May Garden
• Oct. 5, 2008 - Today in NOT a School Day
So... why have I had to look up alligator habitats, our home state's dimiensions in miles and the distance from our state to Florida, discuss the location of and language spoken in Mexico and compare an island to a peninsula. (No we aren't planning vacation- though perhaps my son is. LOL!) |
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• Oct. 4, 2008 - Fire Safety and grocery budget
Posted By stillearning
Today was fire safety day. Mainly because when I went onto base there was EVERY fire truck available to probably our entire county...well almost. I called Les and had him bring the rest of the crew as I was having an outing with our 7 year old doing some shopping. So he brought the rest of the children.
It was great. They had about a dozen trucks there with two huge ladder trucks opened up, many trucks that they could sit in. They also gave the children a goody bag with a ruler, a coloring book...which I've been looking for since last year. A hat, and a picture with them spraying a hose at a house with wooden flaps that look like fire and that flip back. Then they had a mobile unit where you sit down and point out any fire dangers/hazards in their kitchen (and model fireplace). Alexis was the best at it. She has a sharp eye. Then they took us the back of the unit which was modeled as a bedroom with a window that has a ladder. They also had a door that was warm and they talked to the children about how to check the door prior to going out if there was a fire and how to block the door. The best thing of all was that they had a "smoke" maker that let out smoke and they showed us how to cover the door and lay low getting out through the window if possible or at least to yell out the window if they were stuck in their room. I love the hand's on learning. Children truly learn best that way. We go over fire safety but they will likely remember it better since it was hands-on.
We are revamping our budget this month. We're going to be more specific in our spending cuts. We would like to move in a few years and that will only be possible if a few things happen first. One area that I can cut is our grocery bill. I combine paper goods (diapers, paper towels, dish soap, shampoo) into groceries. For our family of 7 we allot $500 for groceries (and paper goods). But this month we don't really have that for groceries so we decided to trim it back to $400 therefore I'm trying to figure out how to make cuts. I want the children to drink organic milk. We don't do a lot of milk anyway but we do buy at least 2 gallons a week for cereal and cooking...I need to get back to dry milk for cooking. I don't use it very often nor do I bake much so it wasn't getting used and I stopped using it. Now I need to get back into making at least small quantities and it will save money as organic milk is $6 a gallon. That's $48 a month on milk. So I have to work around that. Fine as long as I plan for it. I sat down and planned out our menu. I *would* still have $352 left for the month but I was extra challenged this week if I wanted to keep the next three weeks at $100 for groceries so I had to cut this weeks' spending to $40. When I went to the store I guessed pretty good and rang out at $43 for the week. Les had already spent $18 for a two month supply of toilet paper from Sams' and then some for 1 1/2 gallons of milk. SO about $52 this week for groceries. Not bad for a family of 7! If I could continue with that I would only spend $208 a month on groceries per month! That would be great! But it's not quite realistic since I had no paper products to buy this week and very little meat (3# of ground frozen chicken). It makes me think about how I could cut back though and as long as I have a few things here at home I could probably keep our bill down to $30-50 every OTHER week to buy milk and fruit/veggies. Thankfully (as I am trying to save $ here) I rarely do cheese or nuts but they are an occasional treat and are used in moderation Meat is stretched too. We were able to get some Black walnuts courtesy of the storm a few weeks ago which dropped a large amount into our yard...they must be mixed with English walnuts and we still have to find a way to crack them! They're especially hard which is why Walnut wood is so highly valued.
We often do snacks 1x a day. I will have to figure out something but often we do a fruit or a simple snach like a few wheat crackers. Desserts will have to be something easy or something already in our cabinet...which would be homemade.
Here's my menu this week:
Oct 4
B-whole grain cheerios with 1/2 c milk (got a case on sale otherwise I hardly ever buy cold cereal).
L-Hot dog on bread, 1/2 c corn, 1/2 c broccoli
D-Roast, Potatoes, carrots
Oct 5
B-Pancakes
L-At church
D-Minestrone soup (loaded w/veggies), french bread premade ($1)
Oct 6
B-Oatmeal, applesauce
L-Potato and Leek soup, rolls
D-Nicoise salad and crackers
Oct 7
B-Pannukaku (Finnish pancake)
L-leftovers
D-Crepes au Broccoli et Jambon (broccoli in non-sweet crepes) with Mornay sauce
Oct 8
B-Eggs, toast
L-Shepherd's Pie (made with ground turkey and frozen veggies)
D-Sautéed chicken, steamed veggies
Oct 9
B-Oatmeal, applesauce
L-PB&honey sandwich, carrot sticks
D-Chicken coconut soup with some starchy side (veggie or salad)
Oct 10
B-Groats
L-at church
D-Leftovers
I put up $6 in an envelope for homeschool gym next week. We can't miss that, Lord willing. |
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• Oct. 2, 2008 - Latest Offers From Trigger Memory Systems- Free E-book w/purchase
• Sep. 30, 2008 - Skin unit, printer, and my hubby
Posted By stillearning
We're moving on to skin this week. How to care for our skin and skin diseases. We're also talking about leather a bit, what a great subject to talk about when we are reviewing skin  . I had bought the two older children a small leather pouch kit as a part of their school. They'll be putting it together this week.
Our printer isn't working very well for pictures which is a bit upsetting as I like to print off our field trips as we go so that I don't have too many to print off at the end of the year. I'll have to have my dearest try to fix it this next week...Pretty please :) I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who allows me to homeschool our children. He wasn't always sure about it when I first brought it up as he wasn't raised around homeschoolers so it was a new thing for him. But he supported me and now is a strong fan of homeschooling. I think he sees the benefits of homeschooling now that we've been doing it for a while? |
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• Sep. 30, 2008 - This week
Posted By stillearning
I need to continue on my health supplements and my digestive enzymes. I often forget them unless it's right in front of me even if I like the way I feel on them and know that I need them.
I don't get hungry on the Slim fast shakes if I drink them 2x a day. Today I only did one for breakfast to see how it would go and then had a normal reasonable lunch, 2 cruncy taco's which was a treat for us as we were out at the library and I remember from doing weight watcher's points that they're not very high in points. I looked it up, they were 3 points. I had 2 so basically that's only 6 points obviously. I'm allowed about 7 per meal so that's pretty good. They account for nursing on weight watchers when it comes to points. I did get hungry though and ate some carrot sticks later and a weird gooey straw that I bought at a Korean store that is only 25 calories made from Agar agar. We had a nice dinner of red beans, ground chicken, and a few noodles and mixed veggies with a little homemade applesauce that I had made this past week from a friends tree. Best applesauce I've ever had thanks to the lovely apples! My kids love it. |
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• Aug. 30, 2008 - Europe Trip
Without a doubt, besides seeing my best friend, our time spent in Germany was the highlight for me. We stayed 4 days touring the Rhineland area of Germany. It was absolutely gorgeous!!! Part of the hightlight was staying in a 1000 year old castle for 3 nights. How cool is that?
I will share some of my favorite pictures in two or three different posts because there as so many.
The Bean in a peep whole of our castle.
AtTheCross taking in the amazing view of the Rhine and the town of Bacharach from our castle stairs.
The gang exploring the part of the castle we stayed in that wasn't renovated.
AtTheCross still exploring. I think they could have just stayed at the castle for the full 4 days!
Gramma and LittleBit having tea in out castle courtyard.
What an amazing place to stay. I recommend it to anyone traveling over there. It was so fun. |
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• Aug. 28, 2008 - Europe Trip
How about this for a day.....On my birthday, I woke up and had breakfast in Belgium, spent the day and had lunch in Luxembourg, and had dinner and went to bed in Germany. 3 countries in a day. Not bad.
Here is a cute photo taken across the street from where we ate lunch in Luxembourg.
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• Sep. 30, 2008 - Demolition Day 5
Today, demolition was completed! That Bobcat got to work first thing hauling all the concrete out of the yard. It also had a bit more foundation and a few steps to take out. Now, the house sits and waits for its' new room.
Once the Bobcat was gone, the boys celebrated by spending a lot of time having fancy jumping contests from the remaining steps. We are all excited for tomorrow to come. The rebuilding begins then.
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• Sep. 29, 2008 - Demolition Day 4
Due to a bit of rain, todays work was cut short a bit. They managed to get the whole room floor torn out, though. Boy, was it loud. The house was a rumbling and shaking for quite a few hours. Go Bobcat, go!
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• Sep. 25, 2008 - Demolition Day 3
After the whole room was hauled away in a giant dumpster, the Bobcat rolled in to start dealing with the tons of concrete.
Today, they just tore up the patio. The boys sure loved watching it!
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