Pumpkin Bread

I LOVE THE FALL!!!!  Mostly because of the fall baking that I love to do.  I went a little crazy yesterday and made five loaves of pumpkin bread.  It is sooooo good.  The bottom picture is of Carson enjoying his slice.   This recipe says it is supposed to be cooled completely, wrapped up and then let it sit overnight.  HAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!! Like that was ever going to happen.  Half of the loaf was gone in ten minutes.   Here is the recipe . . .

INGREDIENTS 

• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 4 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

• DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  Grease three 9x5 inch loaf pans.
  2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips.
  3. Bake for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans.  When cooled completely wrap and store overnight.

Super Heros

O.k.  So for gymnastics this week it was super hero week.  They sent home a letter last week saying to wear your super hero outfits to class.  Well for some reason I thought we had super hero capes in our dress up bin.  But to my dismay, last night when we went to look for them, they weren't there.  BUMMER!!!!  So today we ran to find cheap fabric and rushed home to make super hero capes.  So three hours later I had made super hero capes for them to wear to gymnastics.  Well, the kids got all suited up in their super hero stuff and we headed to gymnastics.  When we got there, guess what?  NO ONE ELSE WAS DRESSED UP!!!!  Well the teachers were, but none of the students.  I was a little bugged.  I had just spent a good majority of my day making these capes when I could have probably gotten away with not doing it.  I know there was no way of knowing if everyone was going to be dressed up or not, but come on.  Really?  I just couldn't believe it!!!  But they did turn out pretty cute, if I do say so myself and the kids had so much fun running around the house being super heros.  I even made one for Carson.  He would run along right with the girls and later kept saying "SUPER FAST!"  So much fun.  

Last Friday we got to go bowling.  The virtual academy that we get our curriculum through even paid for it.  AMAZING!  It was so much fun.  However, it took a full two hours for all five of us to bowl a full game.  I don't think we have ever taken the kids.  At least not that I can remember.  And Robb and I had a really close game and he beat me by two points.  TWO POINTS!!!  How lame is that?  

We will definitely go again, especially since the academy gave us gift cards to go back later.  Pretty cool!  

Carson was pretty cute when he bowled.  Every time he rolled the ball he would crouch down and then when it would hit the pins he would clap and cheer.  So cute!

Workboxes Post #2

So here is the post that I was so excited to tell you about.  These are the workboxes.  I found the idea on this blog  http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/search/label/Organizing

I was looking for some ideas on how to teach multiple kids, at different grade levels, at the same time, without going completely crazy, which is what was happening to me.  And this is what I stubbled upon.  And I am SUPER excited about it.  

The workbox system was created by Sue Patrick.  The program helps you structure your day more efficiently and present curriculum in a way that helps children learn more independently.  Her program calls for twelve bins per child.  I felt like this was a bit excessive.  I have tailored the system to fit our family better.  Hailey has 8 bins, Emma has 5, and Carson has 3.  Well, actually Carson has 2 because Target didn't have enough bins when I went shopping there, so I will have to go back later and get 1 more.  

So here is what you do with the system.  Do you see the picture with the tags that have the kids names on them?  Each one of those numbers coincides with a bin that has the same number.  So each day, the kids will grab there tags and then work their way through the bins.  Now do you see the picture that has the blue thing holding a bunch of random tags, ie piano, outside, snack?  You can move the numbers on the kids tags and input these other random tags to spread things out.   There are also mom tags that you can place on the bins that the kids need help on.  For example, Hailey almost always needs help on her math.  So on the bin that holds her math work I would place a mom tag.  But on her phonics she is pretty good about doing on her own so she would not need help on that one.  

So the point of this whole thing is that you orchestrate your day so that on the subjects that your kids need help on do not conflict with other bins of other kids.  Again, this system encourages independence and gives the kids an idea of when the school day is over.   

I am excited to get moving with this and also to be involving Carson.  To get him doing sensory activities, puzzles, play dough, etc.  Before I felt like I was just shoeing him away and with this system, hopefully I will be able to get him involved.

Just incase you haven't caught on, I am SOOOOO excited about this!!!  Nerdy, I know.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Oh, and as for the last picture, I found these cute bins on sale for $2 at Michaels.   So I bought a few to organize all of our different school materials.  Nothing to do with the workbox system, but I thought it was exciting.  What can I say? I LoVE organizational tools.  

Workboxes

So I am so excited to finally post about this.  However, it is late so you will just have to wait until tomorrow.  The suspense is killing you I know.  But patience is a virtue, right?  I found this new system for home schooling and I have to say it is totally awesome.  Even my husband thinks it is amazing and that's saying something.  But alas, you will have to wait until tomorrow.   Insert maniacal laugh here.

A Must Read

So my aunt recommended this book to me and my mom bought it for me.  Thank you to you both.  This book is wonderful.  If you have gone through a miscarriage, stillbirth, or lost an infant this is a must read.  I recommend reading it with a box of tissues though.  I do want to let you know that it is written by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Most of my readers are members of the same church that I belong to, but there are some that read this that are not, so here is the heads up.  It is a wonderful insight into what happens to these precious spirits that are only with us for such a short time.  Shortly after losing our baby, my dad told me that he strongly felt that this baby had such a strong spirit that it only needed to gain a body.  He said that I should feel honored that I was chosen to be the one to carry such a special spirit, if even for such a short time.   

In this book, there is a part where she writes of something Joseph Smith wrote of children who die in infancy.  "The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again." -History of the Church 4:553

It is a great comfort to have the knowledge that I will someday hold my baby.  I still hurt and grieve, but I know that with time that I will feel better.  I will always hold a special place in my heart for my baby.

Just a heads up!

If you are interested in home schooling at all, I thought I would let you know about this book.  I haven't read it yet, so I don't know if it's any good but it's FREE!  Well, almost free.  You just have to pay shipping and handling which is $5.95.  The book normally retails for $15.95.  Pretty awesome, if you ask me.  Just thought you might want to know.  Here is the link . . .  http://www.homeschool.com/

What to post today?

I was at a loss as to what to post today.  When I asked my husband what I should blog about his reply was, "How much you love your husband."  While there is truth in this statement I am not sure if that was quite what I was looking for, but I thought I would blog about what I did with my husband tonight.  We went and saw Julie and Julia.  This was actually the second time I went to see this movie.  I LOVED it!!!  It brought a smile to my face at a time where not a lot of things do that.   I really related to this story and not just because it's about food.  However, I do LOVE food.  Julie felt lost and used cooking and blogging to find herself.  There are so many times that I write on this blog and feel like I am sending my entries into a great void.  I often think, "Why bother with this stupid blog?"  But it has helped me and continues to help me.   I am not nearly as intense as Julie is in the movie.  If I was I could probably actually make money off of it, but I do enjoy blogging and will continue to do so.  If you haven't seen this movie, DO!

I do want to warn you that it does have some swearing and one time contains the least of my favorite the "F" word.  Just in case you were wondering.

Zucchini Bread

I LOVE this time of year!!!  One of the reasons I love it so much is because of all the goodies I get to bake with things from our garden.  So my first fall bake was zucchini bread.  As you can see within moments of taking it out of the oven, half of it was already devoured.   Here is the recipe I used.  

INGREDIENTS 

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 cup chocolate chips

• DIRECTIONS

  1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
  2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
  3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
  4. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.
  As for the cool completely, I don't think we did that.  The smell that filled the house made it to enticing to wait.  It was promptly cut and enjoyed!
  (recipe from allrecipes.com)

Lunch out with the ladies

So I have lived in Washington State for pretty much my whole life and there are still so many things that I have yet to experience.   One of those things that I had not done yet was eat at the Maltby Cafe.  I have heard my husband talk of this place and the cinnamon rolls that are the size of your head.  My mom had been there and talks about how good the food is.  So today I the opportunity to go.  The food was good and the cinnamon rolls were true to my hubby's description.  HUGE!!!  I however opted out of the cinnamon roll and got a veggie omelet.  But even the omelet was gigantic.  I think I only ate a quarter of it.  Hmmm . . . Breakfast for tomorrow.  I am hoping that my slightly healthier choice of a veggie omelet will offset the chocolate cake that I have been faithfully indulging on for the past week.  Here is evidence of the afore mentioned indulgence . . .

In my defense my husband and dad did help a little, but I probably, if I am going to be honest, did eat the vast majority of it.  It has truly been my comfort food and I think I do feel a little better.  At least until I go back home and step on the scale.

Fun at the library

We had a lot of fun going to the library today.  I have to say the library is much more enjoyable when you are a home school family and you go during school hours.  It's like you have the whole place to yourself.  It was wonderful!!!  And because it was so empty the kids got to use the self checkouts all by themselves and thought that was so exciting and grown up.  We had a lot of fun and enjoyed a bunch of new reads when we got home.  You've gotta love the library.  The kids come home more motivated to read and the whole trip cost $0.  That's my favorite kind of outing.  FREE!!!

Blackberry fun!

No I am not talking about the phone.  I have the blackberry and hate it!  But that's not what I want to talk about.  Carson LOVES the blackberries behind my parents house.  In an effort to get my mind off things, we all came to visit my parents and today the kids went out and picked blackberries.  The girls quickly lost interest, but Carson couldn't get them into his mouth fast enough.  Now every time we go outside he wants a blackberry.  Even with a messy face, he is still the cutest!!!

Another year of school begins

So here we go with another year of home school.  At first I was super excited to get started with school, but having just gone through a miscarriage I must admit I was no longer that enthusiastic.  Hey!  I am just being completely honest.  But after lessons today I was again very grateful for our decision to home school.  It has, and I think will continue to be a wonderful distraction.   But if I am going to be truly honest I must also say that the first day of lessons wasn't without it's ups and downs.  At the end of last year I told myself that I would still do some school throughout the summer so that Hailey wouldn't lose her drive or sense of focus.  But after getting pregnant and feeling very sick, that idea went out the window.  So today was a day filled with relearning how to focus.  This was mainly with math.  Once we got done with that the rest of the days lessons went rather smoothly. 

Emma has joined in with lessons and I am trying to do math with her while Hailey is working on her worksheets.  She did well today and sat there for the whole time Hailey was doing her work.  I think she felt so grown up that she was doing her own work and I hope that excitement continues.  

For language arts we did a combined lesson.  Hailey learned how to write an invitation and she wanted to give the invite to Emma.  Hailey was determined to keep the invite a secret so she worked carefully to keep the invitation concealed from her sister.  Emma wanted it to be a surprise as well, so the picture above is of her covering her eyes.  It was a lot of fun, however, Hailey invited Emma to an ice cream party, so now I have to take them out for ice cream tomorrow.   I wish I had taken a picture of the invite.  It was pretty cute.  If I find out where it disappeared to I will try and take a picture.  

On another note, I want to continue on with our home school blog, but I want to make it more interesting for readers.  Rather than a day to day journal entry of what we do, maybe helps or  . . . i don't know . . . any thoughts?  

Not sure if I am ready . . .

So I am not sure if I am really ready to write this yet, but I feel like I need to.  This was supposed to be the blog entry where we announce that we are having a little girl or boy.  But sometimes Heavenly Father has other plans.  We went to our 18 week ultrasound appointment yesterday and found out that there was no longer a heart beat.  It has been very difficult and I know it will be a long healing process, but I know that everything happens for a reason.  I feel like I have not had a lot of difficult things happen in my life and for that have always had a hard time sympathizing with other people going through hard things in their lives.  Maybe this is my time to experience something difficult in order to understand other people better and how to serve them.  I do know that Heavenly Father is very aware on me though and has already made that very apparent.  

Yesterday my mom went in for knee surgery at the very same time I had my ultrasound appointment.  After finding out, I wanted nothing else than to talk to my mom.  I am not in anyway blaming her for this because I know how painful her knee has been and I am glad that she had this done.  But I really needed to talk to my mom.  But here is where I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me.  (bring on the tears . . .)  My mother in law happened to be driving her sister to Idaho yesterday.  They just happened to take a wrong turn and ended up driving through our area at the very same time we called her to tell her the news.  She and her sister stopped by and were able to talk with me and give me a hug and offer comfort.  I can't tell you how much that meant to me.  

Again, I know the I still have grieving left to do, but am so grateful for the gospel and our Heavenly Fathers evidence in our lives.   Even though I wasn't sure I was ready to write this yet I am glad I did.  I think just writing down some of my feelings has helped.   

Just have to blab . . .

So this deal is to good not to share with everyone.  I am not sure if it is still going on, but if it is something that is interesting to you hurry up and grab one.  It's from hooked on phonics.  Normally this K-1 grade set goes for $139, but it's on sale for $39.  Plus I found a code where you can get an additional 50% off.  CRAZY!!!!!  If you calculated that right, that's $20.  AMAZING!!!!  If you homeschool or not this is a sweet deal and a great learning tool.  So here is the link  http://www.hookedonphonics.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=35719

and the 50% off code is SLICK50

This is also the updated version with C.D.'s rather than cassettes.  Needless to say, I am totally excited!  Hope it works out for you!

Wedding Cakes

Here are a couple of pictures of the wedding cake I did for my cousins wedding.  I wish my other pictures from the two other cakes I did would load properly, but alas, they won't.  What's a girl to do?  So for those of you interested in the "cake thing" these two pics will have to tide you over.  

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

WOW!!! Where has the time gone?  I promise for an update in posts!  After the last post I wrote I did three wedding cakes, wrapped up homeschool for the year, went to Utah, Memorial Day camping, trip to McCall, Id, and have been PREGNANT!!!  I am sure there is more that went on, but I can't remember everything.  I blame it on the pregnancy.  I pretty much blame everything on pregnancy right now! :)  After I update on things of the past, I am going to start blogging again on all things homeschool.  It has been a wonderful break, but I can't wait to get started again!  Now bring on the posts!!!!