Is November really almost over?

Time sure is flying by. It seems like I turned around and it was November and now it's about to be December.

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving so much. We spend Thanksgiving with my parents and family every year. My oldest daughter, 9, loves to help Nana make fruit salad.

This year she showed her little sisters how to make it and they basically made it by themselves with just a little assistance from Nana. They were so proud!

I made Crystal's wonderful butterhorn rolls. They were a big hit with my family. Very delicious!

I think the next time I make them- probably at Christmas- I will make smaller rolls since these were so large. The picture shows them before they doubled in size. And yes, I forgot to take a picture after they were cooked :(

"Homemade" Doughnuts

When I was a child my mom used to make these for my brothers and I. I have great memories of trying to put as much powdered sugar on them as I could get :)

Now I will tell you upfront that these are not healthy, but I guess doughnuts couldn't possibly be healthy anyway.

***First, you take a can of whop 'em biscuit dough (any brand will do I suppose). I've used name brand and store brand.

***Next, you whop 'em on the counter to open, ha ha!!

***Then, you heat some oil in a skillet. I use canola oil in a small skillet- probably about 1 inch of oil. I don't measure this!

***Take the biscuits apart and flatten them.

***Then use a small biscuit cutter or you could use some kind of small bottle top to make a whole in the flattened biscuit. This will be your doughnut hole.

***When the oil is hot, you're ready to go. Place several biscuits in the hot oil.

***Do not walk away!!! These cook quickly! Turn when brown and wait a minute or so. Take those out and place on a plate with several layers of paper towels to soak up some of the grease.

***Add some more biscuits to the oil. Continue until all are cooked.

***Sprinkle some(or lots if you're like me) powdered sugar on them and put them on the table and watch them disappear!

Our Week in Review

What a last few weeks it has been!

Let me just say we've been busy around here. I don't remember having such a hard time getting all of our school work done before. Well, maybe it's because my children are getting older and there's more activities. Or maybe it's because I'm schooling 3 children now. Or maybe we just need to stay home more. Hmmmm....

I think the last one is the right answer. I was determined to do that this week, but then the unexpected grocery store trip and doctor visit creeped in and messed my plan up. Oh well, that's just life and the best I can do is just roll with it.

I'm trying to evaluate our school schedule. It just seems to be so much reading for History and Bible that we're getting off track. Well, I guess if those two subjects were all that we did it'd be fine. When you throw in Spelling, Grammar, Reading, Science, Math and all the other stuff we try to do it just doesn't fit.

So this week we took a detour just to catch up a little bit. I told them we were not doing anything but History, Bible and Science until we caught up- well at least for this week anyway. It worked well, except for the detours I mentioned above.

We finished up week 13 of History and Bible (My Father's World- Rome to the Reformation). We even completed 3 days of Week 14, too.
Science is another story since we're another week behind there.

I did want to mention one Science book that we're really enjoying.

Each week we're studying a different part of the body. You actually make a hands-on model of that body part. You make copies for each child (Grades 3-6, but I'm having my 2nd grader do it, too). Then, you follow the steps to make the model. There is a good bit of cutting involved and I have to read each step carefully to make sure we don't glue or cut the wrong part, but it has been such a great part of our study of the human body.

Don't Let Bread Take a Bite Out of Your Budget

Whether you have a large, medium or small family, you know that bread is expensive.

We eat a lot of bread around here: sandwiches, garlic bread, toast, rolls.

You name it we probably eat it.

I do whatever I can to lower the expense of bread. I own a bread machine, but haven't really used it much in several years. Well, except for making dough- mainly pizza dough. It's just nice to let the machine do it for me- lazy, I know.

We eat whole wheat bread as much as possible and well it's just not cheap. I am determined not to buy the sliced white stuff even though I'm so tempted when I see the cheaper prices.

**I used to always buy our favorite whole wheat bread when our local grocery store ran it 10/$10. I would buy 10-12 loaves and put it in the freezer. (It still tastes good even though it's not quite as good as fresh.) Then, when the sales would cycle back around I'd buy whatever I needed.

It worked great because I never had to spend much on bread. Well, I haven't seen those prices in a couple of years.

**Now I go to the bread store where they sell bread that is close to the expiration date. I freeze that, too. It's gone up in price though and it's over a dollar a loaf. It's still much cheaper than buying it at regular price.

**I frequent the deli clearance racks for marked down French and Italian loaves. Those also go in the freezer for future meals.

Buying bread without breaking the budget is possible with a little time and thought.

Being Thankful in All Things

Lately I've been reminded of just how blessed I truly am. The Lord continues to show me my blessings and I am reminded to be thankful to him and not take these things for granted.

Psalm 100:4 reminds us: "Be thankful unto him, and bless his name."

Some of the things I am thankful for today:

*my husband
*my four children
*my parents
*my mother-in-law
*a good job for my husband
*being able to stay at home with my children
*daily provisions


There have been times in my life that were more difficult and extremely stressful, but during those times God continued to remain faithful to me.

In my short life I've been many places and seen many people and things. It's easy to get caught up in today and it's worries and to forget of those who have no food, shelter, or most importantly don't know my Lord.

Today may we be reminded how blessed we truly are and thank him for these blessings.

When we give him thanks and praise we have no time to complain of what we think we "need" or want.

Thank you, Father, for blessing me today.

My Way of Freezer Cooking

I've read several of the freezer cooking books where you make a month of meals in one day and then you don't have to cook for the rest of the month. They look so great to me and I think oh I'll try that one day, but I've just never been brave enough to try that for even two weeks worth of meals.

Maybe it's just because I'm not that organized.
Yes, that will be my excuse for now :)

I do freezer cooking in small batches though and I thought I'd share.

When I buy ground chuck I usually by 5-6 lbs at a time. Here are the ways I like to freeze it:

I like to either cook it all up (with onions and sometimes garlic) to freeze for spaghetti, lasagna, tacos or some other quick meal.

I've also started making my meatloaf ahead of time. I mix it up and put it in my meatloaf glass pan and freeze it until ready to thaw and bake. I add the ketchup, mustard and brown sugar topping after I thaw it out.

I, also, like to make up my hamburger patties and freeze so they'll be ready to grill when I need them. Plus, they thaw fairly quickly so it makes for an easy meal. Hamburgers and fries are one of my family's favorite meals.

I'll share more next week of how I use my freezer to help when I'm short on time.

Our 2011-2012 Curriculum

I linked up to Heart of the Matter online to post our curriculum choices for this year. This is actually our third year to begin school in July. We began on July 5. It's too hot for the kids to play outside with 100 degree temps.

This is our 6th year of homeschooling. We have a 4th, 2nd, K and Pre-K.

We use My Father's World multi-age cycle. This year we are using Rome to the Reformation.

4th & 2nd together-
Bible/History- Victor Journey Through the Bible, Streams of Civilization: Volume 1, Trial and Triumph
-Readings from Luke, 1 John, Philippians and other books of the Bible, and memory verses from the New Testament
-How the Bible Came to Us
-Ancient World, Augustus Caesar's World, The Roman Empire, and Medieval World
-Map Work, History Notebook, timeline, and hands on projects
-Library books- used for enrichment (when we can find them). We don't have a very good library.

Science
-First Encycylopedia of the Human Body
- The Human Body for Every Kid
- The Body Book
- Exploring Creation with Astronomy
- Weekly nature walks and nature journals

Foreign Language
English from the Roots Up- Latin roots

Spanish- basic course for my younger three using printables off the web

Reading- I use the book lists from Sonlight and Ambleside online as a guide to what books my 4th and 2nd grader read.

Read-alouds-
(currently) The Bronze Bow,
The Burgess Animal Book for Children(all)


4th Grade:

Rod & Staff Grammar 4
Spelling Power
Singapore Math 4A-4B
Mavis Beacon typing
Writing Strands Level 3 (We will be trying this again this year. We only used it a few weeks last year. It didn't work well so I decided to wait a year.)
Reading- currently Heidi and Stuart Little


2nd Grade:

Abeka Spelling 2nd
Primary Language Lessons (and some Abeka 2 Language since I have a workbook)
Singapore Math 2A-2B
Handwriting- some Abeka plus copy work and dictation from Bible and reading
Reading-currently Charlotte's Web


K-
Handwriting- Veritas Press Kindergarten Workbook
Abeka Phonics K and 1
Math- various manipulatives and printouts for copying numbers
Abeka readers 1
various books for reading and read-alouds
various arts and crafts

Pre-K:

Playdough, coloring books, printouts from 1+1+1+1, waterpaints, pattern blocks, cutting and pasting, magnetic letters, read alouds, etc.