Posted in General

Our church small group was meeting here at our home tonight and it is the birthday of one of the kids (Happy 9th, R!!).  Bean decided she wanted to bake some cookies for the occasion and she invited one of her best friends, Tiger, over to help.  Bean and I have baked cookies together many, MANY times, so I figured an almost-12-year-old and a just-turned-13-year-old would have no problems with baking a batch of cookies from a recipe. 

HA!

As I was upstairs, they were downstairs working in the kitchen and I heard much giggling (they are girls, after all!).  I finally ventured downstairs to see how it was going.  Oh, how I wish I'd had the camera with me.  Bean and Tiger were both liberally coated in flour.  There was a *mound* of cookie dough on the island, surrounded by what was possibly enough flour to make another batch of cookies.  Now, keep in mind that these were Oatmeal/Chocolate Chip/Walnut cookies, your basic "drop by rounded spoonfuls"/KEEP THE DOUGH IN THE BOWL cookie recipe.  Yet, somehow, Bean and Tiger had managed to use almost every one of my Pampered Chef kitchen tools (the cookie scoop I could understand, but I'm still not clear on how the Mini Tart Shaper got involved!  There was also some rolling pin involvement--I'm grateful she doesn't know where I keep the cookie cutters.  LOL).  The story I ended up getting was that once they had stirred in the oats and chocolate chips, there simply wasn't any more room in the bowl for them to mix in the walnuts (BTW, they used my bag of walnut halves, not the bag of walnut pieces I had purchased with this project in mind), so they thought mixing it on the island would be easier (not neater, just easier).  About the Mini Tart Shaper, I was told they were trying to use it to break down the butter ("Did you put the butter in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it?" I inquired.  Blank looks ensued.).  No satisfactory answer has been forthcoming about the involvement of the rolling pin, though.

It looks like this summer might be a good time for a refresher course in Cookie Basics 101! 

The cookies turned out a little lumpy looking (the walnut halves), but they *are* delicious.  Bean & Tiger have dubbed them "Choc-O-Dough Cookies" and plan to put them in a cookbook they have decided to write together.  I can't wait to see what else they create.

TTFN~

Posted in General

So, "Baby Basil" outgrew the nursery over the weekend as well and we moved it outside to live next to "Baby Dill".  It rained every day for the past 5 days and I think the Basil drowned!!  Are you kidding me?  Next time, I'm just going to keep it on the windowsill in the kitchen so Bean can monitor the water intake.

Wow, I can't believe it's only two weeks until we get to visit my parents.  Bean and I are so excited!!  Our new LL Bean backpacks came in the mail yesterday, so I'm working on finding stuff to put into Bean's so she'll be occupied on the flights.  Mine, of course, will be filled with all my meds, glucometer, contact lens stuff and a "few" books.  I have to say, these backpacks are much more roomy than they looked in the catalog.  I hope I can find enough stuff here to make Bean's look "not too empty". 

Not much else going on around here.  All of Bean's dance classes are gearing up for the recital next weekend.  I'm desperately trying to get the steps to the Treble Reel up to speed for my recital dance.  Pray for me!!

TTFN~

Posted in General

There is so much history around here to think about on Memorial Day.  We are only a few hours from Normandy, from Flanders Field, from loads of places where Americans gave their lives to protect the freedom of us and others. 

Did you ever wonder why the veterans give out poppies on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day? Throughout history, people have noted that poppies often appear on battlefields and the graves of soldiers.  Poppy seeds lie dormant until the ground goes through a major upheaval, such as it does in battle.  At Flanders Field in Belgium during WWI, poppies bloomed everywhere after the battle and inspired Canadian Major John McCrae to write this poem:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We can never forget that freedom is not free.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Dad!!! 

Posted in General

I cannot believe it has been over SIX months since I updated my blog.  My bad!

Since I last posted:

1.  We have reached the halfway point in our homeschool year.  We finished up The Easy French and Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space and are nearly finished with English from the Roots Up, Volume I.  Bean asked if she could study Botany for the rest of the year, so I bought her Exploring Creation with Botany from Apologia.  She'll start that on Monday.

2.  We started and finished the swim season for this year.  Bean competed in the maximum number of events allowed at the Championships in February and got one gold medal (100 Free), 3 silver medals (50 Free, 50 Back, 200 IM) and one bronze medal (50 Fly).  She also acheived new personal bests in all of her events.  Way to go, Bean!!

3.  We went to London for 5 days in October and had a BLAST!!  We did everything on our list except the Tower of London (they wanted 43£ for a family admission, but I was told later that it was worth every pence, so we should have gone).  We also saw two shows:  Mary Poppins and Wicked.  Wicked was amazing.  We got the soundtrack and have all the songs memorized now for when we go back.  We did manage to find Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station and took pictures there.

4.  Bean got her class dress for Irish Dance!!  Don't even ask how much it was.  But, she looks beautiful and is dancing very well.  We are headed to a feis (Irish dance competition) in the Netherlands in a few weeks.  We'll also get to see Keukenhof that same weekend.  I'll post pictures when we get back.

I can't think of any other major stuff we've had going on here.  I'll try to keep up better!!!

T~

Posted in General

Here's my entry for the contest at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JacqueDixonSoulRestES/178599/:

• What type of homeschooler are you?How do you homeschool? (Do you plan??)  Yes, I'm a planner (well, my dh is a planner and insisted that I be one too as far as homeschool goes!)
• Are you using a specific curriculum or a conglomeration or none?  This year we are using Sonlight as our base and then adding or subtracting things as needed.  So, I would say I add a conglomoration to a specific.
• Are you making it up yourself? No way!  I tried that a few years ago, but it was HARD!!
• Do you have a plan or just use ideas as you go? I have a long term plan, but it is subject to revision at any time.  Initially, we planned to use Sonlight all the way through high school, but then I discovered TOG and will use that starting next year (I just couldn't resist Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere for this year).  Of course, if it turns out that the Lord isn't going to bless us by growing our family through adoption, we will seriously look at Veritas Press' Omnibus.
• Do you homeschool in desks, at the table or anywhere it works?? It depends on the subject!!  Math is done at the breakfast table, most every thing else is done on the loveseat in our "school room" (except the things that have to be neat, which are done at the table in there - we don't do math there because we only have one chair in that room)
• Tell me what you are excited about that you will be doing!  I'm super excited about doing Sonlight's Eastern Hemisphere Explorer!!  I really don't know too much about that half of the world and it's cultures and I can't wait to explore them.  I'm also excited about Le Français Facile since we plan to visit France next spring or summer and it would be great if at least one of us knows something of the language (we definitely don't want to pull a Clark Griswald there!).  Finally (whew!), I'm really excited about doing Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space.  I've always loved rocks and now I get to pass that love along to my daughter!  Woohoo!
• Are you going to teach each child in their own grade level or do you multi-grade teach? I only have one so this doesn't apply to us except in the sense that Bean works each subject at the grade level that's right for her even if it doesn't match the "grade" she would be in public school.

Posted in General

Oh my gosh, I didn't realize it had been over a month since I last posted.  Let's see if I can capsulize it:

1.  Turned 40 (good grief)

2.  Germany had the hottest July on record (I think it was over 90 degrees every day!  And with no A/C or window screens, it was either roast or roast with bugs.  Ugh!)

3.  Bean went to her Irish Dance camp and had a blast.  She is now officially one dance closer to her heavies than I am.  She's super excited.  She's only lacking the Single Jig and the Primary (Hard) Reel and I'll be shelling out 85 Euros for heavy shoes.  Oh boy.

4.  Bean went to her swim camp in Austria.  She had a great time, didn't really care for the "hiking the Alps" part too much and they didn't fix her breast stroke.  I'm not sure if that 516 Euros was worth it or not.

5.  While Bean was in Austria, Hubby and I spent 8 days ALONE in a rustic cabin.  We went hiking in the Alps almost every day.  Okay, yeah, the 516 Euros was worth it!

6.  Bean turned ELEVEN!! (double good grief)

We have decided to hold off on the main part of school until after my parents visit.  So, we'll be starting on 9/11.  But, we will dip our toe into the pond over the next couple of weeks getting the hang of the EHE for our Sonlight Core.  Then, starting on 9/11, we'll jump in whole hog with the rest of our SL Core, MUS Zeta, Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space, our homemade English from the Roots Up "curriculum", our Against the Tide bible study and La Français Facile.  Hoping for a really great year!

Posted in General

We had a nice, relaxing day yesterday.  It was SUPER hot!  I think it got hotter here than in Texas!!  Woof!

The day started out with Bean having a short swim practice.  Only two kids showed up, so the coach was able to get them through their workout in just over an hour instead of the 1 1/2 he had scheduled. 

Next, off to the Freedom Fest where Bean had entered her "Pantry Explosion" cookies in the cookie contest.  I thought her cookies were fabulous and I normally don't like cookies (once they aren't dough).  There were supposed to be 4 categories: (1) Decorated Holiday, (2) No-Bake, (3) Healthy (had to include cereal or fruit), and (4) Cookie Maker's.  There was supposed to be a winner in each category and then a "best in show" award which would win the grand prize.  They had a grand total of 8 entries.  So, I guess they decided to just give out "best in show" and not do the other category winners.  And, the "grand prize" was a child-size apron that would barely fit the skinny, petite woman who won.  The lady running the contest kept bemoaning the fact that they never get a good response for this contest.  Now, I think I know why.  This base has a habit of doing a half-way job of organizing things, a half-way job of publicizing things and then they always wonder why they don't turn out the way they thought.  Oh well!

Hubby and Bean had lunch at the Freedom Fest. I decided to wait until we got home (I wanted Chicken Tenders and Onion Rings, but they told me that the meals were set up the way they had to be sold, so if I wanted Chicken Tenders and Onion Rings, I would have to pay for Chicken Tenders and Fries plus an order of onion rings and I just couldn't see myself paying $9.25 for Chicken Tenders, fries I didn't want, and Onion Rings.  Plus an additional two dollars for a soda!  Anyway, I had a Tomato and Cheese on Toast sandwich when we got home.  Defintely a better choice, both financially and health-wise!

We mostly hung out around the house the rest of the day until Hubby grilled his famous burgers and dogs for dinner.  Yummm!!

We started watching the match between Germany & Italy until it was time for the fireworks.  Since we live on a HUGE hill, we thought we'd be able to see the fireworks from the base with no problems.  We just forgot about the 9 million trees between us and the base.  Oops!  No fireworks for us this year.

After Brazil and England were eliminated, Bean and I had decided to root for Germany and now they've been eliminated.  Sigh.

You know what, looking back over our day, it seems like the only things that went really right were swim practice and the Hubby burgers!  Oh, well, I got to spend the whole day with my family and that makes it a great day in my book!

TTFN!

Posted in General

Summer is just going by so quickly!!  Here's an update on what is new with us:

1.  Bean is entering a Cookie Contest at our base's 4th of July festival on Tuesday.  She came up with this recipe all on her own and did a test run on Friday.  They are AWESOME (and I normally don't like cookies once they are cookies - I'm usually only in it for the dough!)!  I hope she will win!

2.  We had our piano recital this past Friday.  Bean did well for her first time playing in front of a group of strangers.  I, on the other hand, was a complete nervous wreck!  I was completely falling apart when I finally told myself, "Hey!  You know how to play this song, now let's do it!"  Things went much better after that, thank goodness.

3.  We are going to paint inside our church's new building tomorrow.  The kids in Bean's class voted to have their room painted Light Blue.  Did you know that they don't mix paint for you at the stores here in Germany?  They sell you the base paint and the color and you have to mix it yourself.  Yikes!  I'd never be able to get two containers to be exactly the same color.  I think I'll stick with my all-white walls here in this house and paint when we get back to where the nice paint guys at Lowes or Homey-Depot can mix it for me.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

TTFN!

Posted in General

Our summer seems to be slipping away from us!!  I can't believe it's almost July.  Do you think this "time warp" is happening because I didn't want July to get here?  I'M GONNA BE 40 NEXT MONTH!!!  I can't believe it!!  Do I feel 40?  No.  Does it really bother me that I'm turning 40?  It depends on how much sleep I've had/what TOM it is/whether I've had enough Bean hugs that day .   Of course, I never really get enough Bean hugs.

I'd say we are about halfway done with our Famous Men of Rome study.  We are learning a LOT!!  I finally got a chance to sit down and look at our new Time Travelers study from Homeschool in the Woods.  This is going to be SO much fun.  I need to find 5 transparencies though.  I wonder where in the world I'll find those here.  Yet another reason to miss Office Max/Office Depot/Staples. 

I was finally able to get an appointment for the doc to evaluate my shoulder (the day after my b-day).  Hopefully, it isn't anything requiring surgery.  Luckily, we don't use our arms when we Irish Dance!

I still need to get those pics off my camera so I can post some of them on here.  I'll work on that later this week.

TTFN!

Posted in General

Hello!!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend.  It was cold and rainy here, so we didn't get to do anything too fun.  Hubby did grill several times over the course of the weekend (mmmmm, Hubby-burgers) so that was a nice break for me.  We are going to have fajitas tonight -- I've already made the guacamole.  Mmmmm.

BEAN FINISHED STATES OF THE UNION TODAY!!  WOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!  This has been a much more involved project than we anticipated when we started it last August.  But, it is finally finished and she is so proud of her notebook about the 50 states. 

She tested out of Lesson 28 in Epsilon today, so we only have two lessons to go to finish up Math for the year.  That day will be a cupcake-worthy event, for sure.  I wonder if it will be the the swim team or the softball team that benefits from that? 

Not much else going on here.  It is still cold and rainy and I am SO ready for the sun to come back.  It's going to be June tomorrow!!  People in Texas have been wearing shorts for 3 months!!  The high temperature really needs to get out of the 50's here.  Sigh.

TTFN!

Posted in General

Ever since the beginning of our homeschool journey, math has been a struggle for Bean.  Our first year, we made a BAD curriculum choice (in my defense, we did make the decision to homeschool on the fly and I didn't really get a chance to research curriculum before we started).  Their approach was too fast, too abstract for my kinesthetic learner.  Every day there was yelling and screaming and crying about math (and sometimes Bean would get upset too ).  Anyway, by the time we attended our first homeschool bookfair at the end of that school year, I KNEW we had to make a change.  I wandered into the Math-U-See booth with Bean in tow and suddenly we could see the entrance to the tunnel (no light at the end yet!)  Hubby leaned over to me and whispered, "I don't care what it costs, we are getting this one!"

We are almost finished with our 4th year of MUS.  It has been a joy to see Bean master concepts in Math that I didn't even get exposed to until well into junior high school.  BUT, every time she is faced with the most basic concepts (the ones she was first exposed to during that disasterous first year) she freezes up and gets very frustrated.  Since those concepts are addition and subtraction, it has turned math time into an exercise in "adrenaline management".  And, rather than following my suggestion to just "get it done and over with", her approach has been to see "just how long can I drag this out?".  We have tried doing Math first in the day, but that was taking time away from other subjects that needed to get done.  We tried doing Math last in the day, but with our busy schedule, that often meant she didn't finish it at all the day it was assigned.  Then, one day I noticed that her handwriting for the advanced concepts was very clear and her numbers, when faced with adding or subtracting, became illegible.  I began to wonder if it was all related?  Could the fact that she was trying to master making pretty numbers at the same time we were using that "awful" curriculum (for her) be causing some of the stress?

So, I decided to try an experiment.  I told her that I would act as the driver of her pencil during math.  I would be there to offer help if she needed it during exercise days, but during test days I would just be the pencil.  What a difference!!!  Suddenly math is getting done in about 20 minutes (versus 2-3 hours) and she is getting 100% correct on every page.  Add to that the fact that she is mastering concepts at light speed and that is how we have finished two LESSONS in MUS this week!!  It is amazing and, better yet, she is starting to see that she really IS smart in math.  And, finally, instead of always proclaiming, "I HATE Math!!", we have progressed to, "It's okay."  If you ask me, that's the greatest thing ever!!  And, it totally reinforces all the reasons that I love to homeschool.  We were able to fix our problem on our own time-schedule, we had the freedom to experiment to find the solution and we have the option to use our solution until she no longer needs it.

Amen!!

Posted in General

It seems strange to be starting a new blog just as our homeschool year is winding down to an "end".  Bean will finish up her last few "States of the Union" pages by early next week.  Hopefully, we'll wrap up our last 3 lessons in Math-U-See Epsilon by the time we go to Scotland so Hubby can run his first marathon.  :o)

We do have some "enrichment" activities planned for the summer.  We'd like to work our way through Famous Men of Rome for some historical help on next year's National Latin Exam.  Bean has also decided that she'd like to do a notebook on dolphins this summer.  She's almost 11, so I think it's time to set her free on that kind of project and let her decide where it will lead.

We'll be heading to the Eastern Hemisphere next year with Sonlight's Core 5.  It will be our last year with Sonlight, but we are very excited to be going on to Tapestry of Grace the following year.  We plan to use TOG throughout the rest of our homeschool journey.

I guess that's enough for now, so I'll just close with a "Happy Homeschooling, Y'all!"