Posts

Showing posts from January, 2012
Image
Sweetie pie.
Image
Baked Penne with Italian Sausage This recipe is a new favorite. It makes me love Italian sausage. Try it.
Image
We're still on the chapter about the skeletal system in Norah's science book. Norah's most recent science lesson said to tape her first two fingers of each hand together and to try and do everything the same as you would without the tape. This illustrated to Norah how important all the little bones in her hands really are and how perfectly God designed human hands in every detail for all we'd need them to do. There are a little over 200 bones in the whole body, half of those are in our two hands and feet alone! Norah was ready to take the tape off after only a few minutes, but I set a timer and made her wear the tape for ten more minutes, at the least. I think she was much more aware of and thankful for her healthy hands. I know I said a quiet prayer of thanks for my healthy hands and all the things that they can do that I take for granted.
Image
Image
Avril enjoys an omelet and toast her dad made one weekend morning. We all agree. Dad makes the best omelets.
Image
Here's another recent picture for the "family" album. I thought Avril was adorable next to her dad so I took this picture. She ate her whole dinner snuggled right up to him like that. She's a very affectionate child and she constantly blesses us with her sweet kisses, hugs and snuggles.
Image
I dabble in unit studies. I don't dwell there, though, because I can't seem to find a way to teach all that's necessary for Norah to know without using textbooks and worksheets. But I do like to dabble in unit studies. They make home school life worth living, I think. I build our units around what we will be doing, what we are doing and then once we've done it, I keep building on what we did. We are in the midst of the makings of a unit on New York City's landmarks and the unit study is practically building itself. Here's how. I knew we were going to NYC for doctor's appointments. Norah has 101 things to see before she's twelve . I knew that there were bound to be some things on her list that were in the city. I look at her list of 101 things and find out that "a little country" and "an ethnic restaurant" are on there. So we decide to go Chinatown when we are in NYC. That's a little country. We'll eat something there, ma
Image
I usually get to enjoy some time with Avril before Norah wakes up. Avril can hear the floor creek as soon as I get out of the bed and she'll yell "Momma! Momma! Momma!" till I go get her. In this picture, she was sitting with me while I worked at the kitchen table really early one morning and she was giggling, as usual.
Image
I force myself to let Norah to take the time to write thank you notes. Sometimes I'll even let her do them in place of handwriting practice. It takes so much time away from her lessons, but it's good for Norah to practice saying thanks and acknowledging when someone has done her a good deed, directly. It forces thoughtfulness, humility and grace, things that the best handwriting program can't teach her and some of the most important things for Norah to learn.
Image
"Em me see! Em me see!" she asks and so I'll take a moment to show her the photo I just took of her. She will giggle so hard at seeing her own picture that she covers her mouth and closes her eyes. I love this kid. She brings me countless moments of pure joy throughout my day.
Image
Just as Norah seems to be outgrowing dress up, Avril is growing into it. She will often enter a room in a princess dress, expecting us to react to her. And Norah and I both play along, gasping and fussing over how beautiful she looks.
Image
At the beginning of December, I was three years behind on my Christmas scrapbook. Now I am totally up to date and just in time to put this in the box of Christmas decorations and books on its way to the attic till next year. It ain't the prettiest scrapbook, but it does the job. Norah draws the decorations herself. I like that she will see her own art work in here along with the photos as the years go by.
Image
We added two new hermit crabs to our family. We now have a total of four. One new crab, pictured below, is little bigger than a dime, making him pretty adorable, as far as crabs go. The other crab has already changed from the brown shell he was in at the store into a new green shell and seems to be considering changing again. Here he is checking out some of the empty shells we have around the tank. Norah has taken on the responsibility of caring for her hermits willingly and spiritedly. Of course, I help when she needs me. I pour the fresh water from the gallon into the spray bottle, a job that requires more coordination than she's got at age seven, that sort of thing. She is learning so much and growing in maturity by taking care of them.
Image
Better late than never, right? I gave this gingerbread kit to the girls in their Christmas stocking but we just got around to doing it today (meaning that I just now got around to talking myself into letting the girls make a hug mess while I sit by and just watch and smile through the pain and bite my knuckles till it's all over.) I think this must make me a horrible mom, but this kind of thing is painful for me. I dislike crafts, especially messy, sticky ones. But the girls had fun and they don't seem to resent the fact that I was so slow about making this happen, thankfully.
Image
A friend of mine who is a blog follower purchased me a gift subscription to e-mealz. She wanted to remain anonymous, so I won't include her name. But I wanted to say publicly how her gift has blessed me already and recommend e-mealz to you all. E-mealz allowed me to tailor the plan my friend purchased for me to the store of my preference, Aldi. E-mealz has a meal plan for just about every grocery store out there, I think. Aldi is my preferred store because it is so, so, so inexpensive compared to other grocers, but it's stock is also more limited than other grocers... so it's hard to find everything you need for every single one of your recipes there... or at least it was . Dwayne and I had been discussing how nice it would be to find meals that we could make with all-Aldi ingredients, all the time, but it just seemed impossible... That's when I got the email from my friend about the gift subscription and that's when I chose a plan for all Aldi products, all the
Image
The girls played in the snow till the sun went down yesterday. Here Avril had just come in from the cold. She drinks her hot (warm) chocolate through a straw.
Image
Here's a small glimpse of the realities of home schooling. Science and reading books sit next to the toys (and more toys) the baby drags into the room, next to my computer and the telephone. Homeschooling isn't always (or ever) glamorous.
Image
Yesterday was a snow day. We haven't gotten much snow this winter, so the kids were eager to play outside. The girls used their hands and then the snow shovels to push snow into a pile and make a tunnel through it. The girls played outside for several hours! After I sent them out each time, I'd expect them to come in on their own because they were cold, but they never came. They just played and played. Their new snow suits must be thicker than their old ones. But, eventually, it was time to call them in for meals or later for naps or even later for dinner and bedtime. But it's always easier to come in out of the snow when you know Mom has some hot chocolate or a warm meal waiting for you.
Image
I needed to take some time off of doing school work with her to prep dinner and get it in the crock pot. So, instead of letting her leave the room and get engaged with her toys or the computer, making it difficult, if not impossible to pull her back to her school work later on, I just made my dinner prep part of her lessons for the day. She had to help me from start to finish, read the recipe, get the ingredients and tools out, measure, wash the bowls and cutting boards. Once it had cooled, I even taught her how to clean my skillet (without soup), dry it and rub it down with vegetable shortening! As you can see from the photo, she even proved responsible enough to turn the pieces of beef as they browned in the skillet under my close supervision. She even protected Avril from the hot stove, shooing her little sister away as she toddled into the kitchen to see what big sister was up to. These little lessons on dinner prep (and child care) are not part of her formal curriculum, as I s
Image
We put a piece of black construction paper in the freezer after breakfast. When Norah went out to play in the falling snow, she took the paper and a magnifying glass to look at the snowflakes that fell on her paper. In her words, "One looked like a star. Another looked like a flower. I could see right through them. It was awesome!" Note: The paper didn't seem that cold to me, even after more than an hour in the freezer. So it seems that as long as the snowflakes don't just melt when they hit it, the paper doesn't have to be frozen.
Image
"Children become readers on the laps of their parents." - Emilie Buchwald
Image
This is not the most flattering photo of my pregnant, freezing, wind-blown self, but I am adding it for the purposes of history and honesty. And also because my parents beg to see more pictures of me. We rode the Ferris wheel inside the Toys R' Us in Times Square on our most recent trip to NYC. Yes. That's right. I said inside the Toys R' Us. The store is huge, big enough for a Ferris wheel inside! The Ferris wheel had cars of all different varieties: Toy Story, My Little Pony, etc. We just happened to get the Barbie car. The girls were thrilled about this, of course. Avril sat next to her Dad, strapped in, secure in his nook. She's ready to go! Isn't she cute?
Image
While in NYC yesterday, we saw four more places on Norah's list of 101 places to see before she turns twelve. You can see some pictures and read about the places we visited on her blog .
Image
We're headed to NYC again today. I've got another appointment with my thyroid doctor. We're planning to make the most of the fact that we have to be in the city and take in some more of the sites. On today's list is the Empire State building, Grand Central Station and Times Square. Norah should be able to add a few more places to her blog tomorrow.
Image
Avril snuggled up next to me on the couch, got real still and before I knew it, I looked over and saw her sleeping like this!
Image
One of my goals this year was to: Serve fruit and/or vegetables for a snack and at at least two meals a day. I know a lot of other moms want to get their more fruits and veggies into their kids, too, so I thought I'd talk about what has helped me make this happen in the last few weeks. It helps to have the fruit already prepared and just waiting in the fridge. I try to slice the cantaloupe or wash the strawberries as soon these come home from the grocery store. (I'm exaggerating, of course, because I don't really do this as soon as I get home from the store, but I do try and do it as soon as possible.) I will often spend some time on the weekend and on a weeknight around dinner time getting the fruit ready for the days ahead. I have found that if I have to wash and prepare the fruit after the kids have come into the kitchen, jumping around my legs, begging for a snack, fruit is way less likely to be what I give them. At that point, vanilla wafers are going to win because
Image
Image
How can I tell that Norah was inspired by our "field trip" to a patisserie in NYC last Wednesday? Because this is what she did to her yogurt Thursday morning.
Image
I had an appointment with my thyroid doctor in New York City this week, so we took advantage of the fact that we had to be in the city anyway and we planned some fun, educational activities for the kids. Norah checked five things off her list of 101 things to see before she turns twelve. With my help, she blogged about them here . We had an incredible day together as a family. We have to go into the city for another appointment next week. If all goes as we are planning, we'll visit more places on Norah's list then, too.
Image
Homemade Almond Joys Follow this recipe to make some coconut macaroons. When your macaroons have cooled, push a whole, roasted, unsalted almond into the center of each macaroon. Next, make the chocolate. In the bottom of a sauce pan over medium heat, melt a stick of butter. Add two cups of sugar, three tablespoons unsweetened coco powder and a cup of milk to the melted butter and stir. Let this heat up and come to a boil, stirring on and off. I like to use a rubber whisk for this part of the recipe. As soon as this mixture comes to a rolling boil, set a timer for one minute. After exactly one minute, take the chocolate off the heat and add 1/2 cup peanut butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir and stir until the coco-peanut butter sauce mixture is consistent. I use a plastic spoon for this part. Next, dip the macaroons in the chocolate sauce using tongs. Let the excess chocolate sauce fall back into the pan. Lay them on a sheet of wax paper to dry and harden. You can see the dipped &q
Image
Norah has finished the manuscript review section of her handwriting book and she has started learning to write in cursive!
Image
Image
We haven't been out to eat since we went to Panera Bread on 12-21-11 in the middle of a busy day of holiday errands, so I think that means it's been eighteen days since we've eaten anything that wasn't made at home. Eighteen days. I think that must be a lifetime record for me, even if I include high school when I wasn't driving myself and I had to bum rides to Wendy's (not to mention money to actually pay for Wendy's). All told, I was even going out to eat more then than I am lately. The first thing I'd like to say about eating at home is we need a lot more groceries, a lot. This should have been obvious. We eat three meals a day here plus snacks. I am still getting used to how quickly we tear through our supplies. Before this, we ate at restaurants frequently enough to make a trip to the grocery store necessary only once every week and a half to two weeks, maybe. But lately, I have to go out to the grocery store with the kids at least once a week, at l
Image
Cheese!
Image
We had a late lunch of black bean tacos so we needed something light for dinner tonight, something that would fill our bellies till we went to bed, but not weigh us down before bed. I made this rustic chicken minestrone to fill the need. I used baked chicken pieces I had reserved in the fridge. I also needed to use the kale before it spoiled and I wanted to use up what was left in the bottom of a box of pasta shells. We all liked this soup even though it appears so healthy that you couldn't possibly enjoy it. But, next time I make this, I'll cut the chicken and kale into much, much smaller pieces so that they won't so dominate the bites they are in and so that they will dispense throughout the soup better. And I will keep an eye out for much smaller pasta shells the next time I go grocery shopping. These were as small as I could find, but they were also a bit too big per bite, in my opinion. If you make this, don't forget to garnish it with grated Parmesan cheese.
Fear, to me, was the same as air. In me, Surrounding me, So I thought it was a basic element, a fact of life. I lived in it, moved in it, built a home there. But your perfect love would not stand it. You took my hand and lead me here where peace and rest have replaced all of fear. And you taught me fear is toxic, deadly, sinister. It doesn't come from you. It can not dwell with you. So if I smell it, hold my breath till you come near and clear the air. -Veronica Boulden

Song and Verse for 2012

My song for 2012 is "Show Me Your Glory" by Jesus Culture. My verse for this year is, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" Luke 11:13 I am convinced that the Lord lead me to this song and verse so that I will know how to pray for what He wants to do in my life. I find that God's Spirit will do that. He'll lead me to know what to ask for and I'll ask for it and then I'll have to wait and pray some more until He does whatever it is in His time. The gospel tells us our sins are forgiven through faith in Christ and we can go to heaven when we die, but the good news does not end there. God abolished all that prevented fellowship with Him and He made it so that His Spirit could remain with us. I want every bit of what I could have with God this side of eternity and perhaps for the first time in my walk with God, I a
Image