Recipes

I found this website on facebook and it looked interesting. I am always looking for food that is dairy free, egg free, and gluten free. Those seem to be our top intolerances in our household.

http://theprettybee.com/2013/09/31-days-gluten-dairy-egg-free-comfort-food.html

As I was looking through the recipes, I found one for macaroni and cheese. I think we may have to try it!

Switching Bedrooms!

Now that Christmas is over, I can relax this week! HA!

Actually today did fell very relaxing. I am really enjoying this time off from teaching!

The girls have been talking awhile about getting their rooms back and today they informed me that they  really do want their bedrooms back. Our breakfast conversation was how we could make this happen.  When Megan was in kindergarten (in 2009), we made Courtney's bedroom into the playroom and put the girls together in Megan's room.  Here we are, five years later, and they want their rooms back.

The problem is that in order to switch, we would need to clean out the playroom! We would need to get rid of quite a few older toys and pack some things away.  I am ok with this.  The girls are past the dress up/ barbies/ polly pockets/ kitchen stage and there really is no need to have this stuff out anymore.  I would also need to move the bookshelves out of the playroom, which involves taking all the books off of them! Courtney and Megan both have little tables in there, but Megan is way too big for hers, so I would need to figure out something to do with it. Courtney still uses her table all the time, so that would stay put. There are many other items we would need to move, get rid of, sell, or just pack away.

After the playroom is cleaned out, we would need to start moving Courtney's furniture back to her room. Courtney's furniture consists of her bed, two dressers, and a fish tank. It is quite a lot for her little bedroom.  Megan's bed would stay in her bedroom and her dresser would need to get moved from the playroom back to her bedroom. (Did anybody notice here that it would be a LOT easier to keep Courtney's furniture in Megan's bedroom and just move Megan's bed to the playroom? I think it would be fun to switch rooms, but they aren't having any of it!)

I also thought that while the rooms were completely torn apart, we should paint them!! They are still white from when we moved in 6 years ago! I called our neighbor today who paints and asked her if she could give us an estimate. (I also want my bedroom painted, so that is going to come first!) She said she could come over tomorrow and do it for us.  When I approached Matt with the idea of painting the bedrooms when he got home, he said he wouldn't mind doing them! WHAT?? He has been against painting anything in our house for a long time and now he's willing to paint a bedroom??  He is not willing to paint the master bedroom though!

I don't quite know when the girls want to start on this big project.  We are taking this week off of school yet.  All day today, I said, "If you girls want to get your rooms back, then you need to start cleaning up." They didn't clean up at all today!

Honestly, I would like to get this room business done before I put Christmas presents away! But I don't know how long I can stand them being in my kitchen!!

Christmas is over!

This last week was relaxing, yet crazy. Is that even possible??

I used the first part of the week to finish up Christmas shopping. Maybe I should start earlier next year and then maybe I won't have to go out the night of the 23rd??

Christmas Eve we spent by ourselves.  Matt was able to get off of work early and we made it to the 4:00 pm service at church.  Courtney was part of a video that they played during the service and she did incredible! I had many positive compliments afterward.  After church, we came home and had a fancy meal, i.e. ate in the dining room with real dishes and had sparkling grape juice in wine glasses.

After our meal was over and dishes were done, we opened presents.  It was a great night as a family celebrating Jesus' birthday.

Christmas day took us to Lincoln to celebrate Christmas with my grandma. There were many people, along with two pets, in a house and it was a little tight, but we managed. People seemed to spread out more than they have in the past years and it actually didn't seem so crowded.

Friday was a day to do nothing. :)

Yesterday, we headed out to my parents' so we could have Christmas with my immediate family.  We ate a yummy meal and then proceeded to open presents from everyone. The kids loved everything they got!

Today we headed out to Matt's parents for Christmas.  Again, we ate our meal, which had a little bit of a twist to it, and then opened presents.  We got home about 7 tonight.

I will definitely be busy this week reorganizing the house and finding places for everything!

I think Christmas is officially over for us, now to get ready for a wedding next Saturday!

Goal for the next 2 weeks...

My goal for the next two week is to DECLUTTER my house!!! I started this project about a month ago when I attacked the attic.  I took pretty much everything out, went through it all, and repacked it back into the attic.  Except that not everything went back in the attic! I found really nice towels that I have never used. I also found very nice blankets that CAN be used! I found clothes that I hope will never fit into again, these are clothes I wore while I was teaching and was 30-40 pounds heavier.

During this project, I decided what items I wanted to donate to the Open Door Mission here in town and what I wanted to keep. Honestly, I decided that if I haven't used them in about 15 years or can't fit into them anymore, they were leaving my house! I bagged all these items up and Matt took them to the Open Door Mission this morning.

I also went through mine and my children's bathroom cupboards a couple of weeks ago.  Since we don't eat anything with artificial colors, I decided that we aren't going to use anything with artificial colors in our products anymore either.  I had two boxes full of products! I personally do not like Bath and Body Works items, so those all got donated.  The children also had shampoo and soap that was bright red, obviously filled with red dye. We both had lotion and other products that we will never use---good bye to it all!

Lastly, I went through my kitchen cupboard. I don't know why I have items with yeast, artificial sugars, or food dyes in them, but those also got donated to the Open Door Mission.  I am not going to eat them and honestly, my children shouldn't be either. 

Now, the next step! Continue to declutter!

When I cleaned out the attic, I have items that I don't quite know what to do with.  For instance, I have 5-7 really nice sweaters that I wore when I taught middle school.  Should I sell them or donate them? They are a size too big, so I don't fit into them anymore.  I also have really nice skirts and dress pants, sell or donate??  These are in a pile on my bedroom floor at the moment.

I need to continue to find a place for our blankets and the children's blankets. They have so many, but many are handmade, so they are worth keeping.  Do I find a place for them in their rooms or pack them nicely in the attic?

After I get our items back where they belong, I want to get my office/ school area organized. It is a chaotic mess right now!

Have you heard the saying that stuff causes stress? That is how I feel right now!!

I have been looking forward to Christmas break just to achieve this project. Honestly, after I find my room/ office space again, I would LOVE to paint it, get new curtains, put pictures up, and look like a real bedroom. :)

Done!!!

We are done with school for at least two weeks! The girls are pretty excited and so am I!

I have plenty of other things to keep me busy, such as Christmas, so I probably won't have time to miss the late night lesson planning or reading chapter books to keep ahead.

I felt a load off my shoulders today as I closed the last book at the end of the morning.

Homeschooling is pretty stressful, but well worth it (in my opinion!)

Jumping Fish??

We had a fish emergency today. Megan went into her bedroom this afternoon to do her homework and discovered that one of Courtney's new fish, which we have had about a month, was on the floor!! I heard her shriek and asked her what was wrong. She said that there were only three fish in the tank instead of the usual four. I went upstairs to investigate, but in the meantime, Courtney started to cry.  She has had a real hard time keeping fish alive lately. She loves them with her whole heart and can't stand it when any of them die!

When I went upstairs, there was definitely a dead fish on the floor. I nudged him a little bit and he didn't move. I called Matt because I had one girl crying her eyes out and another girl refusing to go back into her room because the fish "freaked her out." Christian was the only one who wanted to go in and find the fish.  Matt said to pick the fish up and flush him down the toilet.  Courtney didn't want that to happen, so I scooped him up into a little paper cup and put him in the kitchen to wait for dad to come home.

I eventually got Courtney settled down and Megan off to do her homework. Life was well again, except for the dead fish.

 Tonight, we went to Petco and got Courtney another new fish.

Apparently fish can jump out of aquariums in the middle of the night??

Science Lesson on the Sun

Before we head out for Christmas break, we have one more science lesson and it is on the sun. As I was reading through my teacher's notes, I actually came across something that I could use tomorrow! (Usually I read through my notes and don't do anything they suggest!)

The teacher's guide mentioned a song called "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas" by They Might Be Giants.  I looked it up and it is hilarious!

Here is a slow version with the words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me06I9GDM_k

Here is a much faster version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JdWlSF195Y

Matt pointed this one out to me. It's topic is "What would the earth be like without the sun?" Again, quite interesting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rltpH6ck2Kc

An article on whether the sun is good or bad for you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-sun-good-or-bad-for-you/

I think we may be watching these tomorrow in science class!

Herald or Herold?

Today we were learning about kings in our advent devotional time and our book kept referring to the song, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." 

In the background, I kept hearing Christian say, "Herald isn't an angel, he's a helicopter!"

Would anybody else get this mixed up or is it only my 4 year old son who relates everything to trains or cars??

Phases of the Moon Project

We are studying phases of the moon tomorrow and since we already have the paints out from this mornings finger painting project, I figured we would use them again tomorrow.

http://learncreatelove.com/printable-moon-phase-craftactivity/

Finger Painting!

Today my kids had a lot of fun making their doves out of paper plates, I found them another craft to do tomorrow. We are going to talk about "incarnation" or how God became man to live among us.

This is going to be out project.

http://www.craftymorning.com/baby-jesus-in-manger-fingerprint-craft/

It looks fun and messy!

Third Time is a Charm, right?

It's Christmas season again and this means it is time to get out a Christmas card. Usually this is not a problem for me.  I usually have too many pictures to choose from or a very nice family picture we took in front of the tree. But not this year! I went through every picture about three times from this last year and found only a few that were nice enough to put on a Christmas card!

I picked about six of the best ones and started to make cards on Walmart.com.  I made one card and didn't like it, so I started again.  I made a second card and again, it didn't turn out the best. I went through my pictures again HOPING I could find some pictures that would work.  I have many pictures from last year, including the pictures from our 2 1/2 week trip to Illinois/ Kentucky, but there were none where all the children are smiling at the camera, or I found smiling kids, but there were other kids in the picture! I couldn't even find a nice family picture!

Tonight, I was determined to get this done! I pulled up some pictures that were nice of the three kids, but I needed a specific card to put them into because they were full body pictures.  Since Megan is so tall, I needed a space where her head or feet would not get cut off. I eventually found a card that worked and plugged some pictures in! After the third time, I finally settled on a card and ordered them!

Thank goodness that is done! Remind me next year to try to get some decent pictures throughout the year, so I have some for Christmas cards!

And that letter, I don't think it's happening this year!!!

Dove Craft

We are going to make these today in school because dove is a symbol of hope and peace. That is exactly what we are going to talk about today in our Advent devotional.

http://www.catholicicing.com/holy-spirit-craft-make-a-dove-from-a-paper-plate/

Another Homeschooling Article

LOVE IT!!

http://www.mariannesunderland.com/2014/12/08/why-homeschooling-good/

I forgot to socialize my homeschoolers!!!

If you are a fellow homeschooler, you will laugh out loud at this picture!

 

Whenever we mention to someone that we homeschool, the first question I always get it, "What about socialization??" If you don't know, this questions gets VERY old VERY fast!  Why am I accountable to YOU about what I do with my kids? I am not asking whether YOUR kids are socialized, do I?? I could go on about how this one question irritates so many of us, but I won't. Just know that many homeschooling students do NOT lack socialization!!

Apollo Space Program

This is another blog post for school tomorrow. :)

We started our unit on space last week and we are going to continue on this unit for another five weeks.  Tomorrow our lesson is on journeying to the moon and they talk a little bit about the Apollo missions to the moon. I thought we could go more in-depth with the subject!

Since I wasn't around during the time of the Apollo mission, I had to do a little research.

I thought this gave a great overview of the program.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/index.html

We might just have to watch the takeoff of the Apollo 11 mission!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGNryrsT7OI

This one is in color, but has no sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSLRMdYSA9M

The astronauts landing and stepping out on the moon for the first time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTBIr65cL_E

Wow, that would have been so interesting to be alive at that time!!!

Dentist visits today!

Today I took the three kids to the dentist. It had been six months and we were due to go.  I wasn't too pleased that the appointment was at 11 am, which is right in the middle of school, but we made it work.  We did 1 1/2 hours of school work and then headed out. We got some school work done this afternoon, but not as much as I would have liked.

Once we got to the dentist, each of us got called back one by one.  Courtney and Megan had chairs right beside each other and Christian and I were beside each other.  This was Christian's 2nd time at the dentist and he did great last time, so I assumed he would do great again.

I was wrong!! He did not do well at all!!! As I was getting my teeth cleaned, I could hear the lady kind of struggling with him to keep his mouth open and get his teeth cleaned.  I asked my hygienist if she was having a hard time with him and she said, "Yes, but nothing she can't handle." The hygienists at our dentist are great with kids, so I stayed out of it.

When I was done, she was still trying to get in to clean his teeth and I looked over there and met eyes with him. I was not happy! I think he knew it too! Instead of threatening him to behave, I bribed him! I told him we would go to Target and get a new little matchbox car if he let her clean his teeth.  He didn't go for it.

I ended up going over there and she explained that he had tarter build up around his gum lines on his bottom front teeth and she needed to get it cleaned off. He also had it behind his teeth.  I asked her if it was anywhere else and she didn't know.  He wouldn't let her look anywhere else.

In the end, she wanted me to stop pushing him, she said they want coming to the dentist a positive experience, so they don't push kids. I was more mad that he wasn't listening to her! He did so great last time!

In the end, I rescheduled it for next week with the dentist.  I think half of his problem was that we didn't prep him very well for the appointment, I just assumed he would do well. I was wrong. We have to work on this before next week.

In the end, the girl and I have NO cavities and we all look great! My dentist didn't even push Invisalign like he has in the past.  He has probably assumed that I cannot make up my mind on what to do, so I am doing nothing.  I did tell him that I went and saw an oral surgeon and that he suggested surgery. His reply was, "Of course he did, he's a surgeon!"

I think it is funny that the kids and I have ZERO cavities and we are the ones that don't eat the sugar and sweets and Matt had TWO cavities when he went a couple of weeks ago!!! Guess what he eats all the time?? Sugar, sweets, cereal, candy, etc.  hmmmm.....

Weekend is gone already?

Wow! I think this is the first time all weekend I have sat down and have had a thought to myself! It was a busy weekend!  It is almost 10 pm and I am still planning for school this week.

Yesterday I did get to sleep in and get a few things done around the house, but once lunch was over, Megan and I went shopping! I had to get her a few things and we also ended up buying a Christmas present for Courtney and a few others on our list.  Our most exciting part was at Kohl's.  I have NEVER seen that place so busy, the line to check out was halfway to the back of the store! Luckily, it only took us 15 minutes to check out, but you could tell by people's faces that many of them were not too happy!

After shopping, we had a birthday party at a friend's house in north Omaha.  Since I have had to restrict Courtney even more on her milk, gluten, and eggs, Matt swung by Pepperjax on the way there to get Courtney and I something to eat.  The host was serving pizza and unfortunately, neither of us could eat it last night.  We got home about 9:30 from this party.

This morning, we had a change of plans from our usual Sunday ritual.  It was the only time my family could get together to do "cousin pictures," so we met at Portrait Innovations at 10 am and got that done.  The kids were super cute and did such a good job! It helps that they are older and that they have done this a few times!  After spending two hours at the picture place, we all had lunch together. It's always nice to spend some time with my family. :)

Once this was all over, we headed over to Best Buy. Matt had been thinking for awhile about getting a new computer for the kitchen.  We had a laptop there and it worked fine, kind of.  The sound didn't work and it was too small to teach all the kids from at once.  Matt also thought it was too slow, but I think it was fine.  We ended up buying an HP all-in-one for that area.  Matt says its the family Christmas present, which is fine with me!

With the new computer in tow, we headed home.  We were expecting some friends about 2:30.  This was the same family that held the birthday party the night before! They were coming over for the afternoon because there was a church meeting in the evening and they didn't want to drive back to the home in north Omaha and then back to church.  They have girls that are my girls' age and a seven year old boy, so it is almost a perfect match! They are in our small group and also homeschool. 

They were going to head out at 5:30 to go to the meeting, but since they didn't have childcare lined up, the mom and kids stayed at my house and Matt and her husband went to the meeting. It worked out great! We made chili, played legos, and perler beads.  The girls have also been working on a newspaper, so they had some time to finish their latest edition!

They left about 8:15 and I am exhausted! We got kids to bed and now it's finally time to pull the school books out and try to plan for this week.  We only have two more weeks until Christmas break and honestly, I am kind of excited for a break! But of course, life will only get busier in other ways!

Down one car...

We haven't had  car troubles in a very long time! This ended yesterday. I was on my way to taking the kids to the homeschool learning center and our car started to smell like burnt plastic! I turned the heater off and it went away, but every time we got out of our car, you could definitely smell it.

I called Matt and he told me to call the car dealership.  I called and they thought it was probably the drive belt and that I should get it over there as soon as I could.  Matt took it over there last night and by noon, they had called Matt back and told them the problem.  A plastic sack had gotten stuck to the exhaust pipe and was melting! The technician said he tried to pull it off, but couldn't get it because it was melted so bad.  He said we will just need to deal with it until it all burns off.  Thankfully they did not charge us the $107 diagnostic fee!!

Now we need to get our van back and I can have my freedom again!

Honestly though, it's not hard to stay home. I am thankful that we homeschool and we have school to keep us busy!!  We just did more schoolwork today than I originally planned.

Earth out of cookie dough?

We are two lessons into our unit on space and I am already finding that some information is a repeat from last year.  Today's lesson was on how earth was so different from the other planets and how only earth is capable of sustaining life.  Our book also talked about the layers of the earth  Since we knew a lot about how earth was unique, I decided to concentrate on the layers of the earth  I found a worksheet that explained the layers and then we did a little edible experiment to make a model of the four layers.

We took chocolate chips to be the inner core, a marshmallow to be the outer core.  I made cookie dough earlier, so we then wrapped the inner and outer core in cookie dough.  Finally, I ground up almonds and used that as the crust  We had a complete 4-layer earth! It was pretty neat!

When we were done, I tried to cut mine open to show the layers, but the marshmallow just flattened, so that didn't work so well.  I then let the kids eat them!  Megan ate hers up right away, but Christian and Courtney did not. I don't know if this is because the marshmallows weren't exactly fresh or if the cookie dough was just too sweet for them. It used a lot of sugar that we are not used to anymore! They actually left their "earth" on the counter to go play, which was very surprising.

I will bake the rest of the cookie dough into cookies and save them for another day.