Posted By Martyomenko

(My camera was still fuzzy here when my sister used it.....I guess John (my sister's boyfriend) was sad about something though!! Not that the pie was gone as he did not like pie, vegetables and many other thanksgiving foods)

I did not plan a  menu this week and have sort of been drifting along.......it has worked out! So far, this last week was consumed by helping family out so we just  added stuff to their meals. On Saturday  I used the turkey broth and a couple of heads of cauliflower I got and with some broccoli my sister had, leftover canned evaporated milk, we had some yummy cream of cauliflower/broccoli soup.  We served with a mishmash of leftover stuff like bread and rolls and pie.
Yesterday, we ate more leftovers and today, we probably will as well with a twist on them!!!

I did make some yummy whole wheat banana chocolate chip muffins!  I had gotten some free bananas and I thought they were really ripe, but they were not brown or anything when I opened them!!! They made good snacks and breakfast, along with orange slices and hot fresh pressed apple cider.

I read Mountain of Spices today by Hannah Hurnard. It was one of my favorite books when I started reading again back when I was pregnant with H. I got different things out of it now than I did then. I love the poetry in there though!!!

Just for fun,
Do you have any favorite different spins you put on leftovers?

Posted By Tracey in Family Life


Sorry folks.  You won't find any christmas stuff on my blog.  Well actually...I'm not sorry...and I don't really apologise for it either. 

I've ummed and ahhed about whether to share why I've stopped celebrating this festival.  It's the kind of topic that can be fraught with high emotions.  Let me say at the start that I'm not trying to convince anyone to stop doing what they do but merely to explain why I do what I do.  What you do is your business, but since you are reading my blog I'm figuring that you're interested in reading about what I do.  Fair enough? 

Here goes then:

I've come out of a religion (which will remain nameless) where we were taught to do many things that are not scriptural and are in fact the sorts of things that God tells us not to do eg. bowing down to idols, praying to people other than God etc.

When I decided to part ways, I began reading the scriptures to seek what God wanted rather than what a man-made religion told me to believe and do.   I began to notice so many things that I had done or was doing that were not in line with God's Word.  One of those was the celebration of christmas.

Christmas has a decidedly pagan origin - the tree, the partying, the date, the gift giving. 

Did you know that many pagan gods celebrate their birth date on the 25th December?  It just doesn't seem right that God should have to share any day, let alone a special day with any of the following pagan gods: Tammuz, Osiris, Horus, Hercules, Dionysus, Adonis, and Mithra,  just to name a few.  This sounded alarm bells for me. 

We know that Jesus' birth date was not the 25th of December..well most will concede that this is the truth...so why did the Church select this date?  Perhaps we don't want to know the answer to that!

Putting the pagan gods aside, Jesus still has to compete with "Santa" for attention at christmas.  Is Santa harmless fun?  I had always thought so.  But wasn't I lying to my own children, breaking God's rule number 9, "Thou shalt not lie".  Whoops. 

But what if they knew he was just make believe.  Would it be okay then? 

People say that the Santa story started with the story of St Nicholas.  Hmmm perhaps.  But on reading into it further it seemed to me that the story of Santa has a lot more in common with the customs surrounding the pagan god Odin.  Both Santa and Odin are supposed to ride horses through the air.  Odin too apparently has "helpers" to inform him of what is going on, just as Santa has his "helpers" to keep tabs on all the naughty children.  Although Odin's bag was to capture the naughty children and the Santa tale has been sanitised a little.  And children who placed their boot near the chimney, filled with carrots, straw or sugar for Odin's flying horse, were rewarded for their kindness with gifts.  Hmmm...perhaps St Nicholas' idea was not an original one at all. 

This is just the beginning of the stuff you will uncover if you choose to go on the hunt yourself. 

For me it was the beginning of the end of celebrating christmas.  Santa was sent packing and the tree and all the pagan decorations have not seen the light of day since.   We haven't completely purged christmas from our lifes yet as it's not as easy as it might seem.  Children are attached to the gift giving and excitement and family is even more attached to having you join in the festivities that you have always participated in.  

This will be our third year of untangling ourselves from the paganism that has been allowed to creep steathily into our life.  Each year God has helped us detach ourselves a little more from christmas' stronghold.  I've left family and gift giving in His most capable hands.  It's an area where I currently can not see an easy way out of.  Perhaps the answer will be that it's not going to be easy.  But so far God has led me step by step through the process so I know He'll show me what to do next. 

I know the thought of replacing the pagan meanings behind christmas is burning in your mind.  Why can't we put angels and stars on the tree?  Why can't we just celebrate the birth of Jeuss?  Why can't the tinsel represent the spider who supposedly covered the cave entrance with web to protect the holy family hiding there?  I have asked myself these questions in a yearning kind of way to wrangle back the bits of christmas I have fond recollections of.  But I remind myself of Deueronomy 12: 29-32 (NIV).

Posted By Tracey in Science

Well we're not a 100% certain but we believe it'll be a moth.

We started with a little caterpillar that attracted our attention as he crawled across the kitchen floor.

The boys captured him and gave him lettuce leaves in hopes that he'd like them. 

He did.  The next morning he'd munched through most of it. 

But he'd left behind a mystery...what looked like eggs.  But caterpillars don't lay eggs.  There was sooo much of this stuff. 



We did a lot of research that led us to wonder whether the caterpillar had been infested by parasitic fly or wasp larvae...although he didn't look like an unwell caterpillar.

Of course we also spent a lot of time observing every part of him under the microscope. 

The next morning there was MORE of this stuff and it was at this point that we decided that it had to be caterpillar poo...more politely known as "frass". 

This little creature pooed mountains more than its body mass several times a day.  It was quite a job to keep its enclosure clean.  (For new homeschoolers, please note that "scooping up frass and other unmentionables" is an unwritten part of your new job description.  Just thought you ought to know ).

For several days we fed and cleaned up after our caterpillar wondering whether it might make a cocoon and do all those cool things we've only read about in butterfly books. 

One night he scared me half to death by leaving behind this big pile of black stuff.  Not his usual light greeny frass colour.  I thought the little fellow was in its dying moments.  

Under the microscope the black mass looked a lot like our caterpillar, right down to little hairs. 

I wondered whether it was its old skin which it had moulted.  But I didn't get long to ponder it.  Mr Catty as we have come to know him as (we apologise profusely Mr Catty if in fact you are a Mrs Catty) turned around and ate his old skin.  Hmmm...now I never learned about that gross fact in school. 

Sadly the boys missed this exciting moment.  It happened at midnight.  I was so tempted to wake both of the boys but thankfully I didn't as the "meal" only lasted a minute or so.

After this milestone, our caterpillar went right back to pigging out on lettuce.  He became obviously large.  Easily as large as his appetite.  I was wondering if I might need to take our shares in the lettuce industry.  Mr Catty had consumed nearly an entire lettuce head in his short stay.  Glad we weren't hosting a whole family!!

And then last week he stopped eating.  I was wondering where I failed in my insect parenting.  The boys of course were going to hold me solely responsible for his death.  (New homeschoolers please note:  You will take the blame for many critter deaths, and rightfully so in the case of putting critters in the freezer to slow them down for microscopic purposes, so fine tune your grave digging skills...yes, another rarely mentioned role of the homeschooling mum).

He continued on his starvation diet for several days and just acted odd.  He roamed up and down his enclosure almost like he was looking for something.  We added a twig or two wondering whether he needed something to attach to to make his cocoon.  But no, he didn't seem to like our twig at all and just kept on roaming aimlessly.

I figured the end was really close when he started rolling over on his back.   I had his little grave site pre-selected and then one night on my way to bed I saw it.  A pupa...lying on the bottom of the enclosure, next to a moulted skin.  Wow!  Oh yes, I wanted to wake the boys again.  Why does the exciting stuff happen around midnight?!  But I thought better of it since he would still be a pupa the next day.


And he was.  What surprised us was that he continues to move around in his cocoon.  He responds to movement and wriggles around when you open his enclosure.  He also just rolls around happily during the day.  We're wondering whether it's a necessary part of being a cocoon on the ground.


We think he may turn into a moth if we manage to provide the necessary things for this change to happen and don't harm the process in some unknowing way.   After a little research it seems that butterflies more commonly make their cocoon on a branch or twig whereas moth are more likely to lie under leaves or soil on the ground.  At least that's the information we've uncovered at this point.  Do share more if you can enlighten us further.

So we're in a holding pattern waiting to see what our intriguing visitor will or won't do next. 

We'll keep you informed of Mr Catty's progress. 

Posted By Tracey in Family Life


Note to self:

Posted By momma of 5

What a wonderful day we had ~ my brother-in-law came down with his wife and filled our house with the joy & love of Family.

 

BREAKFAST:

Cinnamon Rolls & Frosting ~ All From Scratch!!!
Fresh OJ & AJ

 

APPETIZERS:

Lil' Smokies
Cheese & Summer Sausage
Wheat Thins / Triscuits
Veggie Tray
Whole Cranberry Sauce
Ranch Dip
Pickles & Olives Tray

 

MAIN MENU:

Turkey - found the secret this year to Moist & Delicious!!!
Buttery Mash Taters & Gravy - Simply said, Yum.
Super Cheesy Homemade Mac w/ extra large noodles
Peas & Corn ~ pleasin' the crowd (wink!)
Homemade Braided French Bread * We love this bread served hot brushed w/ butter!!! And it's pretty too! 2 Kinds of Stuffing ~ Brother-in-law & Wife are Vegetarians so I always make a stuffing just for them :)Potat Salad ~ my Brother-in-law always brings this on the Holidays!!! We love it, especially my Husband ~ because it's a dish from their childhood!
Whole Cranberry Sauce ~ I only like the whole - and I think that with the amount of leftovers I have I am the only one who likes it period - that's ok - I LOVE IT!!!
Pickles & Olives ~ don't mess with Tradition!

 

DESSERT:

Pumpkin Pie ~ made by our beautiful daughter ~ she even made the crust!!! All I have to say is She's Hired!
Apple Crisp - served hot from the oven....drizzled w/ caramel sauce and served with Vanilla Ice Cream!Yum! Yum!! Yum!!!
Chocolate Fudge Pudding Pie ~ covered w/ Cool Whip & Chocolate Sprinkles ~ a surprise for my brother-in-law!
The Moist Amazing Pumpkin Whoopie Pies EVER! If I do say so myself (wink!)

 

SECOND HELPINGS:

Well of course we had a Repeat of Thanksgiving the next day ~ which was yesterday!!! Today we had Turkey Sandwiches for lunch and Pasta Bake for Dinner - we all wanted a break from Turkey! Tomorrow we'll have Turkey Enchiladas & then we'll have Turkey Stew in a casserole dish with biscuits on top.....oh my it's such a yummy dish!!!

 

Warm Wishes To All of You!
EMichelle

 

Posted By Shirley

Here's one for December 1st ~ Rosa Parks Day

Rosa Parks was a pioneer for Civil rights in America

Read more at this informative website!

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

Posted By Shirley

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was great and no one went comatose from overeating... 

I seemed very strange not having our own brick and stick house to celebrate in, but no worries, our gracious hosts left theirs open for us to enjoy and we surley did. 

 I am suprised we are still here in the Silver Sub, the leaves have fallen and Brother's garden have begun to be plowed over, we even had us a little frost on the trampoline the other morning.  Time for a season change. 

There were many good days this Fall:  Katey's LONG awaited initiation into "Young Peoples", finally happened ~ the anticipation was much more than I thought she would be able to bear (sp?).  Now there is only Alexis left to move up... 2 years to go, such a long long time in the mind of a 12 year old ~ sigh...

Fall ment a couple trips back up to Donner and some visits with friends and more hiking.

And more hiking...

Sigh... and MORE hiking...

Oh and more fishing

Seems after more than 20 years of going up to the cabin one would have already discovered the "good fishin hole"... somethings take time....

Speaking of time:  I think SOME had a little more idle time than they knew what to do with!

 Fall also means the "Fall Festival" at church ~ everyone always love its ~ this year Sam got his first taste.

Katey took home a couple trophies herself for coloing and the skit... Seems she was the "winner of the day"!

Thanksgiving morning the boys were heading out to do some Salmon fishing ~ not realizing until the night before Salmon were "off limits" to the fishermen.  Does that get a good (or should I say determined) fisherman down?  They say "nah"... SO they geared up for Steelhead and had a blast.

braving the cold...

Battling nature itself....

To bring home the bounty!

Oh wait ~ Kiss and release??? 

Oh well.

I was thinking the other day of a morning a few years back ~ We were still in the Castle and we woke to find it had snowed all night.  Looking out from the upstairs balcony to nothing but a blanket of white as far as the eye could see.  It was really sureal; but that wasn't the best part.  The best part was the many rabbit trails that marked the ground ~ SO cute.  I had actually only seen one rabbit at the Castle, but according to these thails, there had to be hundreds ~ Wiley little citters!

On a sad note ~ today our Son-in-law left for Afganistan ~ I didn't make time to get with him and talk like I wanted ~ for that I am sad ~ My heart is broken at the thought of Kristin and Kylie being alone and for Caleb who hasn't yet begum to know what is means to be "at war".  Please ad the 3 of them to your prayers...

Well that's all for today ~ it's back to the cozy bed for me and getting rid of this nasty cold ~ and NO I haven't been kissing any pigs!

Posted By Martyomenko

It has been quite the week. We have been busy and moving, cleaning, cooking, and helping finish up my sister's house.
H. pulling up carpet tacks after the carpet was pulled up
F. painting in the baby's room

Painting.....the boys worked really hard cleaning, painting and learning how to work hard!!
My sisters  new master bathroom!  The tile is beautiful!!!

My camera was fuzzy from being in the cold too long!! I forgot to bring it in before we ate dinner, but I got some of the pies!! I did not even have time to change clothes, I was on my feet pretty much constant for the last two days! Lots of baby holding going on!!! It is fun to have two of them and they are going to be spoiled as they are oohed and awed over all the time. Their cousins love them and  love to play with them! They are really good babies too, which is nice! They are fun to play with and hardly cry at all!
Looking into the living room from the dining room! This is looking for their old living room! My niece played us something she learned on the violin!! She just started and she already could play a nice song!!
The audience!!!
There is plenty of room now to play, and move around. We had 30 people in the house and it was relaxing, because of all the space!!
Anyhow, that was a bit of an overview of my week! I said I think I was probably among a minority who prepared Thanksgiving turkey with a chop saw and table saw  in the kitchen!! They were still working on paint touch ups, trim, closets, putting bathrooms together yesterday.  It was nice to work together!! Today we are going to put together  a scrapbook room!

Posted By Melinda

We are so blessed!  We had a great Thanksgiving feast and are thankful for the rest now that it's over.  I cooked our standard for Thanksgiving: Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie etc.   And I made some homemade bread.  I have only tried making bread once and wasn't impressed with the results.  I got a great recipe for Challah- a traditional jewish bread from  www.tammysrecipes.com/challah.  It is a braided bread instead of a loaf and it looked so pretty when it was done.  Maybe I'll take a picture of the loaf I have left (it made two) and post it.  I'm not really a bread person, but I will definitely be making this again.  Well Happy Thanksgiving.

m

Posted By Shirley

~In Everything Give Thanks~





SO YOU WOULD KNOW

How many times must I prove how much I love you?
How many ways must my love for you I show?
And how many times must I rescue you from trouble,
For you to know just how much I, I love you?

Didn't I wake you up this morning?
Weren't you clothed and in your right mind?
When you walked up on this problem,
Didn't I step in right on time?
When you were weak and on life's journey,
Didn't My angels carry you?
So you would know,
So you would know,
So you would know,
Just how much I, I love you.

How, how many days must I build a fence all around you?
How many nights must I wipe all your tears away?
And how, how many storms must I pull you safely through,
For you to know just how much I, I love you?

Didn't I wake you up this morning?
Weren't you clothed and in your right mind?
When you walked up on this problem,
Didn't I step in right on time?
When you were weak and on life's journey,
Didn't My angels carry you?
So you would know,
So you would know,
So you would know,
Just how much I, I love you.

Oh didn't I put food on your table,
Show up when the bills were due?
And when that old pain was wracking your body,
Didn't I send healing down to you?
And when you were lost in sin and sorrow,
Didn't I die to set you free?
So you would know,
So you would know,
So you would know,
Just how much I, I love you.

 

                                              by Tennessee Harmony