Hi There!

The kiddos and I had our "Dough Day" today.

We didn't make it to the beach today...it was warm but, breezy not really what we would call swimming weather today....

A Homeschool lady I was friends with at the first church we started at came over to visit and I returned to her a couple books and I spoke with my mom today and then we started our adventures in

"DOUGH"

So we spent the whole day in "Dough".

The rules are for this pizza contest to come up with our own pizza crust recipe.

Well, we took about 4 or 5 different pizza crust recipes and finally came up with one....

Our first one was  hard as a rock and never did rise...

The Second one was like soup....hmmm...

But, by the third try we had some pizza crust going on....

(These pictures were taken this evening when we finally started to have some successful pizza dough).

Since this contest is what Miah wanted to do, I thought a picture was in order although he wasn't happy....he ended up asking his 12yo Brother for his help in rolling out the dough into a pizza circle shape, our 12yo is really good at it.

Miah's pizza for the contest is Macaroni and Cheese pizza with diced tomatoes, parsley, and cheddar cheese...(the crust is seasoned to by the way).

But, this picture below is just the pizza crust we finally was able to make work....The first mac and cheese pizza...

It does taste better than it looks...LOL

Since we finally got the recipe down for the crust we took the rest and made a pbj pizza.....for the kids to eat for all their hard work and for supper of course...yeah, this one doesn't look to appealing either but, it was very tasty.

Now this last pizza turned out great!

We found our pizza dough/crust recipe added some spices to it (Miah's Macaroni and Cheese Pizza Recipe Below:)

and Viola! I think we might have atleast a tasty pizza to take to the contest:

Miah’s Macaroni and Cheese Pizza! (Recipe for the Contest).

Ingredients: (all ingredients at room temperature) Will Make 2--12 inch pizzas.

TO Make the Pizza Crust:

2 teaspoons Red Star Quick and Rise Yeast

4 Cups of Bread Flour (we used Pillsbury)

1 ½ teaspoons of table salt

1 teaspoon of granulated sugar

2 ½ tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 ¼ cups of lukewarm water

1 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning

2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese (kraft is fine).

*Put all these ingredients in your bread machine on the dough normal cycle, large loaf.*

Once complete spread out onto pizza cookie sheet and add macaroni and other toppings below.

For Macaroni and Cheese:

1 small box of elbow macaroni (cook as directed on package)

Add Velveeta cheese to taste (more if more cheesy)

1 stick of blue bonnet margarine

½ cup of milk (add more milk if to thick needs to be creamy/spreadable but, not watery).

Other Toppings:

1 Can of Diced tomatos (Delmonte)

1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese

2 pinches of dried parsley

When all the above is complete:

Bake in a 400 degrees oven for 12-16 minutes checking on crust and noodles close to crust do not get hard.

Our 12yo Son and I both helped Miah with the chemistry and science part of it and the press and rolling out the pizza crust but, tomorrow he will try his hand at it by himself (with little help) and bring his pizza made to the contest.

Hugs,

*~*Sheila*~*

Very good articles about 'birth rape' or traumatic birth. I think these feelings hit home for so many women, yet we can't say how we feel because we seem crazy. After all, we have a healthy baby...what else should we hope for?

http://birthrape.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/not-a-happy-birthday/

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/127116/birth_trauma_can_cause_women_to_develope.html?cat=52

Please read this if you know someone who is angry about her birth and you can't understand why. She is not crazy.

If you've had a traumatic birth experience, please comment or email me. I found a great blog post about the stages of healing after a traumatic birth. However, due to a very graphic picture on the blog, I will not post the link in public. If you would like to avoid the picture for purity reasons, I can email the text of the blog post to you.

As you might know, the head of a company survived  9/11 because his son started kindergarten.

One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.

One of them missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.

One's car wouldn't start.

One went back to answer the telephone.

One had a child that dawdled and didn't get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn't get a taxi.

The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot.  He stopped at a drugstore ! to buy a Band-Aid.

That is why he is alive today.

Now when I amstuck in traffic, miss an elevator, turn back to answer a ringing telephone...
all the little things that annoy me.  I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment..

Next time your morning seems to be going wrong, the children are slow getting dressed, you can't seem to find the car keys,you hit every traffic light, don't get mad or frustrated; God is at wor k watching over you.

May God continue to bless you with all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose.

Pass this on to someone else, if you'd like.  There is NO LUCK attached.  If you delete this, it's okay:
God's Love Is Not Dependent On E-Mail !!  (that's the cool part)  AMEN


God bless you and yours!

This is my first time doing Friday Show and Tell and I am excited about joining in.  I am going to show how I control the toys in our home.  This new system is only a month old in my home and it is working great.  We don't have a play room or family room so toys were stored wherever I could find a spot. We used to keep toys all over the place.  You had to walk all over to put things away.  It really wasn't working.  So I started exploring how others did it and discovered some people use a toy closet. We have a strange little area in our kitchen that really isn't big enough for a table and always seemed like wasted space.  I decided to turn it into our toy "closet". 

The new toy "closet".  We used our old computer cabinet and old tubs from the basement.

The inside of the old computer cabinet.  I managed to squeeze in all the toy tools, legos, play food, technics, brio track and trains, marbles and tubes, doll house furniture, playmobile, army men, puppets, and bey blades (spinning tops game).  I still need to finish labeling everything.

Along the floor is tubs of blocks, Lincoln Logs, musical instruments, figurines and the kids matchbox car mountain.   When they want something, they get the tub out and then bring it all back in the same tub when they are done.  So far they are doing a great job returning everything.

This is our table time cabinet (old china cabinet).  The kids can get anything our of here and play with it at the dining room table.  This part of the system has been around for a long time.  In here we have; Mr. Potato head, light bright, playdough, money play, puzzles, coloring books and sticker books, crayons, markers, pencils, and lots of small games or games one can play by oneself.

There are still some toys in the kids rooms.  However, those toys are supposed to stay in their rooms.  In their rooms are dolls, our rather large Fisher Price village, dress up and the My Little Pony collection.  We also have alot of games, family puzzles, and art supplies in two closets that the kids can not get into by themselves.  I am so pleased with how this new system is working.  It is about time my home does not look like a toy store all the time. 

To see more show and tell Friday entries, go to Canadagirl .

Blessings,

Dawn

I wonder if many of today's homeschoolers can really understand what an incredible phenomenon, even miracle, the growth of homeschooling over the past two decades is.

My first year homeschooling -- 1985 -- I had never even heard the term. I met my first fellow homeschooler during my second year of teaching my children and started a homeschool group that same year.

When my oldest son reached fourth grade, I discovered Saxon Math. The program started with the 65 book. The 54 book was in the test-marketing stage and I was part of the target group for the test. My copy was completely handwritten. Each chapter was stapled together and added to the pile of other chapters.

I coordinated the first curriculum fair in my area that invited actual publishers (prior to that, families would get together once a year to show their curriculum, which is still a good idea). Hundreds of the companies that set up at fairs today did not exist twenty – or even ten – years ago.

The most common response I encountered when people discovered I homeschooled was: “Is that legal?” Today it’s: “I know someone who does that.”

Even the word “homeschool” has evolved. During most of my homeschool years it was two separate words, and while many parents said they home schooled, you never heard a child say he or she home schooled, but rather that he was home schooled.

In some ways, I think this last thing may be the most important bit of progress. While my children have always been self-educators, they never used the terminology of self-education: I homeschool.

Maybe it would be good for us to impress upon our children the full potential of those words used by a student: I homeschool. I take an active role in my education. Education is not something I just wait for someone to do to me.

This is how we produce those “lifelong learners” the teaching industry is so fond of talking about and so loathe to actually empower.

Tammy Drennan has homeschooled and helped others start homeschooling for 23 years. Her web sites and blogs include: www.homeschoolstarter.com and www.educationconversation.wordpress.com.