Cookies & Clouds

One of the main reasons why we love homeschooling is the flexibility and how learning never starts and stops at a certain time each day. As I was going over today's science lesson I discovered I had forgotten to save an empty peanut butter jar for our science experiment. We decided to have our home economics class before science so we could use up the rest of the peanut butter to have the empty jar!

Once a week we choose a recipe and the kids get to do all the cooking. I try to just give directions and let them take the wheel and do everything themselves. It is my goal to turn children out into this world that know how to make healthy eating choices and know their way around a kitchen. Today they made "no-bake cookies" and used up the rest of the peanut butter!
We love to throw a little math into the cooking lesson as well, Emily just happens to be working on fractions this week and it's great practice for her to figure out how many 1/4 cups it will take to make 1 3/4 cups of sugar or 3 cups of oatmeal.

After the cookies it was time for the experiment. We have been studying weather, humidity, and clouds and created a water vapor "cloud" in the jar. It was seen best in a dark room with a flashlight.

Disclaimer: If you are a homeschooling Mom you will know exactly what I mean when I say this...not every day is like this, some are "easy" and you feel like they are getting it and you are loving every minute of it. Today was one of those days for us. But along the journey there comes plenty of "hard" days when you just want to bang your head against the wall and cry! In those days just remember that the God who called you to do this for your children will give you the strength to make it through each day!

"Waiting" pics

I'm a planner...it's not a secret. I make lists, am organized, and not a very "spur of the moment" gal. We will only have a few hours notice to prepare when "the call" comes and our baby is here. I feel the need to be prepared now, rather than running around Walmart in the middle of the night. Sometimes I think it is wonderful to be ready, but sometimes it is hard to see these bits of baby things throughout my home each and every day and wonder how much longer I will have to wait to use them. I snapped some pictures of these things to create a page for our baby's scrapbook and thought I would share them...

Towels waiting in the linen closet to bathe you...
Diapers waiting to be changed...

Clothes waiting to be worn...

A bed waiting to be slept in...

A stroller & car seat waiting to be pushed and buckled in our van...

Bottles waiting to be filled...

A storage cubby waiting for your stuff...

"For I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11

The New Music/Play Room

I've been thinking for a few months now that the dining room in our house is just a wasted space, we eat in there once or twice a year and other than that the only other person that used it was Em when she practices piano each day. As I was cleaning last Friday I decided it was time to change things! I moved the kitchen set (which was cheap and never really loved) out and sold it on Craigslist within 20 minutes, drug the dining room set (which I still really loved) into the kitchen, and was left with an empty room. Dave came home from work and thought I had lost my mind! We joked later that night that we'll look back and say "remember that day you were going so crazy waiting for the baby that you moved the dining room furniture into the kitchen, sold the kitchen set, and turned the dining room into a music/play room!!"

Here is my finished play/music room! It's much more practical for our family needs right now, the kids can practice their music in there, read, play, and it will be nice to have more space when we have all the baby gear spread around. As usual I was working with a tight budget trying not to spend more than I made selling the old stuff and have done pretty well. I found the rug on clearance at Walmart, bought the storage organizer at AC Moore with a 50% off coupon, and got the most awesome polka dotted chair/ottoman off Craigslist for $ 60 (I love Craigslist!)

It's raining here again... Nathan is bummed that his soccer games for tomorrow were cancelled. They are running around the house playing spies, they crack me up saying things like "the eagle has landed!!"

Emily's Creations...

Emily is taking a class at our homeschool co-op called "Across the USA in a Chevrolet." The kids are taking a road trip across the United States making stops in major cities each week. To earn gas coupons to travel to the next city they must create projects that relate to the city they are learning about each week. The teachers are very flexible (which we homeschoolers LOVE) and allow to the kids to use lots of creativity in their projects. The week their stop was in New York City and Emily created a Lego Macy's store and a play-doh Statue of Liberty! I love it!!

Filling the freezer...

I'm spending the afternoon in the kitchen stocking up the freezer with some of our favorite things... I started off with 4 batches of homemade pizza dough (2 white & 2 wheat). We have pizza/movie/game night every Friday and being able to thaw one of these out in the afternoon and just add the sauce & toppings makes life easier!

I got an awesome deal on whole organic chickens at one of our grocery stores last week and decided to cook 4 of them up for various chicken meals...

Now the fun part... I turned them into 10 meals, 2 each of Chicken Enchiladas, Chicken Florentine, Hot Chicken Salad, Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti, & Chicken Divan. I love having meals ready to go like this, it's awesome on a busy or hectic day! The last time I did this in November I remember thinking that they would be perfect for when we get "the call" and are enjoying our new baby. Maybe this time they'll last until then?!?!

Last, but not least...a loaf of banana bread for tonight's dessert...just because the bunch of bananas on the counter was looking a little sad. Now I'm off to use the last bit of chicken for tonight's meal... a Lemon Herb Chicken Ring...

In like a lion...

It's true what is often said about the month of March... it comes "in like a lion and out like a lamb." Yesterday we had another mini snowstorm, just about 2 inches this time, but enough to have some fun in! Here is what's left of our snow people...it supposed to be in the 70's by the weekend so I don't suspect they'll be around much longer!

"Charlotte"

Dave surprised us Friday morning with a day-trip to Charlotte! It was part of my birthday present, and we were to get excited to go to... We love IKEA! It's such a fun place to go...lots of cool stuff and great prices too! We spent over 3 hours there. It's huge!!

We let the kids each pick one thing for their rooms... Nathan chose a cool light for reading in bed.

We got this adorable netting for over the baby's crib. It makes our free crib look beautiful!

Emily chose these cool flower lights for her wall!