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

Weekly Review

This week was much easier than last week. No one had a fever or was throwing up, and my tooth stopped hurting. It's amazing how much those physical pains expose our weaknesses. Now that things are a bit back to "normal", I'll have to remind myself to still come to God for strength daily and hourly. Even though I physically feel strong now, it is God's sustaining Grace that gets me through. How easily I forget, when I'm back on my feet. The sermon that was preached this morning was such a good reminder of God's amazing grace for when I'm sick or well.

We were able to tackle quite a bit more school work since everyone was up to par.

Evan grappled with long division this week. It has been encouraging to see him gain speed and accuracy with addition, subtraction and multiplication. We went back to drilling with flash cards this year and that seems to be a help.

Evan has really taken off with his baking. He even asked if he could do his school work on Saturday so he'd be freed up to do more baking on Thursday. He has been selling bread to other homeschool families that we meet with on Fridays. He got half of his work done. Sometimes his start is better than his finish, so we're working on that character trait with him!

Amy is enjoying cursive handwriting. We use Italic so it's a bit different than traditional cursive. She is also a great speller! We are just about done with Modern Curricular Press Spelling workout B (which Evan hated but she loves) and then I'll have her start IEW's Phonetic Zoo spelling program.

Someone had suggested saving those credit card, magazine etc. applications and having your kids use them as practice for handwriting, learning their address, and filling out job applications later on. Amy filled out one for Sierra Trading Post this week. It was great practice for her and I realized she still didn't quite know what town we lived in! She guessed the town we go to church in instead. There were two spots to fill out so she got double the practice. Next week I'll try to find one for Evan.

Emily asked several times this week to cut. She is really getting the hang of scissors. We also worked on tracing and letters.

For our Bible curriculum we are using Nancy Ganz's commentary on Genesis in the "Herein Is Love" series. It has been a challenge for Emily to sit still and not interrupt while I read. But she is learning quite a bit too. She has been asking all week, "Jesus made bananas? Jesus made my kitty cat? Jesus made my big girl bed?" She is also very curious about angels now.

One of the other subjects that Evan and Amy do together is Latin. This only works when Emily is taking a nap or going for a walk with dad. This week we learned more about conjugating verbs and declining nouns. Evan is really getting it this year. Amy is having a harder time, but it is her first year. She however, loves learning the songs and prayers.

On Thursday we got to go to a Harvest Party with a homeschool group that we used to be a part of three years ago. We had such a fun time visiting. The kids had sack races, played tug of war, and bobbed for apples. Then we had dinner on my friends porch overlooking the valley as the sun set. I wish I had taken some pictures, but it seems these days my hands are always busy taking care of Emily!

Pumpkin Recipes

We're bringing these to a harvest party tomorrow!

Pumpkin Cookies

Cream together: 2 cups of butter (or Earth Balance)
2 cups of sugar (or Sucanat)

Add: 1 16 oz can pumpkin
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Then add: 4 cups flour (can be white whole wheat)
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp. salt

Optional: stir in 2 cups of raisins and 1 cup of nuts
Bake on greased cookie sheet for 12-15 min at 350.

These pancakes are a fun way to add a little vit. A to your morning!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Whisk together:
1 1/4 cups flour,
2 Tablespoons sugar,
2 teaspoons baking powder,
1/2 teaspoon each cinnamon, ground ginger and salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch of cloves

Mix together in separate bowl:
1 egg,
6 tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup of milk (or soy milk)

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.

Heat a buttered skillet over medium heat and cook a couple min. on each side.

Emily Quote

"You have lots of pretty shoes!" Spoken to everyone at the shoe store. What's a daddy to do! Of course he bought her new tennies with butterflies on them!

Relief at The Dentist Office

This past week my kids were sick, my back and neck hurt, my husband was working extra hours, school was not going well, my house was a mess, and I had to go get a crown put on one of my molars. I'm pretty faithful to go to the dentist and it doesn't usually bother me. But I've had a crown put on before and my tooth hurt for a solid week afterward. It was not fun.

The day before the dentist appointment, I had a melt down. I felt melancholy and blue. Sure, my circumstances were not what I'd really like, but they weren't that awful. Others suffer much more than loneliness, laundry and dentist chairs. But I was full of tears instead of hope.

Before I left, I put "The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God" in my purse. It is one of the books that I bought from Desiring God back in June when they had their $5 sale. I don't really know why I bought it. But God used it at the dentist office to draw me to Him. I almost cried as I read it. It is a beautiful poem on the sovereignty and goodness of God in the midst of suffering. John Pipers words echoed my heart in the misery I felt that day. But more importantly, they gently reminded me that God not only knows about my suffering, but orchestrates the events in my life to help me know Him more. He is sovereign and He is sweet.

"He is not poor nor much enticed

Who loses everything but Christ.

It won't be long before the rod

Becomes the tender kiss of God."

I left the dentist office in more physical pain, but much lighter in my spirit. The tears were gone. They were replaced with renewed hope in God who showed His mercy to Job and who is showing His mercy to me.

Costume Preview

The girls have been sick this week. Amy decided that dressing up would make her feel better. Of course everyone else wanted in on the action!
Jengo Fett
Molly (from the American Girl series)

Dorthy and Toto

The crew

School This Week 10/12/07

My blogging friend Leslie, has started a new weekly post. I thought it was a good idea so I'm copying her! I don't know if I'll be able to post every week. But I like the idea of giving a little weekly report on what we did during the week for school. It also encouraged me to look at the little highlights and bright spots of the week since I far too easily remember the discouraging and hard times.

This week Emily learned how to use scissors. I bought a little book from Timberdoodle called Let's Cut Paper that we started to use. She was so proud of herself! Each morning she ran to her dad to show him what she'd done. It was too cute!

Amy went to her grandparents this week. That made our school week look very different. We do science, history, Latin, writing, and Bible together with Evan. She enjoyed her week off being spoiled by her Grandma and Papa. She got to go swimming and shopping quite a bit. And she had a lovely tea party with her Great Grandma, her Auntie and her Grandma. Usually the kids take turns having a week at Grandma and Papa's house during the summer, but it didn't work out this year. So we're just fitting it in where we can! We love the flexibility homeschooling offers.

Since Amy was gone, we didn't try to work on the subjects that we do with her. Instead Evan and I worked a little more intensely on math and grammar. And it just so happened that this week his spelling was particularly troublesome. So we were able to spend some more time on that as well. But yesterday, Evan said, "When are things going to get back to normal. I mean when is Amy coming home?" *big sigh*

We did get to do some fun things together too. Evan loves going to thrift stores and Alicia told me about a good deal at a local one. So we took off mid morning, something we never would have done had it been a regular school day.

We have all been various levels of sick this week too. Emily had a fever much of the week. So like Evan, I am hoping that things get back to "normal" soon!

Fall Arrangement

I love decorating for Fall. I bought a huge bunch of preserved leaves several years ago and each year I reuse them in different arrangements. This year I combined them with some fun berry twigs that I got on clearance last year. I really like how it turned out. But Sean was a little disappointed that I took the berry twigs off of our piano. I had a big brown flower bucket full of them. So I'm on the lookout for something new for the piano. I picked up a beautiful burgundy vase at the Goodwill last week. I'm hoping that I can find something to fill that. Any ideas?

Home, Sweet Home

This week we officially joined our new church as members. We've been going there for about 7 months now but there was something fun and exciting about being "official". After a couple years of not being sure where we were headed in our church search, it is really nice to have a home. God has been so faithful and good to us through it all!

I am so thankful for this group of believers. I appreciate the pastor's commitment to the Word of God through expositional preaching. Boy, is it convicting!!! It's so exciting to see the Holy Spirit use the words that John Marc preaches on Sunday to impact our family throughout the week.

We have also made many new friendships and renewed some older ones. Here are some pictures of Evan's Sunday School pool party held earlier this month.

Amy and her friend Savannah playing in the sandbox.

Year of Bread- Part 3

We have been continuing to make bread this year even though I haven't blogged about it (or much of anything else lately!).Here is Evan making pretzels. We didn't think the recipe we used was good enough to make again, but we had fun. Amy likes making scones (sorry no picture). But Evan has learned this recipe by heart and is now selling bread each week to moms in our homeschool group. He's making a tidy little profit and learning about cleaning up after himself.

I think we will wrap up the year with holiday breads. If you have any favorites that you think we should try I'd love to hear from you! You could post on your own blog or if you don't have one, send me the recipe and I'll post it here.

The Winner Is...

Henty books - Jen from Florida (I need your email address to get in touch with you!)

Henty book - Jenn (Only By Grace)

E.B. White books - Jenn (by default, she was the only one who wanted them!)

Kaya - Margie

George MacDonald - Leslie

Hop on Pop - Jenn (again, by default!)

Thanks for playing along and helping me to clear up some space on my bookshelf!

I'm Back and Giving Away Books and Things!

What better way to get back into blogging than to give away books! During the break I spent time cleaning out our bookshelves (getting ready for more books to arrive!) and I found several duplicates of some great books. Some are new and others are well loved but if you don't own them, you could win them here. I'll check again next Wednesday and draw the winners. Please leave a comment telling me by number which set(s) you'd like to win. You can enter for all if you like.

1. G.A. Henty books - With Lee in Virginia and True to the Old Flag

If you are studying the Civil War and The Revolutionary War these books are historical fiction set during that time. They are over 100 years old. We buy Henty books in lots on Ebay and have ended up with a few doubles. One person will win both, one person will win With Lee in Virginia as we have two copies available. Hardback

2. E.B. White books - Charlotte's Web and The Trumpet of the Swan

Classic stories for children in paperback. Well loved, but lots of life left in them for another child to love.

3. From the American Girl Collection - Meet Kaya

Amy was given the set of books and the doll which came with the first book in the series. This book is brand new. If your daughter gets hooked, most libraries carry all the books.

4. George MacDonald - The Marquis' Secret

This is the sequel to The Fisherman's Lady. George MacDonald was one of C.S. Lewis' favorite authors. These two stories are my favorite of his. Paperback

5. For the Preschool set - Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

Brand new, hardback.

For local pick up only (unless you want to pay for the shipping).

6. Puppet theater - It looks similar to this one, but all the chalk spaces are green and the sign is either missing or was never there. Also there are no curtains, but it would be easy to make some. We bought this at a garage sale, but don't have room for it.

7. Rescue Heroes' Fire Truck and assorted Rescue Heroes

8. Foot Spa - It looks mostly like this.

A Quick Question

This year I'm going to try to have some time each day for Evan and Amy to play one on one with Emily while I teach the other big kid. I was wondering if any of you have some good ideas for things to do with a preschooler (2-3 years old). I'm thinking things like playdough, blocks, and puzzles. Please leave a comment if you have any ideas. I'm hoping to collect a bunch to rotate through. Thanks!