I've Got New Cooking Tools!

A few weeks ago, my friend Michelle invited me to her Pampered Chef party. I love, love, love Pampered Chef kitchen tools. Tools mind you, not gadgets!

I recall going to a Pampered Chef for the first time, I wanted everything except for maybe the grapefruit knife! The consultant talked about hosting a party and how to become a consultant to get free products - I was sold! That same night I told my dear hubby that I wanted to be a consultant, I was so excited! I knew I would do a wonderful job, because I wanted all that stuff.

My dear hubby looked at me as if I had two heads, and reminded me that I didn't like to cook. How in the world was I going to start a business that involved cooking? Funny how the little details never seem to make in the forefront of your brain when you are "wowed" about something! I thought for a quick second and said that this would help me to enjoy cooking, because I was going to get so much practice AND get paid to cook. LOL! Right! Well that didn't happen (sweet smile).



Anyway, here is the loot that I purchased from Michelle's party:
Cookware protectors (I really need this!)
Sheet Pan - Large
Smooth Edge Can Opener
Prep Bowl Set
Bamboo Spoon Set (received free)

The smooth edge can opener is wonderful, this was a replacement for my old one. If you have never tried it, and need a splendid can opener - give this one a try.

The consultant made Warm Nutty Carmel Brownies, the recipe is from the Season's Best Collection (Fall/Winder 2007). I tried to look for it on-line, but couldn't find it, so here are pictures of the recipe card she gave us. They were, of course very yummy! Don't even think about how many calories are in these things - remember moderation!

Week 22 - Writing

We started Ancient History-Based Writing Lessons in Structure & Style from IEW last week. Lesson 1 was using quality adjectives in a poem. Here is Gene poem on The Ancient World, Nicole is still working on her masterpiece so I will post hers when she has finished.




The Ancient World
By Gene

Sumer, with remarkable rivers,
Great, glorious gardens,
Gigantic, towering ziggurats.

Egypt, with wicked, cruel Pharaohs,
Praiseworthy pyramids
The beautiful, lush Nile.

Israel, with God’s amazing law.
The towering temple,
And the pleasant promised land.

Greece, with hideous gods,
Astonishing athletics,
Intriguing philosophers.

Rome, with exquisite emperors,
Immense armies,
Fascinating gladiators.

The Ancient World,
Monumental, courageous, captivating.

Workshop

Saturday, March 29 - I attended two outstanding workshops presented by Janice Campbell of Everyday Education.

Session 1: "The Essential Essay" this was very informative, she made teaching and writing essays less intimating for me. Mrs. Campbell shared what an essay is and how to write one, basically each step in the writing process. It was a delight to see students taking part in the workshops instead of just moms! We use IEW materials, but somehow I missed this gem The Elegant Essay, this was very impressive, IEW also has High School Essay Intensive .

Session 2: "The High School Transcript: It's Easier Than You Think" The workshop was about the three basic sections in a transcript, and how to create a professional transcript. She has two resources to help in the process Transcripts Made Easy and Get a Jump Start on College!
Be sure to check out a useful tool to calculate your GPA.

I feel more informed and better prepared for the high school years after attending these workshops. If you need help or direction in these two areas, be sure to check out Janice Campbell's website.

Week 22

Did this week zoom by for you? I can hardly believe that today is Thursday!






Working together

Blind Marathon Runner

I was watching the news tonight and was inspired by this story of a blind marathon runner and thought that I would share. I'm glad I wasn't eating a big bowl of ice cream when I saw this!!

Another Use for Duct Tape

We all know that duct tape is handy, but it is not just a “guy” tool, homeschooling moms are using duct tape as well. Here is a clever idea from Shannon at Little Homeschool on the Hill to keep your completed lapbooks organized in a binder. Shannon at gives step by step instructions. What a fantastic idea - way to go Shannon!

If you have any storage ideas for completed lapbooks, let me know what you do by leaving me a comment. I would love to hear about what others do to keep organized. Thanks!

Because He Lives

Because He Lives

God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives.
But greater still the calm assurance,
This child can face uncertain days because He lives.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

And then one day I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives.


Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone!
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives!

- William and Gloria Gaither

Because He Lives, We Too Shall Live

Because He Lives, We Too Shall Live


In this restless world of struggle

It is very hard to find

Answers to the questions

That come daily to our mind—

We cannot see the future,

What’s beyond is still unknown,

For the secret of God’s Kingdom

Still belongs to Him alone—

But He granted us salvation

When His Son was crucified

For life became immortal

Because our Saviour died—

And to know life is unending

And God’s love is endless, too,

Makes each daily task we face

Much easier to do—

For our Saviour’s Resurrection

Was God’s way of telling men

That in Christ we are eternal

And in Him we live again.

- Helen Steiner Rice

Caledon Natural Area

Today we had a family field trip to Caledon Natural Area. It was such a beautiful day, I don't think we could have picked a better day to go. There are five hiking trails we walked three which was about three miles.

HISTORY:
Caledon Natural Area is located on what was the early colonial seat of the Alexander family. John and Philip Alexander founded the city of Alexandria and established Caledon Plantation in 1659. William A. Smoot inherited the property from the Alexander family in the mid 1800s. In 1974, Caledon was donated to the Commonwealth by Mrs. Ann Hopewell Smoot in memory of her late husband, Lewis E. Smoot, who passed away in 1962.

Caledon and the surrounding areas are the summer home for one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles on the East Coast. As many as 60 eagles have been spotted on the bluffs overlooking the Potomac River.

The Wonderful Story of Easter

Our Easter notebooking project is finished!

We read the Scripture passages in the Bible and then wrote a narration on each topic:

Last Supper: Matthew 26:17-20, John 13-17

Gethsemane: Matthew 26:30-56, Luke 22:39-54

The Crucifixion: Matthew 27:11-56, Luke 23:27-49, John 19:1-30

The Resurrection: John 20-21





Cut and glued everything together, even did layering with the title, and used a colored pencil to color in the title. I printed out labels with “handmade by/date” to go on the back so that we can have a record of their showpiece.

Strike!

Yesterday dear hubby came home early from work, and after lunch went to the bowling alley on base with us. What a great treat - to have Dad home early and go on a “field trip” with us. Of course both Gene and Nicole set out to beat dear old Mom; I’m not quite sure why they don’t even aim to beat dear old Dad. Funny how that works! We had a sensational time on our little family excursion. The kids are getting better at bowling, they hardly even used the bumpers on the second game, and both had at least one strike.

Our Day

The kids and I are on a school break this week. This morning we went to the main library in town. I’m not sure if you know it or not, but I’m Directionally Challenged. I can count the number of times on one hand that I've ventured to this library. The library is located downtown, so many, many one way streets! We made it there and back without a major hitch; of course I can never manage to leave the same way I came. You are laughing with me, right?

We started our art project for this week The Story of Easter, a freebie from Hold That Thought. Here is a sample of the project so far, we only did one of the four notebooking pages, and didn't glue anything down yet.

That's My Girl!

Saturday the kids had practice for the upcoming AWANA Games. My Nicole has a little "hitch" when she runs; one legs becomes extremely stiff and she is basically dragging the other leg. When she really concentrates it is not so noticeable, but if she is too excited, or in a "race" it is very noticeable.

Well the AWANA Games have relay races, so when it was time for Nicole's age group to run my heart went out to her, I didn't think she would want participate in this event. When the whistle blew she took off. Big smile on her face, she ran as fast as she could, never once slowing down. She was came in last place BUT she never gave up! I can not tell you how proud I am of Princess Nicole, she is a real trooper. I/we can learn a lot from this 10 year old.

Here she is practicing running with Gene.



I even got out there to run with them. Sorry, no photos of that! Both kids like to out do dear old mom, of course I let them win today - I had on my clogs. Can you see my big 'ole grin!

Happy Birthday Eric!

Today is Eric's birthday!! Here is my sweetie getting into his birthday apple pie!

Still Working on Those Cards

Here is the crew putting the finishing touches on the card.




I thought these rub-on expressions were the coolest thing, the kids added them to their cards.

Week 21

This was a tough week for me, my dear hubby was in North Carolina for work and returned Thursday evening, and I don’t sleep well when he is not here. The kids and I probably should have taken this week for our off week, but we made it through.

Friday was our homeschool group co-op classes, they have two classes on the second Friday, Book Club and Art History. The book up for discussion was Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, my two kids list the book as a “must” read, Gene has already started reading the sequel The Secret of the Indian!Their teacher had some superb assignments for the kids to do; there was a group writing assignment that was hilarious! The artist for the art history class was Rembrandt. I always learn such amazing things about the artist we (they!) study, it does seem like all the artist studied have had such great tragedy in their lives, I guess the grief and other trails was fuel for creating masterpieces.

Birthday Card for Dad

The kids are busy designing birthday cards for Dad, his big day is Sunday!

Getting To Know Me

Even my long-time friends might learn something new about me. Here goes...

1. Occupation? Teacher of my children

2. What color are your socks right now? Gray and black

3. What was the last thing that you ate? Pizza

4. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes

5. Last person you spoke to on the phone: My Mother

6. Where were you born: FL

7. Birth month? February

8. What is your favorite sport to watch? NBA Basketball

9. What is your favorite drink? Hot tea, Pepsi

10. Have you ever dyed your hair before? No

11. Favorite restaurant? Famous Dave's

12. What is the last movie you watched? Firehouse Dog

13. Favorite day of the year? Thanksgiving

14. What kind of car do drive? Nissan Titan truck

15. What was your favorite toy as a child? Baby doll

16. What is your favorite season? Fall

17. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

18. Cherries or blueberries? Blueberries

22. Living arrangements? Husband, son and daughter

23. When was the last time you cried? Sunday

24. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes

26. What did you do last night? Watched the Washington Wizards beat the Bucks!!

27. What is your favorite color: Green

28. How many states have you lived in? 3

29. Favorite smells? Baked goods

30. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Spicy

31. Favorite dog breed? Mutts, Wolf Hybrid (like my beloved Caesar) & Border Collies

32. Favorite day of the week? Sunday

My Reliable Mother

by Gene

My reliable mother is very organized so that we have a place to put our work and a place where our school books are kept. Mom also washes and dries the clothes when the dirty clothes basket is nearly full. When it is close to supper time my mother frequently cooks fresh, hot meals which are delectable. Last, but not least she teaches our lessons for school and provides the resources we need for our activities. Because of this, my mother is very reliable.

Student Notebooks

I wanted to show you how we do a couple of things to stay somewhat organized with our school work. The kids both have student notebooks, basically where they file all their completed work (except for writing, that is in a separate notebook). I purchased a pack of table of contents index reference dividers, printed the cover page on transparency paper and put a piece of green card stock behind the transparency, so each subject or activity is assigned a number, and after their work is completed reviewed it is ready to be filed in their notebooks.






Here is how their writing notebooks look. You may have noticed that after the #4 tab the next tab is “verb”, well I had a brilliant idea last week to add tabs for adverbs, adjectives, verbs, prepositions - just to make it a bit easier for my guys when they are adding their dress-ups to the writing assignments, but I was lazy and didn’t want to redo the whole cover page so I just added tabs presto this is what we have.




We have our school room down in the basement, but we usually do our work in the dining room. The kids were constantly going up and down the stairs for this or that, and wasting lots of time, so I thought about how I could nip this in the bud, here is what I came up with. A crate. Everything they need for school is inside, books, notebooks, pencil box, pleasure reading books, loose leaf paper, everything. No more needless running down to get the forgotten anymore!

Week 20

We had a light week, which was rather nice to tell you the truth. We continue to love using Tapestry of Grace Year 1. Tapestry covers history, literature, Bible/Church History, arts and activities, worldview, geography (writing is included but we use another program). Here are some highlights from our week:

For our Bible/Church History this week we had a lot Scriptures reading again this week, I'm glad we have the Bible on CD which really helps with those hard to pronounce names! We learned about Ahab, Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha. The highlight for the kids I'm sure was starting their lapbooks!

Writing
The kids did well with this weeks writing assignments. They had to do a "brain inventory", by making a list of ten things they know about, then selecting three of their choices and writing a paragraph on each one. The both wrote on family, church and AWANA.

Math
Both kids are doing well with their math programs, it is amazing to see the transformation Gene has made now that he is using Teaching Textbooks, he had to work hard for a C and now makes A's and B's.

We school year round, our normal schedule is to school three weeks then take a week off. On our weeks in school I like to work Monday thru Thursday and using Friday for completing any outstanding work if all assignments have been completed then they have a day off. I try to have the assignment sheets for the upcoming week completed and ready to print out by Friday, I use Homeschool Tracker Plus, this make record keeping a snap.

Magazine Holder

This is a very handy tool to keep your magazines organized. You open the magazine up to the center and slip it into the 3-hole punched plastic holder and now you are ready to add it to a notebook!

Not only is it a great organizing tool, but it also protects your magazine from being all torn and tattered. I ordered mine from The Teaching Home, a Christian magazine for home educators. The cost is $18 for 50 holders. They offer a free e-mail newsletter so check them out.

A Perfect Score

Check out E-Train (Eric), a perfect 300 game of bowling!! Whoo hoo!!

Pretty Bird

We have a bird feeder in the back yard, take a look at a few of the beauties we see on a daily basis. The first two pictures are of a huge woodpecker that was out in one of the in the back yard, this bird was one of the largest I've ever seen. Sorry the pictures are not the greatest, it was early in the morning and I'm not the best at picture taking.

More Craft Pictures

Thank you ladies at The Croppers Corner, you helped to make this a very special day. We always feel welcome when we come into the store, you all are so helpful and a pleasure to be around.

Enjoy!

Terrific Tuesday

Yesterday one of my dear friends, Trish joined the kids and I for some creative fun at The Croppers Corner. Trish and I made accordion tags the kids made a page layout. We had so much fun, the ladies at The Croppers Corners are extremely nice, helpful and a lot of fun.

After our crafting activities, the three of us had a lovely lunch at Subway, I didn’t take any pictures there because I was too busy eating and talking – of course not at the same time. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with my good friend, to laugh, and chat and just have fun.

One Room Down...

Eric has finished "the man cave" in the basement! Well he still has the baseboards to put down, but other than that the room is done. We have already put the weight bench in and the treadmill. I will have to take a picture to let you see how it looks now.

He started framing the bathroom yesterday and finished that tonight. Next he plans to buy the tub/shower unit and the drywall. He is on a roll now.

I'm starting to get it...

I figured out how to get my pictures into the post so they are not huge and outside the column! Yeah. Look out, I'm learning....

Working Out

The kids and I use to walk with one of our neighbors each morning. I knew that I wanted to get a treadmill because winter would be coming and I wanted to have a "Plan B" in place for those too cold mornings. Well, finally in December I was able to get my treadmill. It is a doosey! It has a jack for my iPod so I don't have to use headphones while working out, how cool is that.

Right now I'm just doing 30 minutes of walking and running each day except Wednesday and Sunday. Yes, I did say running - its not pretty, but it is still running. The hardest part is dragging my hips out of bed in the morning. I'm up at 6 am (usually), go down to the basement and do my warm-up and stretching then hop on the treadmill all pumped up to burn fat. The treadmill has pre-programmed interval workouts so I'm walking and running, and I stretch after my session is over.

Last week I pulled my trusty old jump rope out, I remembered a fitness instructor saying the jump rope works the entire body - could this be the lazy girls answer to fitness? Do you remember jumping rope as a child? I could jump all day, everyday - piece of cake. These days I'm winded at 50 jumps! Sad. It is not easy getting old. I'm going to hang in there and get up to 2 minutes under my belt and that is without getting tangled up in the rope.

What about you, what are you doing to keep in shape? Are you having fun? Write back and let me know what you are doing.

Bible Memory Verse

My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble;
Proverbs 3:21-23 (NIV)

This is our memory verse for this week. Both kids are doing an outstanding job in this area; Gene as usual was the first one to be ready for testing. Here is what their certificates look like.