Dec. 1, 2008 - Peppermint Twist
This is my favorite Christmas cookie recipe. I always double the batch and right now I have 6 double batches in the freezer waiting to be baked. All of our out of town relatives get cookies and they make good gifts for neighbors and piano teachers. Use peppermint extract and not mint extract. It taste so much better.
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp peppermint extract
12 drops each: red food color and green food color
Cream the butter and the sugar, add eggs and vanilla. Mix flour and salt. Divide dough in half. Wrap and refrigerate one half. In the other half mix in peppermint extract and divide that dough in half. Add red food color to one half and green to the other. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Take a portion of plain dough and a portion of tinted dough out of refrigerator. on a lightly floured surface roll each piece onto a rope. Twist the rope together and cut into 2-3 inch pieces. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes.
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Nov. 27, 2008 - Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. My mom and stepdad are in from Mississippi. We are cooking the dressing in the crockpot. I have done that before and it turned out good. It frees the oven up for other things. The green beans will be from the garden. Mom brought the turkey. The pies are from a Meals on Wheels fund raiser. The rolls are from Sister Shubert. I don't think I could make them that good if I tried. Seems like there is something else but I can't think of it now.
Pray for the people in India. My heart goes out to those involved. I think if anyone can deal with muslim extremist the Indian government will be the ones to do it.
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Nov. 17, 2008 - Apology, Busy Weekend, Christmas Cookies
Sorry if my last post sounded kind of preachy. It was on my heart but I couldn't quite get the words like I wanted. I discovered it was on my heart for a reason. There was an issue that had to be solved here and having thought it out enought to put in words (no matter how inadequate) helped me to handled it.
We had a busy 4-H weekend. Friday was our monthly meeting. I am the adult leader for our food and nutrition project. We planned an Iron Chef challenge for our project meeting. It was a lot of fun. We had all ages from 5 years old and up participate. We had 4 age groups with 12 teams total. Each age group had a certain set of ingredients to work with. I had to purchase and set up everything. The kids had a blast and some of them put together some really good recipes.
After we got home from our meeting, we started preparing for the food show. Daughter made Confetti Spaghetti, which is spaghetti noodles with stir fry and meat balls. Son made Beef Kebabs. It took the rest of the afternoon and into the evening to get all of that together. The next morning we were up early and out the door to the food show. The food show itself is a lot of waiting. The kids take their dish to the judges and the judges ask questions about the food and what the kids have learned in the food and nutrition project. Daughter came in second place in her age group and category. Son did good but did not place.
Today I made my first batch of Christmas cookie dough. All of our out of town relatives get cookies in their Christmas packages. And all of our relatives are out of town. We make a lot of cookies. I like to make up the dough and freeze it ahead of time. I had planned on doing that while hubby was gone to India but the bedroom took up too much time. One year I kept track of how many bags of flour and sugar, how many cartons of eggs and all that I had used. Last year I didn't make as many. Later I will post my favorite Christmas cookie recipe.
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Nov. 13, 2008 - Mind Your Momma!
When Daughter was about 3 years old, she picked up a Bible at church opened it up and announced to everyone around, "Obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. That means mind your momma!" That was something I had really worked on when they were young. They now have that pattern of obedience set in them. I haven't really stressed obedience with them lately and they have not been as quick to obey as they used to but the Habit is still there. A simple reminder brings it back.
Son has a friend who was never taught obedience. The older he gets the more and more out of control he gets. His momma doesn't know how to handle him anymore. Son doesn't like to spend time with him like he used to. And if we are around them, Son will be more obedient afterwards because he doesn't like the way the other boy acts.
If any new parents wanted advice on raising their children, I would tell them to start the habit of obedience early. They are so cute when they are toddlers and it is so hard to disciple them. But a rebellious teen or tween is anything but cute.
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Nov. 10, 2008 - Success!
We had a successful day to day. It started out slow and dragging. For some reason (maybe it's the weather), we were all moving slow this morning. After everyone eventually got dressed and did minimum chores we started school. I knew the one thing I wanted to get accomplished schoolwise today was the next IEW lesson. It was a long one about writing stories and how they should be set up. The video part was about an hour long. The kids began their stories and I had to leave to go to a dentist appt. Hubby was left in charge but he hadn't watched any of the IEW videos. He's a very good writer but he didnt know what the kids were supposed to include in the stories so they were on their own until I got home. Both did such a good job, especially Son who is a horrible writer. It wasn't perfect. I had to correct some spelling and grammar but the story was good. He followed the outline and included all the "dress ups" that Mr. Pudewa wanted. I was so proud of him.
Daughter has been writing stories ever since she could put words on paper. Her problem is a stubborn streak that won't let her take suggestions from someone else. But after a couple of false starts, she caught on to what was expected and wrote a wonderful story also.
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Nov. 9, 2008 - EEEK!!
The day before Hubby was due back from India, I went out to the laundry to put a load of clothes in the washer. When I opened the lid, I heard a noise and looked inside. There was a little lizzard tail sticking out from under the agitator. We like lizzards at our house. Daughter has had several as pets. I gently tried to pull him out but he wasn't budging. I didn't want to pull too hard because you can pull their tails off. I couldn't get him out. So i went into the house to get Daughter. She's a clever little thing. I was hoping she would know of a good way to get him out. She didn't. I tried pulling again and I felt him let go and pulled out this fat, little round body of a MOUSE! i screamed and dropped him and ran out into the back yard. Daughter came screaming right after me. She didn't know why I was screaming but I momma screamed, it must be something worth screaming about. It took me a few moments to get over the shock. I don't mind picking up lizzards but I was not going to touch that mouse again. But how was I going to wash clothes? I got the cat and took him in there. He was interested but wanted me to get the mouse out for him, lazy house cat. I could think of anything I could use to reach in and scoop him out.
About that time I heard the voice of one of Son's friends outside. He is just the kind of kid who will do anything. I ran out and told him to get the mouse. His response was, "Cool!" He grabbed the little mouse by the tail and asked if he could keep it. I told him, "Of course, let me get you something to put him in!" But then common sense took over and I made him call his mom first. She said no. I didn't want to turn him loose any where nearby. I knew I couldn't put him in the neighbor's yard. I told the boys to take him down to the ditch and turn him loose. I told Son's friend he was my favorite child. Son took offense but he didn't even come to see why Daughter and I were screaming! I knew he wouldn't have picked up the mouse. Now everytime I wash a load of clothes I am hoping I don't find anything, especially in the wet clothes.. It's hard for me to stick my hand in their.
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Nov. 7, 2008 - Back on the Blog
I'm back on the blog thanks to 2boysmom. I talked to her today at a homeschool meeting. She said she was waiting for me to post again. It was about 3 weeks before our internet came back after the hurricane and I just got out of the habbit of posting.
Alot has happened since then. Son finished his football season. They were 0-6. Big disappointment. But he had a lot of fun and made some new friends.
Hubby has been to India and back. He went with a missionary who trains church leaders. He talked at 2 leadership seminars and he took video for the missionary. He went last year and put together a really good video about what they were doing. I think he has the video on his blog, Mission to Asia.
I redid our bedroom while he was gone. I stripped the old wallpaper, sanded, painted the walls and ceiling. Put up new curtains and got a new comforter. I also put up current pictures of the kids. I had baby pictures up but no recent ones. Nothing had been done in the bedroom since we moved into this house 12 years ago! It was about time.
School has been going good even though the hurricane really sapped my motivation for a while. I have not kept up with all my lovely plans that I made at the beginning of the year. But I think our school would have completely fallen apart if I had not made those plans in the first place.
It's good to be back.
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Sep. 13, 2008 - Ike
We evacuated. I decided it would be silly to stay when we had a perfectly good place to go. So now I am at my mom's house in Jackson, MS. Hubby just called and said our house is fine. We are missing a few shingles. They are saying it could be weeks before power is restored. I don't know when we will get to go home. I am thinking at least a week. After Rita it was 3 weeks before we got electricity at our house. We will just consider this a vacation.
Pray for those who stayed behind. I know 2boysmom stayed and there are other homeschoolers that I talked to yesterday that were staying. They are still getting rain and wind. The Weather Channel says there are tornado warnings still.
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Sep. 11, 2008 - You Know You Are a Home School Mom When....
You stop all preparations to either weather the storm or evacuate so you can teach your child about air pressure. We have been studying weather in our science class and this just seemed to be the perfect time to talk about High pressure systems and low pressure systems. We built our own barometers. I can't tell if they are really working but we shall see if stay through the storm. If the storm turns towards us we will leave and never know how well our barometers worked.
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Sep. 9, 2008 - Bits and Pieces
I am reading Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson. It's about the 1900 hurricane that wiped out Galveston. The weather people of the day thought they knew so much about predicting hurricanes and they had no clue what was happening.
Son is on 1st string defense on his football team. Yesterday's practice was really hard and thought the coach was putting him up against all the big guys. I told him the coach was testing him and looking at who he wanted in different positions for the game. He was kind of down when he left for practice but he came home happy. As soon as I have time to figure out how to post pictures, I will put one up of my first string defensive end.
Our library picked books for book club today. The librarian is separating the big boys from the rest of the group. They have out grown the group. But she is going to do a book club just for them. If anyone has ideas for a boys book club ages 12 -15. let me know.
I have beans coming up in the garden. It is so neat to plant something and watch it come up. I planted broccoli and cauliflower on Saturday. They haven't started to come up yet.
Tuesday is our Meals on Wheels day. We have been delivering for 6 years now. Daughter was only 4 when we started. We've been doing this more than half her life. It is a great service opportunity for homeschoolers with kids of all ages. The people we deliver to love to see the kids. The kids know they are helping these people stay in their homes longer and not have to go into a nursing home.
Everyone we delivered to was asking what I thought about the storm. I told them Ithiught it wasn't coming our way but I was not employeed by the weather service and they hadn't called and asked for my opinion. Now the thing is projected to make a turn to the north. Rita did that before it hit us. It was predicted to hit South Texas and kept moving closer and closer to us. We will know more tomorrow.
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Sep. 8, 2008 - School Begins For Real!
Last week was the beginning of our school but we were not really on top of things after the almost evacuation. This week felt more like the beginning. I had everything planned out. I even had our morning scheduled. We all were up and showered and fed before 8:00. Chores and Bible study were done after that and Lessons started at 9:00.
We had started history, science and spelling last week. All those are going well. We actually decided to study the weather before we had all these hurricanes. Spelling is going really good. Son seems to be catching on. We are using Sequential spelling.
We started our writing this week. We are using Andrew Pudewa's Institute for Excellence in Writing, the Student Intensive level B. That went really well also. They liked the video. My kids are usually so critical. They really liked it when he told them not to worry about being neat doing their first draft.
Now we are looking at Ike, wondering if he is going to come our way. The weather people seem to think so. The state is thinking about calling for an evacuation on Thursday. Of course all that could change.
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Sep. 6, 2008 - First Day of Co op
Our homeschool group had our first day of our co op. We've never done anything on a scale like this. We are only doing it once a month. We start with prayers and pledges then break off into classes. We have a nursery, pre K and K, first through fifth and sixth and up. There are 3 forty-five minute classes, then we have lunch and our meeting, then PE.
Everything went very well for a first day. Space was a big issue. We had to start putting people on a waiting list because the class rooms at the church are small. When everyone gathered for lunch it was really crowded. We put the kids in one room and moms in the joining room. (We could still see and hear.) But the moms need at time to meet so everyone knows what is going on.
We used to meet in the park. The kids would run wild while the moms would talk. I still think we need a day to run wild. The older kids are beginning to think the park is not cool.
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Sep. 4, 2008 - Late Night Talks
Why is it that whenever my kids have something on their minds, they wait until I can't hardly keep my eyes open any longer to begin talking? This has happened about 3 times in the past 2 months. I am not really complaining. I am very glad they want to talk to me about the lthings that are going on in their lives. But I'm tired this morning. We didn't stay up too late last night but both Son and Daughter had different things on their minds and each neede a private turn with mom. One night when Hubby was out of town we stayed up until 1:00 in the morning. Another night we had to wake Hubby up to get his input. Like I said, I'm not complaining about the talks just the lack of sleep.
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Sep. 2, 2008 - Change in Plans
Today was supposed to be our first day of school but Daughter is still feeling bad so things have changed. She and Son do alot of their lessons together so when one can't participate it seems silly to make the other one do it then have to do separate lessons until the other catches up. They do the same history, science, grammar, writing, spelling. They have different math. They do the same Spanish but they do it separately on the computer. I've always done history and science together with them. The age difference doesn't seem to matter. Daughter caught up with son in spelling, writing and grammar. She's very verbal.
It was cool and breezy this morning. Since we weren't starting school, I went out and planted beans and cucumbers for my fall garden. I was going to do that on Saturday but I was busy packing for the evacuation that never happened. I finished planting the rest of my little tomato plants. I may be too late for them but as long as I already had them, might as well plant them anyway. I am going to plant some broccoli and cauliflower this week. I've never tried them before. We will see how that works.
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Sep. 1, 2008 - Gustav is a No Show
Gustav decided not to visit our little corner of Texas. We had some clouds and a breeze today but that was it. It worked out well that we did not leave. A lot of people did leave. Almost all of the businesses were shut down. One grocery store was open yesterday. There was a holiday atmosphere there. Everyone was so relieved that the storm wasn't going to get us. People are beginning to come back home today.
We had scheduled to start our first day of school tomorrow. I thought all of our plans were going to be changed but now we can start. Daughter has a sore throat so she may not feel like doing much but she can do some. My throat feels a little scratchy but that may just be smpathy pains.
We're praying for all those who were in the path of the storm.
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Aug. 30, 2008 - On Edge
Everyone here is on edge right now. I think it is not knowing that drives everyone crazy. Should we leave or should we stay? If we stay where will we go? You certainly don't want to leave home and go straight into the path of a hurricane! If someone would just say, "It's coming your way, get our now, " it would be easier. Then you could just concentrate on leaving. So right now I am waiting for Gustav to get past Cuba and into the Gulf so we can decide what to do and then do it!
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Aug. 29, 2008 - Hurricane Stories
3 years ago when Katrina hit the gulf coast we had hundreds of evacuees come to our area. Some were in hotels, some were in shelters, some had come prepared, others left only with what they were wearing. For 3 weeks they settled in, put their kids in schools, started looking for jobs.
Then Rita came. Everyone had to evacuate. What a mess! Traffic was backed up forever. People ran out of gas. I was very fortunate. I left at just the right time. I was able to head east on I 10 before they closed it, just as they were calling for SW LA to evacuate. I made it to my mother's house in MS in about the same amount of time that it would normally take us to get there. Mom had some damage from Katrina but they are far enough inland that it wasn't major.
I were gone for 3 weeks until our electricity came back on. Our house was not damaged. Trees caused most of the damage in our area. It looked so bare when we came back because so many trees were gone. We have 7 big trees in our back yard. Not one of them fell. Hubby has pictures of our neighborhood the day after the storm. There were trees and powerlines everywhere.
Hubby has to stay behind if we evacuate. His job keeps him here. They take them to a safe spot during the actual storm but as soon as the winds slow down he is back to work. During Rita he would run home to shower or just to check on things and he would let the cat out. Then he couldn't stay long enough to get the cat back in. I told him if we leave this time he has to keep the cats inside.
Our story is pretty tame compared to others. If Gustav keeps heading this way we will probably leave saturday evening. This will be our 4th evacuation in almost 20 years.
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Aug. 28, 2008 - Plans, Plans and More Plans
This has been my planning week. I have been putting all those plans that have been running around in my head down on paper. I have been planning for our school, our homeschool group, the food and nutrition project for our 4-H group and my Wednesday night class at church ( I have the K-2 girls).
So far the 4-H plans are almost completed. I have a few phone calls to make today and hopefully that will be all done. The biggest obstacle we have had with those plans is that it all has to be done in a very short time period.
The homeschool group plans are pretty much complete. I have another mom who has taken on a lot of the organizing. I am metting today with 2 other moms to finalize our plans for our science class. We are using Real Science for Kids Chemistry. The lessons are all laid out. We just need to make sure we all know who is doing what and when.
For my Wednesday night class, the plans are still running around in my head. That is one thing I really have to sit down and plan out. I have a book with lesson plans but not everything always fits like I would want it to. Sometimes I have to come up with my own ideas. I need to work on that tonight or tomorrow.
Our school plans are coming along good. Son is using Teaching Textbooks for Math. He will be through with 7th grade math in 20 lessons. I bought the pre algebra book yesterday from a friend who had just finished it. Daughter will continue with Alph Omega Horizons. She has already started 5th grade math. They will both be using Easy Grammar. They started that last year. We will start the Institute for Excellence in Writing. I've been watching the DVDs so I will know what we are doing. We are starting Sequential Spelling. We will be using Mystery of History for World History this year. We will continue Rosetta Stone Spanish. Daughter will work on her music and art. I've got to order her a new art book. I've decided for science we will use resources we already have and make our own. We will start with weather. Since I am starting from scratch, that really takes some time but I have the first 3 weeks planned.
Oh and I have also been planning a menu for the month of September. It is very hard for me to think about want my family may want to eat a month from now. But if I at least have a plan and some ingredients on hand, we can have some kind of dinner. I am trying to use the crock pot at least once a week.
Now I know that just because I made all these plans doesn't mean things will always go smoothly. Right now we are watching Gustav closely. Once it passes Cuba the weather people will have a better idea what it is going to do and we will know if evacuation plans may be called for!
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Aug. 24, 2008 - Daughter is 10!
Today at exactly 12:44 PM Daughter turned 10 years old. She made me look up the time. She has been a wonderful blessing to our family. She is the creative, artsy one in the family. She is also out going, life of the party, stubborn, won't be moved, tough as nails, petite and delicate.
We had a party for her yesterday. I think we figured out all the details on Thursday. We had 2 of her best friends and their families come over. Plus we had a couple from our old church who are just like grandparents to her. We grilled burgers and hot dogs. The kids ran around and played. The grown ups talked. It was just right. After it was all over and done, she said it was the best birthday ever.
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Aug. 22, 2008 - Sunshine Today!
Yeah! We woke up to sunshine today. We need to dry out. I worry about all my little tomato plants. Hopefully the sun will dry them out. When it rains hard like it did the last two days, we can't flush in one bathroom. I never have understood why we can flush in one but not the other. But I am grateful that we can flush! Friends of ours down the street and around the corner couldn't flush at all. It's a drainage problem.
I was lazy the last 2 days but I have to get busy today. Daughter is having her 10 year old birthday party tomorrow. Her birthday is actually Sunday. She believes in the never ending birthday. I think it was her 3rd birthday that we let her open gifts from the out of town relatives as they came in and then there was the party and the actual birthday. When Hubby's birthday rolled around in October, she insisted, "No, Daddy, it's my birthday!" It really did seem as if it never ended.
Today I told her she would have to help me clean up and she started fussing about having to work on her birthday. Life is tough when you're ten.
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