Taking a Blogging Break

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm taking a blogging break. I'm not sure for how long-but with the holidays coming up, I want to do some special things with my family. I also need to focus on our homeschool and instilling good habits. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas! God Bless!!

Indoor Water Park

Homeschoolers in our area got to go to an indoor water park for free today! The kids had a blast! What a fun thing to to do when it's cold outside!

Andrew singing "Get Me to the Church on Time"

Andrew is a part of a theater company that is doing six show's of My Fair Lady. He is playing the part of Alfred P. Doolittle. Here is part one of Andrew singing "Get Me to the Church on Time".

Here is part two.

I was Nominated!!

This morning I went over to The Homeschool Post to vote for my favorite homeschooling blogs and I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to find out that I was nominated for Best Cyber-Buddy Blogger! Thank you to whoever nominated me! You can click on the button if you want to vote for me. :)

More Scrapbooking pages

Sophie's Christmas page-she decided to add some aquarium pictures in there, too!
My Christmas pages.

Menu Plan Monday 11/9

Monday:
Breakfast-Homemade granola & oranges
Lunch-Tacos
Dinner-Leftovers & roasted potatoes, carrots & onion

Tuesday:
Breakfast-French toast & oranges
Lunch-Box mac & cheese & tossed salad
Dinner-Homemade pizza

Wednesday:
Breakfast-homemade granola & fruit
Lunch-chef salad
Dinner-baked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn

Thursday:
Breakfast-Homemade granola & fruit
Lunch-tuna sandwiches & carrot sticks
Dinner-chicken burritos

Friday:
Breakfast- scrambled eggs, grits & corned beef hash
Lunch-chicken salad sandwiches
Dinner- Dinner with friends

Saturday:
Breakfast-eggs, grits, and corned beef hash
Lunch-homemade pizza
Dinner-kielbasa dinner

Sunday:
Breakfast-homemade granola
Lunch-chicken salad sandwiches
Dinner-spaghetti & meat sauce

snacks:
chocolate chip cookies
chips & salsa
fruit (apples, oranges)

nuts

apple pie

I did it!

I made some scrapbook pages! Scrapbooking used to be my #1 hobby, but I just don't find the time to do it anymore. I made two pages yesterday, and I plan on making 2 more today. They are pretty plain, but at least I got them done!

Squanto Narration

This is Christian's (age 9) narration of the book Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Bulla.

There was a boy named Squanto. He lived in North America and he belonged to the Patuxet tribe. Some white men came (Englishmen) and Squanto grabbed his drum and played it and some of the Indian boys danced. One of the white men tried to play his drum. Everyone laughed at him and he laughed back. The white men had fire sticks (guns) that could kill a bird at the top of a tree.


They asked Squanto if he wanted to go to England and Squanto said, "Yes!" He would go across the sea. Then they set sail. On the way, they told stories but Squanto didn't understand the words. When they got to England, Charles Robbins, a very nice man, brought Squanto to his house to meet his mother. Then very, very soon he missed his home.


Then he went on the ship to go back to the New World. When they were there a bad guy captain named Captain Hunt asked nicely, "Would you like to go to our ship please?" but Squanto saw that he had angry eyebrows. Squanto said, "No, I go home." Then Captain Hunt took him for a slave and tied him around a chair. Very soon there was this other Indian guy and he spoke Indian to him. Captain Hunt took him to Spain to sell them in the Slave market, but the good men of the church saved him.


The good men took care of him, then he worked in their gardens. Then they put him on a ship going to London so he could find a way back to the New World, hopefully. While he was in London, he went back to Charles Robbins' house but they did not live there anymore.

When he finally got back to the new World, he went to where he used to live, but all that was left was a broken bowl. He met an Indian hunter and the Indian told him that there was a great sickness that had killed all the Patuxet tribe except for Squanto. He was sad, but then he met the Pilgrims. He taught the Pilgrims many things like how to plant corn. And he lived with the Pilgrims for the rest of his life.

Amazing Race

We had so much fun yestersday at an "Amazing Race" that our friends hosted. There were a number of teams, and each team had a list of fun activities that each member had to participate in. The first team to complete all them all won the race! The kids had a blast! There was also a pot luck dinner and a bonfire afterward.

Favorite Granola Recipe

Amy asked about my granola recipe so I decided to post it again. This is what we eat for breakfast much of the time. I hardly ever buy boxed cereal anymore. After trying a few granola recipes, this is what I came up with myself. I shop at Sam's club once a month and I buy a large bag of oats, almonds, rasins and sometimes Crasins for our granola. I usually make 2 batches at a time. I use 2 cookie sheets and when I take it out half way through the cooking time, I put the cookie sheet that was on the bottom on the top and visa versa. I increase the temperature to 350 when I do this.

Granola recipe:

5 C. rolled oats

1/4 C. oil

1/2 cup brown sugar ( or use 1/4 cup br. sugar for not-so-sweet granola)

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 C. chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 325. Put granola into a large bowl. In a small bowl mix oil, brown sugar, water and vanilla untill smooth. Add the liquid ingredients to the oats and mix well with a wooden spoon. Spread out onto a large cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then take it out of the oven and turn over the granola with a spatula. Then bake for another 15 minutes.

After baking, you may add one or more of the following to suit your taste:

coconut

seeds

raisins

cranberries (or Crasins)

Enjoy!