Confessions from the Rubber Room...
• Nov. 23, 2009 - We R Fun: Life On The Farm Board Game
My kids love board games! They especially love board games involving money, although they have been known to start making up their own rules after awhile, and playing the game ElCloud style. I enjoy board games, because I know they are engaging my children's minds and teaching them things like strategy and math.
We were very happy to have a chance to review the Life On The Farm board game by We R Fun, Inc. It had been on our children's wish list for several months. This is a high-quality, well-designed board game with a colorful playing board. We received the original version, for players age 8 and up, but there is also a preschool version available which doesn't require any reading.
Life On The Farm was designed by Keith Gohl and his sister Ev Johnson, to help others understand what life on a farm is really like ... from a family business perspective. Each player rolls a dice, moves forward that number of spaces, and then follows the directions on the board. Players draw income cards and expense cards which require them to pay vet bills, taxes, or collect sale income. It's a game of chance, as my 12 year old daughter discovered last night. She was poised to win, until she had to pay taxes four times, when no one else paid taxes at all that game.
The goal of the game is to be the first to retire with 60 cows and the money you began farming with. As We R Fun states on their how to play page: "Life on the Farm is not about running other players out of business - it’s about managing money and making the most out of what happens to you - what life is really about on a family farm! It is a classic board game, fast-moving, easy to understand and fun to play, and it truly appeals to all ages."
While I agree that this game appeals to all ages, and the family can enjoy playing it together ... we didn't find it very fast-moving. Well, I suppose the plays happen quickly, but the process of playing the game itself can be long. The instructions do include a shorter version, and that is the only way we have played it so far. It's just the nature of this type of board game to take awhile.
My kids have enjoyed playing the game twice since we received it. They wanted to play it many more times, but we didn't always have enough time to fit a game in. In our opinion, Life On The Farm is a great board game, with educational entertainment value for the entire family. It's an excellent way to spend quality family time on a winter evening.
The original version of Life On The Farm (ages 8 - 108) retails for $25.00, and the preschool version retails for $20.00. The game can be bought from We R Fun, Inc, The Old Schoolhouse Store, Amazon.com, and also on Kmart.com.
This would make an excellent educational (and FUN!) Christmas gift for any children age 7 and up, or a family gift for those you love!
This item was provided free for our review as a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew. We received no other compensation, and this review is our honest opinion. Click the TOS Homeschool Crew banner at the top to read more reviews on this product by other Homeschool Crew members.
Trusting In Him,
April E. |
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Monday, November 23, 2009 - A Copybook of Thanksgiving
• Nov. 23, 2009 - Easy Holiday Cran-Apple Fruit Salad
On Saturday we attended a potluck dinner for our 4-H Achievement Banquet . Unfortunately, I was lacking inspiration on what to prepare. Just after lunch, I finally started flipping through cookbooks looking for ideas.
I settled on a cheesy scalloped potato recipe, but had to take shortcuts by microwaving the potatoes for awhile before putting them into the crockpot. (If you're curious it was Potluck Potatoes from the Fix-It And Forget-It Cookbook.)
But, I still needed a second dish. I started flipping through the desserts and salads in the cookbook my church put together. I found a Cranberry Jello salad that sounded good, but I didn't have fresh cranberries to boil into syrup, and didn't have time to mess with letting a jello set-up. BUT I decided to take some of the ingredients and improvise my own fruit salad. It was easy and delicious! (If you like the tartness of cranberries, that is.)
ElCloud's Easy Holiday Cran-Apple Fruit Salad
Ingredients:
2 (16 oz.) cans of whole-berry cranberry sauce
3-4 apples, cored and diced
1 cup mini-marshmallows
Directions:
1. Open both cans of whole-berry cranberry sauce and pour into a 2 qt. bowl
2. Use a spoon to break up the cranberry sauce.
3. Cut apples into wedges, removing the core. Skin can be left on, or peeled off.
4. Cut apple wedges into small pie shaped slivers.
5. Stir apples and mini-marshmallows into the cranberry sauce.
6. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
That's it! It looks beautiful, and it's delicious!!
Enjoy!!
Trusting In Him,
April |
Comments (1) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Nov. 23, 2009 - The Simple Woman's Daybook - Monday, November 23, 2009
For Today, Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Outside My Window... it is just becoming light, but we have gray skies and drizzle -- expecting a little rain throughout the morning. Was out earlier this morning with Elsa and it's a humid 47 degrees - very nice for this time of year. Today's normal hi/low is 35/21. There was a gray rabbit in our front yard just a little while ago.
I'm thinking...I have a "can-do" attitude. We have a busy week and I'm taking it head-on.
From the learning rooms...like I said, we have a busy week, so we will try to squeeze in some academics here & there, but mostly just the school of life. We are almost done in our studies of the American Revolution - was hoping to get it done by Thanksgiving, but will take just a little bit longer.
I am thankful for...my husband was playing on the floor with Elsa last night and Elsa came at him with her mouth wide open, like usual - just puppy play, and she got him with her teeth on his eyelid. Blood everywhere. I'm thankful it was just his eyelid and not his eye. He is okay & his eyelid looks much better this morning. A good reminder to us all that Elsa is going to be a good guardian dog.
From the kitchen...
M - Pancakes & Bacon
T - Pasta
W - Hot Dogs (I use Hebrew National)
TH - THANKSGIVING FEAST at In-Law's
F - Taco Salad
S - Grilled Teriyaki Chicken
S - Meatloaf
I am wearing... denim capris, navy fleecy top, sports socks, hair is in a pony.
I am reading... Thru the Bible Each Year: OT: Ezekiel; NT: I Peter, KJB;
Elsa doesn't give me much time to read lately, but I try to sneek in a little here & there - mostly web articles.
I am hoping... our Thanksgiving goes well - holidays with difficult people (mainly my mom) is always stressful.
I am creating... nothing right now, except getting a jump on Christmas this year. Have most of my shopping done and will start baking cookies this week.
I am hearing... the clock tick; my fingers bang on the keyboard; Amber is ironing.
Around the house & barn... my days are filled with (1) caring for puppy -- play & taking her outside so she doesn't get into trouble indoors; (2) cleaning up after puppy -- a non-stop job, esp. after we have been away for a few hours -- she trashes her pen from separation anxity I suppose; and (3) trying not to wake puppy lest I have to go back to #1 prematurely.
One of my favorite things... reading God's Word.
I am going... to do a little shopping today - DH's birthday is coming up.
A few plans for the rest of the week (besides school)...
M - shopping; cleaning; maybe horseback riding, but it's pretty wet right now
T - we have been asked by the nursing home to go on the bus with a few residents on an outting
W - clean house top to bottom; bake pumpkin pie
TH - Thanksgiving at In-Laws
F - Staying Home!!!
S - Quiet Family Time
S - Church & Family Time
A picture thought I am sharing with you...
 Elsa is so helpful - she helps me off with my socks (umteen times a day).
(Yes, the paper shreds from her box get all over her fur & all over our socks and thus all over our house - but this too will pass).
 She helps me sweep the floor (notice she has a few broom straws in her mouth - ready to drag it away)
 She helps me scrub the floor (carrying away my ShamWOW).
With all this help, it's a wonder why I don't get anything done. :)
(Sorry, I won't be talking about puppy all the time - it's just what is consuming my life right now). Have a good day!!!
That's all for today!
Thanks for stopping! Have a Blessed Week!
Much thanks to our hostess Peggy for the Simple Woman's Daybook
|
Comments (4) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Sunday, November 22, 2009 - Festive Beverage Suggestion
Posted By Toby
Miss Dog Lover has developed a festive, somewhat non-traditional beverage just in time for you to be able to serve it to your guests at Thanksgiving Dinner. That is, if you are bold enough to be first.
Last evening at snack time I walked in the kitchen to hear the iced tea she was pouring for herself making odd, non iced tea, sounds. I asked what she was doing and of course she said, "Just getting some tea." Hmmm.
My maternal instincts went immediately to red alert. I took a closer look and listen and noticed the empty poprocks packet.
The somewhat noisy and unpredictable combination of iced Mandarin Orange Celestial Seasonings and Strawberry Poprocks was such a hit Miss Dog Lover chugged it and made herself a second.
Let me know how it goes over with your guests if you give it a go. Me? I'm wondering how it would work to add poprocks into the stuffing of the big bird before baking. Could be an explosively good Thanksgiving at our place. |
Comments (2) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Nov. 21, 2009 - DONE!!!!!
Posted By Dawn
The room is done! There is even some furniture moved in already. It came out great, a little bit smaller than we had hoped for, but GREAT none the less... The whole experience was great! The contractor was super GREAT! The workers were great! The project came in $600 under the proposal so we had some additional work done. Our contractor went out of his way to get us deals. He went two counties away to get us bamboo floors that were sitting in a barn ~ the leftovers of a business that had gone under. We got them for $1 a linear foot ... they retailed for over $5 a linear foot. They are perfect!! He also looked our house over and found a few things that were in desperate need of repair and fixed them for almost no cost. Let's put it this way. Part of our home had to be jacked up because of a failing support beam. He did the job for $76 ~ the cost of the beam and a little extra to pay for his helper. The mess was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be .... So, you all want me to stop carrying on about how great it was and let you see the results for yourselves!?!?
Yay! Well, this is all you are getting right now. The big reveal will be just after Christmas. This year we are giving no toys (except stocking stuffers) so that we can decorate the children's bedrooms. I'll show you all the rooms once we have curtains up and such.
In the meantime we will be painting the rest of this room. We decided to paint the floor insted of refinishing the wood becuase it is so costly if you have a professional do it. My dh has refinished two floors in our home, but it was a really grueling project, and they have not held up as well as we would have expected. So for now we will paint this floor instead. We will need to do all of the trim work and no furniture can go on it for a week.
That is all for now!
Blessings,
Dawn |
Comments (6) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Saturday, November 21, 2009 - Is There Pee in Your Tea?
Posted By MomWtrmn
I know it's a disgusting title, but bear with me. I've been watching Todd Friel's "Wretched" for a couple weeks now. Let's see if I can work my way through his "process" with you, my friend - whoever you may be reading this right now.
Let me ask you a question. Do you consider yourself to be a good person? (Typical answer is, "Yeah, I'm pretty good. I mean, I'm not perfect, no one is, but I think I'm mostly good. So, yeah, I'm a good person.")
Okay, then. Do good people go to heaven? (Typical answer is, "Yeah. Like, if their good outweighs the bad, then yeah.")
By your own admission, you are a good person, right? Okay. Are you familiar with the 10 Commandments? ("Yeah.") How many lies do you think you've told in your lifetime? (Typical answer is, "Too many.") Okay, I have too. So, people like you and me, who have told lies, we are what? ("Liars.") That's right. I'm a liar. You're a liar.
Okay, what about stealing? Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours? (Typical answer, "Yeah, like when I was a kid. And I took some of my roommate's cookies in college.") Okay, you've stolen. That makes you a... ("thief").
And what about lust? Because the 10 Commandments tells us not to commit adultery, and Jesus judges our heart, if we've lusted then that's adultery in our heart. Have you ever lusted before? ("Yeah.") Okay, then you're an adulterer, too.
So, by your own words, you're a liar, a thief, and an adulterer. That's three of the Ten Commandments right there! We didn't even check the other seven. If you died right now, and God laid out all your sins, because He knows them, everything you've ever done in private, in the dark, or when you thought no one was looking, and God judged you as a liar, a thief, and an adulterer, would God allow you into Heaven? Can God allow someone who's admittedly a liar, thief, and an adulterer into the gates of Heaven? (Typical answer is, "No. I guess He can't do that.")
At this point, if you realize that you, too, are a liar, a thief, and an adulterer, then you must understand... there is NO chance for you to get to heaven by yourself. Nothing you could possibly do can ever get you there.
I explain it to my kids this way: At dinner tonight, we're having iced tea with our meal. It's sweet tea, a whole pitcher! Yum! But, I just want you to know, I peed in the pitcher. Just a little. I mean, it's mostly sweet tea, with just a little pee. Can I pour you some? Invariably, they wrinkle up their noses at me, disgustedly, and say no way. That's how it is with God. He wants NO sin in His perfect heaven! Just like we want NO pee in our tea. Now, we can get clean tea, no problem: just dump the pitcher and start new. But we can't do that with our lives, we don't get to start over, and we're not perfect, because we have ALL sinned. Not a single one of us has ever lived a perfect life.
Except Jesus.
Now, because God is good, he loves all things holy and righteous. Justice is good. God loves justice. If he didn't punish sin, there would be no justice. He demands a blood sacrifice for the punishment of sin. Sin is paid for with death. That's where Jesus comes in. Jesus is God's Son, He is wholly God and wholly man, He was born into a sinful world, but He lived a perfect life. Jesus never stole, lied, or lusted like you and I have. He always honored His parents, He worshipped only His heavenly Father, He kept the Sabbath, never used God's name in vain, never murdered anyone even in His heart, never was jealous for Himself what someone else has... He was absolutely perfect! And He, as a perfect man, allowed Himself to be put on a cross and unjustly killed so that all your sins, past, present, and future, could be cast upon Him, and He paid the price for YOUR sins. He died, so you could live.
But He did so much more than just die for you. He conquered that grave, and rose to life again. Because of His sacrifice for you, you get to go to heaven. The bible says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." And that "Me" is Jesus Christ, our Savior. There is no amount of good you can do that can qualify you for heaven, because all your good is tainted with whatever sins you've committed. Plain and simple. To "get to heaven" you must repent and put your trust in Jesus, believe that His death sacrifice was sufficient to pay your way to heaven.
Do you know what "repent" means? It means to "turn from." Acknowledge that you are a sinner, repent from your sins, and accept that Jesus paid your bill, your debt is covered by His blood, and you, my friend, can "get to heaven." That's all there is to it. Christianity is the ONLY "religion" in the entire world whose God paid for you to get to heaven. ALL other "religions" require the believer to earn their own way through works, but the Bible tells us no one can earn it, that Jesus paid it. Jesus - fully God and fully perfect man. He did it for you! Rely on Him, and Him alone!
Now, do you know how much more God loves you? He not only sent His Son to die for you, but He wrote you 66 loveletters so you can get to know Him. Imagine if you have a love-interest, and you wrote him 66 loveletters, and he never read them. Would you feel loved by him? No, you wouldn't. God's loveletters to you are His Holy Bible. There are 66 books in there. If you are grateful to Him for saving you (if you've repented and put your trust in Jesus), then read His loveletters to you! You can find out so much about God! And you can talk to Him, too! He wants you to pick up the phone and call Him every minute of every day! That's called prayer!
Friend, if you have questions about all this, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail right here on HSB, or leave me a comment and I'll do my best to answer.
Jesus loves you. He loves you enough to have paid your debt. Amen!
Blessings! ♥♥Christi |
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Nov. 20, 2009 - Homeschool blog awards
Posted By Encouragement Along the Way
I was just looking at the list of Nominees and realized I have had a really disconnected year with all my knee surgeries, rehab and stuff. Seems I don't recognise any of the nominees in any given catagory. Who I am so out of touch! Either that, or you all have been changing your blog names on me. LOL How strange it all is to me. Do you know who these fellow homeschoolers are? I sure hope they have as much fun as we did.
Congratulations all you nominees. I plan on doing some visiting to get to know you. (o: |
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Thursday, November 19, 2009 - 63% Asleep
Posted By Toby
This entry has an apologetic tone. That is because I am such a doofus.
I lay in bed this morning trying to decide if it really was warm enough to get out from under the blankets or not. During that time of semi-wakefulness, I composed three great blog entries. As soon as I got up, I jotted down enough of each idea that I'd be able to post the entry. Wonderful - I figured I was set for posts for the next week or two. As I count, that was my first mistake.
I wanted to link to my Miss Language's blog and also to her friend's. So I dutifully sent off an e-mail, making sure that was OK. There was my second mistake.
So now, they are reminding me I have not posted yet. So I went and grabbed the list so I could spout off with this wonderful post, first of three. (Yep, third mistake and here I shall quit counting.)
I grab the list and what does it say:
black holes/FB
Outwitted/Fort Knox
type-O angels/HS
and I have almost no idea what it means. Now, I know I should quit while I am behind, as the saying goes, but as I say, I have quit counting mistakes so here goes.
The first part (black holes/FB) had something to do with a comment I saw on Devastatingly Handsome's FB about FB being one of the biggest black holes in the universe, and then there was a comment about "what do you mean, 'one of'?" And I know that somehow I then had hold (in my semi-waking state) of a brilliant insight about the nature of black holes and I am pretty sure about whether or not relative sizes comparisons are, well, relative or not. And I think it had a tie-in with Francis Bacon. But beyond that... no idea. My great blog post was sucked away as by a black hole.
And then part two, the Outwitted/Fort Knox was going to be something beautiful and inspiring about Edwin Markham's poem "Outwitted"
He drew a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
and how it applies to some people we know, in particular one whose heart has been locked down tighter than Fort Knox since toddlerdom. However I know nothing about the brilliance of this post whatsoever.
And the final thing on my list (type-O angels/HS) was from a chat I had with Miss L's friend. We were talking about a matter for prayer and I thought I had the name wrong. She told me it would be ok, something like there were angels who correct type-Os (is that spelled right?) in prayers. It occurred to me that the Holy Spirit does that on a major level, not a spell checker so much as a prayer checker. But, again, I have No Idea where I was going to go with any sort of insight.
So, today's moral: my first thoughts of the day are probably not the best. Let's hope not. And even if they are, I can't hold onto them.
|
Comments (4) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
• Nov. 19, 2009 - Honey Bear's Apron!
Posted By earthenvessel
www.homeschoolblogger.com/earthenvessel/
Mrs. Bee just sent me the cutest pictures of her and Honey Bear wearing their aprons!! I just love them!!
Isn't she a cutie patootie?? Looks just like her mama!! They are standing in the kitchen of the house where Mrs. Bee works. Mrs. Bee had to bake a turkey today for a Boy Scouts Thanksgiving dinner tonight. But she also had to work so, she made the turkey at work. I'm so glad they have their aprons to wear for this!  |
Comments (0) :: Post A Comment! :: Permanent Link
|
|
