Our Favorite Waffles

We had waffles for dinner tonight. When Evan and Amy were little we used to have waffles for dinner quite a bit. Sean was working long hours and not home for dinner, and it was an easy, well liked meal. But it evidently confused them because at one point, I served waffles for breakfast and they asked why we were having dinner food for breakfast!

At that time, this recipe was our all time favorite. If you can handle wheat and dairy, it is a good recipe. But it also takes a long time to make. Fortunately, I found a waffle recipe that is just as good, gluten and dairy free, and is so fast and easy that I usually make it for Sunday morning breakfast. And we go to early service!

The reason it is so easy is that you do most of the work the night before. At first I was skeptical about leaving a batter out on the counter overnight. Wouldn't it spoil or get funny bacteria growing? But the more I researched soaking grains, the more I saw that it was different than just leaving food out (which would spoil). There are health benefits to soaking grains, but a big benefit for me is how quickly a recipe comes together after it's been soaked. I think it works much like the way yogurt works, and the soaking softens the rice and makes it more easily digestible. You don't have to do this step. It works just fine to blend it up and then make your waffles, but I like to soak it the night before and be ready to go first thing in the morning! I originally found the recipe here but have modified it to meet our needs.

Blender Waffles

1 1/2 cups rice

1 can full fat coconut milk

water

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

The night before, blend the rice, coconut milk, vanilla, and oil in your blender for 3 minutes at the highest speed. (Or 1 1/2 -2 minutes with a vita mix.) The batter should always swirl about a vortex in the blender. If it doesn’t, slowly add more liquid until the hole reappears. (I usually fill the can from the coconut milk half way and use it to pour the water.) You don't want it to get too watery, but the recipe is also very forgiving. I usually use 1/4 to 1/2 can of water added. Cover blender; let stand at room temperature overnight or 12-24 hours.

The next morning, plug in your waffle iron and add to your blender:

1 egg

Blend again for a minute. Then add:

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

Blend again briefly to incorporate the ingredients. You can use a spatula to mix it a bit more and wipe down the sides. Don't over mix the baking powder.

When you iron is ready, grease with butter or oil and cook for 4-5 minutes. I set my iron to 5.5 out of a setting of 8.

We like to serve these with homemade fruit sauce that cooks while the waffles are baking. The kids also like Justin's Nut Butter in the hazelnut/chocolate flavor. Of course, maple syrup is wonderful too!

Evan's 9th Grade Year

Evan's first year of High School! We started school this year in the summer to get a jump on things before we took a trip back east. If you'd like to see pictures of our summer trips just leave a comment asking to see Evan's blog. (It's password protected, but we'll share with you if you ask.) He took most of the pictures, and has done a great job blogging about it all.

I on the other hand, have been reading and reading some more about high school! Here's the line up.

Bible: Long Story Short with the girls and working on memorizing Philippians. Evan also has 5 books to read and write about, roughly 1 per quarter. Right now he's reading Practical Happiness by Bob Shultz. The others on his list are What He Must Be if He Wants to Marry My Daughter by Voddie Baucham, Humility by C.J. Mahaney, Knowing God by J.I. Packer, and a biography of someone from church history.

Evan is also doing a study of great books that corresponds to the time period of history he's studying. We're back at the beginning with ancient history, and of course the Bible is the great, Great Book. He's starting off the year reading Genesis through Job as his first "Great Book".

Math: Evan really likes Teaching Textbooks. This year he will be studying Algebra I.

English:
-Spelling: Spelling Power is proving to be a great fit for our family. I bought it with Evan in mind, since spelling is a weakness for him (like me). But everyone is doing well with it and liking it.
-Grammar: Evan is finishing up Easy Grammar Plus. It seems we have a tendency to not finish grammar books around here! I also have him doing a short lesson a day out of Easy Grammar Ultimate Series 9th grade. It's a one page summary of grammar rules to practice.
-Great Books: I'm planning on having Evan read through 10 great books. We're starting with the Bible (Gen-Job), then the Epic of Gilgamesh. I know Evan is looking forward to reading the Iliad and the Oddessy, but other than that there is some flexibility within a longer list based on what he's interested in and what's available.
-Writing: Each of the Great Books will have a paper due at the end. This along with the papers from his Bible class, and the numerous notes and outlines he'll be taking in History and Science should be enough writing for this year.
-Other books: Since I'm not following a curriculum per say with English, I'm having Evan read a couple of other books for reference and guidance: How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler, Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White, Study is Hard Work by William Armstrong,
and sections of The Well Educated Mind:A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer

History: He's reading The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer. After reading each chapter he takes notes on the events and dates. He'll use the Timetables of History by Burnard Grun and The Annals of the World by James Ussher for context and reference when writing papers.

Science: Evan is doing a class with friends also. They are using the Apologia Biology book. He is also taking a class on anatomy and physiology through our school called Body of Evidence by Answers in Genesis. The Apologia biology book doesn't go into human biology much, so I was glad that our school was offering the class.

Foreign Language: If we can get our Rosetta Stone program to work again, he'll continue on with Spanish. I think we're just having some technical difficulties.

Art and Music Appreciation: We spend a couple of hours each week looking a different composer and listening to his music while doing some art. I'm hoping to focus on painting this year.

Electives:
-Logic: We're going through the Fallacy Detectives by the Bludorn brothers. At church, the youth group is doing a study of logic and how it applies to us a Christians.
-Eagle Scout Project: Evan is on track to finish up his work to earn the Eagle Scout rank this year. Our school requires two semesters of community service. His project will count as one full semester.

P.E.: One of Evan's boy scout merit badges is Personal Fitness. He has to make a 12 week exercise plan and evaluate his conditioning before and after he initiates his plan. That along with the hiking, jogging, backpacking, walking, tree chopping, fence building, and tree climbing he does with his friends and family are his P.E. plan so far.

Amy's 7th Grade Year

Amy is starting her first year in Junior High. Seeing that my kids can hardly remember what grade they really are in, I suppose it doesn't matter that much, but it seems a big milestone non-the-less. She, of course, would rather be outside than in, but this year has really taken off with her reading. She started "War Horse" this morning and finished it just before dinner. She has a tendency to not ask questions if she doesn't understand something so this year we will work more at vocabulary and dictionary skills. Here's her curriculum line up for the year.

Bible: We will be going through the book, "Long Story Short" as a family and memorizing the book of Philippians. I will also have time for Amy to read her Bible in the morning on her own.

Math: Amy really likes the Abeka Math series, and we will be continuing with Math 7 this year.

Language Arts:
-Spelling: I was going to have Amy do level B of the Phonetic Zoo since we own it and she liked level A. However, when she saw me reading the Spelling Power book, she was really interested in it and asked if we could do that instead.
-Grammar: Last year we started Rod and Staff's 6th grade spelling program but only got half way through it, so we'll just pick up where we left off and keep going. It's very through so it does take her a long time, but I'd like her to finish.
-Handwriting: We started with Italic, but Amy wanted to learn "real" cursive. So I started her on a book that teaches traditional cursive and we'll keep going with that then move on to Classically Cursive.
-Reading: I plan on getting library books that pertain to the period of history that we will be studying. I also like looking at the reading lists from Veritas Press and Sonlight to pick up a few extra literature books that are at her reading level. If they have horses or heroines all the better!
-Writing: I'm going to have Amy start doing more writing with her history curriculum, but we will also use the book from the Institute for Excellence in Writing that goes along with Ancient History.
-Vocabulary: We'll be working through Word Roots with Evan as a supplement. Last time I tried it with her it was over her head. But I think she can do it now.

History: We'll read Story of the World together with Emily (and who am I kidding, Evan will probably stick around too!). Then, I'll have her look up the pages in the Kingfisher History of the World Book, write dates in a timeline, and do some map work in the Geography Coloring Book that I brought for her.

Science: Amy and her friend are going to study Biology with their sisters. They will use the Christian Kids Explore Biology curriculum. Since Evan is doing Biology too, I'll try to work it out so they can watch the movies that the big kids see and observe some of the dissections and microscope work.

Logic: When Sean is at work, we're going to read a chapter of the Fallacy Detective. Evan worked through The Thinking Tool Box a few years ago and loved it. He's been wanting to go through the Fallacy Detective ever since. Coincidentally, our youth pastor is doing a study of logic at church as well. Hopefully this will be a good introduction for her.

Fine Arts: Amy loves being in the local children's choir and will continue that this year. We will also keep reading "The Gift of Music" together as a family and listening to classical music. For Art this year, I'm thinking we'll work on painting. I sure wish the kids art teacher still taught classes! This is one area that I really don't know that much about.

Home Economics: Last year Amy went through a formal Home Ec class with a friend and just loved it. This year, I'm planning on reading through "The Hidden Art of Homemaking" with her and maybe doing some projects that relate to each chapter.

P.E.: Amy will continue with her horseback riding lessons. If she took her horse out every day, I suppose that could count for all her PE, but since that doesn't happen, we'll be trying to get in some walks. I'm also trying to find a used rebounder for her to use when the weather is bad.

She has been a big help with all the chores too. We are working on a solid morning routine and working quicker so the jobs are done before school starts.

Emily's First Grade Year

We'll be starting up school soon. This year, I have one in High School, one in Junior High, and Emily just starting out. She is so different from my other two. She loves workbooks and is one of those kids who makes the mental leap from basic phonics to reading. I honestly don't know how she did it, but she'll take on any picture book we have and start reading getting it mostly right! She also doesn't like to play by herself much, so being with us and having more school work to do will probably be a good thing. Here's what we're hoping to study this year.

Bible: Long Story Short by Marty Machowski - We'll go through this as a family and work on memorizing the book of Philippians. Then while I work with Evan on some English, Amy will read to Emily some of the great Bible devotion books we have for little ones starting with God's Mighty Acts in Creation.

Math: Saxon 1- I love Saxon for grades 1-3, we already have the teacher's book and all the manipulatives, so this was a no brainer choice for me. Emily loves the Kumon books though, and we have several on math subjects, so we'll probably supplement with them as well.

Language Arts:
-Phonics: She finished up Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons last year and just loved it. I'm going to follow it up this year with Phonics Pathways just to make sure she doesn't have any gaps in the phonics and to help her with the more complex words.
-Grammar: We love First Language Lessons. Evan can still chant the list of helping verbs and linking verbs that he learned from this book.
-Handwriting: We'll continue with the Italic series.
-Writing: We're going to try Peace Hill Press's Writing With Ease book 1. I like having a lesson all scripted out for English so I bought the workbook as well.
Spelling: I bought Spelling Power for Evan then realized that it would be perfect for Emily too! She has been asking how to spell out words, so I think she's ready to start a spelling program.

That looks like a lot of language arts for a 6 year old! But most of the lessons are super short and we'll just keep working a little at a time. That's the plan anyway. If God has a different one, we'll change it up.

Science: Amy is studying Biology with friends using Christian Kid's Explore Biology. I'm going to have her follow along and do the coloring pages and experiments with Amy and her friends. If I was just homeschooling Emily, I'd go back to the section in the Well Trained Mind for first year Biology. I loved looking up a different animal each week, studying and reading about them. But I don't thing with everything else going on, that I'll really have time to do that. Plus we already own the CKEB book.

History: We'll be going back to The Story of the World. I loved going through it with Evan and Amy when they were little. Amy was so little that I doubt she remembers much. She'll sit in on it too, and then do some additional work that's more challenging. But I'm hoping that Evan and Amy will sit down with her and read library books about the ancient world.

Fine Arts: She'll be going back to choir and piano lessons. She loved both of them this past year. And we'll keep reading through The Gift Of Music and listening to Classical music. I'd like to have the kids do some painting this year. Since I have no training in that area, I'm not sure yet what book to use. Emily I'm sure would be happy just to paint wooden boxes! She loves to get out the paints.

Spring!

February is usually a blah month for me. In March, the plum trees that line our driveway burst into flowers. It always makes me so happy to see them.

On Thursday I go to see a pain specialist for my neck. I'm still pretty limited in what I can do physically. But on the bright side, my kids have done a great job taking over the household chores that I can't do anymore.

Beef Stew

Picture credit: Benchland Blog

This is a super easy recipe that my mom passed on to me. The ingredients can be adapted to fit whatever size crock-pot you own.

Beef Stew

Ingredients:

2-3 pounds of beef stew meat (I used to buy it from Cost-Co and use half the package, but now I buy it from the Farmers Market. You could also cut up your own cubes of meat from a roast.)

Carrots - cut up into thick slices or use baby carrots
Potatoes- peeled and cut up into big chunks

1 to 1 1/2 cups red wine

1 to 1 1/2 cups beef broth (homemade bone broth is best, but I used to use Better than Bullion)

Herbs de Provence

Garlic salt

Flour

Oil (olive or coconut is what I use)

Directions:

1. Brown beef in oil and sprinkle on both sides with flour (rice flour mixed with a little cornstarch works good for Gluten Free), garlic salt and Herbs. Or you can dredge the beef in flour first before you brown. Work in batches and as each batch is done, transfer to the crock pot.

2. Add to your crock pot equal parts of red wine (We like Meridian's Merlot) and beef broth. I usually use 1 1/2 cups each for my big crock pot.

3. Fill in the spaces with potatoes and carrots. If you fill up your crock pot half way, it will work, just check for burning on the sides. It works best if you fill it up almost to the top.

4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

2010 In Review July- December

July: We celebrated my 20 year high school reunion. One of my friends had a VERY nice camera that she let Evan use for the day. I don't have any of those pictures, just the one of Evan using her camera! We also celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner as a family on the coast.

August: We visited my parents so Evan and Sean could go backpacking in Yosemite with my dad.

September: We didn't take any pictures in September! We were busy doing school. But doesn't this one look like Mater from Cars? Evan is having fun with cameras this year.

October: We started up an airsoft group at our house. Evan and his buddies shoot at each other with our youth group leader. Then they talk about life while they reload. Amy and her friend Marie try to antagonize them whenever they get the chance.

November: Thanksgiving! With the cousins and third cousins. We took a tour of Mrs. Grossman's Sticker factory together as our gift to each other. A memory instead of toys.

December: The family photo shoot, the ones that didn't make the Christmas Newsletter.

Happy New Year!

2010 In Review January - June

January: The year started off with a bang and a crunch. I got T-boned on the way to CostCo. We now have a new car and I've been in physical therapy ever since. God has taught us some hard lessons through this one. We are so thankful that the kids weren't seriously hurt. Emily even got a new pink car seat out of it all and she loves it!
February: Sean took a trip up to Idaho to bring back the rest of his dad's belongings. And Evan got a good picture of Amy on her horse.

March: Sean's family got together to divvy up the rest of his dad's "stuff". Sean kept saying, "I can't believe I hauled all this back from Idaho!"

April: I think we were sick much of April. But here's a cute picture of the cousins. And Emily with her favorite treat (other than chocolate).

May: Our church camp out was the same weekend as Emily's 5th birthday. We brought (gluten-free) chocolate cake to the beach and had it for breakfast. Amy got to spend time with her favorite baby girl from church.

June: We were given some hens from friends who were moving. Emily was excited to find the first egg! We were also blessed with a visit from friends. PJ and I were pen pals in college and our families have kept up since then. But our kids had never met. God worked it out that we were able to spend a week together and our kids hit it off famously. Now they are pen pals! Amy also turned 11. We had a fun time with friends celebrating. But I have seriously fallen off the blogging bandwagon to have missed both my girls birthdays! (I didn't blog about Evan's yet either, but since his was just a few weeks ago, I think I can still squeeze it in.)

Emily's Music

Last week Emily started Piano Lessons and this week she started Choir! She's going to have a musical year.

We are also reading together as a family, "The Gift Of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence." Each chapter is on the life of a composer, his story and influence during his lifetime and afterward. The author gives suggestions for pieces to listen too. I've been able to get some CDs from the library that correlate with each lesson. Every Tuesday after lunch we read a chapter and listen to some samples of the composer's music. I let the CD run while we do our art class. I just love this book, written by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson. Ms. Smith had been an opera singer before she got saved and moved to L'Abri in Switzerland. While not a complete overview of music, the stories are interesting and give a good glimpse at the composers lives. This is my favorite quote. "The more we acquaint ourselves with that which is truly great and beautiful, the more we will dislike and turn away from that which is shallow and ugly." Listening to classical music in this way helped our day be more cheerful. And when Emily noticed the bust of Mozart on Jenn's piano and found out who it was, she was so excited that she knew him and had heard his music. She especially loves "The Magic Flute" and the Queen of the Night.

Not Quite Right

When I was five or six I remember telling my mom that I really liked a certain drink. Only, I couldn't remember what it was called. It was kind of like milk, but thicker and creamier. She could only guess it was buttermilk. It looked right and as I took a big sip I was so disappointed. It was July, and what I was remembering was Egg Nog.

We usually make pancakes once a week. Now that we're gluten free around here, the recipe from this cookbook is our favorite. But Evan mentioned that he missed buckwheat pancakes. Remembering my story, I asked him if he was sure. Yes, it was buckwheat. Well, buckwheat is not really wheat at all. And it's gluten free. So this morning I found a recipe for buckwheat pancakes and made them up. I thought they were better than what I remember buckwheat tasting like. However, Evan realized he'd made the same mistake after all. Looks like I'll be eating a lot of buckwheat pancakes over the next few weeks!

Unexpected Fun

We used to take out the stress by building forts! Fall of '05.

We've been hittin' the books for a solid month now and the strain shows. The house is a mess, kids are not so excited about my less creative meal plans, and I had three days in a row where I pretty much was on the verge of tears the entire day.

While I am learning to depend on God for each day, being faithful to do the job He's given me to do, He gave me some unexpected surprises this week. In the rush of life, I don't want to forget them. I need to remind myself again of God's faithfulness. I too easily forget.

During one of the tearful days, I mentioned to a friend that my neck and back were hurting again because I took on too much housework when Sean and Evan were gone . We have a wood ceiling that collects dust and cobwebs that I was trying to tackle. I only got half way through before I knew I had overdone it. She sent me a text the next day asking if she could come over and help me get the rest of those cobwebs. I was so surprised! It was such a blessing to not only have help, but to know that God has given me real friends who love me, cobwebs and all!

Not only was I blessed with friendship this week, but we got to know our neighbors a bit better too. One neighbor offered to let us use her pool. We took her up on the offer yesterday. It was so hot! Later that day, a car drove down our drive with another neighbor who just came over to introduce themselves. They are believers and have kids our kids ages! I have been wanting to get to know some of the neighbors more and just praying for God's timing.

Then to end the week on a great note, we were invited to go play wiffle ball with some friends tonight. Now, I don't really care for sports. I think the only time I ever really played any kind of ball game was in 7th grade PE. But my kids really wanted to go, and I really wanted the fellowship. We had a blast. Emily had her first experience hitting a ball and she scored 2 runs for her team. As I was rounding second base, I realized that I was truly having fun, unexpected fun!

Poor Child

Last week, Amy was lobbying for a game. She pouted, "All our family ever does together is read the Bible and eat dinner as a family!" Sean and I snickered and then played UNO with her.

She never has any fun.

The Week In a Nutshell

Last weekend Sean and Evan went on a backpacking trip to Yosemite. They came home sweaty and tired, but they had a great time! I gave Evan a day off school to recover, then we were back full time to school. Here are a few highlights.

The week was full of art and writing. We normally do an art class on Tuesdays, but this week, the kids didn't seem to want to stop drawing. I think the colored pencils were out all week. I found an interesting website that teaches drawing portraits. I almost have all the supplies so we can get started. The first videos came this week and while I know we won't be able to draw quite as well as the instructor, I'm going to try and keep it fun so the kids can learn some more techniques.

We started The Institute for Excellence in Writing's Continuation Course this year. The first assignment was to write a story based off pictures. The kids were working late last night trying to get it done. They were laughing at each others stories and frustrated at all the details of the assignment at the same time. Writing has been particularly hard for Evan. Sean and I were proud of him for sticking it out and learning that it can get easier with practice.

Emily will be taking beginning piano with our friend Jenn this fall. She came up to me at church and exclaimed, "Guess what, mom?! I'm taking piano with Jenn, and Riley is taking piano with Jenn, and Maggie is taking piano WITH JENN!!!" She is so very excited to be taking piano with Jenn, whom she loves. It's even more fun for her knowing that some of her friends are doing the same thing as well. Jenn and I agreed that their recital will be a hoot!

Love and Double Digging

Galatians 5:22 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. "

Yesterday, my mom told me there is a new science in gardening. As a master gardener, my mom would know the "dirt". Her next door neighbor, a landscaper by trade, was explaining it to her. It used to be that you would dig out a site, double dig if you were serious, to get the soil all nice and fluffy soft before you would plant your garden. The new thought, that has been proven by science, is to just pull out the weeds, only dig a hole for your plant, then add compost all around after your plant is in the ground. In other words, instead of getting the plot perfect, just dig in and then add lots of the good stuff. The result is less weeds, healthy plants and a lot less work.

Our pastor is preaching a series on marriage. Today he correlated marriage to a garden. He talked about pulling out the weeds of selfishness, laziness, and fear, sowing the seeds of love, joy and peace, and bringing about good fruit by keeping in step with God. Instead of trying to manipulate my way into making everything perfect whether in my marriage or my garden, it seems the "new science" of gardening and the very old timeless words of scripture ring true: pull out the weeds, dig in deep, and add the good stuff.

Double digging a garden is really hard work. Can it be that there is an easier way that still produces great results? We have a lot of ground to plant at our new house, so I'll have ample opportunity to try it out. In the same way, can it be that loving Christ above all else, even my spouse, will help me to grow in love for him more than all the "double digging" work I've been trying to do on my own? (Yes, of course it will; you'd think I'd learn!) Loving Christ in some ways is so much simpler. So is mulching like crazy instead of digging several feet! But when weeds are covered by a thick layer of mulch, they can not grow. "When sin becomes bitter, marriage becomes sweet." When Sinners Say I Do by Dave Harvey

Galatians 5:13 "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

A Big Week for Emily

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;" Romans 10:9

Emily confessed Jesus as Lord this week, praying for forgiveness of sins! We were sitting in the kitchen and she just out of the blue started asking what it meant when people say "Jesus died on the cross". So we talked about sin and how it separates us from God. I got to share the gospel with her and pray with her. She was so excited to be a Christian! I was even more excited for her. I told her that we had the date Amy became a christian written down somewhere. Emily said, " I don't think she's a christian all the time; sometimes she's mean to me." Yikes! So right away I got to explain, in 5 year old words the difference between justification and sanctification.

She also recently learned to shoot the pink daisy BB gun. Every time she shouted, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!" and then shot the gun. I'm pretty sure aiming was optional in her mind. It was all about the yelling.

Finally, it's been a year now since we took Emily off wheat. Since then we've discovered that she is extremely sensitive to gluten which is also in barley, rye and spelt. She may even have celiac disease. I don't know because we didn't have her tested. But when when we challenged her by adding wheat into her diet she had severe flare ups. Now we know that she is sensitive enough to have a reaction even from eating something that was processed on the same equipment as wheat. Going gluten free has been an adventure, but a fun one. And she is growing like never before.

So spiritually and physically, this has been a milestone week for her!

Meditations on a Sunday

Today our pastor continued a study on Marriage. It was the best talk on that subject I have ever heard. You can listen by clicking on the link here. I'm still processing what he said. Forty five minutes of grace filled truth can at times be a bit overwhelming in a good kind of way. I've read most of the books he recommended, so it's not that what he said was so new. But God used our pastor's presentation of God's Word to specifically bring more clarity to what God has been teaching me recently. Sometimes God uses different mediums to direct our thoughts all in the same direction. After church I spent a little time catching up on some other blogs that I read from time to time. Although not all dealt specifically with marriage, what I read just reinforced what I learned this morning. I commend them to you as worthwhile reading!

Practical Theology for Women
Girl Talk
Shepherd Press
CCEF

First Week of School

"For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice, and He preserves the way of His godly ones. Then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." Proverbs 2:6-10

This is the verse we started with on Monday. It was very fitting! I'm reading a Proverb or Psalm each day to the kids and then we are working through Big Truths for Young Hearts by Bruce Ware. I'm really enjoying this time teaching them. I love the questions they come up with and I especially love seeing truths of God's Word come alive as we study together.

After taking a short summer break, the kids were a bit hesitant to start up again so soon, and I wasn't sure I would be ready in time. But, God is good! We had a great week. Despite the fact that I didn't have all my curriculum ordered yet, I was not stressed out. And after the first round of protests the previous week, the kids dove right into school and everyone proclaimed that it had been a great week. Here are a few highlights.

Emily is now an official kindergartner. She begged to do Math each day. I'm using Saxon K with her and she loves it. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is living up to it's title. She is loving that too. We're on lesson 37 since we began a few months ago and already she's starting to sound out words as she sees them around her. I'll follow up with Phonics Pathways. She loves to color and do "workbooks" unlike my older two. So far she's tracking with us as we read through Bible, History, and Pilgrim's Progress (in old English no less!).

Amy seems to have made the jump to being an independent learner much the same as Evan did at this age. I got a planner type book at Target for a dollar to write out her assignments for the week. She eagerly checked off boxes as she did her work. It was so exciting! She said her favorite part of school this week was reading a biography on Helen Keller.

Evan said it was all good. He had a lot of fun doing his science experiment in Exploring Creation with Physical Science (Apologia). I changed the way I scheduled things this year. All of the subjects that I read aloud to the kids or need to direct, I assigned a specific class time. The other subjects that Evan and Amy can pretty much do on their own with a bit of coaching, I left flexible for them to learn how to organize their time best. This has helped me to stay on track and make sure that I'm giving the spelling quiz each day. But isn't so rigid that we're run by the clock every 15 minutes. So far, it seems to be working out well.

Since I knew I was going to be busier this week teaching and organizing school, I tried something new and baked up a weeks worth of muffins and cookies on Saturday. I wrapped them up in groups for each day and put them in the freezer. When the kids needed a snack, I just pulled it out with no mess, clean up or baking required. With leftovers for lunch and cookies already made up, lunch was quick and easy too. If I can, I'll try and do this again. It made time in the kitchen more streamlined, and the kids loved having homemade goodies all week long.

We are starting early this year so we can end early. We're planning on taking the kids on a tour of the country next spring. We'll be driving up to Zion, over to Niagara Falls, down through Washington DC and then south to home. It seems far off in the distant future, but it takes a lot of preparation to make a trip like this a reality. My part so far has been to get school up and running. I'm thankful for the knowledge and understanding He gave us this week as we got started.

Chicken Coop Condo

For their birthdays this year Amy and Emily asked for chickens. Yes, chickens. Not a Barbie or a My Little Pony, but chickens. Problem was, the chickens needed a place to live. Backyard construction projects are Sean's forte. He likes to build. He needed to build quickly because baby chicks don't stay chicks for long.

Sean designed a big sturdy coop. It took him several weekends to build. Evan added muscle to the heavy lifts. They even added power so that the heat lamp and cooling fans could be plugged in without runing extension cords from the barn.

The result of their efforts is our new "home addition" to house our new "babies."

We selected a small pasture near the barn so that the chickens would be safer (we saw a bobcat out there two nights ago!).



Sean framed up the chicken coop on 4x4 posts. Its heavy duty.



The finished project has eight little doors on the end to make egg collection easier.



There is a cute little door for the chicks and another service door for the little people to take care of the chicks.


Our new additions. There are four Buff Orpingtons, three Golden Campines, four Andalusians, and one that might be a Sussex - but we don't really know. Amy can tell the 12 chicks a part and knows them all by name.


Last week we adopted four grown hens and a beautiful rooster to the mix. They are separated from the chicks for now because, well........ chicks are food to chickens. So the chicks need to grow so they won't be food. The hens are already providing big brown eggs for our family.


We are looking forward to the added eggs once the chicks become hens and lay their own in about five months. I'm sure there will be extras to go around!