What We've Been Up To

I've had some trouble posting pics on blogger, but I think maybe I've figured out what was wrong.
Here are some recent pics of what we've been up to lately.


And blog posts are much more fun with pictures and writing! Don't you agree?

                                                             We planted a small garden.

Everyone helped plant.

We spent a week in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. 

We hiked to a waterfall.

It was so nice and none of us wanted to come home. 

Freezer Cooking This Week

I've been busy this week!  I have been inspired by several other bloggers to do some cooking for my freezer.  I usually do some things along, like cooking up ground chuck or making up a meatloaf. 

Well, this week I was determined to do some more things to help free up some time this summer. 

This is what I've done so far this week.  Yes, for me it's been all week and not just one day. 

3 bags of ground chuck, cooked with onion
6 bags of shredded chicken (approx. 1 1/2 cups each)
3 containers of chicken broth
1 meatloaf (not cooked)
3 bags of pinto beans
3 bags of chick peas
8-9 dozen chocolate chip cookie balls

Today I'm planning to make 2-3 lasagnas and maybe freeze some of the pulled pork that I'm cooking in the crockpot for supper. 

Pinterest has also inspired me to check out some new recipes for the freezer.  (I just love Pinterest!)
I think I'll try to make a few casseroles next week, but after today I'm done until next week.  I'm tired!

What freezer recipes do you make? 

Our Medieval Studies and Castle

In January we studied about Medieval times in our Rome to the Reformation study. If you are new here and haven't read my post on our 2011-2012 Curriculum, we use My Father's World multi-age cycle.

The read-aloud book for this time period was The Door in the Wall. It is a Newberry Medal book that I highly reccommend. It is such a great book that my children begged me to read more each day. I tried to stay with one chapter a day, but sometimes I gave in and read two.

The castle kit Make This Model Medieval Castle was included in the deluxe package for Rome to the Reformation. We just followed the instructions (I did a lot of the cutting, because it's very important to have straight lines.) :) We (9, 8, 5, and 4 year olds) all worked together to build it. It was difficult for the little ones so they mainly just helped with some of the gluing.


Here is a picture of our castle (can't figure out why it is sideways):