Taking a Break

I am taking a short break. With the end of school, and trying to wrap up things and gear up for summer I need a break. I enjoy reading and will keep checking in with you guys that I read regularly, but I am not going to be posting any more until sometime in June. So look for me then!

I know the layout is a little bright. I will be working on that also while I am taking a break.

See you all soon!!

New Layout!!

I am trying out a new layout for spring/summer. I love these colors!!

Let me know what y'all think!



Have a great weekend!

Pictures to Share

I have been meaning to post our Easter pictures. I have told my mother they will be up soon, but I always for get...so tonight when thinking of what to share I decided to share our Easter Pictures.

Yes I know it is May!

ALI & LU











JA















JON, JA, & Me.









Easter "08"

Homeschool Curriculum for 08-09

We are finishing up our first 1/2 year. We started homeschooling in January, 2008. It has been a journey that Ali & I have enjoyed. We have 2 more days this week and 2 days next week and we will have our 180 days required. Ali has done an excellent job in all subjects, and I am so proud of her.

Next year we will be starting with 4th grade level books. I have chosen the ones listed below:

Science - Apologia Botany (and I plan on doing a nature notebook also) *ordered

Math - BJU Press Match 4 *ordered

Language - Abkea 4

History - Story of the World VOL I (Ancient Times)

Spelling - BJU Press Spelling 4 Kit *ordered

Reading - I am not following any list or curriculum. I hand picked some books and we will be writing short reports on each. Narnia series, A Christmas Carol, Charlotte's Web, Anne of Green Gables, The Littles, and the Nancy Drew Series.

Bible - Boy have I got problems *ordered

I also plan to do more Art and possibly a Music class or lessons. I know it sounds like alot but we are not planning to cover every subject everyday and we will work at our pace. Part of why I love Homeschooling!!!

That sums up our plans for next year. Now I just have to decide when to start. I am thinking mid-July, but we will see!!!

Have a Great Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday

Backyard Play!!! Good Memories forming right before our eyes! HAPPY WW!!!

Pretzel Recipe

Trying out a recipe for pretzels. My family loves salty pretzels when ever we are at a theme park. There's something yummy that we just can not resist. So I thought it would be neat to make them at home.

Pretzels
2 pkg Yeast
2 T Sugar
1 1/2 cup Warm Water
4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 T Salt
1 Egg
1 T Water
Kosher salt

Combine Yeast, Sugar, & 1 1/2 cups Water. Set to the side for 10 min.

Mix Flour and Salt and combine with Yeast mixture after 10 min. Flour hands and work until dough is no longer sticky. Roll into 12 inch pieces and fold into pretzel shape.

Beat egg and mix in water. Brush onto each pretzel shape then sprinkle with Kosher salt.

As you can see from my picture ... pretzel turned out a little fat. When rolling them out make sure the dough is rolled small it will rise alot when baking.

Enjoy your yummy treat!!!

Menu Planning Monday

• Monday - Meatloaf, Homemade Mac-N-Cheese, Corn


• Tuesday - Lemon Pepper Chicken, Parmesan Noodles, Peas

• Wednesday - Hot Dogs & French Fries


• Thursday - Breakfast - Pancakes, Sausage, Eggs & Biscuits (I know double bread :OP )
  
• Friday - Homemade Pizza Night

• Saturday - Easy Chicken Parmesan

Saturday's meal comes from http://www.kraftcanada.com/ and is truly the easiest Chicken Parm I have ever made and it taste wonderful! Hubby & Kids all wanted seconds. So this is now a staple for us! Visit their site for other quick and yummy recipes!

• Sunday - Still undecided - I'll let ya'll know later :O)

I hope everyone has a great week!!

Happy Mother's Day

Swing Set is DONE

We actually finished it this past Wednesday evening, but the camera was full and I had to transfer pictures before I could photograph it. Tons of fun....But I would NOT RECOMMEND this set. It is called the Pathfinder and is sold at Walmart. It takes 27 phase to put together and none of the wood is labeled. That is only half the trouble we had. The wood is flimsy - cheap - not sturdy in any way. 2 pieces split while we were putting it together and since we have seen several pieces we plan to replace. Our 9 year old and 2 year old like to swing at the same time and the entire set and fort sway. We have had to tell the neighborhood kids that they can not get on it at all. But for now it is the set we have. :O) Our kids are enjoying it and that is what its all about.

Merry Christmas in May

I am joining up with the Rudolph Club to help keep Christmas simple in my home. The Rudolph Club is an online club through the link below that has a once a month posting of ways to keep Christmas on track. Planning a little all along so that we can truly keep in the forefront what is important about the season. Remembering why it is called CHRISTmas!! I hope that by planning a little all along that I can keep our home more focused on the "Reason for the Season", and not the last minute rush!

This year we have already decided due to budget that Christmas will be a homemade gift for family and friends. I have tried this in the past and due to poor planning I get too overwhelmed at Christmas to get very many together (if any). A friend of mine here in Blog world advised me to check out a website http://organizedchristmas.com/april-2008-rudolph-club-meeting. That link will take you to the Rudolph Club Meeting for April and you can look around from there. The May meeting will not be until the 25th for obvious reasons.

So this year already I have started planning my Christmas letter (a first for me - we usually send the generic cards), also I have figured out which items I will be making and will be starting those soon and trying out the recipes. Jon and I have planned our budget and will try hard to stick too it! Last year we did really well and did not go over!!!

I do truly love the holidays ... the time from just before Thanksgiving until after Christmas are my favorite albeit busy time of the year. That is why I think this is such a great idea the Rudolph Club. Dedicating one day a month the 25th to work toward an easier Holiday season. I will update our progress monthly until the big day. For now I just want to wish everyone a MERRY MAY CHRISTMAS!!!

Thankful Thursday

Small scare this week! I felt like Johnny the Fireman, but I don't know if I did as well as he would!

After bringing in the groceries and the mail, I placed a box on the stove top. I had not been home and assumed that the stove was off. Guess what...My dd LU had cooked recently and instead of turning off the stove she switched it to low. We have a gas stove and with the ceiling fan on I could not even tell it was on or warm. You can guess the rest.

I placed the box on top and it slowly started to burn. I left the kitchen. I was suppose to go outside and work on a tree I was planting, but by the Grace of God I had received homeschool curriculum magazine and sat down to look at it. With in about 15 min I smell what I thought was matches. Immediately I started checking with LU & ALI to see if they lit a candle or something. I continued to look about the house, because the fan was on it was sucking any smoke up and I could not even see it in the kitchen, only in the living room. In a small panic at this point I begin shouting for children. Then I catch a glimpse of a smoke puff (literally puff from the stove top - another message from GOD), and I run in the kitchen and pick up the box - Poof FLAMES FLAMES FLAMES. I quickly grabbed the burning box and ran out of the kitchen door and threw the box off our deck. Of course grass catches on fire but I quickly put it out with the hose.

The box took a while to catch on fire because inside was a Styrofoam cube and it was melting instead of burning thank goodness!! Only by the GRACE OF GOD did I stay inside ... only by the GRACE OF GOD did I see the puff of smoke in time!! This is why I am so thankful this Thursday!! We are all safe, our home is not damaged, the grass will grow back!

Thank You God!!

Wordless Wednesday

A Budget Cut!

Sometimes saving money doesn't work out like it suppose to!

My poor darling Hubby. I have been cutting his hair for a while now in our garage to save money on haircuts for him and our son. Unfortunatly this past Saturday I was exhausted worked outside all day long and at 10:30 pm Saturday night Hubby wanted me to cut his hair. I admit I was talking to our eldest LU and not paying alot of attention and as you can see for got to put the gaurd on and cut right up the back.

I did fix it by cutting the back really short and did a pretty good job! Hubby does still love me & forgave me for laughing!! >>I told y'all he was a good man!

Have a GOOD not so Wordless Wednesday!

Tightwad Tuesday

I am a day late, but we are still working on the swing. We are on hour 12 of the 6-10 hour project full review coming once we finish!

TIGHTWAD TUESDAY!!!

We recently needed tires. 4 new tires for our van. We undoubtedly have an odd tire size because everywhere we called would have to order the size we needed, and boy were they expensive.

Then Hubby called Kaufman Tire. They also had to order the size we needed, but they had them the next day and at a more reasonable rate. Hubby took our van in next day on his lunch because they have the 39 minutes or less or $39 off deal. 4 tires were going to be $425 total - all fees & taxes. (this was about $150-$200 less than everywhere!!) Long story short....Hubby got there and they put the tires on in 1 1/2 hours. When it was time to check out he asked about the 39 min or less deal. Cashier spoke with manager behind closed doors and then came back and only charged us $370 I am not sure how that math worked out, but we did not complain.

If anyone is in need of tires try Kaufman and remember the 39 min or less deal!!

Have a great week!

Menu Planning Monday

This is the first month that we are trying once a month grocery shopping. My wonderful Hubby has scored a good deal on a freezer off craigs list...SO we are going to try to shop large and save money! (I hope :O)

• Monday - Spaghetti & Cheesy Biscuits


• Tuesday - Chicken Caesar Pitas


• Wednesday - Chicken Nuggets & Fries


• Thursday - Salmon, Early Peas & Rice


• Friday - Lemon Pepper Chicken, Broccoli & Cheese, ?


• Saturday - Taco's


• Sunday - Macaroni Grill for Mothers Day!!!!
  

Have a great week!!!

Swing set update

We did not get the swing set done :O( BUT hopefully we will today. It rained Saturday and was too muddy to start. So after church Sunday we got started about 1:30 and worked until 9:00 last night. Major hold up is that one of the main supports a 2x4x8 split from the bottom and the top, so when Hubby went back to Lowe's they were closed at 8:00 pm. So this morning the kids and I are off to Lowes to get a new piece of wood and potting soil for the trees we will plant later today. I will update with pictures when we are done.

Have a great week!!!

Thank Heaven It's FRIDAY

This seems like a short week, but we have all worked sooooo hard!! We spent all week getting ready to put up our swing set. This meant pulling all the weeds in the back that have sprung up like wildfire this spring. ALI, JA, and I have pulled weeds for 2 days. Then yesterday I cut the grass and used the weedhacker (that's what JA calls it). Now our yard looks great and is ready for Daddy to put the swing together this weekend!!!

That's the website picture of our swing set. Hopefully by the time JON and I get thru putting it together ours will look as good!! I will have to post the after pictures so everyone can see how ours turns out. The directions say that it will take 6-10 hours to put together so this will be my weekend!

Today I also found a good deal. We went to Lowes this morning and they had Bradford Pear Trees on clearance for $9.98. So I bought 3, and I plan to put them in the backyard. I may not get to this until Monday :O)

Have a great weekend!!