Well I know it has been quite a while but I have been so busy with rehersals and with my new buisness. So today I am excited to present my new etsy.com shop ...

History Inspires!

My first offering is beautiful wool cape. Please stop by and check it out and let me know what you think of it. God Bless,

Michelle

I got a part in the Christmas Carol! Actually 3 parts!!! I have been cast as the Charwoman AND as a townsperson/adult chorus AND as a DANCER!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I am going to be on a diet and MAJOR exercise plan starting Monday!!!!

My oldest daughter was cast as well as the laundress so she will be acting in the same scene as me, with me!!!

My husband is a dancer / adult chorus and my other three daughters are in the townspeople /chorus also!!! Life is going to be BUSY!

Well things have been VERY busy now that we are back to school full time along with my new job. Too busy really . I realize what a huge blessing being a stay at home mom has been all these years. Because of that, my focus has somewhat changed at my job. I don't plan to stay there the whole year because of the toll it has taken on my homemaking abilities. My goal right now is to take the money I am earning to invest in an at home buisness I have wanted to do for years. Therefore I will be investing in...

A good camera

Getting my serger fixed

Purchase a website - Which my daughter and I will design

Buy my supplies for my buisness product

You'll have to wait for the unveiling in a month or so to find out what it is!

On the homeschool front, Heart of Dakota curriculum has been everything I hoped it would be and more. I really love it. It was challenging at first trying to homeschool all 4 girls, but I finally found my groove. I am so impressed with this curriculum. Especially the Creation to the Cross program. WOW! It is fantastic.

And now, if I don't have enough on my plate already my whole family (minus my 3 year old son) tried out for the Christmas Carol Musical yesterday and today. The auditions could not have gone any better. I am just so pleased. Even my husband tried out for the first time ever. He did excellent. I can't wait to tell you the news in a week or so if we get cast in the production.

Oh and did I tell you my husband has resigned from his job as an Associate Pastor to begin a new church plant on November 1st? Yep, I think we have a perfect formula for AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Pray for us! LOL

Michelle

Menu for a BUSY" WEEK

A Mostly Complete Shopping List for the Menu Above...

  

Dairy   Butter Yogurt*** Milk**** Eggs Cheese Slices or String Cheese Cream Cheese Shredded Cheddar Cheese **** Low fat buttermilk	Bread   English Muffins Loaf***	Deli   Shaved Turkey** Thinly Sliced Ham Salami Provolone Cheese Ham Chunks
Meat   Turkey Bacon *** Canadian Bacon Ground Beef Roast	Canned   Ranch Dressing Pudding Cups Crackers Goldfish Crackers Pineapple Chunks Bowties Pasta Taco Seasoning Hard Shell Tacos White Chicken Chili Seasoning Northern Beans Cornbread Gravy Mix Rice   Homemade Biscuit Mix	Produce   Cantaloupe Grapes** Bananas Apples** Carrots*** Bag of Salad or lettuce Tomato** Broccoli Potatoes
Frozen   Strawberries Chicken** Broccoli		Cereal /Baking   Oatmeal Brown Sugar Syrup or Blueberries for homemade Syrup (Baking Powder, Corn Starch, sugar) Peanut Butter

The *** mean they are used in multiple meals so buy extra quantities.

Well, I am still employed! LOL I haven't given up yet but I'll tell you it has been intense! The job is soooo technical that the 2 weeks of training (6 hours a day) is likely to weed out any future employees who can't cut it. This stuff is all new. My official role is as a billing clerk for a huge trucking company. Sounds simple, but actually I need to know everything about the trucking industry from hazardous materials to shipping codes. Not to mention none of the bills of lading (the slip that describes what is on a load) are standardized so it is like a game of clue trying to figure out where info is on each document. This job is worth every penny they pay me.

As far as the kids go, they haven't been too bad when I leave but they jump all over me when I return. ALL of them, from my 15 year old down to my 3 year old. They seem to want to make the most of every minute I am home as well. My oldest today doesn't want to go out to lunch with her grandma because she said she will miss me. That really touches my heart. The good news is that while training is 6 hours a day, my actual job will only be 3 1/2 hours + a 15 minutes break so I will be gone a lot less time. That said, I 'll be happy when this faze of my plan is over. My heart is 100% at home with my children, not in the workforce.

Part of my plan is to have more children as well. There was  a time when I was so sure that I was done that I wanted my husband to get "fixed". But the Lord did not give him peace about that and on the day of his surgery, I told him to not go. Praise God because I would be so sad right now. I am actually taking pre-natel vitamins right now as a means to strenghten my body. I would like to be expecting the first part of next year. This is my hope.

Lots of changes around my home. Even more I can't share right now. (I hate it when people do that, so sorry!)

God Bless,

Michelle

Well I am in for an interesting year here. I have recently got a really good job that I couldn't pass up without atleast giving it a try. Here are the benefits for me:

17.5 hours MAX per week

Never work before 3:30 pm.

$16.00 per hour starting wage with increases every 6 months.

Easy Job, Typing which I enjoy.

My concerns are:

I am going to have to be a lot more organized with meals, time mangament & chores. I plan to pre-assemble meals for dinner since I might not be home.

I am going to have to get over my home-body attitudes.

I am going to have to figure out how to run a homeschool group in the midst of this.

I am going to have to figure out if I'll be able to be in The Christmas Carol again this year.

So WHY am I taking this job opportunity? Well, one word actually. MONEY

If I take this job, my plan is to give 10% to God, 10% to myself, 5% into an account for my oldest girls to buy them that fancy camera as a gift for taking on extra responsibility around the house while I am gone and 75% into savings.

 My hope is that we can sell our current home at the end of 2010, early 2011 and take the profit from that, along with my savings, along with out income tax returns and purchase my farmhouse on the outskirts of my city. I am willing to take on this job for a little over a year to do just that. My hope is that I can quit working at that time because we will have saved up so much money to put down on our farmhouse, that our payments won't be that much higher than our postage stamp sized house we currently live in. To me, it is worth the sacrafice of 1 year of my life. I hope to give you updates though-out. I start my job August 18th.  

I am just in the mood to blog a little this evening so I guess this is a post about a number of different things.

It has been a busy summer as I have been painting, gardening and canning. I made 50 jars of organic strawberry and blueberry jam a couple of weeks ago. It is wonderful as we ran out of last years supply a couple of months ago. I then promptly made a huge batch of my homemade biscuit mix from the More With Less Cookbook.

I have also been painting my whole 1st floor and transforming it into a beach cottage look. We gutted our bathroom and installed white bead board, a new vanity, toilet and tile floor. I painted the walls a light blue. My kitchen was painted light sage green and bright white trim & cupboards. My living room has new white trim, light creamy tea walls and an accent wall is light sage/storm blue. It is beautiful. I am actually going to paint the bathroom the same blue as the living room because I love it so much. I still have the dining room to paint including my 1929 built in buffet. It has never been painted and I can't wait. We are also refinishing our hardwood floors. I will get some pictures together soon and post them.

This week I am babysitting my 6 year old niece so I am going to take her and all my darlings to the zoo, the YMCA, Historical Village, and the city art museum. It is going to be a fun week. The weather has been very nice as well so I am excited about that. 

As far as homeschooling, I am itching to get started. I am also wanting to get going with organizing everything. I want to jump on the workbox craze as well, but I would like to use magazine holders for my older girls. I am not willing to spend a lot so it might not even happen if it is going to cost too much. Funds are REALLY tight right now with all the work we are doing around here and I have to wait until mid-August to even purchase part of the rest of my materials. I am going to be ordering in August, September and October because I need almost $1000 worth of stuff for the school year. Since I want to get started in August, I am going to have my girls work on their History Night projects for the month of August until we can get their curriculum in and start that in September.

Well, my plans are made and I am ready to share what we will be using this year for homeschooling. I am really excited about our curriculum as it really radiates Charlotte Mason principles and will be really simple to use.

I will be combining my two youngest daughters (ages 6 & 9) in one program and my two oldest daughters (ages 12 & 15) in another. My oldest daughters focus will be on writing a novel this year as that is her bent and since she is starting high-school this year, her curriculum choices will begin to be more focused on where the Lord has gifted her in, and less on the traditional models of education.

Here is our plan...

 

Subject	DD1 -  9th	DD2 – 6th	DD3 – 3rd	DD4– 1st
Math	Life of Fred Decimals/Percents & Beginning Algebra Home Companion	RightStart Level C	RightStart Level B	RightStart Level B
Reading / Literature / Poetry	Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Workbook 4/5	Drawn Into the Heart of Reading Workbook 4/5	Heart of Dakota	Heart of Dakota  Emerging Readers Schedule
Phonics	X	X	Explode the Code 4-5-6	Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Explode The Code 2-3
Copywork / Penmanship	X	Pentime 6	Pentime 3	Pentime 2
Composition & Grammar	1 Year Adventure Novel	Write With the Best Rod & Staff Grammar	Heart of Dakota	X
Spelling	X	Spelling Power	Spelling Power	X
Logic	Fallacy Detective	X	X	X
History / Geography	Heart of Dakota – Creation to Christ & Bigger Hearts for His Glory
Bible	Truth & Grace Memory Books Heart of Dakota
Science	Heart of Dakota & God’s Design for the Physical World		Heart of Dakota
Art	Heart of Dakota Art with a Purpose Art Supplies (Miller Pads & Paper)
Music	Piano Lessons Violin Lessons

I am really excited about school next year and our curriculum choices. I would be happy to answer any questions about any of them. Please just post a comment! God Bless, Michelle

I have tried out all sorts of chore plans over the years, and I have enjoyed them all for a season, but I like to mix things up a bit now and then. So today I devised a way to make our chore time less stressful during the summer months. Here is what I came up with. You might recognize it from your studies through the pioneers...

For Today, Monday, May 18th, 2009

Outside My Window... a lovely day, clear skies and 62 degrees!

I'm thinking... There is so much to do around here. I wish I had a dumpster as I am currently painting every square inch of my kitchen, dining room, living room and hallways. I ripped out the carpet in my living room and hallways and will be refinishing them in a few weeks. We will also be having our bathroom gutted and remodeled in a couple of weeks. Life feels slightly overwhelming lately.

From the learning rooms... We are on summer break but there is learning going on all the time here. My oldest daughter (14) is working out in the garden right now. We will spend the summer exploring our interests. Tonight is our SHOWCASE NIGHT with our homeschool group and my girls will be singing 3 Sound of Music songs and my oldest daughter will be playing a piece on the piano.

I am thankful for... My husbands income that allows me to work on our house, even if it is a very small budget.

From the kitchen...

One of my favorite things... being at home with my family.

I am going... to be home most of the time this week. To break up all the work that must be done, I am going to take the children and all our bicycles to a huge metro park tomorrow or Wednesday. We will take lunches, bike all around and explore nature for the day.   
   
A few plans for the rest of the week... 

M - kitchen declutter, laundry, living room and dining room clean-up

T - Day off!!!
W - Gardening

TH - Housework, Get hair highlighted
F - Housework

S - Family Day! My husband will be home after being in Iowa for 2 weeks and I can show him all I did.

Here is a picture for you...

A recent trip to Greenfield Village in Deerborn, Michigan allowed us to tour this gorgeous English Cottage. This is my dream home!!!

Well my diet is going great! I have lost 4 lbs and I am not starving myself. I am trying to keep my calories below 1500, but I am not being nit picky about that. My main thing is going on the treadmill 5 days a week for 45 minutes. I make sure I burn at least 250 calories before I get off. It is important to go a good speed and have some incline when you are on the treadmill. I rotate between 2.5 incline with a 4.0  speed and 4.0 incline with a 3.5 speed. That burns the calories fine. Today I began adding in 15 minutes of weigh lifting as well. I don't know if I'll do the weights everyday, but I want to do them at least every other day. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

I am so excited, I ordered my chicks yesterday!!! Here is what I am getting:

Buff Orpington

Black Sex Link

Barred Plymouth Rock

Rhode Island Red

and 2 Light Brahmas

On another note, I was able to put toghether a recommendation for a Charlotte Mason style Kindergarten for a lady. I like to keep these resources posted on my blog when I type them out because they take quite some time to put toghether so here it is.

Charlotte Mason Kindergarten:

Hi Everyone!

    Spring is almost here, I can feel it coming and I have a lot of plans. First off, I am on a diet again. I have decided that I am going to keep it simple. I am counting calories and counting fat burned during exercise. I am also attempting to lose the weight s-l-o-w-l-y over the next 3 months. All I want to lose is 24 lbs. so I am going with 2 lbs. a week. If I lose this much, I will be a skinny minnie at only 134 lbs. I have a wedding I am going to in June and will see friends I haven't seen in 6 years, so I am excited to drop the weight by then. My excercise goal is 250 calories burned a day. So I go on the treadmill about 35-40 minutes pushing hard the whole time. I am documenting every bit of food eaten, every bit of exercise done.

    Next up is my garden. I went to my local botanical garden this past weekend and picked up a bunch of heirloom seeds during their annual seed swap. I also sat in several workshops and plan to attend more in the coming months. I feel that right now, it is more important than ever to learn these skills. Who knows what the future holds (except our Lord God in heaven) and the Lord has been prompting me for the last few years to learn these skills. I learned a lot last year with my first garden ever and I am excited to start my new one this year with even more space dedicated to it. I would like to keep track of my plans on my blog, so check back for my online garden journal in a few weeks.

    Finally, here is the crazy part. I am getting chickens. I have a small city yard, but that is NOT stopping me. Chickens are totally legal in my city, probably are in your city too! I can't wait until I have 5 acres and a mini-farm to learn this stuff or enjoy the benefits of healthy eggs so I am going to get started. I plan to build my coop in the next few weeks and put it behind my garage. We will be getting 3-5 chicks sometime in March or early April. I want to get several different varietys. I have two options for getting my chicks. 1st There is a lady who will be putting in an order for her farm who offered to allow me to add a few chicks to her order since there is a minimum of 25 chicks per order. My 2nd option is I will drive to a hatchery that is about 2 hours away and pick up my chicks. Here are the chickens I would like to get:

Pearl-White Leghorn

Silver Spangled Hamburgs

Rhode Island Red

Black Star

Rose Comb Brown Leghorns

Since I began homeschooling 10 years ago I have used:

• BJU Math
• Abeka Math
• BJU HomeSat Math
• Key to Math
• Math-U-See
• Horizon's Math
• Teaching Textbooks Math

     There is one thing all of these programs have in common for me. FAILURE Oh to some degree they have worked, but my children have all hated math, I have always hated TEACHING Math and my children are BEHIND in math. They just don't SEE it... UNTIL NOW!!!

     About a month ago, I decided it was time to start my kindgartener on formal math. Up to this point, we were just doing informal math counting etc... So I decided to order RightStart Math and I decided to go with level B because I wanted to include my older daughter (grade 2) in this with her. After taking the placement questionaire, it seemed she would do fine with this level and it would be easy for my older daughter, but still beneficial. I felt like my older daughter was just doing what my older daughters had done and was just filling in the blanks, but not really understanding or seeing what she was doing.

I had hope that RightStart might fulfill this for us since it is so different.

     We started about 3 weeks ago. The first thing I noticed is that Math became fun, for everyone including ME! There aren't hardly any worksheets with RightStart, it is almost all hands on. The lesson plans lead us step-by-step and build on each other.

     Just as I suspected, my younger daughter needed a little bit more help than my older daughter, but she was doing great considering her young age. I could see understanding forming in both of them. I wasn't sure about the SEEING yet.

     Today we did a difficult topic. It was to teach the parts of 5. For instance, 5 is 1 and 4 or 2 and 3 or 3 and 2 or 4 and 1 etc... We followed the TM exactly and I had each girl doing each step using her tally sticks, then her abacus. It was then that I saw the TM wanted them to close their eyes and recite the facts. All 6 of them. Now realize, we had only been working on this for maybe 3-5 minutes. I did NOT expect them to understand. First my older daughter went. She EASILY recited them all. I was so excited!!! I praised her and knew at that moment that she was SEEING math for the first time. Then it was time for my kindegartener.

     She began to giggle and said, "I can't do it, it is too hard!" I just encouraged her to try. So she closed her eyes and began. She got the first one, I encouraged her to keep going, she got the second and I was beaming, she got the third and so on until she completely with NO HELP recited them all. I was so excited!! My daughter was SEEING her math!!! I felt like Anne Sullivan with Helen Keller the first time she signed W-A-T-E-R . My children could SEE & UNDERSTAND.

     If your children don't see and understand their math, run, don't walk to RightStart Math and get your child started. I plan to start my second oldest daughter with RightStart in the spring. Unfortunatly my oldest daughter is too old for Rightstart, but my hope is Life of Fred might be a good fit for her since she is so language based.

Praise God for showing me RightStart Math!

Allison over at Wonderland21 sent me this cute award. I would like to award a few people as well, but it will happen tomorrow. Go over and visit Allison and learn all about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that happened in 1911.

I'm Sick! I'm sick and so are several of my children. I'm sick and my house is trashed. I'm sick and I am sick of being sick!

Ok, whine over. LOL

Yesterday, (even though I'm sick) I had a birthday celebration planned for my daughter. I decided not to expose my family to our germs, so I cancelled the family party, but I still took my daughter in to get her pictures professionally done, and then on to build-a-bear workshop where we waited in line for 45 minutes. Good thing my husband was there to actually do the standing, because I couldn't do it. I found a place to sit for 45 minutes. DH was good about it a my sweet sugie got her teddy bear. Then, just as we were leaving the mall, I saw my sister at a nail salon with her daughter who is the same age as my dd. She offered to get her nails painted and bring her home afterwards. That was really nice for sweet sugie. (sugie is a funny spelling for sugar with an "ee" sound at the end in case your wondering.)

Then I went home and collapsed. DH made an attempt (cough cough) at lunch. I knew there was a special library program going on so I asked DH to take sugie (age 6) and my other dd (age 8). DH agreed even though he didn't seem too excited by the idea. I just wanted her day to seem special even if I couldn't get off the couch for most of it. LOL

They went to the program and when they returned DH told me how impressed he was. He said it was a lot of fun and would love to do more stuff like that. I was so happy he was able to spend some time with our girls in this way.

So Sweet Sugie's birthday is over for another year and I'm still sick. Wahhh. Ok whine over now.

Schools been going really great here and I wanted to share how we are doing History that has made it COME ALIVE for my daughters and myself. I'll share step-by-step...

1.) Consider your topic. For demonstration purposes I'll be using the Civil Rights Movement & the Great Depression. Give your children a bried description of what you'll be studying. TruthQuest History has these types of summeries in their curriculum or you can just read from a good book from the library.

2.) Select a spine book that is fun to work through. This will help you to choose your topics as your starting points. While you are studying, you'll find that new topics will emerge from other books. Feel free to go where your child's interests lie. My spines are:

Another book that really brought the Great Depression alive was this title. It is full of 1st hand accounts from the people who lived during that time. It was published by Reiman publishing, the same who produce Country Woman Magazine & Reminse Magazine. Here is a picture of the book:

3. Only plan for week one because you'll want to keep this open to your child's interests. Purchase a project board (aka science presentation board). Your child will be putting mini-reports, pictures, timelines etc... on this board. I recommend starting with a timeline. In the civil rights book above, we just copied the dates/events from the timeline in this book. We pasted a long skinny piece of colored paper along the bottom of the board, added computer printed dates and then added timeline figures. We got most of our figures from google images. It is OK if you have no idea what the topic is that you are pasting down. As you go through your study, you'll learn about these events.

4. Request quite a few living books (books written in story form) & easy non-fiction books from your library. You won't read them all, but it will give you a good selection to work through. We requested topic specific books such as:

Civil Rights Movement	Great Depression
Rosa Parks	Dust Bowl
Brown vrs. Brown	Life in the Great Depression Era
Little Rock Nine	Wall Street Crash

 4. You'll also want to start searching for age appropriate movies for your children. You can use documentaries or hollywood version (make sure they are accurate) but the hollywood versions will really bring it alive for your student. There could be some inaccuracies, and your student should check the movie against books on the subject. For our studies we watched:

We also saw a play about Rosa Parks at our local theatre. We weren't able to find any good video's about the Great Depression other than:

5. Now that your child is excited, it is time to start digging deep. Read books and work on projects. Get creative with this. My daughters did some of the following:

• My older daughter is studying the 1930's, so she made a pretend radio out of carboard to look like a tombstone radio from the 30's and she checked out radio broadcast tapes of the 30's from the library to be played by a real radio inside the fake radio, making it appear that the fake 30's radio was really playing.

• They both wrote biographies of people and events. They printed them out on white paper, added a background paper and added REAL pictures & drawn pictues of the events/people.

• One daughter make "lift the flap" type projects.

• Your child could make a powerpoint presentation or show a clip of the person in action. For instance, my daughter checked out Martin Luther King Jr's I HAVE A DREAM DVD from the library to have playing during the presentation.

• Have your child memorize speeches, poems etc.. for presenting.

6. At the end of your unit, plan to have a Unit celebration. Invite family and friends over. Have foods from the era available. Have your children wear costumes and set up their presentation boards. Have FUN!

Michelle

PS Next year we are going with TruthQuest History over Tapestry of Grace because all I really need is a good booklist and I can't justfiy the cost of Tapestry of Grace for a good booklist.

PPS I'll post pictures of our current History Study & Projects as soon as were done next week.

Welcome to my schoolroom!

 The picture above shows what you will see as you enter the room. I have two tables, adjusted to two heights. One for my older daughters (ages 11 & 14) and the other for my younger daughters (ages 6 & 8).

This is the book shelf that holds all our current library books. Yes I said library books. I usually have 200 books checked out at any given time.  I store my books in a different room in our basement until they are needed. 

Please also notice the brown table with the globe on it. I plan to use it for a nature table and/or our artist study table to display prints.

This is my chair. It is adjustable and on wheels so I can spin around to retrieve math materials or supplies from my white storage cupboard. I have our curriculum & current readers on the brown shelf. 

I wanted to keep the room as clutter free as possible so I designated one wall for most of our posters and charts. Also notice the relaxing pale blue color of the room.

This is our book nook and it is my favorite part of the room. I am planning on making leaf shape pillows out of green corduroy to put in there when I get in my next sewing mood. I also would like to make a banner to hang in the opening for fun. For now, these pillows will do. We have Family Bible Time & Storyhour snuggled up in here.

I wanted my room to have a theme, and since we are a Charlotte Mason homeschool, I chose "nature". I was given this tree several years ago and I thought it looked cute in the room. I have a bird poster next to the window as well. My plans are to make curtains and a themed bunting to put over the window.

Another view of our desks.

Here is our brown bookshelf. It was recently painted because I wanted a blue/brown color theme in the room. You'll notice I painted several pieces of furniture and added blue handles to most everything that needed them. I store our current library read-alouds / readers on the face front shelves (it is staged for the picture here) and our curriculum is stored in the crates below. One for my older daughters and one for my younger daughters.

You may have been wondering where I have been. Well I have been swamped ! As I said before, my girls and I are all in the Christmas Carol musical. We have had practice an average of 5 nights a week. In addition to this, I took on the task of sewing costumes for us. I just wasn't pleased with the costume department's selection. (I am a costume finatic )

So I have been sewing 2 full dresses for my oldest daughters, 1 giant fitted skirt and jacket for myself, 2 capes, 1 hat from scratch, and reworked 4 other hats. It has been a full time job, literally. Thankfully, my daughters have been keeping school going and doing almost all of the chores. My husband has also been amazing, helping out with working around my schedule, cleaning the kitchen, and fixing some of the meals.

So I wanted to give you an update. I will post photos of all the finished costumes soon, one night when we are in full costume, hair & make-up. Saturday we will have our first Dicken's Singer engagement at our local Zoo. We will go there in costume during the evening and walk around singing Christmas Carols. The Zoo has a lights display that many people in our city go to. We will also be participating in our downtown parade and be on TV for that. Then in a few weeks, we will have our performance. I am really looking forward to the show and also to slowing down again soon.

So look for more in the next week or two. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

      It's been a busy week! Christmas Carol has been really consuming a lot of my time. I spent Sat.-Wed. there this week. On Saturday I had costuming, on Sunday the girls had dance rehersals and then Mon.-Wed. we had blocking. I was supposed to go Thursday as well but I celebrated my grandma's birthday with her.

      Today we went to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI. It was a field trip I wasn't so sure about and the price we a little high I thought even though it was an educational discount. TURNS OUT I WAS SO WRONG! This place is awesome and worth WAY MORE than we paid. I spent 6 hours in the museum with my children ages 2-14 and they ALL had a blast!

      The museum has way more than cars as you would expect from Henry Ford. There were huge exhibits on the different decades, furniture of all eras, carriages, GIGANTIC trains, bicycles, 100's cars, a 1940's house of the future that was never manufactured but that you could completely tour, dollhouses, gun exhibits, Full size airplanes including a whole Wright Brother's display that included a replica of their first flight and more. History displays included our fight for Independence, Slavery, Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's actual chair he was assassinated in, Women's Sufferage movement, Civil Rights Movement and Rosa Parks actual bus that you can get into!!! They even had JFK's fateful convertable car on display that he was shot in.

      What really struck me is how they had so many things that were the real thing, and not just replicas. It was awesome and now the kids all want to go back to Greenfield Village, which looks AMAZING! We hope to get a family membership this year for Christmas.

      Visit my daughters blog to see what she had to say about it and see some pictures.

Hi! I'll post pictures of my trip soon! For now, here is a fun MEME that you can participate in also! Click on the link below if you would like to make your own.

Heart of the Matter Online

I am heading out of town tomorrow so I'll see you next week. While I am gone, check out this website and this website . I would love to start something like this around here.

God Bless,

Michelle

Ok, Here are my winner's for bulk cooking.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is really good! I made one change to the recipe when I made it. I reduced the amount of peas and carrots and added 2-3 cubed & boiled potatoes to it because I love potatoes. I don’t think potatoes freeze well so I will just add fresh potatoes when I am whipping up a potpie from the freezer.

*Original recipe yields 1 deep dish or 2 standard 9 inch pies.

Cooking Day Instructions

Cook peas and carrots according to package directions; drain. Cook onion in butter until tender but not brown. Stir in flour, salt sage, and pepper. Add water, milk and bouillon granules. Stir constantly with a wire wisk until thickened and bubbly.

Stir in drained cooked vegetables, chicken, pimiento and parsley; heat until bubbly. Freeze in gallon size baggies. About 3 ½ cups of mixture per bag.

TIP: Pre-measure your dry ingredients and mix in a bowl. Pre-measure your wet ingredients and mix in a bowl. You’ll need to more quickly one you have mixed in the flour mixture. Add a little bit of the liquid at a time and stir till mixed. Continue until all the liquid is in the pan.

Serving Day Instructions

Thaw completely. OPT. Boil 2-3 diced potatoes to add to the mixture.  Roll out bottom pie crust and place in 9inch pie pan. Place chicken mixture in pie dish; top with upper crust. Bake in pie shell in 400 degree oven for 25-30 minute or until golden brown.

Just a few short days until my family and I head out on a little vacation. Can you guess where we will be going? That's right! Holmes County, Ohio to see the beautiful fall colors and visit our friends the Amish. But before I go, I still have a lot of posts I want to make. Today I would like to talk a little about our main curriculum, Tapestry of Grace.

Tapestry of Grace (a.k.a. TOG) has been such a blessing to me. It allows me to have a weekly plan, while allowing me the flexibility to choose which books, projects and activities my daughters will complete. One thing I love to utilize with TOG is resouces from Homeschool in the Woods.

I own the following from Homeschool in the Woods:

• Time Travelers New World Explorers
• Time Travelers Colonial Life
• Time Travelers The Early 19th Century
• History Through the Ages Collection of Historical Figures on CD (A one time purchase for your whole schooling career)

I am using the Early 19th Century CD with Tapestry of Grace Yr. 3 . The projects in this are wonderful and I would like to help you out by starting a chart here to coordinate the CD with TOG. I will add to this as I work my way through TOG, so if this is something your interested in, please check back to this post in the future.

      Remember how we made applesauce last week? Well yesterday my husband made tomato juice using tomatoes from our garden. It was so fun and easy because of this great tool we are borrowing from my mother-in-law.

      Here is a blog that shows exactly what it looks like and how you use it.

      Both my husband and I fell in love with this wonderful old tool and were talking about how we would love to keep it. I know that wasn't possible though because my mother in law called it her "pride and joy". It used to belong to her mother.

      Well I got to thinking and I told my husband that we should just start keeping an eye out for one at thrift shops or estate sales. I finally figured out what it was exactly when I visited Dawn's Blog yesterday and saw her using one to make applesauce as well. It is called a Chinois or a China Cap. Thank You Dawn, or really one of Dawn's commentors pointed out what it was called.

      That brings us to today. I was getting ready to go workout at the YMCA just after my husband left for work. He called me to tell me there was an estate sale two streets over and I should stop by sometime today. He then joked and said, "Who knows maybe they will have that tool!" I got ready and decided to drive by on my way to the YMCA to just get an idea where it was. As I was driving by, I felt strongly that I should stop and go in, so I did. I knew I would probably be late for the YMCA so I parked a bit away and jogged in.

      First I went into the garage which didn't look like much. Someone asked if there was more inside (because there were no signs) and the lady said there was. So I went in. WOW the place was loaded with people and stuff! I went through all the rooms and then headed downstairs to the basement. I walked all the way to a cubbord in the back of the basement and peaked inside. WAY in the back of the cupboard was my tool! I pulled it out and saw it had everything including the stand, the wooden pestal and a jam bag. It was in excellent condition. What made it even better was the price, $2!!!

      Oh wait, I wasn't planning on stopping by till after I worked out. So I had them hold it for me while I ran back home, but when I got into the van I saw my purse was under my seat. I opened it up and I had exactly 2 dollar bills! (Ok, shall we call this a blessing from the Lord now? YES!)

      I went back in and paid for it. I now had a Chinois or a China Cap as they are called. After working out, I called my husband and told him. He was blown away! He was laughing and praising God. (Can you tell we love this tool?) I compared it to my mother-in-laws and it is exactly the same right down to the name brand and patent number on the side. So I am off to give it a good washing and praising in God!

My good friend Julie sent me this recipe that is Weight Watchers friendly! I would love any more recipes anyone has to send me that can help us all with our diets. I'll post them here for you all! So send 'em in!!!

Bran Raisin Muffins

Mix following ingredients in large bowl with lid:

6 cups Complete Wheat Bran

½ box Fiber One  (Wal-Mart cost is $3.50, Kroger is $4.25)

1 ½ cups sugar

5 cups flour

5 tsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. Cinnamon

2 tsp. salt

Mix in:

3 cups baking Raisins

In smaller bowl, mix the following:

4 eggs

½ cup oil  (can use applesauce)

1 Tbls. Vanilla

2 quarts of buttermilk

Stir wet ingredients into dry and refidgerate overnight with lid on.  When ready to bake, spray muffin tins with non-stick spray.  DON”T STIR mixture at all.  Using a ½ cup measure, fill muffins tins.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Make 60 muffins. 1 point each.  These freeze well! 

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daily thoughts and actions?

"For to me, to live is Christ..."      Philippians 1:21a

"for if we live, we live to the Lord."         Romans 14:8