Dec. 11, 2009

Family Advent Activity 11- eating chicken on the sand dune

     We love to eat chicken biryani and have a picinic on the sand dunes. But, it was REALLY, SUPER CRAZY out there today. So, we had to come home to eat it. I got some very interesting pics though.

Here's our advent candles. I had to make due with what I could find here.

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Dec. 11, 2009

The Doghouse

      My friend, Kristy, posted this on her blog and it is soooooo funny!!! I just had to post it here too. Rob loved this. I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas. I don't think I will be getting that now!

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Dec. 10, 2009

How to Make a Turkey

     I have had any of my friends here in Saudi ask me how to make a turkey. So, I thought that I would post it here. First of all, I buy the biggest turkey that I can. They are pretty easy to find here. And we love left overs. We keep it in the freezer until about five days before we are planning on eating it and then, it goes in the refrigerator. Then, the day before the meal, we brine it. We have found that brining is an important part of having a good turkey here. Our first year here, we had a great Thanksgiving turkey dinner. So, we bought another and asked our friends over for Christmas dinner. But, when I took it out of the fridge, it was ROTTEN. It was really bad. So, now we love brining because it forces us to take it out of its wrapping and check it the day before people come over. It takes a lot to get turkeys to Saudi, so it happens. That way if it were ever bad again, we could take it back and get another in time for the dinner. So, the second reason for brining is that it can also be a very quick way to thaw out the turkey. What we do is we clean out our sink really good with bleach and dry it with paper towels. Then, we put the turkey in the sink and rinse it out really well. We take out the two packages which are stuck in the cavities of the turkey and throw those away. Then, I make a huge pot of vegetable broth and fill up our cooler half way with water, then, pour in the broth. Then, I mix 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of salt in. I put the turkey in the cooler, add some rosemary and ice. Then, I let this sit overnight.

     Then, the next day (about four hours before I want to eat) I preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Then, I put the turkey on the broiler pan or shallow roasting pan, and rub butter all over it. I add some salt, thyme, celery, carrot, quarter apple, sage, more salt and thyme to the cavity. Then, I stick it in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes. When timer goes off, I turn it way down to 325 degrees F for the next 2 and 1/2 hrs to 3 hrs (depending on how big the turkey is). I check it every once in a while and when it's a good golden brown color, I cover the wings with foil, so it doesn't get too dark. When it's done, I let it rest for an hour with a blanket of foil so that it's easy to carve. That's it. It's really pretty easy. I then, use the drippings from the turkey to use in the gravy. For that, I just heat up chicken broth with a little flour, stir up the drippings and then, add them in. It's really good.

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Dec. 8, 2009

Advent Activity 8

      Tonight we made ornaments. My idea was to cut out some felt stars, glue on a ribbon and be done. But, the boys had other ideas. They got out the sewing kit and everything. They love to sew now. It reminds them of their great grandmas who are excellent at it. Justin was so cute. He said, "Mommy, you are like a professional sewer." I'm sooooo not. I can count on my left hand how many buttons I have sewed in my lifetime. But, at least I have managed to impress my boys with my meager skills.

Gotta take a picture of Mr. Dimple.

They've been very busy making cards and presents for their family in the U.S.

I like the advent calendar because it forces me to do things that I know we should do, but don't get around to enough.

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Dec. 7, 2009

Family Advent Activity 7

We had mickey mouse waffles for dinner. It wasn't as easy as it looks though. We all have the flu and mom and dad in particular are feeling pretty ucky. It's really in the chest and the throat. But, Alex has the advent calendar memorized and when I woke up he reminded me that we were having waffles for dinner. Robby stepped up though and made it special for him. As you can see he really likes waffles and enjoyed it immensely. I made the advent calendar about a month ago and I knew some arranging would have to be done and I was right. There was a lot of eating out on there, so I had to change one night and we couldn't make smores because they didn't have graham crackers at Panda. And, since we're sick we'll have to change our riding rides in the mall to a different day this week. It's all part of the fun, right?!!

Next year I would like to do two more different advent calendars. One is called advent with a bite. It's where every day you put money in a jar for things that you have that poor people don't. I think that it will really help the boys appreciate what they have. Especially since they have seen it first hand in India. An example of this is here. I liked another one that encouraged them to do nice little things every day; like give compliments or tell someone thank you. It is a good time for them to reinforce good habits. I this would be a good thing to implement during advent, lent, ramadan, or anytime of the year when you feel like the kids need to appreciate things more.

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Dec. 6, 2009

Advent Activity 6- Writing Letters to Santa

     St. Nick came this morning and left candy in all their shoes. They are all still reeling from that and it's almost 10 o'clock at night now. They studied about John the Baptist and learned that he ate locusts with honey and wore clothes with camel hair. It's neat imagining him in the environment we are in. We ate gummy worms and crackers with honey in his honor. We talked about how John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus and how we need to think about how we're going to pave our path to Heaven. We are working on getting along with our brothers better. I have realized that I have hurt the boys by not showing enough enthusiasm for things that they do. I'm definitely going to work on this. I spent some extra time with Justin tonight. He needed the individual attention. We watched the Prince and the Pauper together on Disney. Then, we wrote our Santa Letters. Rob and Robby were doing Aikido, so it was just me and three younger guys. They did a good job on their letters. Connor is a little perfectionist though. he gets quite upset when his letters aren't perfect.

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Dec. 5, 2009

Family Advent Activity 5- McDonald's

We had a lot of fun at McDonald's. We did christmas math today and watched Snow Buddies together. It was a nice day.

I've been thinking about this quote a lot.

"Children are not coloring books. You can't just fill them in with all your favorite colors."- Kite Runner

My boys are going to be who they are going to be. I would like to think that I can make them who I think they should be, but the truth is that they are going to surprise me and that instead of controlling everything I should just be enjoying all the moments we have together. This is my goal for advent.

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Dec. 4, 2009

Family Advent Activity- Aikido

Rob is learning aikido, so on our matchbox calendar for today it was to do it together as a family. It was a lot of fun. The boys enjoyed getting dressed up in their uniforms and practicing it with daddy. It was cute how Connor kept calling Rob sensei. Robby was really good too.

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Dec. 4, 2009

Alex's Fun Day

     Alex has recently found a really good friend. His name is Samir. Samir has lived her for a year, but he doesn't speak very much English. I think that the Halloween Party helped them to get to know each other a little better and now they are inseparable. It is so cute because their personalities are very much alike. Wednesday night Alex told us that Samir was having a birthday party the next day. This was the first time that Alex got to go to a party alone. He felt like a very big boy.

He also got to ride a new ride with his brothers at the mall:

We've also been having fun with our advent calendar. I have had to hide them at times though because I realize we don't have the supplies or we just can't do that certain activity. No one has noticed so far though. We're having a lot of fun. Wednesday we went to the Pizza Company and watched Charlie Brown's Christmas. Yesterday, we looked at the stars, ate oreos, and had hot cocoa. It's a fun time.

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Dec. 2, 2009

Evaluating Our First Quarter

     Our first twelve weeks are behind us. I can hardly believe it!! It's good to see what we accomplished and what I would like to change for the second quarter.

     Catechism is going very well this year. They have all learned the prayers for the rosary and that makes me happy. The hands on activities really seal in what they are learning. I felt that Robby had some doubts about his faith last year and that it is much stronger now. He really says some smart things to me. He makes me think about things deeper now. It's really great being able to see them grow in this way.

     I have decided to put Arabic and piano on the backburner for awhile. We have other priorities right now and for some reason it's just not taking. Justin has been learning Japanese with his dad. We'll have to wait on piano until we can find a good teacher here. I can't really teach it since I don't know how myself.

     Alex's reading has improved immensely. I am really happy with how he is coming along. When we first started this year, it was a struggle. He couldn't finish the chapters by himself, I had to help. Then, I would give him a piece of candy after every page. Now, he can finish a whole chapter very quickly without any rewards. It's very good!! He's a lot more interested in math too. Today he was measuring things for fun. He is very anxious to do Big Brainz. He's been watching his brothers do it for years and wants to do it too. He is starting his multiplication. So, we'll start that a little in quarter 2.

     Connor has finished his reading lessons up to lesson 78. He wants to sound everything out now. I plan on finishing 100 Reading Lessons by the end of Christmas Break. Then, we will start on Level 2 Readers and reading The Berenstein Bears. He will love that. He likes reading real stories. I am reading Henry Huggins to them this week and they always stop me to sound things out themselves. For Quarter 2, I would just like to be more organized so that he has more independent work to do while I am helping his brothers. We are going to have him do ETC online. He likes to do school and it's important to have workbooks and stuff ready for him. He's ready to grow in his learning.

    I really like the Sonlight Adventure Projects. I just have to be more organized with these. Instead of letting the Robby and Justin pick what they are going to do that week, I need to ask them before I write the schedule so that I can have all the supplies ready. This was a problem this time. I need to have all that written on the schedule so that they can do these more independently and have all the supplies available. This goes for science experiments too. It's important that I know what they can actually do and to have it all ready.

    Spelling and Grammar will have to be more of a priority for Quarter 2. I just want to make sure that they know that spelling is important. They shouldn't just write whatever. They can ask or use a dictionary. They are great inventive spellers, but I've learned that those words get stuck in their head and then, they have a hard time relearning the right spellings. We had to learn this the hard way. They are currently earning kid shows by doing extra spelling too. This makes us all happy. They get time for their favorite shows and I feel better because they have to work extra hard for it. It's a win, win.

   Overall, I am pretty happy with the first quarter. Getting the two younger ones to read well is a big relief. They are loving it and doing great. I'm looking forward to Quarter 2!

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