Homeschool freebie

On this site you can get a different homeschool freebie every day. Today's freebie is two cookbooks for kids. The one for little girls is suppose to be an antique. Check it out!

HomeSchool Freebie

Trying to keep up Tuesday!

I have been really busy lately. I did a lot of running around this weekend. It's getting closer to fall here so school stuff is starting to pick up again. On Saturday Meghan had her final Daisy meeting, with the other little girl that did Daisy's independently. They are now officially Brownies and we have our first troop meeting on Friday. I think Meghan is going to like being in a troop with a few other girls. I believe we have about 10 girls in the troop so far. I also had a meeting with the other leaders on Sunday and also my monthly cake club meeting. In the cake club we are getting into the planning for next years cake show as well. That will be in February.

Yesterday I did some running too. I had to do some shopping at walmart and another store. We went to have lunch with Nathan too.

So anyways I do have menu plans but I didn't post them yesterday so here they are!

Monday- chicken taco's
Tuesday- Fresh beans
Wednesday- Tostados
Thursday- meatloaf
Friday- leftovers

His image in you

Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."


This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what
this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and
get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to
watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her
interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire
and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to
hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest
as to burn away all the impurities.


The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she
thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and
purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he
had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was
being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the
silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was
in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it
would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How
do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and
answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his
eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Menu Planning Monday

I bet you thought I forgot but I didn't. I had energy to get some things done this morning so I did that first. I emptied the dish washer, made bread, filled the dishwasher back (haha) washed two loads of laundry and found out that Meghan likes to move them around for me. :) Meghan did math this morning and I swept the floor. Then Nate came home for lunch. After lunch I read to the kids, then Meghan read to me, we worked on her bee lapbook a little and now I am here. Kaden is napping and Meghan is watching a video. So here is the menu for the week.

Monday- Spaghetti, salad and garlic toast
Tuesday- Leftovers
Wednesday- Roast chicken, potatoes and carrots
Thursday- Chicken taco's
Friday- Chicken salad sandwiches, brocoli and some fruit
Saturday- Meatloaf, rice and mixed veggies
Sunday- Roast, potatoes and gravy and veggies

Over due update

Sorry I have not updated much this week. We picked up our meat order on Friday. I am hoping it will last 6 weeks. We'll see how well I do with meal planning. It's hard to know exactly how much you go through in that amount of time though, so it will be a learning thing.

My grandma had her surgery. It wasn't on Monday because they found some fluid on her lungs but the next day. She is doing well, thank God!

Kaden is no longer using a bottle! On Tuesday I forgot to give him his bottle after lunch. He started to fuss at me and say milk so I went to get it and saw his cup on the counter. It was empty but I held it toward him and he acted like he would take it so I put some milk in it and he sucked it down! I knew he knew how to use it, he just didn't want to. I guess he needed to be hungry. So I put away the bottles in the cabinet so he couldn't see them and used the cup the rest of the day. The next day I knew he wanted it but I just gave him the cup anyways. He has been fine since then. He lays down to drink it because he still needs to learn to tip it up, but we are bottle free yay! Here are some pictures.




Here are a few pictures of Meghan too. She is wearing a little apron that my friend Katrina made for her. She loves it! She made me one too that matches but I don't have pictures of it yet. They are soo cute! Meghan is pretty silly. We were laughing at how she was posing. So funny! These pictures really show off all those missing teeth too :)

Meal Planning Monday

I am posting this tonight because my grandma is having gall bladder surgery in the morning and I will be going to the hospital to hang out there with the fam. I don't know of anything else going on or what I will have time for tomorrow but I think we will be back early afternoon. I hope.

Anyways so here is the menu for next week.

Monday- roast beef taco's (using left over roast)
Tuesday- Beans, cornbread and potatoes
Wednesday- burritos with left over beans and salad
Thursday- Chicken pot pie
Friday- Chicken, corn, potatoes and green beans
Saturday- Spaghetti, salad and bread
Sunday- Leftovers

I reserve the right to rearrange these during the week. :) I might not feel like following the days but this is what we will be having this week! Have a great Monday!

Weekend Happenings

We haven't done a whole lot this weekend. We did go to the farmers market yesterday. It was cooler but it was humid so we were sticky pretty quickly. Nathan loves it though, he likes something different than just hot, (his words). :) Today is cloudy again. Let's see the rain!

I made my chicken nuggets yesterday so those are all in the freezer. Today I will get the rest of my peaches frozen. I am not sure what else we have going on yet. I put a roast and carrots and potatoes in the crock pot for later.

Here are a couple pictures though. I took these on Friday. Kaden was trying to put this headband of Meghan's on and then he brought it to me to put on for him. LOL Too funny. I didn't know he knew what a head band was for and he wore it longer than Meghan did at his age :)

Peach Jam and more

Well this week seems to have flown by! Last weekend we were able to get a big box of peaches. There is an orchard that opened up in Wickenburg. A mom from one of the homeschool groups was going to go get some so she asked if anyone else wanted any. We didn't want to drive all that way so we were happy about it. Yesterday and today I tried to make peach jam. It was too thin though so I think I have made peach pancake sauce. LOL That's okay. My stove seems to have issues too. It takes forever to boil the huge pot of water. I think that I will probably freeze the rest of the peaches and have to put my canning adventures on hold.
I made a peach crisp this afternoon and I am thinking peach scones sound good. :) I also need to make more crackers and chicken nuggets.

The kids are doing great. Meghan lost another tooth today. I will have to get a new picture later. I also gave her a little reading test I found. She is reading at 6 months into 1st grade level and she hasn't started 1st grade yet. I am happy about that.

We enjoyed the rain last night. Of course it started blowing dirt on the night we decided to go out. We were going to Sprouts when it got real bad, but it was raining by the time we got out. Today with is being overcast still the kids have been able to go outside for a little bit. They really miss playing outside.

My Swap gift

My item came yesterday from that swap I was in on my scrapbooking board. It is so cute, look! Thank you Devon! I love it!

Our 4th of July

We didn't have a lot going on today. We decided to stay close to home with the heat advisory. Meghan and I made two different kinds of muffins. She found a recipe on Nick Jr. for chocolate muffins so we made those and then we made blueberry muffins too. This is the first time I have made the blueberry ones with whole wheat flour and Rapadura sugar. We used it for the chocolate ones also. They are both very good! Yay! Here is a picture. mmmmm



Then this evening I made chicken nuggets and french fries. My kids love chicken nuggets, I don't know any kid that doesn't. The stuff put into the commercial ones are not that great though so I wanted to try making my own. I usually just give them chicken tender but something about the texture doesn't appeal to either of them. I make Meghan eat them but Kaden will usually only take a couple tiny bites, if that. So I bought some ground chicken to try it. I just made the chicken into little balls, then I dipped it in flour, egg wash and flour again. I chilled them a little and then smooshed them down some. They were fried in coconut oil, which is really good for you. The kids both liked them. I am very happy about that. I have some left and froze them. I plan to make things like that up ahead so that i have them in the freezer ready to cook up when I need to. I think they would be fine baked too. Here are some pictures of those. My fries aren't that great looking, I need to get a slicer. :) Here the kids are eating and looking pretty happy about it I think.






Then here is Kaden NOT eating his tomatoes. I knew he wouldn't but I keep trying.




This evening a storm blew through again. We had lots of wind and lightening and rain. Right now it seems to be gone so we'll see. So we watched the fireworks in NY before sending Meghan to bed. She wasn't real happy with not being able to go see them somewhere outside but you gotta do what you gotta do. :) During the show they played "The Twist" during some of the fireworks. I told Meghan that I bet Daddy knew the dance for this song. Well She just stood up and starting doing it. It was so funny. I don't know where she learned it but we were cracking up. It was fun.




I hope everyone has had a great day! Pray for our nation!

Happy 4th of July!

Smell the rain?

It's raining! Yes I am excited. I just stuck my head out to look at the lightening and smell some rain. It doesn't take much for me to get excited I guess. I hope it makes tomorrow cooler than they predicted on the news but I won't hold my breath.

Today I took the kids to drop cupcakes off at Nate's work and then we went to the bookstore for my new cookbook by Sally Fallon. Of course Meghan talked me into getting both of them a book too. Then we needed a couple things at Sprouts, then home to cool off from all the running in the heat.

Tonight I decided to try making Pico de Gallo. My friend Tessie from my cake club gave me a bag full of tomatoes! They are great! We have been eating them with every meal. Anyways, I talked Nate into cutting the onion and jalapeno and then i chopped the rest. It is good, maybe a tad hot for me but Nate likes hot foods so I think he will like it a lot.

The New World Order is Here

I saw this video on some one's blog and had to check it out. Crazy stuff going on. I am thankful that we know God is still in control.

Baking away...

This morning was devoted to baking. We made our regular bread, we made french bread and we made crackers. The french bread and crackers were first time things. The french bread is good but could be lighter. We'll try again next time we need some. The crackers were good and both kids love them. I found lots of recipes for crackers. This was a small recipe and I wanted to See if I could do it. I know some people are thinking wow making crackers, why. I really want to get away from packaged foods. We have been doing pretty good with it but my kids love and eat lots of peanut butter crackers or for Meghan peanut butter and jelly crackers. We ran out of what we had left, (I had not bought any in months since I stocked up before learning that we didn't want to eat the stuff) and we needed some. It's my go to thing for them to eat. Of course I had to take some pictures so here is Meghan helping me bake. She loves to help in the kitchen.





Here are some pictures of the baked goods. I can't believe I made CRACKERS! Even better, they liked them. I got the recipe from Baking Sheet and I saw that there is a recipe for graham crackers on there. I will be looking at this blog more in the future for sure! Thanks!





Finally Kaden doing his part. :) He woke up from his nap just in time.

Scrappin stuff

Just a few things I have gotten to work on. I am part of a scrap booking board online where we do swaps. This one we made something to decorate someone else's room, whatever room they chose. My partner was Christine and she decorates her kitchen in a Coca Cola theme. So this is what I came up with. It is a cutting board with a little loop to hang it on top.


I finally had a little time to scrap this past weekend so here are some pages I got done.

And here are the kids...

Alrighty so a couple pictures. Meghan has lost a 3rd tooth, this one on the bottom. I had no idea she would lose so many at once! The one on the opposite side on the bottom is loose also. I tease her that she might not be able to eat if she loses many more. She is excited each time though. The tooth fairy is going broke! :)




Now for the boy. lol Lets call him Little Stinker. He went through a couple days of this a month or so ago and then stopped so I thought we were done but here he is doing it again yesterday and today.. fun, fun for mommy.

Milk day Tuesday

That is what I think of on Tuesday. We always have milk to pick up. :) Today Nate came home late for lunch so I was able to go alone. The place where I pick up the milk is just someone's house. They allow it to be a drop off place and then those of us close go and pick it up shortly after delivery. Beth is the woman that lives there that I see most of the time when I pick it up. She gave me a CD set to borrow by Sally Fallow. She is a Christian woman and very interested in the health of our nation and how we are raising our kids. It was so interesting to me. She talks about the traditional diet and how is was cooked etc. She talks about all the different types of fats we consume and how we have left behind the healthy ones and replaced them with unhealthy, chemically produced ones. Of course she talks about lard and how really good for you it is. Which is amazing to me since I was just talking about that a few days ago. She has a book called Nourishing Traditions that I plan to get this week. She also founded the Weston A. Price Foundation and there is a ton of good information there. Now we have not been buying anymore packaged items if we can help it, but we still have things we were using up. After listening to her lecture though it makes me want to throw the rest of it out. I highly recommend checking out her book.