Valentine's Day | Homeschoolmummyx3 on Xanga

Valentine's Day | Homeschoolmummyx3 on Xanga

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Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Cheddar Broccoli Soup & Chicken Broth | Homeschoolmummyx3 on Xanga

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Seasons...

Lately there has been much discussion in a variety of places about the seasons, how they change, how different they are from one area of the country to the next and throughout the world for that matter.

We went sledding down this nice hill on New Year's Day.  We had a fabulous time, even though the temperature was quite frigid.  If it were summer time, we would not have had this opportunity to sled down this lovely hill.  Our family time would have been spent differently. 

For everything there is a season...

During this time of year, our family is resting more.  During the Spring, Summer and Fall months you can compare us easily to ants, gathering for the harvest.  When the weather gets colder and things outside lay dormant, it is time for us to rest and concentrate on other things.  Today the high temperature was 17 Degrees F.  When my wonderful husband came home from work, the thermometer read 1 Degree F.  We spend much of our time in the basement around the fire.  We try to get as much of our upstairs chores done quickly so that we can gather in the basement. 

In the basement you will find some of us building forts to house little boys and little dogs to snuggle and watch a movie.

You can find others crocheting...

 

And others making a medieval castle...or two...

 

Getting ready to go outside to play for 20 minutes....

And cleaning up the games and books.  Notice the "don't bother me with the camera right now, I'm not in the mood" look on her face!  ;) 

Of course there are other things we do with our time as well, like darning socks (see previous post), reading, listening to, singing with, playing and reading music and playing games.  What a wonderful season of quiet peacefulness this is. 

I know, you're cold and you're asking me how I could be so thankful for this season of snow and cold.  It's very simple, really.  I asked God to show me the beauty in each season and He did. 

Blessings,

Regina

Miscellaneous Home Schooling Moments

Many people don't equate every part of their lives as a learning moment. It helps to understand that as home scholars, we do not compartmentalize our lives in to subjects like the government schools do with the words, "Ok class, it's time to do Reading Comprehension now." (insert subject of choice there). We just do it without calling it "(insert subject here)". On our days that we do our megashopping, we comparison shop, but that doesn't mean we call it "Consumer Math". It just naturally flows along as a part of our life.


Today to this point, we've taken care of getting our beds made, chores done, 3 loads of laundry done, and now the children are learning how to darn their own socks. We no longer buy their socks and underwear for them. They buy their own out of their own allowance. (more on this later) As a mom who wants to pass on the importance of frugality, I showed them this morning how to darn their own socks to save THEM some money.

Notice the little face sticking out of the baby quilt. This is his favorite spot during the winter...when he can't snuggle with someone, he'll be burrowed inside a blanket of choice. LOL DS#2 is 10 years old. He was getting ready to throw out an entire WM bag full of socks that needed darned. He ended up throwing out 2 socks! *gasp* Amazing, isn't it?!

This is DS#1. He is 14 years old and has taken to the concept of saving money by darning his own socks like a fish takes to water. The whole thought of being frugal means to fix it up, use it up until it is truly worn out and basically unsalvagable. Now, lest you think I'm a cheapskate, I'm not. I choose to save money as much as I can without driving my husband nuts. I could literally drive him nuts with all of this, but I've found a happy medium. I go forward trying to save money quite cautiously. If it makes him uncomfortable or if I sense frustration, I take one step back to make sure his comfort zone is well in tact. Yes, this means that advanced couponing 101 is going to drive him nuts. LOL

This is my DD darning her socks. She loves the thought of saving money to. Of course this means that she can put more money toward her beading instead of socks. LOL This basic skill will help her in years to come, I'm sure...as it will the boys as well.

Of course another part of our home schooling is the "do-it-yourself" types of projects. We'd been putting off replacing a toilet for a long time. Yes, my husband has replaced every little piece inside the toilet to make it more usable and to stretch the usage of it. When we realized it wasn't working and running almost all the time, costing us more to keep it as is instead of replacing it, it was time to replace it. We found a wonderful deal at Home Depot with a low usage comode that only uses 1.28 gallons per flush. It also has a bladder inside it that holds the water instead of having the water bead up on the outside in the summer and drip on the floor. Even though we do not have AC, we still have this problem in the summer. The children, of course, helped with the installation. I didn't get all the pictures I could, but I managed to get three.

Here is Daddy giving instruction to DS#2.

...and DS#2 putting the handle on the comode.

...and DD tightening nuts to the bolts.

These types of instructional times are so very valuable to our children. These things are not usually taught in school unless you are in a specific VoTech class. Even then, there is not the satisfaction of a job well done and being reminded of it every day you use that item.

I hope through my posts, you'll be able to see that home schooling is not just about academics, but about living, learning and loving one another.


Blessings,
Regina

Raspberry Almond Cheesecake

Part of my Christmas gift for my hubby every Christmas is a homemade cheesecake. Each year I try to do something different. He loves cheesecake, but I only make it twice a year--for his birthday and Christmas. This year I decided to go on a search for a couple different recipes to see if I could come up with a delicious Raspberry Almond Cheesecake for him and I think I've come up with one.

This is a compilation of recipes. The crust is one for a peanutbutter cheesecake, but with almonds substituted. The Raspberry layer is simply a raspberry pie recipe cut in half. The cheesecake layer is just a simple cheesecake with almond extract instead of vanilla. The topping is the same as a German Chocolate Cheesecake topping would call for pecans, but I've substituted almonds and almond extract instead. I'll post a picture to go along with this recipe later today. :0)

Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray a large springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Crust

1 Cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/2 Cup Almonds chopped very fine

1/3 Cup Melted Butter

3 TBSP Sugar
Place all ingredients in food processor and process until everything is blended and resembles fine crumbs. Press in to the bottom of springform pan and half way up the sides. Set aside.

Raspberry Layer

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 Cups Fresh or Frozen Raspberries

1/2 TBSP Lemon Juice
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and spread over the top of the graham cracker crust. Set aside.

Cheesecake Layer

3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese softened

1 Cup Sugar

4 Eggs

2 tsp Almond Extract
Remove cream cheese wrappers and put cream cheese on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for 1 minute to soften. Combine with all the ingredients, scraping the bowl often. Whip on high for 1-2 minutes. Pour over the top of the raspberries and bake for 1 hour or until the center is set. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Coconut Almond Topping

1/3 Cup Evaporated Milk

2 TBSP Butter

2 TBSP Packed Brown Sugar

2 Egg Yolks

1/2 Cup Chopped Almonds

1/2 Cup Flaked Coconut

1/2 tsp Almond Extract
Before serving, cook milk, butter, brown sugar and egg yolks over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened; remove from heat and stir in nuts, coconut and almond extract. Pour over cooled cheesecake and serve.

Happy New Year!

Here we are in 2010. It seems so surreal to say that. I keep looking around, knowing full well that it is 2010, but it's just not hit home for me yet.

Today has been an exciting day for us. Daddy took us sledding down the most incredible hill! We had so much fun! The kids just zoomed on their sleds and it was such a site. I think I got brave enough to go down one time, but still, it was fun.

We came home and had some yummy hot cocoa, put the potatoes on to boil (they were peeled and quartered before we left), saurkraut & hot dogs added to the crock pot. We had yellow beans for the first time since putting them up in the new pantry area. Wow were they good!

I'm sitting here realizing that I haven't nearly taken as many pictures of my family as I have in times past, so it's time to fix that...or at least upload bunches more that I have saved on the other computer. :0)

Blessings,
Regina

Winter Wonderland

This is the view outside my back door just this morning. Isn't it beautiful? We are currently sitting in the basement sipping hot cocoa with a little bit of Chocolate Mint Truffle Cream added to it while sitting around the fire. The children have all been outside playing in the snow, building medieval castles to go along with our unit on European History that we're studying. What fun! I'll post more pictures as time goes on.

Our New Year's Eve will consist of movies from the Love Comes Softly series, pop corn and whatever else we can find. We'll ring in the new year like we always do, with Daddy setting off fireworks in the back yard at midnight.

New Years Resolutions are not practiced here at our home. We decided years ago to stop doing that because by March we were beating ourselves up for not sticking to our resolutions. We realized that the Lord is gracious and merciful and that we needed to set goals and ask God to bless them instead. So, this is what we do in lieu of New Year's Resolutions.

Have a lovely New Year's celebration!

Blessings,

2009 Merry Christmas

What have you done with your family to draw everyone closer to the Savior who we celebrate his birth today?  Is it all about the gifts?  Do our kids really need all the beep beeps, bells and whistles? 

Coming from one who gave them as many of those bells and whistles as we could pull out years ago...

No, they don't. 

We've had people approach our children letting them know how sorry they felt for them.  Our children didn't get the latest and greatest electronic device for Christmas, so they were going to give our children their "old" systems to play once they get their new ones for Christmas.  Oddly enough, my kids didn't want those old systems, nor the pity that came with it.

If the wise men/magi could bring 3 gifts to the King of Kings, why couldn't we simplify to those 3 gifts too?

We've successfully done just that.  Here they are, their meanings and what we've done with them this year.
Gold-Something they really want...
What did my kids really want this year?  DS#1 wanted an erector set, t-shirts with scripture messages on them or a movie.  What did he get?  The t-shirts.   DD wanted anything to do with beading.  What did she get?  Something to help her get more organized with her beads and a wire beading starter kit.  DS#2 just wanted bead containers (buy one gets one he found in the Joann ad) and Beverly Hills Chihuahua the movie. 
Frankincense-Something they need...
PJ's work well here.  This is the only time during the year my kids get new store bought pj's on purpose.  No, we're not bad parents.  Our kids have so many things that they can't even fit them in their drawers. {More on this later}

Myrrh-Something for their spiritual growth...
DS#1-A Young Man After God's Own Heart by Jim George
DD-Raising Young Maidens of Virtue by Stacy McDonald
DS#2-Created for Work by Bob Schultz
Each of our children decided for themselves to take their needs and wants money to pool them in to one to have money to get gifts for one another.  We did not have to make them do this. 

For us, there was a greater focus for our family to be givers this year.  We're already starting to plan for our giving for next Christmas.  Worthy causes for giving abound.  We've found special joy in Operation Christmas Child through Samaritans Purse.  We also love doing the angel tree for local families.  We've increased our giving this year, thankfully, by the grace of God.  We're planning to increase our giving even more next year. 

Giving monetarily is not the only way one can give from the heart.  One can serve dinners to others, serve in church, play or sing music...truly the possibilities are endless if one just sits back and expresses the desires of their heart to the Lord. 
The warmth one feels when one works hard baking and planning and upon delivery see the joy and love on the faces of the recipients is all worth the effort. 
The beep beeps and such need batteries, upkeep and so forth, but lasting memories are priceless.  A child who takes a dollar a month out of their meager allowance to gather things for a shoe box for a child their own age helps them to see that there are others in the world who are in need.  We're so very fortunate.  We've set a budget for our Christmas giving and we've tried very hard to stick to it.  We may have gone a little overboard with our giving to others, but $30 over isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things.

What did I get?  My husband unexpectedly bought me a toaster oven.   We'll use it in the basement during the colder winter months that will be coming our way soon.  My oldest son took his money and bought me the Love Comes Softly 2nd Trilogy.  The younger 2 bought 2 different vanilla based bath sets as well as some lip gloss.  What did I have on my list of "wants"?  A toaster oven and some lip gloss.  LOL  I mentioned to everyone, "Geez, I sure must not smell too good since everyone got me soap!"  ROTFLOL  My sweet wonderful neighbor brought us some delicious creamer.  Yes, I said creamer.  What deliciousness in a bottle!  There was Coconut Cream and Chocolate Mint Truffle.  Yummy!

My husband got a tshirt, a book on card games and A Husband After God's Own Heart by Jim George.  He was just as happy too.  Praise God! 

Through all this, I do believe we can honestly say that we've arrived on to the level of simplicity we've been striving for.  Or, better said, we've become more content with what we have, what we get and what we give. 

Blessings,

I Guess I Should Update a wee bit...

Where has the time gone? Whew! It seems that with every passing day there are many tasks to complete and loved ones to care for. Praise God for all He's given my hands to do.

Currently, our Tom has taken his place of residence in the refrigerator as of this afternoon about 1PM. My dear daughter will be helping me make our dinner rolls on Tuesday and pies on Wednesday.

Monday evening I'm hoping to go out and have some coffee with my darling husband. He's agreed with me that it's time to make it a weekly thing. Praise God!

Wednesday evening will be a Simple Supper at church, then the choir will assemble for a last minute run through of our Harvest Home hymn we'll be singing. My dear oldest son will be singing in the choir now. He's getting so much deeper with his voice, but that can be expected with him being 14. I was listening to him sing today in church and what a lovely sounding bass he's going to be!

Thursday we'll get Tom in to bake at 7AM. He's just a hair under 20 pounds, but we'll have dinner earlier than we usually do so we can have some family time later after dinner. We plan to have our normal fare of mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, stuffed celery, corn, stuffing and 3 pies-strawberry chiffon (DD will make this) and I will make my pecan pie while my Darling Husband will make the filling for his pumpkin pie made from real pumpkin. Yum!

Friday, while others will be at the stores trying to get the latest and greatest, we will be staying home. We are planning to do our shopping, but not on Black Friday. We'll spend a quiet day at home decorating for Christmas. Saturday we'll be getting our tree. :0)

This season has been so full of all sorts of things to do. We've been tilling our yard to make way for a bigger garden area next year. Our plans are in full swing right now. My dear oldest son has been doing such a good job tilling and preparing the soil. My sweet younger son asks to be able to rototill, but doesn't have the ability to keep at the job for long. His time will come. :0)

We're planning to triple our garden space for next year. I'm really excited about the prospects of having so much fresh garden veggies to can and have a road side stand to sell our veggies. What a blessing!

With everything else, greater organization has been a goal of mine. To get organized and stay organized has been continually changing. With this being our 9th year of home schooling, we're getting in to topics that are challenging, but fun. We're also getting in to needing to keep track of sales and materials purchased, so greater organization at this point, is a good thing. I've decided to streamline our address book/contact list so that I know where every address and phone number is. It takes some time for me to do, but I'm making progress. I'm working about 20 minutes to half an hour a day on this project and I'm not even half way done with it, but progress and diligence take some time. I still have many other things in my home to care for, so this is going to be a little while in doing. I figure it will take me about a week to complete. I'm not in a hurry, so it will be good to see the progress with this in the next week.

Well, it's time to get moving on to some other projects. This evening I plan to work some on my Darling Husband's closet as a surprise for him.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving!

Regina

Fall is Upon Us

I know I'm not ready for Fall to be here. I know the choices are not there and it's here regarless of whether I want it or not. Summer always seems to fly by so fast...too fast for my liking. This year was no exception. We didn't have much heat this year. I think the temperature made it up to 92*F the day we went to see the Elk herd, but that was it. Temperatures didn't climb to that point again. It got up to 88*F a few more times, but honestly nothing else. We've had a very wet, very cool summer this year.

With Fall being upon us, baking season has begun. Everything from quickbreads, to cookies, rolls and yeast breads are coming out of my oven. It's working overtime for me and I'm so blessed to have it. We're using up our stock of white flour slowly, but honestly if we hadn't had the stock, we probably would not have been able to pear down the food budget like we have. Yes, I use white flour. I know I need to use more wheat flour, but I believe I've made it to a point were if I used more wheat flour in my baking, my husband may not like it all that much. I've adjusted recipes and I believe I've attained the point at which his comfort zone is most likely to enjoy the higher fiber without compromising his taste.

Here is an example~ I love baking banana bread. When bananas get a little too brown, we toss them in the freezer for use in breads. I have taken my basic Betty Crocker banana bread recipe and looked at the white flour usage in it. I split the amount of white flour in to a little bit of oatmeal, mostly whole wheat flour and just enough white flour to keep things "ok" and not too heavy. I'll post it below to show you what I mean.

Banana Bread

1 Cup Sugar

5 1/3 TBSP [unsalted]butter, softened (No substitutions)

2 eggs

1 ½ cups or 3 Bananas

1/3 Cup Water

2/3 Cup All Purpose Flour

¼ Cup Oatmeal (Quick Oats)

¾ Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

½ tsp Salt

¼ tsp baking powder

½ cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 350* F. Spray loaf pan with non stick canola oil spray. Cream sugar and butter together. Stir in eggs until blended. Add bananas & water; beat 30 seconds. Stir in remaining ingredients expect nuts just until moistened; stir in nuts. Pour into pans or muffin tins. Bake until wooden pick inserted comes out clean, loaf pans 45-75 minutes, muffins 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan.

Apple Sauce Bread

Use above recipe, but add 1 1/8 tsp cinnamon and 1 1/2 cups apple sauce.

Originally the recipe called for 1 2/3 cups of white flour. I split the 1 cup up between the oatmeal and whole wheat flour to give the recipe more fiber and B vitamins.

I recently made Pumpkin Bread too. I didn't have to do much at all to it because it already had whole wheat flour in it.

Pumpkin Bread

1 ½ Cups Wheat Flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp nutmeg

1 Cup Pumpkin (I used pumpkin I processed myself)

¾ Cup Honey

2 egg whites

2 TBSP Apple Sauce or Apple Juice (I used juice)

1 TBSP Canola Oil

1 TBSP Vanilla

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Then mix everything together until just moistened with a wire whisk. Bake 1 hour @ 350*F.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs
1C. vegetable oil
2 C. sugar
2C. shredded zucchini

Mix above together.

Add:

1 t. salt
3C. flour
1 t. baking soda
3 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. baking powder
3 t. vanilla
1 C. milk

Mix thoroughly. Pour into 2 loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hrs.

Yield: 2 loaves

Very moist and delicious!

Of course, none of this would be complete without my Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe. This is the recipe that I have the most fun with.

Earlier this week, I made one loaf of Whole Wheat Italian Herb bread in the bread machine. While that was going, I made my Honey Whole Wheat bread. By far, this is the most versatile bread recipe I've tried to date.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

6 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 Cup Honey

½ Cup Coconut Oil (or Shortening)

1 ½ TBSP Salt

4 TBSP Yeast

6-8 Cups All-Purpose Flour

4 ½ Cups Warm Water (120-130*F)

Using DOUGH HOOK-Mix Whole Wheat Flour, honey, coconut oil (or shortening), salt & yeast in Bosche Mixer; Add warm water. Beat on low speed scraping bowl frequently. Add All-Purpose Flour one cup at a time, mixing between additions. Allow Boshe Mixer to knead dough for 10 minutes on high speed. Dough should be soft to the touch, but not stick to your finger when touched.

If it is still sticky, turn dough out on counter and knead in flour ½ cup at a time until desired consistency is achieved.

Spray Large metal bowl and place dough in it and turn dough around inside the bowl to coat the dough with the spray. Turn dough over and repeat. Place in warm oven (one that has been preheated to 200*F and turned off, but kept shut) for 1 hour to rise. Keep covered with a clean damp dishtowel.

After 1 hour, punch dough down. Knead about 10 times. For hamburger buns, weigh out 3 ounces of dough on the scale. Roll in to balls, place on baking stone or cookie sheet and flatten. Allow to rise until double in size. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown at 350*F.

For hot dog buns, weigh out 4 ounces of dough on the scale. Roll in to “snakes” about 6 to 8 inches long. Place “snakes” close together, but not touching. Allow to rise until double in size. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown at 350*F.

For bread loaves, spray loaf pans and place dough measured in to 4 equal parts in to loaf pan. Allow to rise until doubled in size. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown at 350*F.

For dinner rolls, weigh 2 ounces of dough and place in muffin tin. Cut decorative top in to dough just barely in to the top in the form of an X. Allow to rise until double in size. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Well, it's time to go tend to my portion of the pizza the children are making for dinner. Enjoy!