I'm a crazy homeschooling mom of 3 girls and wife to one equally crazy husband. I sew, I read, I cook, and I complain. Hey, I can't always be nice, right? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:46:00 -0500 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:46:00 -0500 I'm feeling the need for a change........don't know why, but my blog fingers are itchin. Come see me over here.......  New Blog Home http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/589255/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/589255/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/582376/ Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:03:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/582376/ Or maybe just a freak?  Once again, we headed off for a night at Disney (thank goodness for Florida Resident Rates!).  We stayed at All Star Sports this time.  It's amazing what you can do over there that's fairly cheap or even free.  Though I will say, going past the entrance to The Magic Kingdom again nearly drove me to drink.  I sooooooo wanted to go in! I took 250 pictures, though I promise not to put them all up here!  However, there are a bunch I'd like to share, so sit back, get a snack, and enjoy.  Here's the huge football at All Star Sports.  Hey - college football starts this weekend!!!  Go Gators! We ate lunch (I brought all of our food - go me!) and then headed off to Downtown Disney.  The girls had money burning a hole in their pockets.  Well, Mary vowed not to spend a dime, but the other two were itchin' to buy something with their money. I thought this picture was hysterical.  She's not disgusted, she's just trying to eat her cupcake!  We, of course, stopped at Goofy's candy store.  We had to eat this inside since it was about 92 degrees outside and their cupcakes would have melted.  Then we headed back to the hotel to do some swimming.  There are no pictures of us in the pool since I was enjoying the heck out of the cool water with the girls.  And trust me, you don't want to see me in a bathing suit anyways.  After we were done swimming, we ate dinner and then started making our way to the Polynesian Hotel. Of course, going to the Polynesian means you have to stop at The Magic Kingdom first, and then  hop on the monorail.  I'm telling you, this is torture.  Somday I hope to have Disney passes so I can get my fix often. But we finally made it to the beach of the Polynesian.  Oh.My.God.  Can I tell you I was blissfully thrilled to be sitting on a lounge chair, on the beach, of the Poly, looking out at Cinderella's Castle!  Dang.  Free stuff doesn't get any better than this! Even the girls were having lots of fun.  Kali was making huge sand sculptures and Hannah was running all over the place.  Mary, of course, was on the phone.  I just kept staring at the water - and the castle. Oh yeah.   Can I go back now? Then the water parade started.  I hadn't seen it in years! Cute, aren't they? A bit blurry, but you get the idea. And then the fireworks started.  Oooooooh......Ahhhhhhhhh The reflection off of the water made it extra cool to watch. Finally we headed back to the hotel around 10:45.  We were all wiped out and Kali fell asleep on the bus.  We got up the next morning, and I snuck out around 7:30 to get a cup of coffee.  Everyone else finally woke up, we ate breakfast, and headed down to the pool around 9:00.  The pool was empty - that was so nice!  Again, no pictures of us swimming since I was in the pool, too.  And I really am saving you all from seeing me in a bathing suit.  It's not a pretty sight.  After we loaded up the van, we headed over to The Boardwalk.  Holy hell; it had to be at least 90 in the shade by then.  We were all melted little puddles. We stopped off in the General Store and loaded up on some drinks.  Goofy me underestimated and we ran out of stuff!  We got some ice cream, too.  Can you say melt-in-a-minute?! Yep! I think Mary was wearing hers.  ;) Alex was dumping ice on the kids to cool them off.  Thank goodness for ice!!! We got back in the van, cranked up the a/c, and headed over to The Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Or, as Kali calls it, The Animal Kingdom Large.  That place was gorgeous!! The decor was fabulous. Hey, Look!  An Animal in it's Kingdom.  Alex was a little puddle, too.  Time for a break!  But noooo...mama wanted to drag them all outside to see if we could see some animals.  They were less than thrilled with my idea. But we found the animals! And more animals. And best of all - we found the mister!!!!  Well, they did.  I had the camera and didn't want to sacrifice it for some mist.  Though I did think about it - heavily. Of course, Alex was talking to the man that worked there.  That's what he does best.  Kali said it was like having her own shower outside.  Cute, huh? We cooled off, dried off, shopped a bit more, and then loaded ourselves back up in the van.  I had a bit o' cash left from our curriculum shopping, so we all headed off to Giordano's.  Hey, deep dish pizza is educational, right?!   We had a blast, and hope to go back soon. Hope y'all enjoyed the pictures! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/581202/ Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:26:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/581202/ Well, once again we seem to have completely missed the storm.  Fay to a huge swing to the right during the night and now it's headed up the east coast of Florida.  It's a bit overcast here now, but nothing else is happening.  We are quite lucky. I nearly forgot to put in my weekly grocery shopping update!  Silly me!  I felt like the queen of the grocery store this weekend.  ;)  I only went to Publix, though I'll make a stop off at CVS on Thursday.  Anyway, I had to pick up a bunch of turkey for our trip this weekend, along with some other things I need to bring, and I did the regular grocery shopping, too.  Here's what I did: Shelf Price:  207.84  OOP:  132.32  Savings of: 37%.  Now, that's not as huge of a savings as I've had over the past two weeks, but I came home with a buttload of stuff.  I got a killer deal on organic cereal, so I bought a bunch.  Okay, that's my update for the week! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/577136/ Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/577136/ See what we have aiming our way?  I guess I can't complain though.  We haven't had a hurricane hit us (directly) in over 3 years and this one is small.  Of course, the path could change in a New York Minute and this picture will be worthless.  We have all of our batteries charged, extra ice in the freezer, candles, water, food, etc., etc.  We're just watching and waiting and going on with life as normal! On to other things...... Hannah and Kali planted some root veggies for science.  They're in these cute little test tubes so they can see everything growing. Daddy helped so I could take pictures.  We ended up doing this at night; hey, learning happens all day long over here!  Planting seeds.  I think it went something like this........ "And then Hannah tried to choke me!!" Okay, this one was too cute not to put in here. She's just.....ahhhhh....we're in trouble. Here's 2 of the 3.  I think Hannah was working on the last one when I took this picture.  You can see on the bottom that there's a carrot, a green onion, and the last one is a.......uh oh.......a radish, I think! Writing about it in their nature journals.  :) The best hamburger buns.....evah!!!!! Okay, I know I've put these in here before, but this time they turned out even better!  Here they are complete with egg wash and sesame seeds. and.... You know you want one!!! They really are awesome. I must say, the first week of school was great, even with our little 'bumps in the road.'  Hopefully this week will go along just as well. I'll keep y'all posted on our fierce winds! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/576493/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:42:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/576493/ Today was our first day of school for the year.  I can tell you that I am thoroughly exhausted at the moment.  But let me back up a bit before I tell y'all about our day. On Saturday, Alex took Hannah and Kali to Lowe's for their "Build and Grow" clinic.  They made mini school lockers. They were quite pleased with their building abilities.  Alex said they both used the hammers very well; no fingers were smashed in the process.  :)  Kali wanted nothing to do with the apron or certificate that she got.  Can you tell?? Of course, telling her that she didn't have to worry about it caused her to melt down even more.  Oh my.  She did say that she wanted to go back to the next one.  Mary thought that they were refrigerators.  Dear lord.  On to the first day of school!!!!  I asked the girls what they wanted for breakfast for the first day........cinnamon rolls.  Now, I don't make them very often; only for birthdays or holidays.  It's a good thing I was feeling festive.  I made them the night before and put them in the fridge overnight to rise.  I took them out of the fridge around 6:30 this morning so they could come to room temp. before I put them in the oven.  I let them cool off enough so the frosting wouldn't completely melt when I put it on.  These cinnamon rolls ROCK. You know you want one! But first I had to wake sleeping children.  See how happy she is when she first wakes up?!  Kali went to go check out the stuff I left on the school table for them.  And daddy got a good morning kiss from Hannah. And a snuggle from Kali. I even managed to get a comatose Mary out of bed for cinnamon rolls!  After breakfast they did their chores and met me at the table.  They were eager little beavers this morning. I thought I'd wake up their brains with some mindless things.  Since it's time for the Olympics, I had them coloring the rings and talking about their favorite sports. Well, I had Hannah coloring and talking.  Kali.......ahhhh......Kali.  I am, after many years of "quirks" and "issues," convinced that she is somewhere on the autism spectrum.  I will assume that it's aspergers.  And I will say assume since I have no intention of taking her from doctor to doctor so they can tell me 10,000 different things.  I don't want her to think that there's something 'wrong' with her, or that she is, in any way, not "normal."  None of us are normal; we all have things that we do differently and handle differently.  I just need to figure out how to work with her.  She will not write anything other than her name and will only draw hearts.  Sometimes the hearts have faces, sometimes they don't.  I tried to get her to draw her favorite foods this morning.  That ended up in a complete meltdown and then she hid under the table for about a 1/2 hour.  But I digress..... I kept working with Hannah.  We started with Story of the World; I must say, it's quite interesting! She's working on her family's history this week. We took a lunch break and watched an episode of Home Improvement.  It seems to be their show of choice during lunch.  And I crossed my fingers........ And I started math with Kali.  Turns out that she LOVES math.  Which explains a lot.  She did 4 pages in her math book; 3 of them all by herself.  She was smiling the entire time. Math blocks!!! Look at my girl doing her math work! I did a grammar lesson with Hannah and then we made a spelling list from some of the words from today's lesson. I bought a spelling game program and entered her list into it.  She had a blast playing the games. After she finished with that, I called it a day.  We managed to get a lot done on our first day - history, math, grammar, and spelling.  Tomorrow we will toss in a little science and *gasp* an attempt at handwriting without tears (for those not in the know, it's really called Handwriting Without Tears) for Kali.  Hopefully there will be no tears.  I hope that I can find a way to work with her that doesn't cause her to feel so bad.  Watching her melt down like that is heartbreaking.  But wait - there's MORE......!!!!! I ran to FedEx to ship out a box and then stopped at Walgreens.  Yes, grocery gamers, I headed off to Walgreens for my weekly fix.  So, for those of you keeping score..... Shelf price 37.50.  OOP 8.95.  Savings  75%!!!  I bought...... 1 Bic Soleil Razor 2 bottles of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner 2 bottles of Lysol bathroom cleaner 1 bottle of St. Ives face scrub and 1 bottle of St. Ives face wash. Alex and I went grocery shopping together yesterday and stocked up.  I did great at Publix (figures coming from memory - I'm too lazy to get up and get my binder.)  We spent $75 and saved $38! We also got a few things at Sams, Sweetbay, and our favorite produce guy.  I'm eager to see what my total for the month will be and how low I can get it after all my stocking up this month. Okay, I'm done.  I swear. I'm exhausted after today and am hoping that tomorrow goes a bit more smoothly.  If anyone reading this is homeschooling kids on the spectrum, drop me a line.  Maybe you can give me some "help her to not lose her mind and meltdown" pointers. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/573297/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:47:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/573297/ Ahhhh....Friday night at our house.  Alex and I are watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics now.  The little ones were watching earlier, but they just went to bed.  They were in awe of everything that was going on.  I'm taping the rest of it per Kali's request.  Maybe they'll watch some more of it tomorrow. Before I entice you with food pictures, let me give you my latest grocery game shopping update.  I stopped back at Walgreens yesterday for more cereal.  Seems as though Alex has already attacked most of it, so I needed to get more.  He must have a cereal addiction or something.  Here's my shopping report..... Walgreens - Shelf price $19.04.  OOP - $9.04.  Saved 53% plus I'll get another 3.79 back on a rebate and I got another $5.00 coupon for my next purchase.  Which would then make my total spent - coupons/rebate = 0.25.  Dang! Then I headed back to CVS..... Shelf price $21.43.  OOP 6.93  Savings 68%.  Plus I got another 6.50 coupon for my next purchase, which would make my total spent - coupons = 0.43! I now have plenty of toothpaste, about 6 toothbrushes, a few more bottles of shampoo/conditioner, and a few other things that  I can't remember right at this moment.   I'd love to stock up on some more laundry detergent, chicken, and anything else I use on a regular basis.  Hopefully Sunday's lists will have lots of good stuff on there for us.  Okay, since I've been talking about food, let's move on to some food pictures! Tonight's dinner was pasta and garlic/herb bread. This bread is oh-so very good. Here's my pasta sauce simmering on the stove.  It was bubbling away at this point.  I made sure I stood back far enough so my poor camera didn't get spit on. And here's some fabulous basil that I picked from my basil plants.  You can almost smell it, can't you? It was wonderful in the sauce.  Really, really yummy.  Who needs pasta!  All I wanted was sauce and bread. And for those of you who can't believe I haven't killed the basil, here it is.  It's getting a bit thick at the bottom; I better go prune it down in the morning. Okay, I'm going back to watching the Olympics and figuring out my grocery list.  I need lots of fruits and veggies this week - and coffee!!!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/572013/ Fri, 8 Aug 2008 20:23:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/572013/ Well, if today's shopping is any indication of how we can save some money, then I've hit the jackpot.  I took Hannah with me and we went to 4 different stores......here's what happened......... Walgreens - Shelf price -  $53.04.  OOP (out of pocket spending) $31.14.  Saved 41.3% and got back $15 off of my next purchase. Target.  Shelf Price - $33.88.  OOP - 15.88.  Saved 54% and got a $5 gift card.  Of course, $4 of that total was Hannah buying candy for her and her sisters.  Awwwwww....... CVS.  Shelf Price - 37.43.  OOP - 16.35.  Saved 56% and got back $3 off my next purchase. Publix - Shelf Price - 159.07.  OOP - $112.13.  Saved 30%.  Not bad since most of my stuff was NOT on sale nor did I have a coupon for some things. I now have enough bars of soap for Mary (we all like different stuff around here) to last at least a year.  I have tons of other stuff that I won't need for quite a while, too.  Check out the Grocery Game if you haven't yet; it's well worth it. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/569935/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 17:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/569935/ Ha ha ha.  That always reminds me of The Lion King.  Hannah and Kali went to a friend's birthday party this weekend at a bowling alley.  My girls have not been bowling before and they had a blast!  Kali's ball was moving slower than a snail;  I was hoping the force of the a/c would help move it along.  Daddy helping Kali.  Excuse the graininess of the pictures.  It was soooo very dark in there.  They had those cool disco lights going and some really loud music that had the girls (and Alex and I) dancing for a few hours. Our friend was helping Hannah while I was attempting to get at least one good picture of her. This doesn't quite win 'best picture' award, does it? Cute, huh? First time bowling, and Hannah got a spare.  Her final score was an 81.  :)  Okay, and now for something equally as exciting.  Well, at least for me it is!  I've discovered The Grocery Game.  The Grocery Game  Groceries keep going up and up, and my bank account keeps going down and down.    I decided I had to do something about the ever-growing grocery bill.  I'm only on my first trial week (it's $1 for 4 weeks) but tomorrow's shopping trip should prove to be worth it!  I've got my coupons, my lists (oh how I am loving The List) and I'm ready to go.  I'll report back tomorrow on how much I spent and how much I saved.  There are things that are not on 'the list' that I need to get.  Since we really don't eat a whole lot of processed/boxed foods (except for crackers and some snacks) I have to buy stuff that isn't on the lists.  Though I think I still save more money; it's cheaper to cook from scratch (in my opinion) and much healthier for you, too.  My goal is to reduce our grocery bill by at least 25%, though I'd love to aim for 50%.  We'll see what happens.  But you heard it here - Alex said that if I can save the amount equal to my much sought-after clothesline, he will put one in for me.  I guarantee you I'll have one in a month.  ;) So check out the grocery game and let me know what you think.  The message boards are full of wonderful information, so even if you don't do the list subscription, you can still benefit greatly from the info you get from the boards.  I spent a lovely 4 hours at HellMart today as a teacher-representative from Crayola.  Hey, I'll end up with a $100 gift card from doing that, so it was worth it.  It was fairly fun, though standing in 5 little aisles in HellMart for 4 hours is really, really tiring.  Alex was here with the girls and made dinner tonight; that was nice!  Only 8 more days until our school year begins.  Hopefully I'll tie up any loose ends this week so we can start the new year off right! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/569525/ Sun, 3 Aug 2008 20:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/569525/ Soon enough this blog will go back to school stuff; we only have 15 days until the start of our new school year.  But until then, it's all about food and what's going on over here.  Okay, it may always be about food, and some school stuff thrown in. Daddy decided to challenge the girls to a game of Chutes and Ladders on Saturday.  He was beaten by Kali.  I promise she wasn't mad; she had a mouth full of Pirate Booty.  After Saturday's game time, they all climbed up on the couch to watch Star Wars (don't know which one).  Shortly after this picture was taken, Alex was snoring loudly.  Mary was at work and missed all the fun. Sunday morning - I told them all to smile and this is what I got.  Goofballs.  I forgot what they were watching. Today's menu was BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and Salad.  I thought I'd go all out and make the bbq sauce and the buns.  What the heck, right?  I stuck a bunch of chicken breasts in the crock pot.  I did 6, and I made wayyyyyyy too much.  Three would have been fine; 6 has given me enough for tomorrow.  Hmmm.....maybe it wasn't too much! Here are the buns on their final rise.  They're nearly as pale as me! This is the best picture of the bbq sauce I could get.  It was after I cooked it and cooled it off.  Sorry about the shadow.  Want a bun?  Want 8 buns?! Check out my cute hubby - singing and tearing up some lettuce.  I realized that I was going to need some more bbq sauce, so I whipped up a little extra.  Good choice.  I stuck it in a squeeze bottle and used it to squirt some extra sauce on top of the sandwiches.  Just a small public service advisory from me, when putting the shredded chicken swimming in bbq sauce on to a half of a bun, be careful not to pour scalding hot sauce directly upon your hand.  Yeah.  Ask me how I know this.  Last picture of the buns.  Sorry - I totally forgot to get a picture of the shredded up chicken.  I will say that those buns are the BEST hamburger/sandwich buns I have EVER tasted.  Seriously.  They were like little pillows of deliciousness.  Click here for the recipe:  Best Ever Hamburger/Sandwich Buns Recipe They were easy, well worth it, and there were no weird ingredients that will cause any of us to glow in the dark.  Tonight is the finale of the Next Food Network Star; you know I'll be watching it!  Hope you enjoyed a little bit of our weekend.  It was one of those weekends where I realized just how lucky I am to have these crazy people as my family.  Nothing special happened, nothing earth shattering, just nice, peaceful, full-of-laughter times.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/566356/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:46:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/aljamahaka/566356/