I woke up this morning only to realize that I had not even thought out meal plans for the Thanksgiving day weekend yet . I have 3 guests coming to stay, so I spent my early morning coffee time with a pen and notebook in hand busy scribbling down grocery/menu plans. I will have to get out to the grocery store later today to get all the items needed.
With that done, my mind began to wander about Thanksgiving day and what fun projects the family can do together that would be fun for all ages. I checked on line and found some fun printable activity pages for the kids, and I thought I would bring out the Thanksgiving themed lapbooks they did last year to have around for them to peruse through with Grandma or Grandpa. I also found some silly mad lib type holiday themed worksheets they could fill in together.
I am a huge fan of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and was thrilled to find an online interactive website for this years parade www.macys.com/parade It was filled with all sorts of fun facts and even a couple of kids games.
I am looking forward to our Thanksgiving time together this year and hope it is a time of blessing to you all in your homes as well!
I have been working on adding these blessings on my Facebook page, but I thought I would post today's on here as well.
Today I am thankful for my joyful noisy children-that's right ,I said I am thankful for the noise. I need to verbalize that more, because I find that I am constantly tell them to turn their volumes down. Like many parents, I can only take so much noise before my head starts to pound and my nerves get shot.
Today however I will be thankful-make a joyful noise children! Bless the Lord with your merriment today!
We are homeschoolers, you can be LOUD(mommy can always get earplugs!).
I have been so blessed and inspired reading other blogs that I thought I would try one on my own today. I feel the need to stretch my creative muscles out a little.
Sit back-have a cup 'o your favorite beverage and I hope you can enjoy my little musings!
We are an eclectic homeschool family who have only just begun on the path of this homeschool/homeschool life journey. We are currently living in North Carolina. We have 2 small children ages 6(our boy) and 4(our girl).
for blogging purposes I will call them thing1 and thing2 in order of birth.
I am not a writer by nature-so forgive me if I ramble on and forget what grammar I did manage to pick up on through my own years of education.
As I write thing1 and thing2 are finishing a morning of watercolor and storytime. They have journeyed out into the yard. There they found a secret message left for them by the Fairie folk. It turned out to be a thank you note written in invisible fairy ink. They discovered that useing watercolor magically makes the writing visible! The Fairies were thanking them for the lovely fairy garden project they worked on several days ago. Oh I will miss these years when they are grown!!!
While this is a rather short 1st entry it is all I can mange today, I still need to try and firgure out how to get pictures attached here.The Fairy Garden!
Happy wanderings to you all!!
Addendum: Fairy things
Here are a few pics of the items Thing 2 placed in her fairy garden:
Fairy Arch
Fairy door leading into tree with hiding space for fairy things(?) made from a crayola chalk box lid.
Fairy Chair and beds, sorry for the blur:
She found the moss and carefully placed it in the beds and all around for them to walk on. It was a fun day and she still goes out to check on it quite regularly!
Let me say something about my Lord..... He is good. That is not sufficient..... He is AWESOME! There, that's a little better
Here's a lesson in threes...... For some encouraging words, please read the heart of one of my dearest friends. She writes honestly, from what she lives.....
and then Saturday I had the privilege of joining some other ladies in a lesson along the same lines as the above and below links. The transparency was absolutely refreshing! These ladies want to please the Lord and have successful families. Who doesn't? It was neat to watch the older rally around the younger in help w/o judgment.
My husband spoke a quote to me last week. A quote that has been meandering through my mind for days. It goes something like this: 'When there is too much sound doctrine and not enough Love there is division. When there is too much love, but not enough sound doctrine, there is confusion.' I could write a page in regards to this quote alone, have seen it lived out in lives and churches and have experienced it personally as well. God is good!
And for another link along these same lines go here:
I'm beginning to think my favorite kitchen appliance is our blender. For the past several months it has been the one appliance we use on almost a daily basis.
I decided to add some sprouted wheat berries for our newest smoothie creation. It took me a few days to sprout the wheat berries. I then added them to our ingredients for the fruit smoothies for our lunch yesterday.
Sprouted wheat berries taste like healthy candy. I;m not kidding. We use the prairie gold wheat for making bread and sprouting, I think the stronger variety would have a much stronger taste. In the past I have sprouted my wheat for salads and for snacking, but yesterday I sprouted for the smoothie....YUM!
Here's a photo of the sprouted wheat berries, a handful of spinach, a cup of apple juice, and 1-2 cups water. After this, I added a bunch of mixed frozen fruit, half a banana, and a goodly amount of honey (3-5 TB). And on the second batch I added Just barley since I forgot that ingredient on the first batch. I usually add barley and a little spirulina..... and they almost always come back for seconds......
Sprouting unlocks the nutrients and makes them readily available. On top of that you're not cooking your grain either, so you're eating a living food instead of a cooked up dead food. Wheat berries are CHEAP when purchased by the bucket through a co-op group and there is a multitude of ways grains can be prepared. YUM....YUM.....YUM!
Cooler weather began to roll in yesterday and it brought with it a mood....... The mood for soup. Just love the Fall weather and soup! So an hour or so before Hubby arrived back home I began the making of the Salmon Chowder. Oh how I love thee!!!
It's sprinkling and a bit on the dark side as I type this morning. I love it when the rain rolls through and I love the crisp weather that meandered down during the night. Lovely, lovely, lovely! Time for cocoa and marshmallows
And although the weather has been cooler, we're continuing with the smoothie tradition. This morning I added walnuts to Hubby's smoothie. I've decided that seeds and nuts are just too jam- packed with nutrients to ignore them in the smoothies any longer. I also added a handful of from the garden salad to the smoothie since we were out of spinach
So our newest smoothie creation goes something like this:
*Aprox 2 cups frozen peaches
*Lrg handful of garden lettuce
*1/2 a banana
*2 tsp spirulina powder
*2 tsp JUST barley
*2+ TBsp walnuts
*1/2 cup apple juice
*1/2 cup water
*honey to taste
And this morning, when I mix up the childrens smoothies, I'll add a small green pepper to the whirl as well. I've got a few extra from the garden that we haven't used and it should do nothing to the taste of the smoothie. Do nothing to the taste, but surely adding to the nutrients!
Have a great day! Gotta go make the morning smoothies......
This is what happens to homemade bread when the baby opens the door during the baking process
Twas yummy lathered with homemade honey butter too!
Then there was the homemade laundry detergent....... It's been 6 months since we've made laundry detergent. 3.00 goes a L-O-N-G way in homemade! Yes that's .50 per month! Amazing......
And then - the homemade veggies from the garden......
We harvested three days worth of lettuce, 1 radish, and 3 green peppers. Last nights salad was YUMMY!
One of my favorite 'down-time' activities is to blog search and see what others are doing that's homemade. There's something so fulfilling about making instead of buying.......
This morning I woke up, stumbled into the kitchen and began preparing the morning coffee. It was 5:30. Then I focused my attention on what to serve hubby for breakfast..... The chickens gave us two fresh eggs, so I grilled up some toast and scrambled the eggs for hubby. And during the dutiful event my mind was processing....processing.
The first round of thoughts began by way of a verse:
"She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family...." That was a comforting thought considering what was taking place in my kitchen.
After that the thoughts continued on..... comparing recent events and happenings with scripture and God's view of things. "If a man does not work, he does not eat..." was another. And I thought of how easily we become dependent on people, our sights off the Lord, and become slaves....
"Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?"
So here's the deal. The 'guvment' don't take care of me and mine. Reason being, I'm not looking to 'the man' for provision. I'm looking to God and the way I see it he's doing a mighty fine job. Gary and I have seen some hard times. We've been there done that. We made lots of mistakes and LEARNED from them. Our parents never instilled in us the ethic of take what you can. My mother worked HARD. She was a single mother that supported me on her own and NEVER took a government handout to help. I was not blessed with free medical or dental, but then again I was never cursed blessed with a mentality that would handicap me for the rest of my life.
Things were different in days gone by. Families took care of each other. Grandparents lived debt free, instilled the same values into their children, and everyone lived well by obeying the rules of the Bible. Granny would have 10 or 12 children to help take care of her and even in her old age lived in peace and safety. Things were different before we looked to 'the man' to take care of us and I believe the start of that downward spiral took place during the great depression.
So this morning I will head to the kitchen and continue on...... I have grain that needs to be ground today. We'll have fresh baked bread for lunch. Soon, I'll head out to the garden and harvest some lettuce, peppers, and a radish or two. That will make a mighty-fine organic salad. I was able to dust the shelves in the living room this past weekend and today will organize the troops to dust the dining room. There's laundry to wash, dry, and fold, and I have to mix up some homemade laundry detergent. There's work to be done and I'm not going to sit on my rear complaining, hoping the guardian angel of complacency will show up and grant a wish.
I'm geared up, as you can tell, so our biblicl knowledge will include truths about laziness and wisdom. The children will love it! They love when Momma gets fired up and teaches them truth. I'll speak loud and bold and strong, because that's what I do when I get fired up. Tell me my husband should be doing that and I'll tell you I am his help meet. He's out bringing home the bacon while I fry it up in a pan. God is good and we live life as a team. Jo will live life beside me, preparing at least half the food that is prepared and Bub will finish the huge amount of yard work he's been doing in between his filming adventures. The littles will dust and sweep and I will pray that they learn good work ethic and the wisdom of organization. There are improvements that have to be made in these areas and sometimes I am at a loss for what to do and how to do it. But there is one consolation...... we press on!
Philippians 3:14
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
My hope is to share our homeschooling journey with those who care, near and faraway.
Jesus is the "Precious Corner Stone, and he who believes in Him shall not be disappointed." 1 Peter 2:6
Welcome to my very first try at blogging!
The Fairy Garden!
*truffles and photo by Jo
