What's for dinner Tuesday night?

 

Our first grilled meal of the season!

This is our spluuuurrrrge dinner! We were at the grocery store and my husband was looking at the meat, he called me over and asked if I thought we should buy these? I said of course! These kabobs made for a simple meal, easy clean up and easy cooking since they were already made up!

My wonderful husband cooking dinner for us on the grill!

Just a side note, we enjoyed this meal after it was done cooking on the grill and the grill ran out of propane…so before our next grilling adventure we need a refill!

Happy Cooking

Jackie

Fun Day Friday

This event happened a few weeks ago when our basement got some water in it and we were stranded upstairs for a few days. Which meant no television, toys (that weren’t already upstairs) or even outside play (b/c of the rain). We did find things to do to keep us entertained! I believe the kids enjoyed mommy making them a tent!

 

We built the tent in the dining room around the table!

They love each other!

Adam doing what brothers do best!

Natalie hiding!

Yup…he took a nap in the tent..or shall I say he climbed on top of the tent and slept on top of the table!

Happy Homeschooling

Jackie

TheHomeschoolMothersJournal..4

 

 

In my life this week….

As I sit here thinking of what has been going on this week, I am a little challenged. I am in a strange place right now, I’m not sure what it is. I am questioning some things with in my heart. I have let them go to the Lord and I am now (patiently…ahem..clearing throat)  waiting upon His answer! I love how he answers me in different ways,  I know he is trustworthy.

In our homeschool this week…

We have not had any “formal lessons” this week. We have talked about things when they come up, watched the birds in the yard and read some books. Other than that we have had a pretty laid back week.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We have been to three playgroups this week. I know! Three days of playing with other children outside of our own home. My, my, my homeschoolers are so unsocialized! HAHA!! I just love to think that we are home all day most days and this week we were like “normal people”. We were out of the house three mornings. This is crazy! We had great times though and are building relationships with people!

My favorite thing this week was…

This might be crazy, but normal to me….I enjoyed cleaning my room and seeing how much stuff I can purge! I love to get rid of things, especially if I know someone that can benefit from it!

What’s working/not working for us…

I am beginning to plan for 2011-2012. I already have all of our curriculum! I am so proud of this! Well we still need to get some readers and reading books, but I will get those as needed or borrow from the library.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…

I am trying to figure out what will work as far as a homeschool planner or daily sheet. I have looked around for some, but haven’t come up with anything I am liking or looking for. I need the “perfect” one.

What do you use to plan your day? Do you write out all of the assignments daily/weekly? Do you use an online planner? Any feedback would be appreciated!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

Travis the Baby Chef!

(Please excuse the messy counter and dirty dishes)

Homeschool Blessings

Jackie

Simple Pleasure Thursdays

 

Clean Water

 

After listening to a missionary in my church that lives in Kenya, where they don’t have clean drinking water, I thank God for what we do have. How very simple we take for granted our clean water. We can simply turn on a faucet and have flowing water, as much or as little as we would want to “pay” for.  We have flushable toilets, washing machines, dishwashers, ice makers, water fountains, bottled water, shower/bath tubs, city water, well-water, swimming pools and sometimes even a water feature on the front of our refrigerators. We are blessed beyond measure here in the United States. I am embarrassed to admit that I sometimes complain that I have to wash dishes once again in my sink, have to drink water from the tap, or even clean the toilet. Thank you God that you have given us this simple pleasure that make our lives a little bit easier to navigate through.

What brings you simple pleasure?

Blessings

Jackie

Wordless Wednesday

 

Silly times at Sam’s Club, pricing tires for Daddy’s car!

Science Day Monday

On Monday, I usually post about our trip to the library, well we didn’t make it to the library today!

I have Science on my mind! We have a few things going on here….

This is a birds nest that was being built in our garage. This is the second one we found. The first one was knocked out by a broom stick! And just a couple of days later this one appeared. I hope this birdie finds a new home, because he/she is now homeless.

A cardinal that was in our backyard. There are a few that live around our home and we enjoy watching them.

We have received 9 tadpoles which are soon to be Gray Tree Frogs.  Since we have received them just five days ago they have doubled in size.

This is the habitat we got from our local pet store. If you look closely you may be able to see the tads in their new home! I think they are enjoying their new area.

These are our sunflowers that we have been growing inside for the last 2 months. We will be planting them outside soon.

 

These are marigolds. Adam planted the in his Sunday school class. He was very excited!

Happy Homeschooling

Jackie

Workbox Sunday

 

Tot School

This week in tot school we have been talking about all sorts of different balls, colors, animals and the noises they make.

Our favorite book for animals is My Big Animal Book by Roger Piddy.

Travis is learning the difference between all types of balls. Such as baseball, basketball, soccer ball, and football. I believe baseball is his favorite. I only say this because he says baseball all the time and at his Daddy’s softball game he went crazy! He would go into the dug out and steal the bats and balls that were laying around and say “I pay bayball.” So cute!

We also have used an ice cube tray and put goldfish crackers into it for Travis. He enjoys taking them in and out, eating them, and even dumping the entire tray over and watching the goldfish go all over the floor and say “UHHH OHHHHH!”

Happy Homeschooling

Jackie

Fun Day Friday

On Friday, the last day of the “official school week” we are going to be posting something fun that we are doing! So for our first Fun Day Friday, we decided on the spare of the moment to have a picnic outside for lunch. It was really the kids idea and they asked if they could have some picnic food…

This famous picnic lunch consisted of a pb&j sandwich, pickles, carrots and some apple juice!

Travis is a food thief. He took Natalie’s sandwich after he ate his own and then fell down onto his own plate and got jelly stuck to his rear end! Quite comical!

Yes, its lunch time and Adam is still in his pj’s!

Natalie not to impressed with the picnic lunch, or maybe she is still mad about not being able to take out like 5 pillows for everyone to sit on. Wow her life is hard!

Simple Pleasure Thursday

 

SCISSORS

If I could only bring so many items to a deserted island, I would bring my scissors. I absolutely would not be able to function with out scissors. I can’t tell you how many times a day I reach for these. I have numerous pairs throughout the house. I buy a couple new pair each year when shopping for school supplies! I’m a softy for any type of office supplies!

A few uses for my scissors…..

• Cutting up food for children
• Cutting hair ties out of my daughters hair
• Cutting open boxes
• Cutting a straw that is to long
• Unlocking the bathroom door lock, to free a child from another child
• Cutting open popsicles
• Cutting strings off of clothing
• Cutting frayed edges of carpets/rugs
• Killing a bug

Why can’t the children sleep???

This week has been awful for sleeping in our household. Especially at bedtime. The kids have been bubbling with reason for not going to bed. Now granted the house is hot, our air conditioner is not working correctly. It is hot outside, so really the only comfortable place to be is in the basement. Well we are not all going to sleep in the basement. So...this leads to reasons of why the children can’t sleep, remember these are their own words, not mine!

• Their allergies are to bad.
• They are thirsty/hungry.
• I poked myself in the eye.
• My room is to hot.
• I am to hot.
• I am to cold.
• I don’t feel good.
• I’m not tired.
• My throat hurts.

And last but not least, my favorite of the week...I can’t go to sleep because there is something on my foot and its bothering me!!!! Really? Are you serious? That same thing has been there all your life, or as long as I can remember. GO TO BED..IF YOU GET UP AGAIN I WILL GET MY WOODEN SPOON.

Well I of course wouldn’t use this particular one, I have already broken it! Don’t worry I have more!

We should hopefully have the air fixed in the next couple of days. Maybe then we’ll get some good rest!

Wordless Wednesday

 

BROTHERS

What’s for dinner on Tuesday?

Crockpot Mexican Chicken

This is a recipe that I made up on the spare of the moment with ingredients we already had on hand.

• 1 lb. chicken
• 1 can enchilada sauce
• 1/2 jar red bell pepper
• 1 can corn (drained)
• 1/2 onion
• 1 c salsa
• Garlic, Chili Powder, Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1 Knorr Taco Rice
• Tortillas
• Sour cream
• Shredded Cheese (we used Mexican blend)

Mix first 6 ingredients in crock pot, add seasonings to taste, set on high for 4 hours. Add rice to crockpot approximately 10min before ready to serve and more seasoning if you so desire.

Serve on tortillas or even over tortilla chips. Add any toppings you enjoy. Ours was served on flour tortillas with a Mexican cheese blend and sour cream.

I think the next time I make this we will try it on tortilla chips. We will add cheese sauce, sour cream, maybe some chives.

Happy Cooking

Jackie

Library Day Monday

 

We did not attend the library this week. We are still working on reading through all of our books that we picked up on our trip last week. Mostly we are still reading from The Boxcar Children’s first book. We are loving this book and the kids are excited because the two youngest characters are close in age to them.

I remember reading this series as a child in maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. I used to love these books and had completely forgot about them until I was flipping through a homeschool catalog and saw them listed.

We went to the library to get the first book in the series and the librarian (a family friend) printed off the entire series list of The Boxcar Children. Did you know that there are 128 books? I had no idea, I only knew of the first 12. I am ecstatic! This reading series should last us a while!!

Happy Reading,

Jackie

Workbox Sunday

Natalie has been playing with her Barbie's a lot lately. She really enjoys dressing them, putting shoes on them and just recently fixing their hair. She has achieved a big milestone with in the last week of being able to put in her own hairband. You know being able to twist the hair band around and around to make a pony tail.

So..we came up with the activity of putting some hairbands and barrettes in the workbox, along with some Barbie’s  so that she can fix their hair. This makes for a great fine-motor activity! And best of all she enjoys it!

Jackie