We didn't just take off for Thanksgiving Day, we took the entire week . It was great! Each of us had some me time, as my children call it. We each had the time to choose what we would desire to do. I chose reading, cooking, some cleaning, & shopping for the holidays. I didn't get quite as much reading time as I would have desired, but I'm thankful for the time I got. My children chose play, Christmas movies (I chose these too),& some reading. After having a break, we all should be ready for a full load next week.
I plan to put my tree up on Monday lord's willing. We are going to decorate it different this year. We are thinking about going with blue, white, & silver this year. We'll see how that goes.
My kitchen table is filled with Christmas gifts right now. Isn't that something. I don't even have a tree up yet. I decided to wrap my gifts a little at a time this year instead of doing them all at once like I usually do them so I have already started on them.
We will also be baking on Monday. We have been preparing our Amish Friendship bread starter & Monday is our baking day for it. We love the bread. If you haven't tried this bread you should. Although, it takes 10 days to make it. Not much to do in the10 days just waiting the 10 days to bake.
I plan to have a book give away on my blog so tell all of your friends to stop by & sign up for the give away. All you have to do is post a comment whether you are on my friend's list or not. As soon as I get my DH to put a picture of the book on my blog I'll start the give away.
I suppose I have rambled enough tonight so I'd better go. Until next time, Traci
The approximate guidelines are as follows for your unstuffed Thanksgiving turkey:
6 to 8 pounds: 2-1/2 to 3 hours
8 to 12 pounds: 3 to 4 hours
12 to 16 pounds: 4 to 5 hours
16 to 20 pounds: 5 to 5-1/2 hours
20 to 24 pounds: 5-1/2 to 6 hours
If you are stuffing your turkey you should add 30-45 minutes cooking time. You will also need to use your meat thermometer to test the stuffing which is considered done at 165 degrees F.
Happy ThanksgivingI have been doing all my CHRISTmas shopping online. My eyes hurt from the computer. I'm mainly purchasing gift from Vision Forum, Christianbook & Timberdoodle. I'm not getting too many toys but more puzzle type stuff and lots of survival things. My two little guys will have lots of battles with their sword and shields
Well Lance wants to play a game!
Bye,
Linda<><
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Participating In A Craft Fair
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The last 3 years I have participated in a craft fair in November. I started off with beaded bookmarks and fudge. the second year I did fudge, necklaces, earrings,candles, and rhubarb juice. This year I did fudge, rhubarb juice ( two kinds plain and also a raspberry rhubarb which was a BIG hit),candles-beeswax, knitted baby booties. I have worked up to this as my youngest got old enough for me to be away for two days with big brothers taking care of them.
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Each year I set a goal to try to reach. This year I wanted to earn enough to buy a grain grinder. I also try to go into the fair with having everything paid for. I came close to attaining that. I did earn enough to pay for my supplies, table, my goal and very close to buying more supplies for more candles that I will be dropping off at a local artistan store.
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I have been working each year to get something to help me make it easier to make healthier food inexpensively. Last year I got a Kitchen Aide Mixer and boy did that make my life easier in making food from scratch quickly. I am putting this out there to maybe help start someones wheels moving in brainstorming how you can make things that seem to be out of reach normally but can be attained with some elbow grease and a goal.
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I am very thankful God has helped me and my family in this way. I also have to say that I am thankful that this is only once a year. I sold twice as much as I did last year. God put in my mind to also sell raspberry-rhubarb juice along with the rhubarb juice. It was a BIG hit along with my fudge. I was very pleased how everyone liked my baby booties. I had stitched snow flakes on the toe and also I blanket stitched on the top cuff. Next year I will be making bigger kid sizes and some adult sizes too.
. I have to say that I couldn't be this pulled away for very much more. I love being a mom first and let this be a side thing to help my family in a short term. I thank the Lord for blessing this last week ends sales.
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Now to join in the fun of Tightwad Tuesday....
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Link your TWT post click on MckLinky and give exact the URL of your post. (each Tuesday that you join in on the fun)
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example of a URL ...
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Canadagirl/693425/
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Now go ahead link and read and comment on all these other's wonderful TWT's.
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Lets save our pennies, nickles, dimes, and dollars together !
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"There are only a few big ways to save money but there are many small ways ....that all adds up."
I was able to purchase MFW Exp1850. I'm so glad, now I can figure out what to do next year.
I am going to read Building a City on the Hill & Trial and Triumph with Josh.
An idea would be to have Josh read; The Last 500 Years, Exploring American History, In God We Trust & George Washington's World on his own. We have the audio cd for Story of the World so we can listen to that. He can also read the read aloud selection from MFW on his own too. I can read all the 2nd/3rd grade supplements along with the two books I mentioned above. About twice a week we can do all the timeline, notebooking, mapping etc. All of us would do Bible together.
We can start our morning with Bible and I can read anything else that the teacher manual, like notes and such. Then we can all split up. Josh & Annette finish their studies on their own. I can do Phonics with the youngers.
I'm still studying MFW TM but I think I can make it work. Now I need to figure out when to do The Phonics Road, The Bridge & Spell to Write & Read :)
I have some ideas for those also.
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Josh & Annette: Spell to Write & Read do 20 minutes a day. Once the timer goes off, just stop :)
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Caleb & Brent: Phonics Road Level 2 is broken down into three sections; Spelling/Phonics, Grammar & Reading. Each section takes about 20 minutes. Again, I'll set a timer and stop. Whether done with a lesson or not. We can always pick-up where we left off the next day.
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Ethan & Lance: Phonics instruction 20 minutes a day.
If I can stick to the 'times' and not worry about completing a whole lesson I think I'll be okay.
Just recording my thoughts :)
Well, it's down to the last few days before Thanksgiving & we are trying to get in our last few things before we start up our December studies. We are almost finished. Just a bit more reading. Shouldn't have a problem with that Monday & Tuesday of next week.
Today we went to our local baseball park & met our HS group & we played baseball with them. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it. I think there are some great prospects for future baseball players in the group. They all hit good, & some of them have a good arm on them for throwing the ball.
Tonight we are all kind of doing our own thing, playing, watching a bit of TV, washing clothes, & on the computer. That about sums us up. Until next time, Traci
So glad it's Friday (doing the happy dance) LOL. Before I write about our day I wanted you all to check out my sisters blog. She has lots of notebooking pages that she creates. She is way more organized then I am and creative. Her blog is so nice, clean and organized. She is very talented.
As for our homeschooling day. Today I had Caleb & Brent do copy lesson two from Wheeler's Elementary Speller. Tomorrow I'll have the spell the words orally and write them from dictation.
They also did a lesson from The Phonics Road. We are on week 11. They are doing very well with this program.
Once Josh completes Phonics Tutor. I am looking into Spell to Write and Read for him and Annette. I actually wanted to get SWR for this year but have always been intimidated by it, but now that I have used The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading I think I handle SWR 
I would like to add Annette. She can read very well but I still feel like she needs to go over the spelling rules. Annette started reading in 1st grade and has always been above grade level. Because of this I didn't do a 2nd year of phonics with her. She spells okay and usually misses about one word or less from Spelling Wisdom. I still feel like she should be a bit more grounded in spelling patterns and such. I'm not sure if she came across a difficult word if she would be able to decode it. Also how do I make sure she continues to progress in her reading? I think SWR would help in both areas.
Nap time is over. Gotta go.
Yesterday we didn't get home until past three o'clock from the doctors office. We were all whooped from shots. Lupe, decided that we should all get the regular flu shot, plus each of us had some other shot we needed. Mine was the flu & Hepatitis shot. Everybody has sore arms or legs today.
I found out I have allergies 
. I told the doctor that my throat gets a tingly, itchy feeling when I sing at church (hymns) or read to the children. He checked my nose and throat, sure enough I have allergies same as the kids. I took my medicine that he prescribed and it's all ready helping. Who would have thought I had allergies. Bummer!
Ethan, has allergies too. His skin is really dry and around his eyes it's VERY dry. Skin peeling. The doctor said those are all signs of allergies, he is on med too.
I told him I think that Brent might have allergies because he sneezes so much and has had a runny nose for weeks. Sure enough; allergies.
Annette & Caleb has had allergies and are asthma since they were toddlers, so nothing new there. I was surprised about the rest of us.
On the way home we stopped at the flying chicken A.k.a Chicken Express.Now that flying chicken doesn't look too appetizing but the food is actually good 
Well, we haven't been getting to much schooling this week. My sister is expecting a baby & she has been having contractions, already started dialating, & she'ss not due until DEc. 9. She has been having to go to the Dr. a lot & being put on monitors to monitor the baby so I have had her other children. My nephew is only 23 months old. Sometimes he gets to be a hand full.
I told my DC we'd get back on course when Aunt Amanda had the baby. Until then we'd just do what we could & the rest would come later. That's the beauty of homeschooling.
Better go, just wanted to update. Have to get off here to check on my nephew. Don't want to leave him unattended too long. Until next time, Traci
For years I have been wanting to use a homemade shampoo consisting of Baking Soda & Water. I don't like using the shampoos from the store. All those chemicals. Because of the price of Organic and no chemical shampoos I would continue to use regular shampoo. I did buy the 'good' stuff here and there but again the price would drive me back to the chemical stuff. Sometimes the kids would not notice that the shampoo fell in the tub while they were bathing. By the time I found it half of my expensive shampoo would be gone.
I am finally taking the plunge!!! I haven't used store bought shampoo or conditioner for a month.
When we ran out of conditioner over a month ago, I decided to try using a vinegar rinse instead. I have tried before but never stuck with it for more than a few days. I mixed equal parts of vinegar and tap water. I used white vinegar because we didn't have Apple Cider Vinegar. I'm going to purchase ACV tonight and try it.
I also purchased a shampoo bar from www.virginiasoapsandscents.com The bar of soap is wonderful. I lather it up in my hands then wash my hair with it. Our bathroom is small and doesn't get much ventilation, so my shampoo bar is going faster then normal :( Next week when my bar is gone I'm going to use the Baking Soda & Water shampoo. I'm going with In A Shoe's recipe; 1quart water and 1/2 cup of baking soda. I don't have hard water but I'm still going to boil the water the water then add the baking soda. Let it cool and add to a container. Again I'm taking In A Shoes's idea and putting it in a liquid dish soap container.
With using the Shampoo bar (soon to be baking soda/water) and my vinegar rinse my hair looks so nice.
I have frizzy curly hair.I don't brush it during the day because, well, think afro. It gets very tangly. I have to take a shower everyday because once I brush my hair out it's just so frizzed.
I have tried many products and spent lots of $$$ trying to control my frizz. I was even going to get it straightened at a salon. My scalp use to itch all the time. I would use Head & Shoulders (I know, major chemicals). Now my head doesn't itch. My scalp feels so healthy. My hair looks great, I even go to the mirror just to stare. I love my hair now. Almost all my life I couldn't stand my frizzy our of control curly hair.
Regarding the vinegar rinse. You have to stick with it. At first my hair felt tangly and yucky. I'm so use to the conditioners and how it detangled and felt silky. The first two weeks are the hardest.
My morning routine:
- Brush hair before jumping into the shower
- Wash with shampoo bar or soda water
- rinse with vinegar/water rinse. At first I was using 1/4 cup of vinegar & water. I think that's a bit much but my hair didn't dry out. I would put it in a cup and gather my hair (med-long) pile it, pour some of the vinegar rinse, let hair down and pour the remaining vinegar rinse. Massage and rinse. Most people use a spray bottle but I don't have one thus using the cup. Again, most people don't use that much of the vinegar rinse but it's worked for me. Eventually I'm going to use honey bottle (the honey is almost gone)
- At the end of my shower I squeeze all water out of my hair and use Olive Oil as a leave in conditioner. I put about a quarter size in the palm of my hand, rub with other hand
and finger it through my hair. Wrap hair in a towel. Once I'm done dressing and such I let my hair out of the towel pin my hair back and I'm done.
Currently I am using Olive Oil but I have read that Coconut oil works well too and I ordered some to try.
Here are some links I found that may be helpful:
- Simple Mom
- Natural Homemade Hair Conditioner
- Nature Moms
- How to Go No Poo
- Dandruff Remover (this is probably why I don't have an itchy scalp.
- Another Poo Free site.
- Hair Conditoner-Honey you can click on the link but I'll put the instructions here too:
Mix 1/2 cup honey with 1/4 cup olive oil. (Use 2 tablespoons of oil if you have normal to oily hair.) Using a small amount at a time, work mixture through hair until it is evenly coated. Cover hair with a shower cap; leave on 30 minutes. Remove shower cap; shampoo well and rinse. Dry and style as usual.
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Here is another Honey Conditioner this one uses buttermilk.
To add some shine mix TBS honey to 4 cups warm water. Work through damp hair. Do not rinse out.
Honey Deep Conditioning 1TBS honey & 1TBS Olive Oil, mix and warm in microwave to melt. Apply to hair. Leave in for 30 minutes then rinse out.
Next I'm looking into a face cleanser consisting of olive & caster oil