Art Class

My parents came to visit for Thanksgiving and got to come to our weekly Art Class. My dad brought his camera and took some great pictures.

The kids have been working with clay quite a bit lately.



But Emily would rather be painting...


Or drawing...

Actually, she's pretty happy at art class.


Outside, our teacher has a wonderful garden that Emily plays in when she's "done" with art. She has a couple of persimmon trees that we had fun picking.

My mom.




Our lovely art teacher!

Some Good Ideas for Next Year

My friend Alicia has posted about her Thanksgiving. The second part of the post she describes some ideas that she had for activities for her kids do this year. Very creative! We needed something like that this year. My kids were bouncing off the walls. Oh, well.

Inspired by Ratatouille

Last night Amy didn't like the Turkey soup I made with Thanksgiving leftovers. So she and Evan went about "fixing" the soup! Evan went through my spices and came up with 6 herbs he thought might work, Amy got more pepper, and I offered a swish of red wine. After some tinkering with her bowl of soup, she pronounced it good, until the pepper started to burn her mouth!

Weekly Report

Here is just a little highlight of school this week.

During our preschool time this week, I read the story, The Story of the Incredible Orchestra. Emily was especially intrigued by the horns. Evan brought down his bugle and she had a ball playing it!

Amy has started her new spelling program and is loving it! Unlike her mother, she is a natural when it comes to spelling. She whipped through the first lesson and was so eager to start the second that she brought it in the car! The curriculum involves listening to a CD and writing out the spelling words. I had to draw the line though and told her she couldn't bring her clipboard, headphones, CD player and pencil into J.C. Penny's yesterday morning. Apparently, she planned to do her spelling in the shoe department while I tried on a pair of boots!

Evan had a hard week. When his Tourette's Syndrome flares up, school is more difficult. And almost always he wants to do school in a fort. So much of this week our living room looked like this!





Math in a fort, spelling in the car and bugle on the couch. We do have these cute desks and a great school room that we sometimes use! My kids would hate public school!

More Fall Decorations

Here's what I ended up doing for the piano. By the time I went to Michael's to get supplies, all the fall stems where marked down to $1. I decided to stick with the brown bucket for the piano and use the burgundy vase at the entry way. I still had some orange berries leftover and I was surprised by how good they looked in the vase.

At the kids art class we have been doing a lot of ceramics. This is a leaf that I made there. It was really fun! The picture above was taken close in with a flash so you can't see the mess of fort blankets etc. behind the picture. The little one below shows all the junk I had to move over to take the picture. Just keepin it real so you don't think (falsely) that my house is always perfect!

Weekly Report x 2 Plus Pictures

Emily all ready to go to our homeschool group's class day.

The past two weeks have been a bit different from the usual routine. Sometimes this really stresses me out, but this time, God gave me the ability to just go with it and have fun.

We usually drive to "town" (about 30 min.) once a week for Amy's choir rehearsal. Last week we made the drive 4 times!

Last Monday we went to a great musical called "Seussical" based on the books by Dr. Seuss. Emily loved it! She keeps asking if we can go back to the show. The big kids liked it too. But then getting to go to a performance and not having to do math is a good deal any day in their minds.

The kids waiting outside the theater.

The stage before the show. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance. These are special matinee performances for school age kids at a very reduced price.

Amy and Emily waiting some more for the show to start.

Tuesday is Amy's usual day for choir. She has been involved in a children's choir for a couple of years now. She has grown so much in her ability and confidence in singing since joining this choir. We have been very pleased with what she is learning.

Thursday, I had to go and get my permanent crown put on. The dental staff and my kids are on a first name basis now.

Saturday, Amy had a special rehearsal with her choir. Evan and Emily and I went to a wonderful little farm and bought 35 lbs. of apples. Then we went to the beach and played for a bit until Amy was done. Needless to say, we've been making apple pies and apple sauce this week too!

This Monday, Sean finally had a day off! So I asked him if he'd take the kids back to the beach and let me have a morning to get house things back in order! The kids had a great time. Emily keeps telling me that Daddy took her to the beach, and Daddy took her to go and get hamburgers and french fries, and Daddy took her..... You get the idea. Mommy takes her to the grocery store and the dentist. Daddy is much cooler!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we had the opportunity to have friends over. We usually don't invite people over during school hours (8:30-3:30). But I strongly felt that God was leading us to be hospitable this week and we were so blessed!

Emily and our friend Zeb enjoying some play time.

We did do some "regular" school too. I took some pictures of what we have been working on in Science this year. It comes from a book called "The Body Book". Evan has loved making these paper models of the human body.

Mr. and Mrs. Bones. Evan is a little further along than Amy.

Evan's latest "Junk-Bot" creation.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

This dessert is sooo good! A perfect holiday treat. From Fine Cooking.

Baking soda (known as bicarb to Brits) plays two roles in this recipe: It helps soften the dates, and it helps the wet, heavy batter rise during baking. If you can only find golden sugar in regular granulation, just blend it in a food processor for 1 or 2 minutes to get a superfine texture.Serves six to eight.Yields about 1-1/3 cups sauce.

Ingredients
For the cake:

2 oz. (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature; more for the pan

6 oz. (1 cup lightly packed) pitted dates (Medjools, if possible), coarsely chopped

1 tsp. baking soda

6 oz. (3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs.) golden superfine sugar (or white superfine sugar), sifted if lumpy

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

6 oz. (1-1/4 cups plus 1 Tbs.) self-rising flour, sifted

For the sauce:

1/2 cup packed light or dark muscovado sugar (or light brown sugar)

1/4 cup honey

4 oz.(1/2 cup) unsalted butter

1/4 cup heavy cream

Vanilla ice cream for serving (optional)

How to make

Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 11x7-inch nonstick baking pan that’s at least 1 inch deep. If your pan isn’t nonstick, butter the sides and then line it with enough parchment to come 1 inch up the short sides; butter the parchment as well.

Put the dates in a small saucepan with 1 cup water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the baking soda, and set aside. (The mixture will foam up and take on a greenish color; this is normal.)

Combine the butter and the golden sugar in a bowl. Beat with a hand mixer on high speed until the mixture is well combined and lighter in color, about 4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a wooden spoon, stir in the flour and then stir in the date mixture; the batter will be sloppy. Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake until it's risen, a deep golden brown, and firm to the touch but still a bit spongy (it should spring back a little, but not entirely, when indented, 35 to 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce:
Put the muscovado sugar, honey and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a simmer and cook until it gets thick and bubbly, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the cream, let it bubble down and then remove the pan from the heat.

To serve:
When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes; then turn it out onto a cutting board and invert it onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Cut the warm cake into slices or squares, put on serving plates along with a scoop of ice cream, if using, and drench with the sauce.

From Fine Cooking 61, pp. 34