Nov. 23, 2009 - I am Thankful
Thanksgiving Week Report:
This week I am thankful for a three day school week! I did not write in the boys' lesson plan books, each has their own this time around, rather I jotted what was to be done for the next three days on a small piece of memo paper.
Thursday we will travel an hour to the home of our nearest missionary colleagues for a fun day of traditional Thanksgiving food and fellowship. Looks like we will spend the night and make Friday a shopping day in the Big City. The teacher needs a nice haircut and manicure/pedicure and hopes to get one that day! Besides it's got to be a holiday - it's the teacher's birthday! Yahoo!
I am so grateful for our colleagues and for another year of life.
The boys are all moving right along with their work. We are really liking the DIVE CD's that go with our Saxon Math books. The two oldest boys are using the CD's which gives me the time to dedicate to the youngest and move between the other two answering any needed questions. It seems to be working very well. I am so thankful!
For the most part the boys are remembering their 30 minutes of music each day. I have to remind them from time to time. Greyson's keyboard came with our American guest who arrived two weeks ago. It's not the best keyboard in the world but it will serve our purpose for the time being. I am working along G and we are using my old piano theory books. I never got beyond the first books, so I'm hoping that together we will reach the stage of buying the next lessons! It will be a while yet. I remember more than I thought, but have yet to truly memorize the note names and places on the music staff! I'm going to work on it and G will, too! We are both enjoying our time together for this and for this I am happy and thankful.
W is faithful to practice on his guitar. I hope he can play something at church soon. D needs a little extra incentive to work with his clarinet and the instrument could use a little professional tweeking. We hope to take it with us to the Big City and see if someone can give it a little overhaul. It's gratifying to see them both practice and work on their music.
I am so very thankful for boys who are not afraid of a little hard work. All the boys went with their Papa and our guest to help with a roof raising of a new church congregation in a neighboring town. All the boys came back good and dirty and stinky sweaty. It's great to take a bath when there's really something to wash, you know! And they all needed good baths! Poor D fell asleep before his turn came, but he got his first thing the next morning!!!
On another note: Someone recently asked me if I needed help with homeschooling. I said, Well, Yes, I do. Oh, well, what would you could I do for help? Fix breakfast, wash the dishes, wash and hang the laundry, sweep the floors and mop them, fix lunch, sweep again, get the laundry in and put away, clean up the kitchen from lunch and get all the dishes put away, rake the front yard and sweep around the laundry area, iron, fix supper. I'll do the supper dishes for you, if you can get all that done before you go home. They didn't give me a response and I haven't heard from them since! Mmmm... what did I say wrong?
Neat article about the Census of Marine Life:
Marine Census finds strange creatures never before seen!
This morning we read the article and checked out all the neat animals on the COML website. There's a link for it in the Yahoo article linked above.
p.s.
***Oh, FB people, this was originally posted on www.homeschoolblogger.com/athaschoolforboys , if you wish to see the post in its original form along with pictures and what nots, then go to my HSB blog!***
Nov. 21, 2009 - Pumpkin recipes
Sweet Dinner Rolls
½ cup honey
¼ cup warm water
1 cup milk
1/8 cup melted butter
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon salt
3 T orange juice
5-6 cups whole wheat flour
3 ½ teaspoons yeast
Mix all ingredients except flour, then slowly add flour until dough is elasticy and not sticky. Let rise about 1 hour in a warm place, then form into small balls. Place on baking stone and let rise 30 more minutes. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes
Chocolate pumpkin cake
1 ½ cup flour
2/3 cocoa
2 teaspoons baking bowder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs plus 1 yolk
375 for 35 minutes. Makes 2 8” round cakes
Fudgy Frosting
8 oz softened cream cheese
½ stick softened butter
3T milk
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Beat until fluffy
Pumpkin Bread
2 cups sugar
1 cup olive oil
3 eggs
2 cups pumpkin
3 cups flour (must be WHITE flour)
1 ½ ts salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Cream together top (wet ingredients first) then add dry. Put into loaf pan(s) (I make 2 small ones) Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
Nov. 18, 2009 - Twilight Obsession
Here are some Christian reviews of the Twilight series. One of the reviews is by a Cristian woman who was formerly deeply involved in the occult.
A Girl and Her Vampire: The Frenzy over Twilight
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 - On the road again...
I only have a just a second here, but wanted to say that we will be driving to Trujillo again tomorrow and next. So, anyone who reads this blog can pray! For a little more current info on our life work, see our ministry blog here:
http://thetuttletribe.blogspot.com
For the latest learning at our house, go here:
http://fisheracademy.blogspot.com
And I have a couple of meaningful posts from my personal study that maybe someday I will have time to post right HERE! :)
Don't get too hopeful though... I'm too busy to be so serious of a blogger!
I am my Beloved's and He is mine.
Nov. 17, 2009 - Update on us
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2
I'm learning this the hands on way lately! Washing dishes by hand for over a month now due to a broken dishwasher. This morning I washed baby clothes in the bathtub due to a broken washing machine. We've had a few power outages due to the horrible weather. I had no computer for over a week, but Praise be to God, it miraculously started working when my husband pulled into port and was able to Skype! Our roof is leaking.. the list goes on and on! But the Lord keeps on answering prayers! In physical ways (the computer fixing itself is just one of many examples!) and through His Word! It's been such a beautiful time of growing in my walk with Him!
Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength Psalm 61
Do not FRET (worry) it ONLY leads to evil. ...rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him Psalm 37
When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul Psalm 94:19
Nov. 17, 2009 - Sleeping Out Under the Stars
"During the 2009 Leonid meteor shower, you may see anywhere from 30 to 300 shooting stars an hour, depending on whether you're in the right place to see Tuesday's showy peak before dawn, experts predict."
This picture above is from before our recent furlough. Tonight we will see if Papa needs to buy a longer trailer. All the boys have grown so much over the past year. They really enjoy crazy things like this. Papa will tow their "bed" out into the middle of the field in front of our house and leave them there for the night. We leave the front door unlocked in case anyone needs to come in or just decides to get in their real bed instead. Usually they make it the whole night. Even though we live in a nice hot tropical kind of place, often at night with the wind blowing it seems cold - hence the covers and coats. I don't think there will be much of a problem tonight. We've been sweating all day long!
Here's a link to the above mentioned National Geographic News article about the showers:
***FB friends this is a post from www.homeschoolblogger.com/athaschoolforboys
***Go there to see a picture of the boys in their truck trailer bed!
Nov. 17, 2009 - Craft for Little girls-tutus
At various times I have made and sold tutus for a little extra money. They are adorable for little girl dress up, they photograph well and the secret is, they are EASY (though time consuming to make).
I start with 1 1/2 yards of tulle for baby tutus, 2-4 yards for toddler and older. Walmart has some starting at .99 a yard (I prefer the shimmery kind to the regular which is a bit more) but Joann's has a lot more colors to choose from.
I use elastic for the waist band, but I have also seen ribbon used. I measure the waist of whomever I am making it for, then tie my elastic around the back of a chair.
Then I start cutting my tulle into strips. How wide the strips are determines how puffy your tutu will be. I prefer puffy and say go no skinnier than 2". You can also buy precut rolls of tulle, which saves you a TON of time, but is less economical (about 3 times more expensive). I did this once, and found it in the wedding/cake decorating section at Walmart instead of with the fabrics.
You just cut the tulle to twice the length you want your tutu to be (I try for knee length). I actually vary my lengths a little too. The unevenness helps it to be frillier and poofier!
Then you loop it over your elastic/ribbon, and tie it on in the center of the tulle. And repeat until it is nice and full and fluffy! That sounds more complicated than it really is!
I've also embellished the waist with flowers, glued pom poms on for lady bug or polka dotted themes. You can have so much fun, and it is a fun, easy, inexpensive gift idea!
Nov. 16, 2009 - Homemade CHRISTmas Idea -Hot Chocolate
Here was the first batch!
I'm hoping to get around to maybe making homemade marshmallows again too! We made them last year but would like to try again now that I have an actual mixer, and I think we'll use corn syrup this tie around too. I'm opposed to foods containing corn syrup, but they just didn't turn out right without it last year so for this one treat I think it will be ok!
Last Year's marshmallows
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