New Page on my Blog

I'm branching out and expanding my blog. I've started a page on a homeschool co-op class I am teaching on anatomy and physiology. Follow our progress week by week and maybe get some ideas for a class of your own.

Kind. Smart. Important

Have you read the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett? Have you seen the movie? If you can answer "Yes" to either of those questions, you know what the following is based on:



So how did this come about?

Well, Bubbie Boy is trying really hard with his school. He wants a good report card. The other day he missed 1 question in math and had a meltdown. He made a sign for his bedroom door that said, "I'm stupid."

Well, I can't have that, so I decided to make a sign of my own.

I got onto Adobe Photoshop and set up the words how I wanted them. With my apologies to Ms. Stockett, I did change the grammar. However, I hope she will excuse me as I do not want to promote improper grammar whilst I am trying to drill into my little boy's head how smart he is. Behind each of the words Kind, Smart, and Important, I put a very light-colored "You are."

I then took a very inexpensive 12x12 artists canvas and set about painting it. I used a wonderful shade of blue in an acrylic gloss and gave the canvas several coats. Then I used a white acrylic gloss that I had watered down and gave the paint some visual texture.

I then cut down my piece of paper I had printed the quote on and got out the mod podge.

I am so pleased with the results. Bubbie Boy likes it, too.

By the way. If you have yet to read the book and/or see the movie, I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend both. I hope to get my thoughts on both into a blog very soon.






Linked to Weekend Wrapup at Tatertots & Jello

Orange Infused Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

On a regular basis I hear from Bubbie Boy, "We need to go shopping. We don't have any food in this house." Of course, we do have food, just not the snacky-type stuff he desires. So in an attempt to help remedy that situation, I made the following muffins in mini muffin tins.



Orange Infused Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (or Bread)

5 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
zest from 1 large orange
juice from 1 large orange
3 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup brown sugar
3 cups white wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325º. In a large bowl puree bananas until pretty much liquefied. I used my immersion blender to do this. Add the yogurt, orange zest, orange juice, eggs, oil and vanilla. Blend well. Add the brown sugar and blend well some more. In a large separate bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and mix with a light hand. Fold in desired amount of mini chocolate chips.

Grease your muffin tins and scoop in your batter. It took my mini muffins 16 minutes to cook. I put the rest of the batter into loaf pans and they took about 55 minutes to bake.

Linked to Weekend Wrapup.

Staycation Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week, our family is on staycation. We really aren't doing much--that is the 'cation part of it. At any rate. DH decided to make omelets for what ended up being pretty much lunch this morning. About an hour after eating those wonderful things, we were all in the mood for something sweet. So Snickerdoodle and I whipped up some chocolate chip cookies bits of heavenly delight!

Staycation Chocolate Chip Cookies
Snickerdoodle and Momma

2 sticks unsalted butter--use the real stuff, please
1-1/4 cups turbinado sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons REAL vanilla
2-1/4 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Melt butter in microwave. In mixing bowl, combine melted butter and turbinado sugar. Turn on mixer and let it mix away. (The sugar and butter will not cream and the sugar will not melt. This is a good thing.) Add egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla. Turn on mixer again, and allow to mix while doing the next step. (If you do not have a stand mixer, just mix really well with your hand mixer.)

Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix only until combined. Add chocolate chips with a light hand.

Drop, preferably with a LARGE cookie scoop, onto parchment-lined baking sheets.

These baked to perfection in 17 minutes in our oven. Adjust time to your oven's temperament.

*Enjoy warm right out of the oven with hot coffee or cold milk.

*These can also, most definitely, be enjoyed while not on a staycation. Matter-of-fact, you may need them more during your regularly scheduled life.

Linked to Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrapup!

Parenting is Like a Bowl of Cherries

If you have been a parent for any length of time you have become aware that there are just some things that you:
A) have not been told about the journey,
B) you really do not know how you will handle certain situations (even though you were 100% positive that you would know exactly what to do), and
C) you need help.

I will attempt to explain--

No one tells you that there might come a time when you will be awaken in the middle of the night by the sounds of a child who is having a major explosion from his/her nether regions and did not quite make it to the proper seat in the house. Such an occurrence might result in you dragging out your mop bucket and a gallon or more of bleach and cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom.

On a more serious note--

No one tells you that boys get rather, ah, hormonal, pretty much in the same fashion as girls. But here's the thing: moms are not boys!!! Moms know what to do with the girls. Been there. Done that. "Sure, honey, you take some Tylenol, eat a piece of chocolate and go take a nap. You want the heating pad?" With boys??? I can answer technical questions, but do I really have the right to? Since I homeschool, I am with my boys much more than their dad. No fault on his part, he is doing what he is supposed to do--go to work to support his family. But "guy" questions do not come up between the hours of 6 PM and 7 AM only. They can come up at any and all times. Also, no one talks about boys being "hormonal". Any mom who has sat by when their pre-teen or teen son has resorted to tears for a minor thing knows what I am talking about.

Can you guess that I am in the middle of boy hormones? Can I say, "Yikes!!!" So I am in need of some guidance. I found a source of guidance in a place I wasn't looking--here. I do not remember what took me to this blog: probably something to do with homeschooling or natural eating. At any rate, am so thankful that she is posting these wonderful gems. I have not yet decided if I will purchase Brooke Meglothlin's book, but I am enjoying going through these verses. I am looking forward to sharing them with all my children, male and female alike. Here's the thing, parenting is not always a bowl of cherries. Well, maybe it is a bowl of cherries. God did know what he was doing when He made cherries. Tiny bites of pure happiness wrapped around a rock-hard pit. Have you ever eaten a cherry and bit the pit? It absolutely hurts. So, yes, I will say that parenting is like a bowl of cherries, pits and all. It is dealing with those pits that is so difficult. Getting to the heart of behavior is what is necessary, but I do not always know how to hit behavior at the core. I tend to take care of symptoms; something I despise in the medical community. The trick is to figure out WHY the child is behaving in a particular manner and to guide him or her to the correct heart position. Hmmm, not so easy. For me, I am at a total loss. I want to say, "It's wrong. Just don't do it." But that method doesn't work so well. It is necessary to make a child, or ourselves truth be told, seek out the reason why behavior is inappropriate. That is what fosters the desire to change the behavior. Discipline and correction for a symptom does not heal the problem. This requires work on my part. I have to research and pray and do some deep thinking in order to discover what is right and why. In the process, I learn a thing or two and most likely have to correct a hundred things or two hundred in my own life. But in the long run, it is worth it.

So, I will continue to eat my bowl of cherries and do my best to deal with the pits.

Ahhhhh

Well, our VBS is behind us. We have worked hard for the last two months. (Well, it has been two months for me. For the wonderful ladies I worked with, it has been longer.) The week went well. The children learned and had fun. Four children made decisions for Christ. This experience was fun, hard work and a learning opportunity for me. Also, I got to know some people better and THAT is a blessing.

Now it is time to begin planning for our upcoming school year. Hopefully I will have a framework in the next two weeks, and we can begin work. I have a lot of ideas swirling around in my head for things we should do and things I would like to do.

For now, I am looking forward to hitting my pillow and having panda-free dreams.

Beautiful Song

At the graduation ceremony for our homeschool group this year, this song was played while the parents were seated. It brings me to tears, but it is such a blessing.