More Australian Animals

We are coming to the end of our study on Australian animals. We are going to be looking at the animals of the southern forest tomorrow. 

This includes the Tasmanian devils (not the one from Looney Tunes!) and the platypus. We are going to go over some printouts from enchantedlearning.com to learn about these two animals.

We are then going to use our ZooBook magazines to go over more about the koala bear and finally we are going to watch this video on the Lyrebirds. Wow! Those birds are interesting!!

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyre+birds&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=0A84C607A97F11D4C1130A84C607A97F11D4C113

Our next section are animals in the arctic and Antarctica! This is the section in our book that Courtney has been waiting for because it includes penguins!

Who wants straight teeth??

My teeth have been on my mind a lot lately. I have been having a lot of jaw pain for about four years now and awhile ago found out I suffer from TMJ. But since that is such a broad term, an oral surgeon actually told me I had osteoarthritis in my right jaw and the cartilage is gone. I am bone on bone and I really try not to yawn because then I have to hear the cracking. :(

To cause all this damage, I really have two problems.  My first problem is my jaw, my bottom jaw is underdeveloped and my top jaw is too narrow. I have been to three orthodontists and they all told me to have surgery to have my jaw broke (both top and bottom jaw), so I went to an oral surgeon and he recommend AGAINST breaking my jaw. Ok, I will take your recommendation!

My other problem is that my teeth are terribly crooked and my teeth do not line up AT ALL!

Between the jaw trouble and the crooked teeth, no wonder my jaw bone is deteriorated and I have no cartilage left!

Since my oral surgeon does not want to do surgery, I figure I can at least straighten my teeth.  My dentist is recommending Invisalign and I am seriously thinking about it! Insurance will cover part of it along with a nice discount, so there is some left to pay, but I think we can handle it.

If I don't do something, the arthritis will only get worse, the pain will get worse, and eventually I will be unable to move my jaw. :(  And I am only 36....

As if my teeth troubles were not enough, I took Megan to the orthodontist today. I took her a year ago and h took pictures of her teeth and jaw and said that everything looked good so far.  I took her back again today and he  seemed to be more interested in how her new teeth were coming in.  She had thought she had lost 18 teeth, but come to find out, her count is off! She has really lost 19 and she already has her 12 year molars!  The orthodontist said, "She's way ahead of most kids her age!" She has always been early when it came to her teeth!  He wants us to come back in in 6 months and re-evaluate her.  By then, she should have lost that last baby tooth and all her permanent teeth will be in.  I really hope she does not have my trouble!!

Stars in the sky!!

Tonight after we got home from church, I noticed how bright the stars were in the sky.  I had Christian, so I said to him, "Christian, do you see all the stars in the sky tonight?"

Christian: "I see them." (As he looks up at the sky)

Me:"Do you know who made them?"

Christian: "Who did make them?"

Me: "God made them, aren't they neat?"

Christian: "Did He put them all up there like that??"

Me: "Yes, Christian He did. Isn't God awesome?"
Christian: "Yes!"

My favorite show is back!!!

For months, Courtney and I have been waiting for "The Amazing Race" to come back! We have been counting down the days until it started up again last night! Unfortunately, we were not able to watch it last night because we had small group with church, so we sat down tonight and watched the first episode! We were pretty excited!

Courtney was even more excited when she saw that her favorite team was back! She loves the Afghanimals; she has been singing their song since the last season! As we watched the episode tonight, she was cheering for them and was very happy when they were not eliminated. I hope they will make it to the end, just to see her excitement!

These are the Afghanimals and Courtney's favorite team! I think she just likes them because of their catchy song!!!

The Australian Outback

Tomorrow we are studying the Australian Outback!

Our first animal is the kangaroo!

We are going to look at this website and watch the short movie.
http://animalstime.com/kangaroo-facts-kids-kangaroo-habitat-kangaroo-diet/

We might even look through a couple Zoobook magazines we have on the kangaroo.

Then we are going to make our own kangaroos as a craft like shown on this blog.
http://tippytoecrafts.blogspot.com/2011/06/kangaroos.html


We are then going to look at the Honeypot ants.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeypot_ant

The frilled lizard.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/reptiles-kids/lizard-frilled-kids/

And finally, the wombat whose babies peek out from their pouches that open backward!

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/wombat/

Pictures "baby wombat in pouch"

We might have to split this lesson into two days again!

Are homeschoolers sheltered??

I saw this article and thought of the question I often get asked, "Aren't you sheltering your children by homeschooling them??" (This is sometimes question #2 behind, "What about socialization??) My response, "Yes, I am sheltering them!"

This article does a great job of explaining my viewpoint!

http://thebackporchpundits.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/why-homeschoolers-are-sheltered/

Someday...

Does anybody else think it is UNFAIR that everybody else in my family can eat ice cream, but I can't?? Seriously, they get it out, scoop it into bowls, and eat it right in front of me!!

Someday I will be able to eat ice cream again!!!!
 (along with gluten, eggs, other dairy products, chicken, yeast, peanuts, and corn!!)

Turkey tonight!

For awhile now, I have been wanting to buy a turkey at the store, roast it, and put the cooked meat in the freezer to use later.  I finally bought a 20 lb. turkey last week and guess what we are having tonight? turkey!! I am also making mashed potatoes, so it seems like Thanksgiving Day tonight!

I just need some stuffing, cranberry sauce, and some pumpkin pie!

Science Class

Tomorrow we are going to be looking at animals of the northern coast of Australia. We are almost finished with our study of animals from around the world.

Our first animal is the bird of paradise.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Nat+Geo+Birds+of+Paradise&Form=VQFRVP#view=detail&mid=1EC4FB9D780564B6CFEB1EC4FB9D780564B6CFEB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-V3OYwwQU

tree kangaroos!
https://www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick/Animals/Mammals/Tree-Kangaroos.aspx
http://www.ehow.com/list_7321867_tree-kangaroos.html

Cassowary birds- They are known as the most dangerous birds on earth.
http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/worlds-most-dangerous-bird.html
http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/cassowary
Look at pictures of cassowary birds.


The last bird we are going to be looking at is the Bowerbird.  These guys compete for mates by building complicated structures and decorating them!

We are going to look at pictures of bower bird nests, especially the satin bower birds. They collect anything blue to put in their nests because the ladies like blue. :)

Here is a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ32_ijdmLo (super cute, but we are not going to watch in class)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_BurGW2rPU

New recipes from old ones!

Someday, I might start a blog with all my recipes I have came up with the last year and a half! I have used many old favorites and have figured out how to replace milk, eggs, and gluten. Some have worked, some have not!!!

For instance, today I had some overripe bananas that I wanted to use, so I got out my tried and true banana muffin recipe.  I think I replaced about everything in it! The new thing I wanted to try is to replace sugar with honey and butter with coconut oil.

I have already learned how to use the coconut oil, so tonight I looked up how to use honey and it worked!!! 

I used gluten free flour instead of wheat flour, rice milk instead of cows milk, coconut oil instead of butter, honey instead of sugar, flax seed instead of the eggs, plus some xantham gum. It barely looks like the same recipe!! They all mixed up great and cooked up with no problem! You can't even tell there is honey or coconut oil in them!

Christian had also found a blueberry muffin recipe in a Dora/ Diego cookbook he found at the library and has been begging me for days to make them. We bought some blueberries yesterday, so those were also on the agenda today. Well, I tried to replace things in that recipe, I'm not sure if it worked out not. They are still in the oven! (Again, gluten free, flax seed, rice milk, coconut oil, and honey) I had to keep putting them back in because they weren't cooking, hmmm.

I would really like to make this homemade strawberry granola sometime, but it needs to sit in the oven for 3-4 hours to get crisp.  Maybe I will try this tomorrow. :)

http://www.lynnskitchenadventures.com/2011/05/homemade-strawberry-granola.html

On a side note, I finally found some cauliflower for Megan yesterday at the grocery store. I might tried mashed cauliflower tonight.

http://www.food.com/recipe/vegan-mashed-cauliflower-instead-of-mashed-potatoes-208857

Learning about the Presidents!!

For Presidents' Day yesterday, I had the girls do a timeline on the history of Presidents' Day and we make acrostic poems.  Well, we just wrote phrases about Washington and Lincoln and didn't make them rhyme, but I thought they turned out very informative, so I am going to share them. :)  The girls came up with most of the ideas.

This is how the sheet looked when we started, then I had the girls come up with phrases about George Washington. I made the letters in "Washington" bold, sorry if it is hard to follow!

W
A
S
H
I
N
G
T
O
N

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Head of colonial Army
Son of a prosperous planter
Served in the House of Burgesses (Virginia)
Intelligent
No one but him was the first president
Took charge of the new Government
Took measurements of lands as first job
On the one dollar bill and the quarter
Never gave up at Valley Forge

We did the same thing with Abraham Lincoln.  Since we had just finished a huge unit on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, we didn't even had to look at our books. :)

It started like this:
A
B
E
L
I
N
C
O
L
N

And ended like this:
Appointed 16th president in 1860
Became a Congressman in 1847
wrote the "Emancipation Proclomation"
Lived in a log cabin as a child
Got shot In Ford's Theatre
Never for slavery
Coordinated the Northern Armies during the Civil War
Orated the "Gettysburg Address"
Lived in Springfield, Illinois
Became a National figure in 1858

We also took time to talk about the other two presidents who have birthdays in February? Do you know who they are??

Have you ever heard of the Uniform Monday Act passed in 1968??  It went into effect in 1971 with an Executive Order by Richard Nixon. (And of course, then we had to talk about his presidency and his impeachment!) This Act is what made four federal holidays through out the year be moved to Mondays instead of on their intended date. This gave all federal employees a 3-day weekend.  The other holidays that were moved were Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and Memorial Day! ("But wait," you say, "Veterans Day is celebrated on November 11th, not on a Monday." You are right! There was such an uproar that Congress moved Veterans Day back to November 11th and it didn't matter which day of the week it fell on!)

And at this time, it was still called "Washington's Birthday," but by about the 1990's, states started putting "Presidents' Day" on the calendar instead of "Washington's Birthday" in order to honor all the presidents who had led our country- what does your calendar say the holiday was yesterday? Mine actually says both!!

Oh the things I learned this week!!!

Presidents' Day

We know it is Presidents' Day tomorrow and kids around here don't have school, but of course, Ruwe Homeschool will be in session and the teacher is coming up with a lesson on the federal holiday!

I found a great website on President's Day and we are going to make a timeline and watch some movies.

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/presidents-day

I'm not going to make this too difficult!!

Science Class- Sumatra

Tomorrow is our last day studying the animals and habitats of Asia. We are going to be looking at the 6th largest island in the world- Sumatra!

http://wikitravel.org/en/Sumatra

Some animals that live in Sumatra are:
Orangutans

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/orangutan/
We have orangutans at the zoo here in Omaha, so we have seen these in person before!

rhinoceros hornbills

http://kids.mongabay.com/animal-profiles/rhinoceros_hornbill.html


rafflesia flower: We studied these last year in our botany unit, but they are still fascinating!

http://marc3ll.squidoo.com/rafflesiaflower

http://www.cosmoflowers.com/rafflesia-arnoldii-the-biggest-flower-in-the-world/

two horned Sumatran rhinoceros

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/sumatran-rhinoceros/

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=two+horned+sumatra+rhinoseros&FORM=HDRSC3#
We are going to watch "Searching for the Last Sumatran Rhino"

Sumatran tigers
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/tigers/about_tigers/sumatran_tiger/

http://a-z-animals.com/animals/sumatran-tiger/

I found an article talking about the baby Sumatran tigers that were born at the national zoo in August of 2013. Megan will love this!

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GreatCats/Tiger/tiger-cubs.cfm

Grocery shopping!

I have needed to go get groceries since Sunday. Usually when we are getting low on fruit, it is time to go.  I put it off and it was way too cold to go anywhere last weekend. I didn't really want to get out PLUS we always have canned fruit to fall back on! Well, Megan finished off the cow's milk this morning AND my fridge was looking pretty bare, so off we went this afternoon!  As much as I hated to be inside of Wal.mart on a 55 degree day, it just had to be done!

We took Megan to dance class and afterwards we headed to Wal.mart.  The kids helped me with groceries and we stocked up on fruits and vegetables! There was one thing Megan really wanted me to buy- cauliflower!! We found everything else, but Wal.mart was out of cauliflower! Really? Are all the other children begging their parents' to buy it too?? I told Megan that it would probably be at Sam's because that was where we were heading next. She is the pickiest eater I have, but yet she loves roasted cauliflower!!

We got to Sam's and since I had never bought cauliflower there before, I had to look for it and I didn't find it. I ended up asking an employee and they said, "Sorry, we don't carry fresh or frozen cauliflower." I actually think Megan was disappointed!!  We loaded up on our groceries there and headed home.

Once I got home, I started to look over my purchases.  If somebody would've looked at everything, they probably would think that we are on the paleo diet! We had plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables PLUS a whole lot of meat! I may have went overboard, but honestly, we have been eating way too much ground beef and ground turkey and tomato combinations lately and I am tired of it! I know that if I don't lay off on the tomatoes, I will become sensitive to that too and I don't need to take anything else out of my diet!! I bought pork chops, a turkey, ham slices, steaks, etc.  I need some variety again!

I also noticed that the only milk products I bought were a gallon of cow's milk, a bucket of ice cream, and one block of cheese.  The only wheat product I bought was a loaf of bread! This is such a difference than what I bought two years ago!!

Of course, I did not buy only healthy food. I also brought home a bag of potato chips. :)  Somehow strawberry applesauce appeared at home too- this was all Courtney's doing!!  I got the usual cereal, tomato products (which I am not going to try not to make anything "tomato" for awhile), chocolate chips, and corn chips, and I am sure there are a few more.

In the end, I feel like we are fully stocked for at least a couple of weeks! If I hear, "But mom, we have nothing to eat" at all in the next week or so, I might just scream!!!

Science Class

It is sure taking us a long time to get through this section in science!

Tomorrow we are going to be looking at the Borneo Swamps in southeast Asia. They have some unique plants and animals!

First of all, have you ever seen these trees? They are called Mangrove Trees and live right in the water!
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/mangrove_trees.htm

Here are some pictures. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=What+Is+a+Mangrove&FORM=HDRSC2

In these trees, live a whole variety of wildlife.

We are going to look at the proboscis monkeys tomorrow too. They are the monkeys with the great big noses, it says the bigger the noses, the more attractive they are to females!!

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/proboscis-monkey/

Short video:
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0LEV1b3PfxSYR4Az1tXNyoA?p=probiscis+monkey&fr=slv1-yie9&fr2=piv-web  "World's Ugliest Animal" Epic Wildlife

Tarsiers
http://www.factzoo.com/mammals/tarsiers.html

Archer fish- These guys are amazing!
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIVBQvxS_BsAWdL7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByYXI3cnIwBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDNA--?p=archer+fish&vid=652aac7107154147fa7770ad184ea8b9&l=1%3A58&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DV.4728489654879899%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fanimal.discovery.com%2Ftv-shows%2Fother%2Fvideos%2Ffooled-by-nature-archer-fish.htm&tit=Archer+Fish&c=3&sigr=12iqgqlll&sigt=10b9jqjhh&pstcat=arts+culture+and+entertainment&fr=slv1-yie9&tt=b
b
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A0LEV0I5QvxSjnkAegZXNyoA?p=arcger+fish&fr=slv1-yie9&fr2=piv-web  Archer Fish 1:58 White and orange screen.

And last, the mudskipper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KurTiX4FDuQ

Wow, we are studying some amazing animals tomorrow!

Homeschool Valentine's Day Party!!!

Now that we are into our 3rd year of homeschooling and getting a good network of friends, a few of us decided to put on a homeschooling Valentine's Day party for the kids! I always enjoyed the school parties and felt this was one thing the kids would "miss" from public school, but now that we are home, who says we can't have a party too?? I think the kids had a GREAT time and I am very thankful for everybody who came, helped, and gave these kids a wonderful party!

Here is everyone and their valentine boxes! It was about 12 kids, so it was about the perfect size!

Our first game was "Pass the paper heart by only using clothes pins!" We got some good laughs during this game! Even the little ones, such as Christian, could participate!

Our next game was Valentine's Day Bingo!

From there, we took our candy hearts and built towers. We gave them one minute to build it as high as they could!  think the record was 11 hearts high!

I think Megan won with her tower!

I think Courtney was in 2nd place with 10 hearts high!

The next game was "Put a q-tip in a straw, blow like a blow-dart, and see if you can hit a bulls-eye!" We had some popcorn tins on the floor and their goal was to hit the appropriate one for points. The girls beat the boys by 9 points! Go girls!!

Now onto the best party- exchanging valentines! Each child decorated their own box at home and brought it to the party along with their valentines.  We let the children go around two at a time and exchange valentines. It worked out well! It was fun to see all the valentines in the end!

Megan waiting to exchange hers- she gave out pencils this year!

Megan and her friend.

Cute picture! I love the "purse"!!

Even Christian got to exchange valentines, he's showing you his "steam engine" box!

Courtney and her valentines from her friends!

Megan and hers and yes, she is sitting on Christian's tractor!

 

 

After we opened our boxes, we all had a snack and we were done! I hope everybody had a great time! I'm glad we could put on a party for the kids! It was a great chance to get together, chat, support each other, and let the kids develop friendships!! 

Megan's tall tale!

Megan had to write a tall tale for school last week, she was really creative and came up with some cute ideas! I told her I would put it on my blog, so others could read it!

Here you go:
Once up on a time, there lived a giant prince named Johny Bigfoot.  He lived in Cloud Kingdom with his mom, dad, brother, and sister.  Johny was the youngest child.  He was special because the youngest always became king.  He had a private tutor named Mr. Jaxton to teach him to be king.

One day, Johny got mad at Mr. Jaxton.  Mr. Jaxton was trying to teach Johny how to write and Johny didn't like it.  Johny left Cloud Castle to take a break.  He started throwing his cloudpens and making holes in the clouds.  He started walking and forgot to watch his step.  He fell through one of his holes!  He was falling and then he hit his head.  He fell asleep.

When he woke up, two and a half days later, there was a crowd around him.  "Where am I?" Johny asked.
"You are in Texas.  You were snoring so loud that nobody in all of Texas could sleep!" one man answered. "What are you?"

"I am a giant prince. I was writing with Mr. Jaxton...I walked out..fell through a hole. Oh!" he said.  He had suddenly remembered.  "I have to go home!" He stood up and everybody ran away.  He took two steps and was in Florida.  "Oh!" he said.  He took two more steps and was in New York.  He saw the Statue of Liberty.  He leaped across the bay and landed beside her.  All the people ran and screamed.  He walked over to the Statue of Liberty and shook her hand. It fell off.  More people screamed.  Johny was so frightened that he dove into the Atlantic Ocean.  He took five strokes and was in England.  England was so foggy so Johny hopped onto a fog cloud.

When the fog cloud was in the air, Johny rode it back to the Cloud Kingdom.  He rushed to the castle and said, "sorry" to Mr. Jaxton.  Mr. Jaxton said, "I forgive you.  We will now have to write the rest of the afternoon" and they wrote the rest of the afternoon.  He wrote this about his journey, "I prefer my soft clouds to my messy dirt."  THE END

Crazy busy week!

After a busy Sunday, I am starting to think about school for the week.

Here is our crazy schedule:
Monday- full day of school- the only one this week! On top of school, we have to make our Valentine Day boxes and make out our valentines.
Tuesday- School in the morning, Homeschool Valentine's Day Party in the afternoon!!
Wednesday- Homeschool learning Center at 10 am, library at 11 am, lunch, school in the afternoon
Thursday- School in the morning, Megan has dance at 1:30 pm
Friday- Deliver Valentine's Day cookies to our friends and family around Omaha! Probably no school.

We will do certain subjects everyday, this includes Bible, math, spelling, and English (Megan) and Phonics (Courtney).  We will fit our other stuff in when we can.

We are still trying to finish "Week 12" of our Sonlight curriculum that we started a week ago Friday.
We spent three days last week making books about panda bears. If you are ever here, ask the girls to show them to you! Pandas are fascinating creatures!! But because we took three days to make books, we still have two and a half lessons of science left from last week. (Pandas were only half of the first lesson, we need to finish the other half tomorrow!)

As we continue through the forests of China, we are going to touch on red pandas tomorrow and talk about how they are different/ same from the panda bears.  Are they more like the panda bears or even like raccoons??

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/red-panda/

We are also going to learn about the blue-faced monkey.
I found a cute video done by ABC News.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2013/06/tracking-chinas-rare-golden-snub-nosed-monkey/

Olympic Information!

If you know me and how I teach my children, then you know I can't let anything great go by without turning it into a lesson at our house!

So of course, the Olympics start tomorrow night and of course, I am going to turn it into a lesson.

We are going to learn about the Olympic flag and the Olympics flame and torch relay tomorrow. I'm not sure when, but that is my goal. :)

As I was researching tonight, I found a map of the Olympic torch relay. Did you know it went into space? And to the North Pole? Wow! It is the longest relay in the history of the Olympics.

Here is some info about the relay and the torch.

http://torchrelay.sochi2014.com/en/relay

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-10/sochi-olympic-torch-relay-map/5081536

LEGOS!

At the moment, we are a little obsessed with Legos in my house.  Even before Christmas, the Legos were spread all over the living room floor and the kids (mostly the girls) would play Legos during the day.

Then we discovered Friends Legos.  These are the girl version of Legos and they come in all kinds of sets. Soon, they were putting their orders in for Christmas and they did end up getting quite a few sets from us, from grandparents, and other people.  Between getting some and buying some themselves, they really acquired a lot of Legos in December!

Megan did not receive the High School during the holidays, so last Monday, she decided she was going to buy it with her own money.  So she did.  I put the order into Amazon on Monday and she knew they were supposed to come on Wednesday, but unfortunately Wednesday was a snow day.  Matt got an email saying that the shipment was going to be late.  She was a little disappointed!

Today Megan could not wait to get her Legos! I cannot tell you how many times I heard, "When you do think the UPS man will come??' By the time we left for dance class at 1, the UPS man had not come yet. I told Megan that hopefully they will be delivered when we got home.

We got home and still no Legos.  About 6 pm, we saw the UPS man come down the street and she came bolting down the steps! The UPS man came to our door with a box that her Legos clearly could not fit into! We looked at the address and it was for a house across the street.  Matt and Courtney got all dressed up and went to deliver it and once they were at our neighbor's house, Matt found our package on our neighbor's stoop!  The UPS man had switched the packages!

Matt brought our package back here and with her grin a mile wide, Megan pulled the box open and pulled out her new box of Legos!!



Can you guess what tonight's project will be?? Putting together the 487 piece high school!! I also have figured out that Megan has agreed to share this with Courtney. :)

PS For the last three mornings, my two girls have been up by 6:45 am to play with Legos.  These are the children that struggle to get out of bed any other time, especially Megan! Their theory is if they get up early, they get more time to play Legos during the day! I told them that I am perfectly ok for them to get up early, but don't bother me! I am still going to get up at my regular time!

Trying new foods!

I have been on this quest to eat healthier in this house.  We have cleaned up our diets ALOT the last two years and I still feel we have so far to go.

There are a few things I do around here to keep track of what we eat.
1.  My children are allowed one wheat product and one cows' milk product a day.  If they want two products, they cannot have wheat or milk the following day.
2. I try to rotate our diets.  We seem to eat a lot of tomato products, so I really try to rotate that every couple of days.  This is how we get "stuck in a rut" and eat the same thing over and over and THEN that is how we end up with food sensitivities!
3. I try to eliminate artificial food dyes and coloring. Megan used to eat "captain crunch" every day when she went to public school, I refuse to buy it anymore.
4. I try to only buy things with five or less ingredients. I break this rule with cereal though because most of it is vitamins and minerals. I don't buy granola bars, crackers (besides saltines), store bought cookies or anything like that anymore.
5. I am also trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup. I am off of corn, but this is in everything and all I can do is try! I buy ketchup with no high fructose corn syrup, but we still eat many other things with it in.
6. I try to limit the kids' intake of sugar. Courtney would drink a whole pitcher of apple juice in a day if I would let her. I mostly need to keep an eye on her. :)

Here are some things I am trying to do right now:
1.  Allow fruit snacks every other day.  Fruit snacks are such an easy snack, but I found the kids asking every single morning around 10:15 am. I am always in the middle of school and I found it easy to say "yes" and they could get them themselves.
About the last week, I have started to say "no," but then I get the "But what CAN I have?" question. 
Today they opted for a banana. :)  I may need to get snacks ready before we start school because now they want an apple and want me to cut it up for them...in the middle of school!
Why are they hungry anyway at 10:15 am anyway??  But they seriously are! We usually have cereal for lunch and that just doesn't last!  Courtney has learned to eat something besides cereal for breakfast because her stomach will be growling by 10:30 am!

2.  I am trying to incorporate more vegetables! I have introduced asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, green beans, snap peas, and snow peas.  Some the kids have liked, some they have not.  Last night we were at the store and they were begging me to buy more cauliflower!! They said no asparagus though! I bought some anyway. :)  I think we are going to try sweet potatoes tonight.  Why haven't I discovered these vegetables earlier in my life??

3.  I keep reading articles about how sugar and carbs are not so good for us. I have been trying to find some paleo recipes lately and attempt them.  I have tried a couple and they are not bad! I made some yummy paleo breakfast cookies the other day! I have a couple more recipes that I would like to try.

4. I am trying to have the kids eat more nuts and beans.  I have bought cashews, almonds, and pistachios, but they kids aren't too fond of them. I know this would be a great snack that would actually fill them up! I have also tried some different butters beside peanut butter.  I also would like to stop using beans out of a can, but make them from scratch. I am definitely still working on this goal.

And to top this all off, I still don't eat any dairy, eggs, peanuts, wheat, corn, yeast, or chicken. I have gotten almonds and garlic back into my diet, I really need to try chicken, that would help open up some more food options.

I really put a lot more emphasis on food than I have in years past, but I have really learned what a difference it has on our health!

Quotes by Christian!

Whenever our kids refuse to eat lunch or a meal, Matt and I always say, "Good! More for me then!"

Today we had leftover hamburger vegetable soup. I put some in Christian's bowl and gave it to him.

He saw what it was and pushed it back to me without hesitation and said, "More for you!" He didn't say he didn't want to eat it or that it was gross!

He totally caught on to our scheme, but now he was using it to his advantage!!

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Christian loves to be read to and being 3, he wants the same book read to him over and over and over.

Yesterday I read him this book at least four to five times!

 

 

Today after lunch he brought me this book again and said, "Will you read this to me?"

 

I asked him, "How many times have I read you this book??"

 

He replied,  "Not so many times."

 

PS You know you have read it too many times when you try to skip sentences and the kid flips back a page and says, "You missed something" and then goes ahead and recites the line that you just skipped. :)   Yes, this happened yesterday with this book!

 



Panda Bears

We are going to be studying the famous pandas tomorrow in science. Here are some sites that we are going to use in class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Panda

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5412974_unique-characteristics-giant-panda.html

http://makingadifferenceforendangeredanimals.blogspot.com/2009/02/giant-panda.html

http://wreg.com/2013/10/30/pandas-staying-at-memphis-zoo/

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm#update

Merry Christmas to me!!

I don't buy things for myself very often, but this last couple of months, I have been really wanting a food processor. It's kind of funny because somebody gave me one when we got married and I didn't use it for 10 years, so I gave it to somebody (or something happened to it, I'm not really sure.)

Now I want one again! As I am finding new recipes, I am finding ones that need a food processor to chop up nuts, make batter, etc, and all of the sudden, I have a need for one!

I decided that I would take money I got for Christmas and buy myself a food processor!


One day, with a little help, I ventured into Bed Bath and Beyond and bought myself this 7 cup Cuisinart Food Processor!! It came in the mail about a week later and I absolutely love it!!
I almost find excuses to use it! Tonight I made hamburger vegetable soup and I could've easily cut up the vegetables into little pieces, but it was much more fun putting them in the food processor!

I have also used it to make recipes that I wanted it for in the first place and it worked well!!

I am so excited about my new purchase! And it is all MINE, I don't have to share it with anyone!!

Merry Christmas to me!!

Snow!

Today when Christian got up, he noticed right away that it snowed.

He said very excitedly, "Daddy needs to use his lawn mower! And I can build a snowman. I will need to put on my snow coat and snow boots! I will also need to put on my gloves and a hat and Courtney and I will need to find our scoops!"

(For further explanation- Matt really needs to use the snow blower and Courtney and Christian use the big sand scoops to play in the snow. The last time it snowed, they had them in the backyard and left them there, now they will need to find them under the snow.)

I think he's a little excited about the snow. :)