generally takes any leftovers to work with him for lunch. I was bored. The kids were bored, and I am not at all creative when it comes to this sort of thing. What is a mom to do?

One day while perusing the aisles in the children's section of the library while the kids were working on some puzzles, I came across this cookbook that is full of recipes that are not only healthy for children, but are set up to easily include them in the preparation of their own food. My children LOVE to help in the kitchen, so I thought I would check it out and give it a whirl. That was well over a year ago, and we still use some of those recipes consistently. One of which, I am going to share with you today because not only did contribute to lifting us out or our lunch rut, but it is YUMMY, nutritious, portable, and great for meal or snack. PLUS, as an added bonus, it takes all of two minutes to make! They are called Honey Nutty Rollers.

You start with whole wheat soft tortillas

Spread peanut butter over them (you can use smooth, creamy, natural, etc.)

Drizzle with honey

Sprinkle with raisins

Roll up and voila!

Instant kid-pleaser! We eat these at least twice a week and we also take them along when we pack lunch for playdates or longish car trips, etc. Simple, satisfying, and EASY! My kind of meal. :)

A New ADVENTure

2011-12-01T19:42:00.000-05:00

When I was a child, I never really heard the word, "advent," outside of those little candy holders that you punched out a piece of foil from every day in the month of December until Christmas. I am a chocolate lover, so that was great fun for me...building anticipation to get that coveted piece of melty sweet goodness! Some years, my mom would hang up a row of lollipops on the wall and we'd get to eat one of those each day. But, I never really dug any deeper.

As an adult, I'd heard the term spoken of amongst friends who celebrated, but I really didn't know what it meant beyond it being some sort of countdown.

Once we had children, and especially after Hubs was saved, we really wanted the focus on Christ during the holiday season. We've tried a number of different things and while they were worthwhile and fun, I wanted something more.

So I started looking into this whole Advent thing after I caught wind of it through a few blogs that I read. I found many great and FREE resources to try out(I'll share those later in the post!), but while they all had many great components, I felt as if they just weren't the right fit for us just yet. Then I happened upon Truth in the Tinsel. What a wonderful resource this is! It has 24 hands on activities to do with your preschooler/early elementary aged children. There is a Bible scripture reference to read, and discussion topics for each day so that through the month of December, your children can learn about the arc of Christ from the prophesies of his coming to his birth. I am so glad to have stumbled across this ebook and I am excited to embark on this Advent journey, along with many others this Christmas season!

Here is our homemade Advent calendar. I got the idea to use paper bags to hold each days supplies from Carisa over at 1+1+1=1. So I painted the numbers 1-24 on them and put each days craft supplies inside and then printed out and staple the clue cards to each one. I hung a green ribbon up and clipped up the paper bags with clothespins that I painted green and red.

We've decided to forgo our regular large Christmas tree this year and use the small one that we typically put in the children's bedroom as our Jesse tree, adding each ornament after we make it every day. The kids are super excited about this and Bub keeps walking up and down and counting the bags. :) Looks like the beginning of a fantastic ADVENTure. ;)

Here are some of the other Advent resources I found:
Free Jesse Tree Printables and Downloads
Free Advent Devotional from Ann Voskamp
Ideas on How to Make Your Own Jesse Tree and Ornaments

If you decide to use Truth in the Tinsel as well(which is only $4.99!), Mama Jenn made some really cute printables to go along with it here on her blog and they are totally FREE! :)

I look forward to sharing more with you as the countdown to CHRISTmas goes on!

Grumble Hallelujah

2011-11-30T16:08:00.000-05:00

We have all been in that place where it seems like if just one more thing goes wrong, all of the walls are gong to cave in on us and we will get lost in the rubble. Most of us could even say that when we were at that place, we might struggle to still praise God in the midst of the mess. We know intellectually that He is good, always and forever, and that every detail of our lives is held in the palm of His mighty hand, but when we can't understand the why behind our circumstances, it is tempting to throw our hands up in frustration/sadness/anger/desperation/despair and walk away head in hands without so much as a blink heavenward. That's where Grumble Hallelujah by Caryn Dahlstrand Rivadeneira comes in.

Throughout the book, Rivadeneira discusses how to still find the praise in the troubles. How even if you have to grumble through your hallelujahs, you should still say them anyway. God wants us to turn to Him in our time of need. He works all things together for good and even when we can't quite see the good yet, we should remind ourselves that God is there to help us and that he uses every situation to give us a path that leads us closer to Him.

Overall, the idea behind this book is great. In some parts, it's a convicting reminder to remain steadfast in our faith and realize that hardships and trials can also bring glory to God and help us grow. And here comes the but......

BUT, I feel like the author comes across as rather shallow in her attempts to relate to the reader by sharing her story. Her portrayal of her troubles make her seem rather spoiled and whiny rather than someone who has overcome severe hardships. She spends quite a bit of time, in my opinion, coming across like a mainstream motivational speaker trying to sell her product rather than a Christian who is trying to point people to Jesus. She mentions over and over her other books. I don't know....I just feel like this book is one that has been written before, just with a different name on the cover. It is an easy read and not necessarily boring, but if you've read one self-help book, you've read them all. I want something a little more meaty than finding inspiration in facebook statuses.

*I received this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.*

I Am Not That Blogger

2011-11-29T17:36:00.000-05:00

I sat pondering and pondering, wondering what on earth I could write that day. I sat and stared into space simply willing myself to come up with something, anything to say. But I had nothing. Why couldn't I come up with something witty, something useful, something interesting.

Then I begin to wonder about why I felt the need to post in the first place. Where did the pressure come from to get something up right. this. minute? Maybe it's all the great blogs I read that post great, thought provoking content on a near daily basis. Maybe it's because I'm worried about losing readers if I don't follow some semblance of a schedule. Maybe it's just my Type A personality kicking into high gear, putting pressure on for no good reason. Maybe it's all of the above. I don't know.

What I do know is that I am not that blogger. Or that one. Or even that one. This little ol' corner of the blogosphere originated(on another server) as just an outlet for a young college girl to share her innermost thoughts on whatever subject flitted through her mind or to share the events of her life with friends and family far and near. Then it morphed into me sharing my life as I grew as a young wife and mother. Now, it is still those things, but is also a place where I'd like to share things that can be of help to others, whether that be a recipe, a great book to read, a discipline tactic for toddlers, or even just share how God has worked through my life. I never really thought many people would read it, and still my numbers are nowhere near what others are, but I appreciate every one of you! I LOVE feedback and community! All that being said, I have to be ME. I can't compete with the big name blogs. I won't always be as insightful, or funny, or insert adjective here. My viewpoint might be different. I'm still growing in all areas. What I say now, might be different in a year (just read some of my older posts where I seem to only be able to gripe and complain!). I'm a work in progress and I can only be me.

This means that I post intermittently at times and six times a week at others. This means that my posts might not always be (if at all) earth shattering, but they will be from my heart, and honest, and me. I will share my journey, what I'm learning, what I like, what I'm cooking, what I'm reading, what I'm thinking, feeling, praying, but on my time. I have come to realize that I have to maintain this little piece of my world in my own way and I hope that you all will continue to follow along with me (and maybe bring a friend or two with you! ) through the ebbs and flows.

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

2011-11-23T15:39:00.001-05:00

One of the best things about Thanksgiving, besides expressing gratitude aplenty, is all of the GREAT food! (Especially the desserts!) So, I thought I would share with you a new to us recipe that is fantastic and perfect for this holiday season...Sweet Potato Pecan Pie...a combination of two of the most favored pies of the fall/winter food extravaganzas! :)

First, get some sweet potatoes (I got mine for $.37/lb!) and wash and dry them. This picture is enough for multiple pies, so you won't actually need this many!

Put the potatoes in the oven and heat until they are tender. I baked mine at 325 for a little over an hour.

While the potatoes are in the oven, make your pie crust. My adventure started off on the wrong foot when I dropped my flour container on the floor, the top flew off and it cracked and I had quite the mess to clean up before I was even started.

*sigh*

C'est la vie when you bake! Moving on after the clean up, I pulled up my sleeves and got to work. To make your crust, mix:

1 cup butter flavored shortening(I know, I know, that stuff is horrible for you, but it makes pie crusts just so good)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt

until crumbly. I use my hand mixer to get it to about this consistency:

Then add 1 cup of cold water (I put ice cubes in my water while I mix the other ingredients) to the mixture and use a fork to get it all incorporated together. It will be sticky and that's okay! Dump it out onto a lightly floured surface, flour up your hands and your rolling pin, and roll the dough out into a big circle.

Fold the dough in half and place it in the pie pan and then unfold it. Press into the pie pan. Then I use a pizza cutter to trim away the excess (which is enough to make another crust, so I usually put it in a ziploc bag and put it in the fridge).

Set aside until you are ready to fill it up!

Once your sweet potatoes are done and cooled enough for you to peel them, do so and then Then peel and mash them (or throw them into the food processor if you are like me). Increase your oven temperature to 400 degrees.

Lightly beat two eggs and mix them and 1-1 1/2 tsp. vanilla in with the sweet potato. Then add:

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves

Mix well. Pour in 1 2/3 cup whipping cream (regular, not heavy) and mix well again.

You have your pie filling! Pour into your ready made pie crust ( you will have extra filling...this is good for tarts!)

Bake for about 50-55 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean. Place on a wire rack and let it cool completely.

Once it is cooled, it is time for the topping!

In a small bowl, combine:
2/3 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp. melted butter

Spread this on top of you pie and place under your broiler from 1-3 minutes watching carefully for it to bubble. I repeat WATCH CAREFULLY to avoid the topping from becoming either too syrupy or burnt!

There a have it folks! Yummy sweet potato goodness! This is seriously the best sweet potato pie that I have ever tasted. It's not at all healthy but we can pretend it is 'cause there veggies and protein in there! ;)

*The pie filling recipe can also be found here on the All Recipes site, although I made a few slight alterations. The pie crust is my own.*

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The Mayflower Went A'Sailin'

2011-11-21T17:40:00.001-05:00

This week we are doing a sort of mini unit study on Thanksgiving in lieu of our regularly scheduled programming, and today was a fun kickoff to our lessons. We started by reading a couple of great books from our library to introduce the topic.

Why We Have Thanksgiving by Margaret Hillert is a beginning reader's book that tells in short and sweet sentences the basic outline of the Pilgrim's journey from England to America, their hardships, and the friendship that emerged with the Native Americans that brought about the first Thanksgiving meal.

Our Thanksgiving Book by Jane Belk Moncure is set in a classroom and follows along with the activities and fun that the students have as they learn about all things thanksgiving. It has basic pictures that illustrate the crafts that the students make so that you can also try them at home.

While reading the second book, we tried out the Mayflower maze included in the Thanksgiving downloadable pack from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Then we tried out something that even I find rather enjoyable: Pilgrim Hat Cookies! You can find this recipe on the Taste of Home website. All you need are some fudge striped cookies, frosting, Reese's peanut butter cups and some tic tacs (or other small candy to use as a hat buckle!)

All the ingredients lying out

Assembling the hats

The finished product!

Aren't they cute?

We had some more fun using printables from Homeschool Creations.

Which pilgrim is different?

Then we did a neat Mayflower craft that I found through Pinterest(yes, I finally caved and joined).

To close out our day, we read another book that I felt was really cute. Look Who's in the Thanksgiving Play by Andrew Clements is a Lift-the-Flap book that follows a girl and her little brother who is determined to be a part of her school Thanksgiving play. It helped end our school day with a giggle, which is always just fine with me.

Stay tuned for more of our Thanksgiving week hijinks. :)

One Call Away

2011-11-09T17:09:00.001-05:00

Brenda Warner, the wife of NFL star Kurt Warner, has recently penned this memoir detailing the trials and tribulations that she has faced in her life before and after she married the well known football player. The book opens with a gripping story of how her oldest son, Zack, through a terrible accident suffered and injury that forever changed his life while he was only an infant. The story is compelling and heart moving here as you read of how Brenda and her first husband Neil deal with this blow to their lives. I felt my heart strings tugging as I envisioned how Brenda must have felt watching helplessly as her son struggled for survival in the hospital and how hard it must have been to try to forge ahead with a child with special needs. I was sucked in to the book.

And then, I read further, and honestly, I lost the interest. This book was presented as a memoir to show how faith in God helped Brenda forge through the muddy waters, but in my very honest opinion, the book seemed to actually be a way for Mrs. Warner to air her dirty laundry and defend the actions that have been scrutinized by the media over the years(none of which I was previously aware of since I know nothing about football except that Hubs likes to watch it). I felt like there was too much time spent trying to justify actions that she knew were wrong (premarital sex for one) with a mention here or there of her praying. It gave the distinct impression that her faith was on the sidelines and seemed to only come into play when she couldn't figure out how to get what she wanted in her own way. About halfway through the book, I was really just plugging along because I had made a commitment to read it and give an honest review.

As far as this being a good book to classify under the "Christian Living" category, I have to say that I do not feel that is appropriate. The book brushes over things that are serious sin issues as if God has a carefree attitude about them, Brenda presents herself as overly preoccupied with her appearance, referring to herself as "the pretty one" too many times to count, makes a few condescending jabs at wives who are submissive to their husbands, and also shows how she balked when Kurt was saved and began to take leadership about things he felt the Bible was teaching against. She also seems to forget her roots(when family reached out to help her when she was a poor single mother living on welfare) when the wealth comes, actually complaining about how her family members looked to her for help. I was also not a fan of some of the graphic retellings of events that I feel are personal and should only be shared between a husband and a wife.

I really do not enjoy giving negative reviews. It makes me feel like I'm shaking my finger at someone and calling them names, but I also like to be honest, and this book just rubbed me the wrong way too many times to shrug it off. There are many out there whom I am sure would disagree with me, and that is absolutely fine, but for a conservative Christian like myself, I would look elsewhere for an inspirational read.

*This book was provided to me by BookSneeze free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review*

Homeschool Week in Review--Week 4

2011-11-09T15:42:00.000-05:00

Oy. What a week it has been! This is the review of school TWO weeks ago! Yikes, I'm just a tad behind. I found myself floundering slightly the week before last because we were making so many preparations for our vacation. Then we were actually ON vacation, and now, well, let's just say that I'm not the biggest fan of unpacking and reorganizing AFTER vacation. But, I really wanted to attempt to keep on track as much as possible this year with my week in reviews because I enjoy being able to go and look back with just a click of my mouse at what we've done and see how the children have grown. So, even though it is two weeks late, here is what we did in school....

Starting off with the Bubba, here are some highlights...

It was letter C week and our Bible focus was on Noah and the story of the Flood. I found this really neat tot book over at 1+1+1=1 that we pieced together over the course of the week.

It included color recognition

Counting...

A Bible verse that folded out

And it also had a little book with different animals inside. Bub had fun playing and creating this mini-lapbook and it was an excellent supplement to our curriculum.

For our focus on the letter C, we made a scratch art picture by coloring in a template of capital and lowercase C with multiple colors and then coloring over that with a black crayon. We then used a bamboo skewer to scratch designs in our letter art.

We also made a cow paper bag puppet that I found on DLTK Kids(I ADORE that site!).

Getting all of our pieces ready

My silly little man

The finished product (the colors are off because my printer is running out of ink!)

Mooo!

Then we cut some geometric shapes out of construction paper and made another "c" animal craft!

Meow!

Moving on to Sweetpea....

We did Unit 3 in Little Hearts for His Glory. This unit focused on Abraham. Here are a few of Sweetpea's favorite activities from the week:

After reading in our bible and history book about God telling Abraham that his descendants would out number the stars and in our science book about stars, we turned out the lights and used a flashlight to imitate different star activities (moving the light around to make the circle larger or smaller, waving it from side to side like a shooting star, etc.).

We also learned about our nose and sense of smell after reading about Esau giving up his birthright for some stew.

Then we had an experiment where I put out several different spices and flavorings with distinct smells. I then put a tiny amount on each one and mixed them up in front of the spices.

Then Sweetpea sniffed each one to see if she could determine which cottonball matched each spice/flavoring. She did MUCH better than I anticipated and got every single one right on the first try!

She also spent some time on Starfall. It had been quite awhile since she'd been on it, and she asked me if she could get on the computer and "do her fun website," so I let her have at it. She has progressed almost all the way through the available options. Any suggestions for a new "fun website?"

She enjoyed her math activities as well. I'm still trying to hunt out something to use as a supplement because she is still more advanced than Singapore Earlybird 2A right now, but I want to keep pace with the Little Hearts for His Glory guide as well. It's just like in high school...math gives me headaches.

Gluing macaroni noodles to correspond with numbers 6-10

So that's it (well some of it! I can't take pictures of everything!). I can't wait to share with you all what we did the week before vacation. I took it lightly that week and Bub focuses on astronauts and space while Sweetpea had a ballerina theme! Watch for that post soon! ;)

The Natural Bridge of Virginia

2011-11-08T16:51:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in my post yesterday, that we took a rather leisurely approach to making the trek from our house to my mother's.We meandered up the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at overlooks, taking pictures, discussing what we saw, and just making the trip soothing rather than stressful. Once we crossed the Virginia state line, we knew there was one destination that we wanted to explore. The last time we had visited my mom, we made a pit stop at the Natural Bridge of Virginia. Hubs and I both absolutely detest public restrooms, so we always try to find places where they will most likely be up kept the best. We stopped in at the Natural Bridge's gift shop and not only were we impressed with their lavatory facilities, we were enthralled with all they had to offer entertainment-wise. We didn't have the time or the fundage to stop that time, so we made a mental note to plan on it for the next trip.

Since we had previously told the children that the day was a "fun day" and they had no clue that we were on our way to Grandma's house for a week, they were very excited to stop and spend some time stretching their legs. We had been in the car for close to six hours upon our arrival (well at least traveling for that long, not necessarily IN the car) and the break was needed.

We pulled into the parking lot, let all of the children out of their carseats and whipped up lunch from the bread and sandwich fixings we had packed in our cooler. We got a ton of strange looks sitting their munching away...do people not do that sort of thing anymore? It was typical for our family when I was younger to never eat out, we always packed lunches or snacks in coolers on trips. Anyhow, after we ate, we headed in, paid for our tickets and since the shuttle bus from the gift shop to the Natural Bridge was still going to be a few minutes, we decided to start our adventure in the new butterfly exhibit.

We learned about monarch butterflies and their migration to Mexico, so it was really neat to see some up close and in person after just spending time on the subject. I love when we see something we've learned and it just solidifies the lessons in their little minds...it is one of my favorite things about homeschooling!

The butterflies were beautiful and abundant, although when one swooped a mite too close to Sweetpea, she had a minor freak out, complete with blood curdling scream. What can I say? She is my little prissy girly girl down to her innermost fibers. She loved to watch them from afar though. ;)

After the butterflies, we went to the toy museum next door. I really enjoyed the principle behind the toy museum, but there was something about the word museum being used to describe a place full of toys that I actually played with as a child that just made my nearly thirty ego puff up and ~~cry~~ scoff. Hurt ego aside, the kids and Hubs had a blast checking out everything from the ORIGINAL Thomas the Train toys to Ken and Barbie decked out in Star Trek apparel. Got to love it.

After the toy museum, the shuttle bus was pulling up to the gift shop, so we boarded and headed out to the main attraction. Sugar Plum had a BLAST on the bus and so did Sweetpea, who asked when we got off if we could come back and ride it some more. It's the simple things in life, eh?

We got off the bus to travel the rest of the way on foot. It was only a few steps and we rounded a bend and saw the bridge. It is beautiful. Pictures just do not do it justice. It is one of those things in Creation that make me wonder how on earth anyone can deny a God in Heaven.

We walked down the path, under the bridge and Sugar Plum learned a new word: "Wow." Hubs and I said that word so much, the people around us must have thought us simple. It was just the only thing that came to mind as I looked up at that bridge.

After passing under the bridge, if you follow the path you come to a Monacan Indian village. It was set up to show a living history example of how Native Americans lived their daily lives 300 years ago, complete with areas to show how everything from cooking to gardening was done. We got to go inside the home and I was amazed at how the small little fire inside kept that place very toasty!

The door we entered through

Inside were two very nice women who answered all of the questions we had about how the Native Americans lived. Sweetpea was especially disturbed by the animal skins lying around. She said, "Mommy, that is really gross." I took it as a teaching moment to tell her why we should appreciate the abundance and convenience that we have because it wasn't long ago that people had to fend for themselves in every way.

After exploring the village, we opted out of hiking a little farther to the waterfall. We still wanted to tour the wax museum and we also still had at least 4 hours to drive before reaching my mom's house. We hiked back out, passing under the bridge again.

The wax museum was a sight to behold, for sure. There were so many lifelike displays, we could have spent hours looking at them, but a tired baby and several miles of road to go made our tour a relatively quick one. The first disply was on of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, but there were so many other historical and period displays as well.

Adam and Eve

Hubs found this one particularly amusing(There was even a wax figure inside the outside with a look of surprise on his face!)

There were several historical scenes set up including many of early presidents and then towards the end there were two porches set up with all the remaining presidents, including President Obama and the First Lady.

Regardless of your opinion of the President, these are still really neat!

Then I had to chuckle when sitting on a bench next to this presidential porch were these two fellows...

Laurel and Hardy enjoying a game of checkers

At the very end there was a door leading to a show about the Last Supper. While we waited for the showtime to arrive and the door to unlock, we enjoyed the last display: Lewis and Clark with Sacajawea.

At this point, I had been thoroughly impressed and then the door opened and I saw the Last Supper scene by Leonardo DaVinci in front of me life size. It was fabulous.

If you look closely, you can see the Crucifixion scene in the background

There were little pews to sit in and once everyone was seated, a narrative telling about the Last Supper, DaVinci and each of the disciples came on. Then it went on to tell about Judas' betrayal, the Crucifixion, and Jesus appearing to the disciples after His resurrection. There were sound effects, wind blowing, and the telling was very attention catching, although the earthquake noises frightened the children a little. I've never been to another wax museum, but I have to say that this one really impressed me. There was also the factory that you could tour that showed how they made the wax figures, but Sugar Plum was nap ready and fussy by this time, so we headed back towards the van.

We absolutely plan on going back. There were so many things that we didn't have the time to check out like a zoo where you can ride on an elephant, a safari park, and a dinosaur kingdom. Definitely worth the time taken to see what the Natural Bridge had to offer and it was fun and educational for all of us!

After we were all reloaded into the van and heading down the road, we passed this sign:

I was intrigued, but we didn't have time to stop then, so you'll find out about our adventures there in a later post about our return trip home! ;)

Hittin' the Road

2011-11-07T14:39:00.001-05:00

Vacations are a rare treat for us here and so when we take one it is very much needed and very much enjoyed! We are generally more a day trip style family. We take a day here or there to go do something fun as a family. Sometimes we just go for family drives up into the nearby mountains. Other times we go to our local science center. Sometimes we splurge and go somewhere we actually have to pay admission. You may laugh at that, but we are pretty ~~cheap~~ frugal around here so we look for free activities to entertain us for the most part. You'd be surprised the things that you can find to do for little or no money if you keep an open mind!

Two years ago we took a vacation and went and visited my mother in Northern Virginia. We toured battlefields in Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, went to the National Zoo, and just meandered around town having fun just simply relaxing. Last year, we used Hubs' vacation time when Sugar Plum was born, so we weren't able to go away. This year we were able to go back to see my mom and we had even more fun. (Seeing Grandma was an extra bonus as well ;).

It is approximately a six hour drive from our house to my mom's apartment, but we knew that it would be longer than that with three children under the age of five. We decided to just take a breather and enjoy the ride leisurely, stopping when needed. With Hubs working long hours and a ton of overtime, we really wanted to make our time together count and be focused on just enjoying each other as a family. This made the journey so much less stressful when we didn't add the pressure of having a tight knit time table. We also kept our destination a secret. The only thing the kids knew was that we had a "fun day" planned and that it would be a bit of a drive.

We started out last Sunday morning around 6:45AM, drove into town and had breakfast at the local Shoney's.

Sugar Plum was a definite fan of the french toast sticks

After bellies were full, we loaded back up and headed up on to the Blue Ridge Parkway to take a more scenic route to Virginia. We love taking in the sights in the mountains. It doesn't matter how many times we drive up the Parkway, I always find interesting things to look at and it just really makes you sit back and ponder how God's creation really, truly is amazing.

Clouds still sitting low right after sunrise

It was particularly beautiful this time of year since all of the foliage is still at some of its peak coloring. Since we did an Autumn unit study for our first week of school this year, Bub and Sweetpea were happily chattering telling us just why the leaves weren't green any longer and were falling off the trees, and why the squirrels were gathering nuts and such. It boosts your confidence about homeschooling when you see and hear that the children really are soaking in the information that you are trying to teach them.

It is also hunting season and Hubs had crossbows and game on the brain. It certainly didn't help that there were literally deer around every bend in the road. A few times we saw rather large groups of them in clearings all together. Hubs kept saying how he was salivating just thinking about all that deer meat. Too bad he didn't have his bow AND we were on federal land, so no hunting allowed there! ;)

This one stood and stared at us for several minutes before dashing off

Turkey season doesn't start until sometime after Christmas, I believe so Hubs was pining even more when we kept seeing wild turkeys here and there as well. One time they all seemed to descend out of the tree at once. There was an audible gasp from Sweetpea when she witnessed it and we all had a wonderful time just taking it all in.

Can you see the hens in this picture?

We ended up making several U-turns just to go back and see some of the animals again. Nature study on the road. Who knew? ;)

It took us about 12 hours to make the 6 hour trek, but we also stopped to explore the Natural Bridge of Virginia (which I will write about in my next post!). I think we will remember to take this sort of approach on road trips from now on. It really alleviated the anxiety that can come with traveling, and although we don't do long trips very often, it was much more enjoyable when we took time to "stop and smell the roses, er turkeys."

A Trip to the Farm

2011-10-25T06:00:00.002-04:00

I love fall days! The weather is great, the foliage is gorgeous, and it is just an all around great time to get OUTSIDE and do something with the family! This past weekend, Hubs did not have to work(shocker!) so we decided that it would a great time to head over to a local farm that had a tractor ride, corn maze, and a pumpkin patch to let the kids have a good time.

When we first got there, the kids zeroed in on the bounce house, but one of the tractor rides was getting ready to pull out and the young woman who was driving saw us and waited patiently so we could join in and not have to wait for the next one. Bub adores tractors and so I was quite surprised when he suddenly became rather skittish about sitting in the trailer that the tractor pulled. I was able to convince him that it would be fine and that he could sit in my lap the whole way, so he reluctantly climbed aboard. A few minutes later, he was yelling, "Wee! This is SO cool!" I suppose it is safe to say he lost his fear! ;)

During part of the ride, we stopped in the farm's small apple orchard and we were allowed to all get off of the trailer and choose one apple each from a large bin centered in the middle of a grove.

They were very proud of their choices!

Towards the end of the ride, the driver let us all out at the entrance to the corn maze. I wanted to be able to meander through at our own pace, so we held back a bit and let all the other riders off and in front of us. We waited a few minutes and then entered. The kids took off! They loved being the lead navigators and they took turns at each intersection deciding which way we would try. Even Sugar Plum had a blast, although she liked to keep stopping to touch the corn stalks.

We took our time and made a few wrong turns (which is what makes corn mazes so great!) and when we finally made it to the exit, the kids were just beaming with pride.

After the maze we went off to the pumpkin patch (which was really a grassy area with a few pumpkins lying around. Each child was allowed to take one small pumpkin home.

Sugar Plum had a hard time choosing

Then, of course we had to take some photo ops. I cannot believe I got one with all three of them smiling!

After a brief jump in the bounce house. Bub decided he was terrified of it once he realized that other kids jumping made him bounce around more than he liked thank.you.very.much. Hubs had to crawl in to get him out because he sat down and refused to budge. He just yelled, "I WANT OUT!"

We then headed over to the small petting zoo. I think this is where my children inherited my Yankee reflexes, because none of them wanted to touch the animals at all.

Bub decided he would be the brave one when Hubs offered him a quarter if he would reach in and pet the goat. He had no hesitation after that offer, and then ran around reaching in to touch every animal at least once. :)

It was a great day and when we were through, the kids were completely tuckered out, so we took a long drive to admire the colors of the autumn leaves. It didn't take long before their were droopy heads in all the car seats and Hubs and I were able to enjoy some quiet conversation. Definitely a great day, if you ask me.

What's your favorite day trip to take in the fall?

Something A Little Fun...

2011-10-24T17:21:00.000-04:00

have been graciously nominated for this award...

by Jennifer at Home Grown Hearts Academy. Thank you Jennifer! :)

So, what happens when you get nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award?

Thank the person who nominated you for the award by linking back to him or her.
Nominate 15 other deserving bloggers
Share 7 random things about yourself

So now for seven completely and utterly random things about me. Prepared to be bored. ;)

I have a fetish about things touching or being near my eyes. This is why I have never and probably will never wear contacts. I still have trouble using eye drops.
I love court shows on television. Just about all of them.
I once was the lead in a silent independent movie.
Some parents go batty listening to children' s music , but they don't really bother me and I usually sing along. :)
I am only a decent cook because I can read cookbooks. Leave me alone in a kitchen with random ingredients and be prepared to eat a peanut butter sandwich.
If there is chocolate in our house, I.will.eat.it. I have no self control in this area.
While I enjoy my life here in the South, sometimes I really pine for the city I left behind.

Well, there you have it. Seven mostly useless facts about me. Did you even read this far? If so, here are the 15 blogs that I nominate for this award(If you don't already read these, go check them out!):

Hope you've learned a little about me and maybe found some more blogs to enjoy! Happy Monday! :)

Grace in Grape Juice

2011-10-19T16:50:00.000-04:00

I could feel the heat rising in my face when I heard the splash. I breathed out a big huff full of annoyance as I marched with great stomping steps into the kitchen. "What happened now?" I demanded.

Grape juice trickled over the side of the table dripping on to the newly mopped floor. A floor mopped because of a different spill not thirty minutes before. It ran in a thin stream on to the upholstery of the dining room chair. Bub looked up at me with sadness and a glaze of tears in his eyes and said, "Mommy, it was only an accident! I promise!"

My heart sank.

Those big blues eyes looked so forlorn because of me. And my temper. My impatience. Over spilled juice. Had I really overreacted so much earlier that my child is dissolving into tears thinking about what I'm going to say this time?

*sigh*

I think to myself about how I am failing miserably in this area. I think about how before I had kids, I promised myself that I would.not.be.that.mother.that.constantly.yells. I think about all the ways I could be psychologically damaging my children and how they will grow up to be depressed and aggressive because I raised my voice too much. I think about how I feel so completely overwhelmed sometimes that I wonder if I can really handle these three small little people. I think about how these precious children deserve so much better than me. I think about how I'm teaching them to interact with others when they are frustrated. I think about how they will avoid me when they are grown because of the way I interact with them now.

Then I think about how I need to get a grip and stop letting the devil run sprints around my brain. I think about how I need to stop being so hard on myself because no matter how put together another mother looks, she has her own issues too. I think about how even though I have flaws, I try to make sure that each and every day my children know how very much I love them from the depths of my heart. I think about how they still want to curl up in my lap and let me read to them even when I've said not so nice things about carelessness and mistakes. I think about how I need to hit my knees even more and not only ask God to forgive me, but to HELP me. I remember that I am just a sinner, saved by grace.

Grace, that wonderful gift that God bestows upon us when there is no way we could ever do anything "good" enough to deserve it. We can't earn it. He just gives it to us freely and wholeheartedly. He shows us how we should also extend grace to those around us, including our children.

So, I take a deep breath, wrap my arms about my little boy and tell him that it's okay. Accidents happen. Mommy is sorry for losing her temper and we will clean up the juice together. Then we'll go grab a book and cuddle.

Tonight, I'll be thanking God for his grace and asking Him to guide me and show me how to give it as well.

Why Church Matters

2011-10-17T18:00:00.001-04:00

Nearly two years ago, I reviewed the book, Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris and I was really struck by it. It was one of the best reads that I had then and is a book I would recommend wholeheartedly to any Christian now. When I received the opportunity to review another one of Joshua Harris' works, I jumped at it. Let me tell you, I was definitely not disappointed!

In today's society, church has lost its significance. For many of us who attend, (which is a far too rapidly dwindling number!) it's just another part of our routine, another day, another thing to do. For those who do not attend, but are believers, church has become something that they shrug off as unnecessary. Have you ever heard someone say, "Well, I don't have to go to church to believe in God"? That statement is true, however, my firm belief is that if you are a Bible-believing Christian that proclaims to know Jesus as your Savior, you WILL find a church to attend. Why?

This book will answer that question for you with solid biblical counsel and scriptural references. Joshua Harris lays out things that you may know, things that will convict you, and things you may never have even given a thought to. He has a very easy going writing style that makes you feel like he is just a pal chatting with you about the deeper issues in life, rather than a preacher beating you over the head with a Bible. What are you missing when you skip gathering together with the fellow members of the body of Christ? What should you look for when choosing a church to attend and join? Why is "church hopping" not a good idea? Why is your faith not merely something that you should have in isolation? All these questions are answered, and a great many more. This book was truly a harbinger of conviction for me. It helped me take off dull glaze on my eyes that I didn't even realize I had and reopen them to just why church is so much more than something to do on Sundays!

Two thumbs up from me for sure on this one!

To learn more about Joshua Harris, visit his blog here.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Blogging for Books program. I was not required to give a positive review.*

Please take a moment to rank this review. :)

Homeschool Week in Review---Week 3

2011-10-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

Three weeks in already! Time is a-flyin'! This week Bub focused on the letter B. We learned about 'B' animals: bears, beavers, butterflies (which, I know is technically an insect), and 'B' colors: brown, blue, and black. He is really blossoming using this curriculum on his own. I think last year he felt a little overshadowed by his big sister and now that we have our own one on one time, I can just see him shining.

Working on tracing the letter B

Holding his Basket to collect....

...Blue objects! He was being a tad silly here. He's my little ham for sure.

We used a brown bubble mailer envelope to cut out the shape of the letter B and glued it to our paper...


Making a blue bubble B

Then we painted blue letter Bs and glued them on top of the bubble mailer, making the letter "pop out" from the page. A Blue Bubble B. :)

I introduced him to the concept of vowels. He seemed to catch on very quickly. He already knew all of the short sounds from last year and from listening in on his big sissy's phonics lessons.

I says i as in Indian

For our craft this week, we made a butterfly using a coffee filter. First Bub colored it all over using washable markers. Then I spritzed it lightly with water using a spray bottle and let it sit for about 15 minutes. This made the colors run into a really neat pattern.

Then we used a pipe cleaner to make the body, head, and antennae of the butterfly.

We also used the 'B' colors; black, brown, and blue to make a fun finger paint picture.

Sweetpea's week consisted of further discussing the effects of sin and the Fall on mankind and the earth. After reading in her history text and the Bible about how the serpent tricked Eve and was deceitful, we learned about snakes in our science book.

We also had a little experiment after reading about Noah and the ark. We, ahem, Daddy, built a boat made of foil. He was definitely good at this job because after that we went to the sink to see how many dried beans we could put in the boat before it sank.

I nearly got tired of counting!

Just when I was about to give up because we couldn't fit another bean into this stronghold of a ship, Sweetpea placed in bean #322...and down she went to the briny deep, mateys!

Arr....

Sorry, I could talk like a pirate all day if I didn't live amongst such civilized folk. ;)

Sweetpea still loves doing math, and I'm still concerned about it being entirely too simple for her. I have been asking around on forums and such and I get such mixed responses that it makes my head spin even more. I know it is just Kindergarten, and I know that the philosophy behind this approach with Heart of Dakota is to first grow a love for math and THEN get into the nitty gritty of it, but I just can't find peace. I am really considering purchasing either some supplements or a completely new math program. *sigh* Educating your own children truly comes with some pressures, doesn't it?!

Matching stickers to the appropriate numbers

Using raising to add a certain number of "chocolate chips" to the cookies drawn on the paper

We've been using the globe every chance that we get because Sweetpea is fascinated with it lately. Any time a new country or state is mentioned, she wants me to get it out so she can find it on the globe.

Excuse the bed head, we had a jammy day that day. :)

We practiced prepositional words while I called out directions for her to follow.

Here she is IN the box

Phonics has been trudging along as well. We've been using Abeka K5 and it is working fine, but it is just......a lot. I have been looking around at some other programs and finally bit the bullet and bought The Reading Lesson from a friend who also used Heart of Dakota and had an extra copy. I have only used it for a few days and I already am 100% glad that I've made the switch. It is so much more laid back, while still being intensive. It's also more relaxed and Sweetpea hasn't complained about it even one time since making the switch. I only have the book now, but the CD-ROM that can accompany it looks like something my kids would enjoy, so we may add it to our collection as well.

For now, we will still use Abeka for penmanship, but I think I will be making a switch there too soon.

During art time, we made our own magic scratch off thingy.....what are those called??? We colored a square of white paper all over, pressing down hard with our crayons and then colored over all the colors with a black crayon. I then gave Sweetpea a small pointed stick to scratch out a design.

We only had four days of school last week. We went on a playdate Thursday and then had Sweetpea's ballet class. We only did about half of that day's work. On Friday, we finished Thursday's lessons, but I was starting to feel ill, so we shelved everything until tomorrow. I'm still feeling rather under the weather and now all three children are as well, so hopefully we can get back into the swing of things within the next few days!

What are you learning about this week?

Pumpkin Banana Muffins

2011-10-16T07:34:00.008-04:00

While I was pondering what to make for the children this morning for breakfast on Saturday, I noticed that I had a few bananas that were well on their way to gross, so I thought about making some banana bread, but my usual recipe takes a little over an hour to bake, and that's not including prep time. I was already hearing the "Mommy, I'm huunnnngggrrryyyy" whines, so I knew that wouldn't work. I decided to convert the recipe to a muffin so that the cook time would be considerably shortened. When I opened the fridge to get out the eggs and yogurt, I realized that I still had some pumpkin puree leftover from when I made a pie last week. On the spur of the moment, I decided to experiment and what follows is the result. :)

Mmmmm.....Pumpkin Banana Muffins. Yum. These turned out so moist and great, that even Hubs ate them (THREE of them) and he is generally NOT a muffin man.Want to make some of your very own?

You'll Need:

3-3 1/2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
pumpkin puree (about the equivalent of one can...or you can just buy a can!)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease your muffin pan.

I threw the bananas, pumpkin puree, eggs, honey, brown sugar, vanilla, and the applesauce into my food processor and turned it on low just until it was all combined.

Then I put all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and whisked it all together.

Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and stir until combined. I use an ice cream scoop to equally distribute the batter to the 12 compartments of the muffin tin. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until done.

Hubs suggested that next time I throw in some walnuts or maybe make a streusel to go on top, but I think these were perfect the way they were! Mmmmm.... A great way to use up the fall harvest!

This post is also listed at:

Reclaiming Lily : A Review & A Giveaway!

2011-10-15T19:22:00.000-04:00

Gloria Powell is a reserved pastor's wife who has everything she's ever wanted for her life except for one thing....a child. She longs desperately to feel that bond with a child that other mothers feel, yearns for it deep in her soul. When she is told that she will never be able to become pregnant on her own, she and her husband begin to look into the world of adoption. When she lays eyes on little Lily at an orphanage where she was left, she knows with every fiber in her being that this is her daughter, the one she has been waiting for her entire life.

Kai Chang is a determined, hard working Harvard educated physician who spends her days researching and treating patients with a horrid genetic disease. Her mother was a victim of the illness, and Kai is set on doing all that she can to make sure that she and her sisters do not fall prey to it as well. There is only one problem...one of her beloved sisters has been adopted from an orphanage in her home country and is now living somewhere in the United States. Can she find her and ensure that she too is protected from this awful prognosis? Or will the adoptive parents shut her out as a foreigner who they view as a threat to their family?

This book had me riveted to my chair from the beginning. It is a very well intertwined story of family, loss, love, and God's powerful guidance. There was never a dull moment and the story flowed very easily. I could feel the pain, the joy, the struggles of the characters from page to page. I couldn't wait to see how it would all pan out in the end. Prior to Reclaiming Lily, I had never read any of Patti Lacy's work, but I will definitely look into her other works now! A definite recommendation from me for anyone who wants a good fiction read!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.*

*************************************************************

Patti Lacy is celebrating the release of her latest book, Reclaiming Lily, with a KindleTouch Giveaway, blog tour and FB Book Chat Party!

Follow the blog tour and read the reviews!

Patti and her publisher, Bethany House, are giving away a Reclaiming Lily prize package worth over $150 to one lucky winner!!!!

Enter the Reclaiming Lily Giveaway and you could win:

A brand new just released KindleTouch with Wi-Fi
$25 gift certificate to Amazon.com

But, wait there’s more!

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. Giveaway ends on 10/19! Patti will be announcing the winner of the Reclaiming Lily Giveaway at her Party on Facebook October 20th! She’ll be hosting a book club chat of Reclaiming Lily (it's okay if you haven't read it - you could win a copy!) and giving away other fun prizes! (signed copies of her books and gift certificates to Amazon.com, Starbucks, & iTunes!). Don’t miss the fun at Patti’s FB Author Page on 10/20/11 at 5pm PST ( 6 pm MST, 7 pm CST, & 8 pm EST)! RSVP today!

Super Star Sandwich

2011-10-13T19:24:00.000-04:00

We eat a lot of sandwiches around here. Sweetpea's favorite is what we call a "Daddy Sandwich" because Hubs eats them all. the. time. It is a bologna and cheese sandwich with mayo. Bub loves peanut butter and honey. I'm a fan of smoked turkey and cheese. A few days ago, I realized that while I do throw in a few other meals at lunch, sandwiches were generally the norm. But they are just so........humdrum. So I decided to try something out. I even used the mostly forbidden white bread! *gasp!* I whipped out a cookie cutter and cut a star from two slices of bread. Then I actually dug both heels out of the loaf and cut stars out of them too so they would be different "colors." Then I inserted the stars into the slice with the opposite color.

This took all of five minutes and the kids LOVED it. They thought it was soooo cool! :) Just a neat way to change up your lunches if you are a sandwich loving family like us. I think next time I will use one slice wheat and one slice white instead of using the heels.

Another note: this can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a teensy weensy bit messier, so have some extra napkins on hand!

Begin: A Journey Through Scripture for New Believers

2011-10-12T07:06:00.003-04:00

Before I tell you what I think of this book, you can take a moment (if you choose) to watch this promo video from New Leaf Press:

Basically, this book takes certain carefully chosen sections of the ESV version of the Bible and adds commentary, helpful tips and facts, cross references, thought provoking questions and note taking spaces. If you are familiar with Ken Ham, you know that he is a firm believer in presenting the Gospel starting with Creation. His stance is that you need to know the beginning in order to understand fully salvation and the message of Jesus Christ.

My thoughts?

I agree with Mr. Ham that you need to know and believe in Genesis in order to really know and believe Jesus. I like that this book sets up some very key points of the Bible that could help answer some initial questions that new believers or unbelievers may have about the arch of the Gospel message. I like that they show cross references throughout all the passages so you can delve further into study on certain subjects. I like that there is room to jot down notes while you are reading. I also think that this could be an effective tool in evangelism.

But that is just it. It is a tool not a means to an end. The book does state straight out that it is NOT a replacement for your actual Bible and that they are not purporting that the selected portions of Scripture are any more important than any other part of the Bible, however, I still get the essence that some people might take it that way. Some people, new to their beliefs or searching for answers, may lean on this book too much when what they really truly need is God's Word as a whole. If people were to hand this out to people while evangelizing, I believe that they should also be handing an actual Bible WITH it or making sure to emphasize that this book is not a substitute!

Also, our family's personal preference is the KJV bible, so I would recommend making this book available in more than one Bible translation. Just a suggestion. ;)

Overall, this book is another addition to the plethora of resources out there for Christians and people curious about Christianity. I think there could be some minor improvements, but I would recommend this as a decent Bible study tool.

To purchase your own copy or learn more about this book, please visit New Leaf Press here.

*I received this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to write a positive review. *

Christmas in the Fall

2011-10-11T15:00:00.002-04:00

Time for an American Girl update! We have still been reading through the Kirsten Larson series, but the pace has slowed considerably now that our school schedule is back in full swing. Sweetpea really enjoys just carving out a little slice of the day for just she and I to curl up together and delve into the pioneer days. I have to say that I really enjoy it too. These days my little princess just seems so grown up that I want to savor every moment I can with her and try my hardest to foster the closeness that I desire from the bottom of my heart to have with her.

This time, we finished the third book in the series, Kirsten's Surprise which focuses on the Christmas celebrations and traditions of Kirsten and her family and friends. It's her first Christmas in America, and she is worried that the Swedish traditions involving St. Lucia that they love will be left across the ocean with the home she loved so much.

The meal we chose from Kirsten's Cookbook was St. Lucia Buns, which Kirsten actually made in the story.I did modify the recipe slightly because I could not find saffron in our local grocery stores and decided that for this one recipe, ordering it online was not an option. We substituted cinnamon which made for a different flavor than the original, but the idea behind the buns was still the same. :)

After making our dough and letting it rise, we shaped it into the traditional formation. Sweetpea especially liked this part.

We then placed them on baking sheets to rise again. When they were ready, we brushed them with an egg wash and added raisins.

A short while later, after some time in the oven, here is what we had:

We made these during the evening to have for breakfast the next morning since we had to account for the rising time for the dough.

They were a big hit, even with Hubs. They were gone very quickly!

To make your own Saint Lucia Buns, you can either check your local library for Kirsten's Cookbook, or you can try this recipe, which is very similar to what we used.

For our craft this time around, Sweetpea chose to make her own rendition of the Dala horse found in Kirsten's Craft book.

I purchased some Crayola Air Dry Clay from Walmart to use for this craft. Bub decided he wanted to make a horse too, so Hubs joined us and we had some good quality family time crafting our way into the equine world.

Shaping the horses was probably more fun than anything other part.

After we got our clay shaped just the way we wanted, we laid them out on some wax paper on the counter for about 4 days.

The clay was dry after about 2 days, but we had to wait for Daddy to have some free time from his crazy hectic work schedule to rejoin us in the painting process.

And here they are!

Now to just find a place to put them in the kids' room where they won't break them. :/

To wrap up our adventure with this book, we got some great resources from American Girl and Homeschool Share to add to our lapbook.

Kirsten's secret Indian friend Singing Bird

This is really, truly so much fun! I would recommend doing this to anyone. It really isn't that time consuming (we spread all of this out over several days...sometimes longer), it's educational, and most importantly it is family building. What more can you ask for?

To see more of our American Girl adventures, click here.

This post is also listed at:

Homeschool Week in Review---Week 2

2011-10-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

I really wanted to get this post up on Friday, but Hubs had a three day weekend and since he generally works near non-stop, I was not on the computer that often during this time! We didn't do much, but we ALL really enjoyed having him home and available without an underlying schedule ticking at us in the background!

So, here I am on Monday, giving you the highlights of last week! ;) It was our first week in our new curriculum (reminder: Bub is using Teach Me Joy's Animal Play with supplements and Sweetpea is using Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory) and so far, we are really enjoying ourselves!

Here are some of our favorite parts of the week:

Sweetpea coordinating blocks with the numbers on the floor

I had an inkling before we began that the Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten 2A workbook (and most likely a good chunk of 2B) would be too easy for Sweetpea, but she isn't ready for 1A. I wanted to test the waters before I purchased any kind of supplements and it turns out that my hunch was correct. I'm currently looking into other math curricula, trying to decide what to get for her so that she is challenged. She enjoys the math portion of each day more than any other and I want to make sure to feed the hunger while it's there! Any suggestions?

Art time! Working on a collage

Jesus is the center of all history :)

Sweetpea learned how it takes the earth one year to orbit around the sun. We reenacted this by circling a chair with a yellow blanket on it to represent the sun. At the end of each "orbit" we shook the tambourine and sang, "Happy Birthday, Dear Earth."

Coloring the seven continents

During storytime, we have been reading Thornton Burgess' The Adventures of Reddy Fox. This curriculum is beginning to introduce the concepts of dictation and narration and so after one day's reading, I had Sweetpea dictate a letter to Reddy Fox to me. She warned him about stealing those chickens!

She drew her own picture of Reddy on the back of her letter

In phonics, we've been focusing on special sounds. Here Gabby is circling the special sounds in the words on the chalkboard.

To help memorize the Bible verse for the week, I had Sweetpea toss a beanbag into a laundry basket from the other side of the room. Every time she made the shot, she recited the verse.

At first glance, I worried that Animal Play would be too oversimplified for Aron since we went through Little Hands to Heaven last year, but I was wrong.He LOVES it and asks to do MORE at the end of every session. I think that since the lesson plans only calls for three days of work, I will just move on to the next week and also add in some supplements to make a fuller day for him. This will mean we will work through the program faster than a typical school year, but I already have the next program,Fruit for Tender Hearts so I'll just move on to it at a regular pace when he's ready!

Painting an 'A' by making apples

working on the number 1

His alligator craft that I found on DLTK Kids

Doing the "Alligators snap!" part of his 'A' fingerplay

We are still finding our groove schedule-wise. My goal is to start every day with Bub by 9AM. On the days where I make this goal, we finish everything up quite nicely around 11:30-12:00 and I can prepare our lunch meal in plenty of time before Hubs has to head off to work(We eat our big meal at lunch so Daddy can still be a part of it). On the days when I don't reach the goal, Sweetpea's work gets carried over after meal clean up and the younger two are down for their afternoon nap. This means it eats into my afternoon down-time, so I'm doing my best to stay on track, but it's a work in progress!

I'm also still trying to make a decision about whether we will continue our school year as we have in the past by going year round and just taking breaks when needed/desired or if we will be more deliberate with our breaks. Hubs and I have discussed schooling for four weeks and then taking one week off or going more lightly during the fourth week to allow for family outings, field trips, etc. without the stress of trying to make up work. We're still attempting to piece out what will work best for us. Are any of you year-rounders? What do you do?

Anywho, that was our week...can't wait to share with you next week! :)

And the Winner Is....

2011-10-09T17:07:00.000-04:00

Before I announce the winner of the giveaway for a copy of Gabby, God's Little Angel by Sheila Walsh, I want to take a moment to thank all of you that entered!

Okay, let's get down to business then! According to Random.org, the winner of this giveaway is.....

Commenter #2: Amy from Living and Learning at Home!

Congratulations Amy!

Mr. Sandman, Bring Me a Dream? Pretty Please?

2011-10-04T15:49:00.001-04:00

It's 3:00 in the afternoon and I seriously could go to bed. Right. now. *yawn*

Last night I was determined to go to bed at 10PM. I have been staying up until midnight or later(waiting on DH to come home from work and then chatting with him for awhile since this is our only kid-free time together), and it just isn't working for me anymore, especially since Sugar Plum still does not sleep through the night. So, the clock hit 9:59 and I had all the chores done that I usually do once the kiddos are in bed, I had brushed my teeth and all that getting ready for bed jazz, and began to head towards the bedroom. I clicked off the living room lights and opened the bedroom door.

First sign that the night was not going to contain sweet, peaceful slumber: upon opening the door, there was a grinning 14 month old standing up in her playpen looking straight at me. *sigh* I told myself that at least she was up before I got to that just-drifted-off-and-will-be-super-groggy-if-you-wake-me-up-now stage. I picked her up and went to the bed.

Next sign: Just as I was about to lie down next to Sugar Plum, I heard the pitter patter of little feet and there stood Sweetpea at the door. *double sigh* "Can I sleep with you? I really need my Mommy."

How do you turn that down? So, we all climbed into bed with an agreement between Sweetpea and I that she would be vacating the bed once Daddy came home from work. You'd think it'd be all sweet moonbeams and cuddles then? Not this night.

Sweetpea had a serious case of the toss and turns. Every time that my eyelids began to droop, I found a knee in my lower back or a hand on the back of my head. Sometimes even a foot in my stomach. Oy. When I finally got her settled in, Sugar Plum was back up and then refused to be put back in her playpen all night long. She also had the need to be attached to me nursing for about 90% of the night. When Hubs finally got home, moved Sweetpea back to her own bed, and came to bed himself, he stayed for about an hour before moving to the couch where he could actually get some rest because Sugar Plum was that restless. Or so he thought. Bub then began to pop up out of bed every hour or so and tap him on the shoulder while I tended to one of the girls (whichever one happened to be awake at the moment). This continued until well after 4AM.

So much for my go to bed early plans, eh?

Motherhood....it sure packs a punch....especially to my sleep habits.

I honestly, truly try to take these things lightly and remember that old saying, "This too shall pass" but, lately this has been occurring so often that my hair is thinning and I have perma-bags under my eyes. I fall asleep if I sit in a chair..any chair for more then a few moments at a time. I simply MUST lie down on the couch for a nap when the children go down, even if I don't sleep because my body is so fatigued that if I don't, I literally start to fall asleepWHILE I am reading the children their bedtime stories. Grocery shopping wears me plum out! I'm so irritable at times, that I can't stand myself! By my calculations, I have not had more than 2 hours of sleep in a row in nearly SIX years. Somebody help me! I will eagerly listen to ANY suggestions!

Homeschool Week in Review--Week 1

2011-10-03T18:16:00.000-04:00

We did it! We completed our first week of the new school year! We spent a few weeks preparing and counting down. I was trying to get the house completely in order before the day arrived as well, but I only got about two thirds of the way done. What can you do? It's hard to keep everything just so with three children under the age of five. I'm attempting to make peace with this realization. *sigh*

Anywho, since this year Sweetpea and Bub will be using separate curricula, I didn't want to just jump in full force yet. So, I decided that for the first week, we would do school together like last year and do a unit study. The first day of fall was the Friday before we began, so I thought, "what better way to kick off our school year than to learn more about Autumn?" Enter Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. I recently discovered these studies and so far, I LOVE what I see! I bought "Autumn Treasures" and printed out the entire week's worth of lessons in just a few minutes! Click here to view more details about this wonderful unit study!

We added in a few supplements from 2 Teaching Mommies' units on leaves and on apples.

We also used the Fall Fun Printables Pack from one of my FAVORITE resources for preschool and early elementary activities, Homeschool Creations.

So....what did we do this week? WELL....

Sweetpea practiced her penmanship using words of the season

Bub matched pictures and their names

We made a fantastic lapbook...here is the start of it

After learning about why leaves change colors and fall off trees, we made our own autumn tree picture

Bub practiced his prewriting skills

a lapbook activity about why leaves are different colors in the fall

Acorn dot-to-dot

We learned about the parts of an apple

Worked on finishing patterns

Bub was sorting leaves and apples

Colored pictures of what the earth looks like during each season

Learned about the life cycle of pumpkins

Found a toad during a nature walk!

Shadow matching

Worked on a squirrel puzzle

Bub really enjoyed this number order scarecrow puzzle

After learning about where popcorn comes from, we enjoyed some!

Sweetpea worked on some basic addition skills

The outside of Bub's finished lapbook

The inside of Bub's finished lapbook

We drew candy corn after learning how it is made

Counting and number order

We made "harvest prints" using apples, potatoes, an
carrots

All of our autumn treasures that we collected during our nature walks

Shape matching

Bub is sorting by size while Sweetpea is graphing

Not to mention we did a TON of reading from our book basket,

We also learned about why some animals hibernate, why birds migrate, why monarch butterflies fly to Mexico in the fall, what causes seasons, what parts of the world do NOT have seasons and so. much. MORE. This was a great kick off to our year and I look forward to the next unit study we do in a couple of months! Hello 2011-2012 school year! :)

Gabby, God's Little Angel GIVEAWAY!!

2011-09-30T11:12:00.001-04:00

Are you and your daughters fans of the "Gigi: God's Little Princess" books? If you are, you should absolutely check out the first in a NEW series of books by Sheila Walsh:

Gabby, God's Little Angel: Sent to Show God's Love

This book is adorable! Gabby is a guardian angel in training who is just a wee bit clumsy. When she receives her assignment to guard and protect a little girl named Sophie, who is very much like her, she isn't entirely confident in her abilities. But God knows best and puts her in charge of Sophie's guardianship. Through the adventures that follow, Gabby learns that she can trust in the Lord's decisions, that anyone can show God's love to others AND that we can always know that He is watching over us!

This story is well-written, easy to follow, but not watered down to kids. Sweetpea fell in love with the book the instant she saw it. What girl doesn't love sparkles? She has read it alone many times and I have read it to her quite a few times as well. I would recommend this book to any little girl!

Want to meet Gabby for yourself? Check out this promotional video from Sheila Walsh:

Want to know something cool? I HAVE AN EXTRA COPY TO GIVE TO ONE OF MY READERS!!! :) To enter to win, please leave a comment on this post and tell me the age and favorite hobby of your daughter(s)!

For extra entries, please do one of the following:

"Like" To the Moon and Back on Facebook (just click the button over in my sidebar OR go here)
Follow me on Twitter @Dustybug
Share this giveaway on Facebook

THEN come back here and leave a NEW comment for each extra entry. Be sure to include an email address where I can reach you! Also, U.S. residents only.

This contest will run from today (September 30) until midnight on October 7th (EST). Good luck to all who enter!

If you want to purchase your own copy of this book, you can find it on Amazon here.

OH WAIT! There's more!

Sheila Walsh is excited to announce her new series for little girls and she is celebrating Gabby’s arrival with a fun KINDLE Giveaway and an Angel FB party on October 4th!

Help Sheila introduce Gabby - be sure to check out her video trailer promotion here!

In Gabby, God’s Little Angel, Gigi fans will fall in love with Gabby and learn about God’s love and provision and a little about His invisible creation, the angels.

Read what people are saying here.

Enter today - Sheila and her publisher, Thomas Nelson, have put together an “Angel” prize package worth over $150.00!

One lucky winner will receive:

A brand new KINDLE with Wi-Fi
Gabby, God’s Little Angel

But wait! There’s more …

On October 4th join Sheila at her Author Page on FB for the Gabby, God’s Little Angel Party! She will announce the winner of the KINDLE, host a chat and give away a ton of fun products from the Gigi and Gabby line! RSVP today and then be sure to stop by on October 4th at 5:00 PM PST (6 PM MST, 7 PM CST, & 8 PM EST).

You don't want to miss this so hurry on over and enter for your chance to win there too!

*I received this book from Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review.*

WonderMaps: A Review

2011-09-27T19:33:00.000-04:00

With Sweetpea entering Kindergarten this year, I have had geography on my mind. In keeping with my mostly Charlotte Mason approach to education, I wanted to begin a light introduction to the subject and I have been dabbling here and there with various ideas. One of the things that I have started to implement in our regular lessons is map work. Even during fun times, like my mother-daughter time with the American girl series, I have been looking on the Internet to print out localized maps to go along with what we are learning. NOW, I do not have to search through endless websites to find a decent map because I have Wondermaps!

Wondermaps, which is produced by Bright Ideas Press is a WONDERFUL resource for homeschooling families! It includes:

Over 60 world maps
Over 60 maps of the United States
Over 100 historical maps, INCLUDING maps of biblical areas
Thematic maps
(and a great bonus for those of you who use these history curriculum!)The complete map sets from The Mystery of History (Volumes 1-3) and All American History (Volumes 1 & 2).

It also is very interactive. You can add or remove "layers" to each map that you use. Layers include things like:

roads
waterways
cities and towns
topographical information
borders
the choice between black and white or color maps
names of places, landmarks, etc.
and much MORE!

Here is Sweetpea playing around with the NC map

You can break your maps down into continents or specific regions. Sweetpea really enjoyed exploring the map of Sweden (we are currently reading the Kirsten Larson books in the American Girl series).

I even spent some pretty extensive time playing around with this software. This product is something that can be used again and again and again in all sorts of school studies from young ages into middles and high school years.

If you aren't too tech-savvy, there is also a really great tutorial available for you (or your students) to give you a leg up in using this program to its fullest capabilities. Check it out for yourself:

I can't say enough about this program, and honestly cannot find anything at all to critique! A great investment all the way around!

Wondermaps is available as an instant download or on CD-ROM. To purchase your own copy, please visit Timberdoodle on their website. You should also check out their other great geography resources here or find them on Facebook.

*As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of WonderMaps in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.*

The Life of John Newton

2011-09-27T06:00:00.002-04:00

Amazing Grace is one of the most beloved hymns amongst Christians. I believe all of us who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior know all to well how wicked we are on our own, so the lyrics about the God's grace saving wretches like ourselves really resonate with us in our souls. But, what about the man behind the lyrics?

John Newton was a man who set a prime example of how a person can know of the existence of God, but suppress all conscience about His ways and be seemingly content to live a scandalous, immoral life. His tale is one that shows just how God can reach anyone, any time, anywhere and draw them to Him. This book follows his life from boyhood when he loses his mother at an early age, from young adulthood and his days being traded as a slave and living in absolutely miserable conditions to old age when he has been transformed from the inside out by God's redeeming love. Follow his journey to becoming a well known man of God, spreading the Gospel to everyone around him.

This book was originally published in 1831 and was distributed by the American Sunday School Union and has been reproduced by Attic Books complete with the old-time worn pages and rugged look. This is a great read and a great chance to read the testimony of someone brought to salvation even while in the deepest pits of sin. No one is too "far gone" for God!

"Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures."

,
*I received this book free of charge from New Leaf Press in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give an honest review.*

It's the First Day of School!

2011-09-26T17:51:00.000-04:00

I know that it's only been three weeks since we finished our last school year, but it seems like it's been so much longer to me! We've been trying to get the house organized, trying to get things deep cleaned, and also trying to just relax before we dove back in to work. We all (well, maybe not Hubs) have been excited about what our new school year is going to entail: new curriculum, the two children schooling separately, Sweetpea beginning kindergarten, having a toddler walking around! Needless to say, we were just a wee bit antsy about starting off this week!

After spending the weekend planning, today went off pretty much without a hitch. I got up early, got showered, the kids fed and dressed, and we were sitting down ready to start at 8:45! This is a new goal of mine this year. With the two oldest doing two different things this year, I really wanted to have more of a schedule, even if it was a super flexible one. My aim is to be starting the school day NO later than 9 AM. This should give us plenty of time to finish up by lunch and have our afternoons free.

For our first week, we aren't diving straight into our regular curriculum. I thought we could take the first week to reacclimate ourselves to our school routine and have a little extrafun. So, we are using the "Autumn Treasures" unit study from Amanda Bennett to kick off the beginning of our year together before moving into our regular studies next week.

To take a look at this study for yourself, click here to view more details. (*Note: I am a registered affiliate for this program, so if you purchase through my link, I will receive a small commission).

We went to the library last week to collect our books for our book basket for this theme. We racked up!

This morning, we started a new tradition by taking "first day of school pictures."

Sweetpea, the new kindergartener

With all of her school books for this year

Bub, in his second year of preschool

With all of his school books for this year

Aren't these signs cute? They were designed by Sugar Tots Designs. If you want to print out some of your own, go check out I Heart Naptime.

How is your year going?

Are You Talking About Me??

2011-09-23T13:09:00.002-04:00

I fell behind last week on the 31 Days to Clean for Homemaker's Challenge.All three kids had some kind of bug, it cleared up, then Sugar Plum had an issue that we had to deal with at the pediatrician's office and Bub got sick again with a fever for three days. Needless to say, last week not much beyond regular daily straightening got done. THIS week however, I've been ON.A.ROLL. I had desperately wanted to do a deep cleaning of my house before we started our new school year and since the deadline for that is Monday, I've been gettin' down and dirty with as much elbow grease as I can muster. Not only did I catch up, but I pulled slightly ahead! My kitchen is bright and shiny as is my living room. The children's bedroom is thisclose to being finished and I am working on our bedroom in bits and pieces. Sugar Plum sleeps in there in her playpen and since she still takes two naps a day, it makes it hard to do a long block of cleaning, but I'm working on it! I'm on Day 20 in the e-book. I know I won't finish everything before Monday, unless I over exert myself, but I'm knocked such a dent in things, that I'm happy anyway!

Aside from things looking squeaky clean, this book is also helping me to open my eyes to areas that I really need to work on. Laziness being the top priority. I'm not lazy in the sense that I sit around all day, popping bon bons in my mouth whilst watching my daily soap operas, shooing my children off to their rooms so I can have peace and quiet. I don't lie about in my pajamas all day (well, at least not often), surfing the Internet while my dishes pile up to the ceiling. BUT I do sometimes pass over the pile of laundry because the sheer size of it overwhelms me and I feel like it is a never ending cycle. I do let the dust bunnies get out of hand occasionally because I really, really dislike dusting. I do use tiredness as an excuse to not be as proactive in my housecleaning as I could or should be on a regular basis. Sarah Mae really put it out there on this subject. It's a sometimes painful, but necessary thing to look at ourselves in the mirror and confront our sins. This is one that I really put in the recesses of my mind, deceiving myself, while pretending that it wasn't that big of a deal. I wonder if she wrote this section just for ME.

Aren't these neat looking?

A great quote included in the book,

“So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed
with all their tragic effects that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as
apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.” Eleanor
Roosevelt

Ain't that the truth??

I also realized that I feel so overwhelmed sometimes because I let my tendency towards perfectionism and my ideas of what my house is "supposed to look like" remove my sense of practicality. I have three small children...there will be toys scattered about at times. We homeschool....there will be papers, pencils, crayons, notebooks, etc., lying on tables occasionally. The laundry will never stay completely done and I might not get the dishes done immediately after our meal. But it's okay. I don't have to be perfect, I just have to do my best to maintain a reasonable(and doable!) perspective. Life happens and it isn't always spotless. I just have to remember, as Sarah Mae points out, that when I am feeling like the hill is too big for me to climb, like no matter what I do, I cannot keep up:

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

2 Corinthians 12:9

...even if it is "only" housework.

And the Winner is......

2011-09-22T08:24:00.000-04:00

I want to thank all of you that entered the giveaway and for "liking" To the Moon and Back on Facebook.
I love having giveaways! I used to do them more frequently, but had shelved them for quite some time. I think that I'll bebringing them back more often and including things other than books, so make sure you keep coming back to check them out!

Okay, so now to announce the winner of a copy of How Do We Know the Bible is True? edited by Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge.

And the winner, thanks to Random.org is...

*drumroll please*

Commenter #2--Holly! Congratulations Holly! Check your inbox for an email from me!

Little Hands to Heaven---A Review

2011-09-20T08:00:00.002-04:00

Well, since we have officially shelved the preschool curriculum that we have used for the last couple of years for awhile, I thought it might be time for me to give you an actual review of it!

When Sweetpea turned three in 2009, we began our homeschooling journey. It was a test run of sorts for us. The idea of homeschooling came to me rather suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere,but now I know that it was God working on His plan for our little family. If you are a new or prospective homeschooler, the sheer size and girth of resources and curriculum choices available can be amazingly overwhelming. There are websites, reviews, forums, blogs, and many more venues that lay it all out for you. Wading through it all and attempting to make a decision, especially when you are a complete novice, is H.A.R.D. That is why when Little Hands to Heaven fell into my lap, I was so incredibly grateful!

I looked through the Heart of Dakota website eagerly devouring all of the information. I was in love with what I was seeing.

This curriculum is geared for children ages 2-5. I began both Sweetpea and Bub with it soon after their respective third birthdays and they both thrived. Sweetpea even used it a second go round this past year and she is closing in on six. Personally, I wouldn't use it for a 2 year old simply because many of the activities will not "sink in" for most children of that age, but most 3 year olds would be a perfect fit!

There are 33 units that include 5 days worth of lessons. Each lesson is broken down into "boxes" including daily:

a Bible story
a fingerplay that correlates to the bible stories and letter and letter sound of the week
a letter activity (the program focuses on one letter of the alphabet per week with review weeks every 5 units)
a Bible activity (these teach counting, skip counting, cutting, gluing, coloring, discussion and listening skills, reenactments, color recognition, etc.)
Music that corresponds to the Bible lesson of the day

There are also boxes that rotate throughout the week:

Art
Active Exploration (this includes hands on activities that help the child relate their lesson to their lives)
Devotional
Dramatic Play (reenactments of the Bible lesson)
Math (click here for the scope and sequence covered in this guide)

Sounds like a lot, right? One of the best things about this program is that ALL of that fits into just THIRTY MINUTES of your day. Seriously. I've done this guide cover to cover twice and it has NEVER taken me longer than that to complete a day's lesson unless I added something in to supplement or I allowed the children to repeat an activity because they had so much fun they WANTED to do it again!

The lessons are styled with a very Charlotte Mason approach, so they are gentle while still instilling all the information that your preschooler needs. They learn through engaging, hands-on, and FUN activities. Most of the time, they don't even realize that they are learning. It was a regular occurrence for Sweetpea and Bub to ask to do "more school." That's always a good problem to have, isn't it? :)

This is a truly open and go curriculum. You don't need to spend time planning for it. You can literally just open up the pages and start your school day! Any supplies that are required are things that most average families with young children have lying around their house and if there a few things that you don't have, you can find them quite inexpensively.

Another thing that I love about this curriculum is that includes younger and older options so that (like Sweetpea) you can go through the program more than once and it be a different journey each time OR you can tailor it to suit your individual child. It is also very customizable. If you cannot afford to purchase the recommended bible and devotionals it is easy to use what you already have on hand OR just your own Bible.

Finally, the hands-down, no contest, number one BEST thing about this curriculum is that it is saturated in CHRIST. Every little thing is weaved together with the daily story from God's Word and the lessons that can be drawn from it. Everything! You learn color recognition by relating the colors to the biblical characters/story( Brown is for the bread that Jesus to feed thousands, Orange is for the fish that Peter caught, etc.). You learn counting and skip counting this way as well( 1 tree in the Garden of Eden that was forbidden, 8 pieces of jewelry for the things that the Israelites collected from the Egyptians during the Exodus, etc.). You exercise gross and fine motor skills by reenacting the Bible scene or making crafts. AND SO MUCH MORE!

We love Heart of Dakota here and even though this is only the first product that we have used, we plan to have a relationship with them for a long time in the future!

If you'd like to take a glimpse at what a week of lessons in this guide entails, please go here.

Homeschool Week(s) in Review--Weeks 33 & 34 (The Final Two)

2011-09-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

And here we are, the last two weeks of our school year. Didn't we just begin? *sigh*

To close out our school year, we put our focus towards the spread of the Gospel and the apostle Paul. We discussed the job description of a missionary and how the disciples were the first ones to start traveling around the world to spread the news about Jesus. We whipped our map ( I really need to mount it on the wall!) and our handy-dandy inflatable globe and discussed how no matter where in the world a person lives, they too need to know the truth about God and the Good News. Sweetpea loved being able to point out Sweden (where Kirsten Larson, from the American Girl series lived...we've been reading through those books).

We pretended to be airplanes, flying around the room, landing in different countries to proclaim that "Jesus died for you! Believe in him!"

To practice our skip counting (Bub by 3s, Sweetpea by 4s), we drew globes on our worksheet.

After learning about a lame man being healed by the disciples in the name of Jesus, we practiced galloping, skipping, hopping and jumping around the room for joy, praising the Lord all the way!

Our last letter of the year.

Sweetpea is being introduced to money and the values of coins.

Penmanship practice for her too!

We learned about Stephen and how he died and how Peter went to jail because he was telling people about Jesus. We made a jail craft using construction paper and aluminum foil.

Peter was a rather short and squat man in this rendition ;)

Then we used our stuffed animal friends to practice spreading the news ourselves!

We learned about Phillip and the Ethiopian man who had only part of the Bible. So, we learned about parts using graham crackers, dividing them into equal parts.

Our last and final Tape Day!

Bub can do these worksheets now with little to no help. It just goes to show how very much he has grown this year.

We used the story of Paul's conversion to learn about the difference between "right" and "left." We put stickers on our right hands then I gave a series of directions, telling them to hold out the appropriate hand as they followed them.

We reenacted the story of Saul being blinded on the road to Damascus. Here is Bub lying in the "street."

We had extra fun when we did our last fingerplay of the year. A-A-Adam, Can you believe???? ;) (You Little Hands to Heaven folks know what I'm talking about! )

We also reenacted Paul's escape in the basket out of the window. Here is Bub rowing his boat in the "water."

Here is Sweetpea hiding in a tent.

Bub did his very last review sheet and did very well all on his own.

We also learned about the earthquake that freed Paul and Silas from jail. We created our own earthquake by shaking up some blocks in buckets...

...and then dumping them out and sorting them by size, shape, and color.

We closed our last week by reviewing our last devotional.

And Bub reviewed all 26 letters of the alphabet and their sounds.

It has been a fantastic year! We cannot wait to embark on our new one! See you then! ;)

Homeschool Week in Review--Weeks 31 & 32

2011-09-18T16:58:00.000-04:00

I realized that with only one more week of our break left before we start our brand new school year, that I should probably finish up the week in review snapshots of our last few weeks of Little Hands to Heaven. If I don't, then I will be setting myself up to be behind for the new year! Gettin' on it!

These two weeks focused on the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of Jesus.

Sweetpea really enjoyed the art activity. We used black construction paper (black=sadness) to draw the three crosses on the hill. She actually drew the picture twice, once on each side of the paper.

We used a bowl and some random toys to discuss the concept of "one more" while also talking about Jesus being in the tomb, and then the tomb being empty.

Long vowels are on the phonics agenda now and Sweetpea is breezing through it mostly. She stumbles a little when I have her read her blend ladders with the long vowel sound, but I believe she has trouble because we've been practicing the short sounds for so long, that she is just used to reading them that way. It is taking a moment for her to translate over to the long sound in her head.

She's also been working on special sounds, such as "ck," "ay," "st," etc.

To emphasize that Jesus' tomb was empty, we set out several containers that were both full and empty to compare and contrast.

I've started to mildly introduce the concept of time to Sweetpea. We've done a few worksheets that teach her about the function of the long and short hands.

The letter of the week was "Y" for Bub. Every time we use food objects to make letters, he needs extras so that he can "share with his mouth."

We practiced counting (up to 10 for Bub, higher for Sweetpea) using our fingers and toes to show the one to one correspondence.

We traced our hands and feet to show where the nails were located on Jesus' body.

Sweetpea found the tracing of her foot to be rather ticklish. ;)

Some books that we found useful during these units

Jesus ascending to Heaven in Bub's Bible

After learning about the ascension, we read of the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

The flames atop the disciples' heads from Sweetpea's Bible

Then we made a craft to illustrate the story using paper plates colored in red, orange, and yellow, then cut into spirals.

Sweetpea holding her "holy spirit flame" above the "disciples" heads.

Bub really enjoys "Tape Day." I think this might be one of the things he misses most from Little Hands. Maybe we'll just have to incorporate them into our new curriculum this year as well.

Stay tuned for the review of our final two weeks!

It's still surreal to me that we are finished with this program for awhile. It's been a near daily part of our lives for nearly three years! That being said, we are very eagerly awaiting our new journey into Little Hearts for His Glory and Animal Play. T-minus 8 days!

How Do We Know the Bible is True? GIVEAWAY

2011-09-16T17:28:00.001-04:00

1 Peter 3:15 says:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (emphasis added)

Do you feel prepared to answer the questions that unbelievers throw your way? Do you feel ill equipped to counter arguments from evolutionists? Do you ever feel overwhelmed and like you aren't educated enough to give sufficient answers? Do you even feel like there are some questions that YOU would like to know the answers to?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, this is the book for you!

Wow, now that I've made myself sound like a cheesy late night infomercial, let me tell you just WHY this book is so great.

It is backed by Answers in Genesis and I have yet to find something from them that I did not thoroughly enjoy. In fact, one of the two general editors is Ken Ham, CEO of AIG. He and Bodie Hodge have put together essay style answers from many other respected Christian men who are well versed in apologetics.

This books is voluminous and filled with wonderful, biblical answers to questions such as:

Did Miracles really happen?
Did Moses write Genesis?
Is Genesis a derivation of ancient myths?
How can we stand on Scripture in an evolution-polluted culture?
Is the age of the earth a salvation issue?
Are there contradictions in the Bible?

and many, many more.

Each question is given a well articulated, thorough answer backed by Scripture references. There is also a section detailing WHY we need to have more than the most common simple answers at the ready when we are questioned by unbelievers or even Christians who believe in evolution. If we cannot defend God's Word, then how can we pass the Gospel on to others?

My favorite section of the entire book was the afterword, written by John MacArthur. In this closing, Mr. MacArthur reminds us that those who preach and teach and spread the word of God MUST be willing to do so without sugarcoating, without glossing over "hard" subjects, and most importantly, without compromising the message and integrity of the Bible. The Bible was not given to us so we could pick and choose what we like to "tickle our ears,"(2 Timothy 4:3-4) but for reproof, doctrine, teaching, training, and correction(2 Timothy 3:16). We must never forget to stand firm in Scriptures!

For your own look inside this book, check out the first chapter here.
To purchase your own copy, visit New Leaf Press here.

OR

You can enter to win your very own copy here on this blog! :)

I will be giving away one copy of the book to one lucky reader! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this entry!

For extra entries:
"Like" To the Moon and Back on Facebook (just click the "like" button on my sidebar ----> )
Share this giveaway on Facebook and then come back and leave another comment here telling me that you did!

The giveaway will run from today (September 16th) until next Wednesday (September 21st). I will announce the winner on Thursday (September 22nd). Good luck to all who enter! (Please only enter if you have a U.S. mailing address!)

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from New Leaf Press in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not required to give a positive review*

Etched in My Memory---Remembering September 11th

2011-09-11T07:35:00.001-04:00

In my twenty-eight short years on this earth, there are few events that have happened where I can instantly recall exactly what I was doing, exactly where I was, and exactly my reaction. September 11, 2001 is, unfortunately, one of those events. It is etched into my memory as clear in my mind now, ten years later, as it was then.

I was a fresh faced, eighteen year old, recent high school graduate. I had a full time job in a local family restaurant and I was scheduled to work that day.

I woke up to an empty house. Both my mother and my stepfather were at work and my little brother was at school. I was enjoying the quiet and the free reign over the television remote. I called up my best friend to chat. We used to talk on the phone almost incessantly in those days. We even used a landline. Cell phones were a new thing and were not yet attached to everyone, everywhere, at all times. We talked about the things that teenagers on the cusp of young adulthood talk about, things that seemed important to our young minds.

When I noticed that it was getting close to nine o'clock, I realized that I needed to get up and go shower to get ready for work, so I began to tell my friend that I should get off the phone, but that I would talk to her later. As I was saying my farewells, I got off the couch, turned off the television and started walking towards the staircase. Just as I was about to hang up, she said, "A plane hit the World Trade Center!"

"What?" I said. At first, confused. She repeated what she had said. I turned around and walked back into the living room to turn on the TV.

"How does a plane fly into a skyscraper?" I wondered aloud as I flipped on the news. Then I saw it. Another plane on the screen. I barely had the words, "Why is there another plane there?" out of my mouth before the second aircraft plunged into the side of the tower. My mouth gaped open. "What is going on?"

Then the words, "Attack on America" began to be spoken from the lips of reporters. I couldn't really process this information. This sort of thing didn't happen here anymore. We're America! Right?

Wrong. Shortly after, the news of the Pentagon being hit came in. This particular attack shook me to my core. I lived in Northern Virginia at that time, not far from Quantico Marine Base. Most of my friends had family members that worked in Washington, D.C., including at the Pentagon. This was really starting to hit deeply home.

Then another plane went down.

I really feel like that day was a blur. I remember going to work and going through the motions, but I think we were all in a state of shock. How had this happened?

What was going to happen now?

Were all my friends and their families alright?

Those three sentences permeated my thoughts that entire day. The fear that was surging through every American was thick and stagnant. You could just feel it all around.

Writing this down, even makes me feel it all over again. It's been ten years, but the pain is still real. I know many people who lost loved ones that day. I know more who lost loved ones in the ensuing years in the war overseas. The memorial may be standing, Osama Bin Laden may be dead, but the pain from that day is still very real for many Americans, even if it isn't as sharp.

Credit

We should all take a moment to day to pray for them. To remember them and those they lost. To remember those who lost their lives rescuing and helping others. To remember all the soldiers who have fought and died since that day and their families. Just remember.

This post is linked with No Ordinary Blog Hop.

Peekaboo Ivory

2011-09-10T10:04:00.000-04:00

It began with a slight sniffle.

Then it was an all out stuffed up sound.

Then came the low grade fever.

And don't forget the fussiness.

And the incessant night time nursings, that are really just a need to be cuddled.

What's the cause, you ask?

Two little specks of ivory teeth protruding from her gums. My sweet Sugar Plum is cutting more teeth! :)

Just even more signs that she is growing too quickly for my taste. Ah well, what can you do?

Time to break out the frozen washcloths! :)

A New Perspective on "Clean"

2011-09-09T07:59:00.000-04:00

Who would have thought that you could look at cleaning not as a continual burden, but as a way to give life to your home? A way to serve your husband and children? This line of thinking is mostly foreign to me. Sure, I realized that keeping a relatively clean home made the house a more comfortable place for us all to land, but it was still drudgery to me. Something that I didn't necessarily want to do, but something that must be done, and so I marched forth steadily, sometimes forward, other times, backward attempting to maintain the clutter as best I can with a grumble under my breath.

The 31 Days to Clean Challenge at Homemaker's Challenge has been opening my eyes. While I wholeheartedly believe that it is my God-given calling to be at home to take care of my children and "raise them in the way they should go," the upkeep of the home was sort of on the sideburner in my list of priorities. Sarah Mae, author of the 31 Days to Clean book, has a fantastic way of reaching off the page and opening your eyes to a completely different perspective on the WHY behind what we (homemakers) do. She spoke of the acronym that many of us have heard before :

Jesus First

Others Next
Yourself Last

You can find JOY when you follow the biblical model of looking to Jesus first and foremost, then by dying to self in order to serve others BEFORE worrying about YOU. This is a painful lesson to learn at times, but one I think is vital to a Christian's walk. When applied to keeping the home, this can translate to serving your family by maintaining a clean environment where they want to be found. I don't know about you, but I know that if I look around the house and everything is in disarray, I become anxious and I cannot fully relax. It had never really occurred to me that the mess could make my husband and children feel that way too!

Aside from getting rid of the clutter, Sarah Mae reminds us to remember that we, as the women of the house, can set the entire tone of the household with our words and actions. Are we nagging about others helping us in our house cleaning efforts? Are we bossy? Are we speaking in irritated tones most of the day? What if we made a very conscious effort to change this and instead, encourage our family members, extended grace when needed(because after all, we all fall short), and be sources of love, kindness, and patience? I know that I am absolutely, positively a work-in-progress in this area.

This challenge is helping me get my house in order,but more importantly, it is helping me change my view on the why behind my "job" as a keeper at home. What has it been teaching you?

The Family Illustrated Bible

2011-09-08T14:14:00.000-04:00

This is a beautiful book. Just gorgeous. In fact, I've seen it referred to as "visually stunning" quite a few times, and those people were not telling lies! The artwork is some of the most top quality artwork that I have seen used in a children's bible. I spent some time perusing the pages just to see all the different pictures. They are eye-catching and bold, but not at all cartoon-like. Both of my older children ooh-ed and aah-ed over the illustrations when we first received the book. This is the caliber of artwork that I would hang on my wall!

I also enjoyed the pages scattered throughout that share information on the time periods of the stories(Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Canaanites, etc.). It adds to the educational quality of the book when you can learn more about what life was like for the people in the text you are reading. There were also some neat archaeological facts and discoveries pertaining to the relevant stories/time periods as well as some actual photographs.

Another plus, for me, was that the actual text does not "talk down" to children. It uses adult vocabulary in its storytelling and does not shorten the stories so much that it eliminates the bulk of the context.

Even though all of those things were great, I would not recommend this book to anyone looking for a good, solid family bible. This book is an updated reprint of The Children's Bible published by DK, therefore it was originally made by a secular company. This shows itself throughout the book, so much so, that after several weeks of making this our nap and bedtime story source, I put it down. I came across too many "little" things that didn't align correctly with Scripture. In the Creation story, it mentions that "God worried." God does not/did not worry. In the story of the parting of the Red Sea, it is said that the Israelites crossed over on the muddy bottom, whereas the Bible plainly states that they crossed on DRY ground. It implies that Aaron is with Moses when God revealed the Ten Commandments to him. The book also uses the secular labels for timelines (CE and BCE) rather than B.C. and A.D. (this is particularly disturbing to me in a bible). These are just a few of the things that made me uneasy presenting this as a reliable children's bible.

All in all, I suppose it would have to be left up to each individual family to discern whether or not this would make a good resource for them. However, I hope that I have given a fair "heads up" to areas of concern.

For your own peek inside this book, please visit here.

*This book was given to me free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion. A positive review was not required. *

A Little Taste of Sweden

2011-09-05T07:00:00.015-04:00

I told you all about how Sweetpea and I have started reading through the American Girl series, starting with Kirsten Larson. This is our special time, just the two of us. We curl up together on the couch and read about Kirsten's life as an immigrant from Sweden learning the ways of pioneer life in America. There are six books in the series, and after checking out Kirsten's Cookbook and Kirsten's Craft Book from the library, we have decided to cook one meal/dish and do one craft after we complete each one.

We finished Meet Kirsten and had a blast cooking pork sausage patties and hard boiled eggs. Sweetpea LOVED making her little yarn doll as well, and now carries it around everywhere she goes. Read about those activities in my last post here.

The second book, Kirsten Learns a Lesson follows Kirsten as she enters American school. She must learn English and adapt to the new culture all around her. When we finished this book, we decided that we would try our hand at making Swedish Meatballs.

I think Sweetpea's favorite part was using the pizza cutter to dice up the bread for the meatballs. :)

Stirring the bread with milk and egg

We did change the original recipe by adding a cream based sauce rather than only having gravy made from the meat drippings. We accompanied the meal with corn (from our garden!) and some pasta.

Voila! Not the healthiest, but it WAS yummy!

Let me preface the following by saying that this craft was most definitely a labor of love from me. Sweetpea chose to make a doll sized braided mat for her craft this time around. At first glance, I thought, "No problem!" So we sat down and dug in...

Gathering supplies

Sweetpea chose three pink fabrics for her mat. We cut each piece into nine equal strips.

I took three pieces(one of each pattern) and tied them together at the top with a knot. Then I proceeded to braid them. I took this opportunity to try to teach Sweetpea how to braid, but she got frustrated and decided to watch most of the time.

When I got about two inches away from the end of the first three braided strips, we sewed on three more strips to the end. Sweetpea did pretty good (with a little coaching and help) with stitching.

We kept braiding, then repeated the above steps one more time. When we got to the end of the braid, I tied another knot and began to coil the braid around itself, sewing it together as I went. Here is the part where I had to go to my happy place. I really do NOT enjoy hand sewing. Not even a little bit. I procrastinate for months sometimes when it comes to just sewing a button back on a shirt. It's awful, really. I had originally thought that Sweetpea would be able to assist more with this, but her little fingers just had trouble so I spent more time than I will mention hand stitching this coil. I lost my thimble, too and my fingertips were numb when I was through from pushing the needle through repetitively.

After a few "Who's idea was this?" moments, I finally finished! The look on Sweetpea's face at the end was totally and completely worth all the hassle. She said, "Mommy, I LOVE it." Melt my heart.
I'd do again for that kind of response.

She immediately ran off to get her yarn doll, exclaiming that her new mat was the perfect size for her to sleep on!

Both of these have now become fixtures wherever Sweetpea wanders throughout the house.

We wanted to add a little to our lapbook that we started as well, so we got out our free printables from Homeschool Share and added two more little pockets. One shows a list of all the recipes we have made thus far and the other includes a picture of Kirsten's doll, Sari as "One of Her Favorite Things."

Numb fingers aside, we are truly having a wonderful time doing this together and I look forward to sharing the rest of our adventures with you!

This post is also linked to:

Lunchbox Encouragement for Dad

2011-09-04T18:25:00.000-04:00

When I was a little girl, my mom would sneak little surprise notes in my lunchbox. I would find them tucked underneath my sandwich when it was time to sit down and eat and it would always make me feel like I was special. My children do not attend public school, but I had always hoped to use this idea in another way with my children. I wanted to leave little reminders for them where they would least expect it that I loved them and that they were special to me.

A couple of weeks ago, I was perusing a new blog, Crayon Wishes and Popsicle Dreams, that I had found and came across this same idea only it had a twist. The lunchbox notes were not for the children, but for the father! AND not only were they notes for dad, but they included Scripture that would encourage him while he was away from home, working hard to provide for his family. I LOVED this idea. LOVED it.

Hubs works a very physically demanding job that has long hours. He works in a warehouse that has no air conditioning, climbing in and around machinery that gets as hot as 400 degrees. He works hard. He wears himself out day in and day out just to support us. This idea just seemed perfect to implement for him.

First, I had to edit the printouts a little, as we are a KJV only family and the verses on the ready made download were from other versions. I'm glad that I did this, because I found that a few of the Scripture references were not correct along the way. After the minor changes, I printed them out and as suggested by the above mentioned blog, I let the children color pictures on each note.

We have been slipping one into his lunchbox every day for the last week before he heads off to work. Sweetpea reminds me in a hushed tone every day to "make sure Daddy gets his secret note!" Hubs was tickled when he found the first one and now carries a few of them in his wallet all the time.If you would like to do this for your husband, just go on over to Crayon Wishes and Popsicle Dreams here and print out your own! After all, Dad needs some encouragement too, right? :)