Yesterday we did our first day of the "No Media on Monday" challenge.  It was harder than I thought it would be, to be without internet, but we did it.  I know it will get easier and our lives will get more simple as time goes forward. 

We have accomplished some pretty daunting tasks the past few days, but lot of fun stuff too.  As we continue to simplify almost everything is dauting.  :-)

Sarah helped with juicing some apples and carrots this weekend that needed to be ate.  I threw in some kale as well.  We never had used kale before.  Our champion juicer wasn't a big fan of it and I think I used too much because none of us were fans of juice with a lot of kale.  She washed and counted apples and carrots and then carefully helped me cut them finally she put them through the juicer and I am almost certain she could do it herself now.  *grin*

We also planted some seeds, in the hopes of getting seedlings.  I am trying to be realistic, where as in times past I have planted a lot only to fail somewhat.  I kept it pretty simple this year I may do more tomatoes, I planted ten.  If they all do well that would be wonderful.  Have you been thinking about your garden? 

I am planing a tea party for us friday afternoon.  We will be using this time to work on table manners and serving others.  We have a special tea set just for this and will make some speical treats. 

This week we are also working on collages that and that has been fun as well, nothing like cutting out shapes from catalogs and going to town with glue and paper.  It's only tuesday!  :-) 

I wanted to add directions to a yummy desert we made here for Valentines Day:

Softhearted Chocolate Cakes

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces (1/2 pound)

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or 1-1/3 cups semisweet chocolate pieces

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

1/2  cup sugar

1/2  cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 teaspoon salt

Whipped cream (optional)

Raspberry Sauce  and/or fresh raspberries

Directions:

1. Lightly butter eight 8-ounce ramekins or 1-cup souffle dishes (I had neither of these dishes, what I did have was a texas muffin tin so I used it instead  and I think it worked very well); line bottoms with parchment or wax paper. Place the prepared ramekins on a shallow baking pan or on a large cookie sheet. Set aside.

2. In a heavy-bottomed, medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool slightly. (Or, in a mixing bowl, combine the butter and chocolate. Place mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water and melt butter and chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove bowl from the simmering water pot; set aside to cool slightly.)

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and egg yolks with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes or until thick and lemon-colored. Mix a large dollop of the beaten eggs into the butter-chocolate mixture. Gently fold until combined. Add butter-chocolate mixture to remaining beaten egg mixture and fold. After a few folds, sprinkle in sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt. Continue to fold until the mixture is combined.

4. Quickly divide the batter evenly among prepared ramekins. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 9 to 10 minutes or until cakes feel firm to the touch on top edges, but still soft in the center when pressed with a fingertip. Remove from oven; set ramekins on a wire rack. Let cakes cool completely in ramekins.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. When cakes are cool, use a small metal spatula to loosen edge of cakes from side of ramekin and unmold onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. The centers of the cakes are supposed to be soft. (If not using immediately, wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.)

6. When ready to serve, place cakes on a microwaveable serving plate. Heat in a microwave oven on 100 percent power for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until warm. (Center of cake will slightly pop up.) Serve with whipped cream and garnish with a splash of Raspberry Sauce and/or fresh raspberries, if you like. Makes 8 servings.

Raspberry Sauce

Yield: 2/3 cup

Ingredients

10 ounce package frozen and thawed red raspberries in syrup (I used frozen raspberries from a garden, they were not in a syrup)

Directions

In a blender container or food processor bowl, cover and blend or process one 10-ounce package frozen and thawed red raspberries in syrup until pureed. Use a fine sieve to sieve berry mixture. Cover and refrigerate the sauce till ready to use. Makes 2/3 cup.

I want to find a way to make a really good syrup for the next time I do this. But it was very rich, while time consuming it was very easy, just several steps.  I will make it again.  Thank you Pinterest!  :-)

Since we made so much juice from the apples we had, I decided they would make good frozen treats for Bear.  I froze the juice in little dixie cups and then when Sarah wishes for a treat, I can pull one out for her and it can be a slushy (I had no sticks, if I had sticks on hand I would have made popsicles). 

Foto Friday

A favorite foto from the last week or so....

Sarah and her friend Adelle, playing dressup.

Simple Life

This past week has been bad.  Sickness has hit the entire family and we each still have some varying degress of colds.  I finally made it into the doctor, and 5 days later still have a bad cough.  Half way through my battle Bob and Sarah both got it.  I am hoping the weekend brings a return of health and happiness for us all!

That being said, we have taken things very slowly.  We have tried to get fresh air each day, but keeping on top of the laundry has been a pain.  LOL  What do you do when you are hit by a sickness that leaves the whole family reeling and coughing for days?  I am so glad we are homeschooling, it has allowed us to take it easy instead of me forcing a sick and cranky child to get up and go to school.  Even though she is now well past the stage of giving it away, she still is tired from coughing, etc.  I think of how I feel and look at her and all that yucky condensed into her little pint sized frame is too much for me to bare.

I have been thinking-- and really it's along the lines of what I have been thinking for months--I have to go to school, but there has to be other ways to free up time and in the end have more fun with my daughter and make a better home environment for all of us.

I recently read this

"We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls" (Mother Teresa). 

 I don't think Mother Teresa ever met my four year old.  :-)

The point is, we need to live simpler lives. Let me say that again.  We NEED to live simplier lives.  We need to as a family, as a society even.   Think about it, we have all these hightec gadgets, even low tech gadgets and we are busier and more stressed then ever.  I was reading on Manage Your Life Now that the causes of stress today "emerge from the too many obligations" that we have to juggle, every single day.  Not only do we have to juggle them, our kids have to.  Our children are starting their lives stressed.  Childhood and its play and exploration has been replaced by structured activities.  When we expect 5 or 6 year olds to act like Mom and Dad we force expectations on them that we never had as children.  I wasn't whisked off to play dates 3 or 4 days a week, were you?  I wasn't put in camps every week of the summer, were you?  I wasn't in structured sports at 4, yet we have 2 and 3 year olds doing these things and it can't be good.  I speak as a mom that has done this.  I have been driving from activity to activity myself, doing business on the cell phone and throwing McDonald lunches at my toddler and preschooler because we are rushing from one thing to another.  No more, my daughter just wants to be happy and do things with me and her daddy. 

I thought getting rid of all those bags would be the key, it wasn't.  It helped, it was a start, but it isn't the key.  I am still looking for the key, but I think the next step is organizing and deleting the stuff that don't really matter.  You know the stuff that doesn't increase the joy and happiness of the family unit.  Do we really need to be busy all the time?  Nope.  I want some lazy family days that don't involve grocery shopping or trips to the mall, heck how about some days with trips to NO WHERE?!  Yeah, now we're talking.  So, more bags will go, and that's good, but we also need to get to a place where we can relax and that, frankly will take work.  Work on the part of the whole family.

A simpler and calmer (quieter) life.  That sounds divine. 

So my challenge to you:  Give up some outside activities.  Pick a day that will be media free in your family.  I think I will pick Monday.  I'll see how the family feels, it may change, but Monday sounds good.  No Computers on Monday.....  Maybe we will enjoy it so much we will do two days, but we will start with one.  Simpler and Calmer....  a new mantra in our house.  Think and Believe and it shall BE!

Birdies and Hearts

This week we enjoyed a couple activities before we got so sick we had a hard time functioning.

Monday we went on our first bird walk. They weren't prepared for a handful of preschoolers and kindergarten age children. That being said we had fun and Bear has a strong interest in bird watching. She has always loved seeing birds, but now she understand what she CAN see.

 

We discovered a worm on the wood stump.... 

We decided that there must be a nurse log burried there and providing food for the mushrooms...
notice how they are all in a row, lined up like little soldiers.

Then we went to a Valentines Day Party to exchange cards, play games, eat cookies and fruit and make a crafts with friends.  It was fun and all the children really did very well with their boxes.  There were so many unique and unusual boxes and designs.  Good job kiddos!

Directions for Paper Heart Chain:

Making a paper heart chain

• 
  
  
  
  Cut 1 1/2 inch strips of construction paper (about 8 inches long--the width of the paper standing up on end)
• Do about 4 colors (we were given pink, red, and purple)
• Fold the paper in half to creat the point.  (see below)
• Next curve up to form the top shape of the heart (kids can do this part as well
• Staple theend together (see above)
• continue to link until you have the desired length of chain.

Making the bottom point on the heart

Stappling and adding hearts



Bear's is the center one.

Wrap up: Valentines & Sleepovers

Thursday we created Sarah's Peice de Resistaince....  her valentine box.  It didn't quite match my visions in my head, but it is her creation.  Who can stop a girl on a mission, who would want to! 

The matterials for our box: 

• Small file box for photos (we bought ours at Micheals)
• Assorted scrapbook paper in pretty colors and prints
• Glitter--seriuosly can you have a kids craft without glitter?
• Glue, lots of glue
• Old paint brushes
• Scissors
• You might want stickers, dodads etc...  we also used some ribion.  But any embellishment you like would be great.

Now, you will be very very tempted to take over, but don't.  Help where needed and let them direct you as well.  It's their box.  If you want to create a fancy box, make one yourself, you can!

Now to some more fun and yummy goodness.  Chocolate covered oreos.....

Tomorrow we are going to a morning bird watching nature walk (we will talk more about that later) and then we are going to a Homeschool Valentine Party.  For the party we made dipped cookies in chocolate and worked together on our valentine cards.  The cookies were so easy, as you can tell since Sarah did a lot of them. 

How to make dipped Oreo cookies in chocolate:

• One package of oreo cookies
• 2 bags of Wilton Melt Chocolate (pick your 'flavor')

Melt chocolate per directions on bag and then dip the cookies in about half way 1 by 1.

See easy peasy. 

Friday night Sarah had her very first sleep over.  The girls had so much fun.  We started the evening with making a craft necklace, stringing wooden beads on to elastic.  Then we ventured into the kitchen and made our own pizzas.  It was so much fun.  I let the girls make their pizza however they wanted, I just supplied the ingredients.  They had so much fun piling everything on top and waiting for it to bake.  While we waited to the pizza we put in a movie and the girls finished the evening playing dress up.  They had more fun than any two girls every could have and I will now forever call them the Giggle Bug Duo. 

Coming up this week we will explore a new tool in our education arsenal. 

A Russian Stomach Culture

I was first introduced to Kombucha in the early 1990's by a family friend and Pastor.  He offered my mother a glass of an odd looking juice and the way the story was told and evolved over the years is that when she was skeptical, he showed her the scoby in a new batch of brewing healthy goodness.  My mom, aghast and almost grossed out, asked the friend what it was and was informed, with a perfectly straight face, "Its a Russian Stomach Culture" and it tastes yummy (OK that last part is likely just lore...  but he really did claim it was a Russian Stomach Culture).    Later we would be informed that historically it was used in Russia to combat hangovers and alcoholism, but I don't think he was able to explain his joke or the history that day.  My mom may have even called my father to come get her because the friend was harvesting stomach cultures.  *Laugh*  So, ever since in our family Kombucha has laughingly been referred to as the 'Russian Stomach Culture"  (I remember one time, when we were on vacation in the spring on year in Southern California,  my mom believed my dad when he said that the oranges were stamped with "Sunkist" while on the trees in the orchards still--she is just a tad on the gullible side--LOL). 

From:  Beginners Guide

Well after years of having nothing to do with Kombucha (my mother did finally get a scoby and it was brewed and drank at home--though not by her.  She could never get over the stomach culture business) a friend gave us a scoby and we are on our second brew.  The first batch brewed too long and I am going to try 10 days this time and see how we like it. 

So what are some of the benefits of Mrs. Kombucha?  It is suppose to support better digestive health.  Mrs. Kombucha is full of active enzymes and has a pH level that matches that of your stomach in a good way.  It supports the immune system, mostly I believe, from helping one have a healthy digestive tract.  It also is believed to help in liver detoxification.  It also fights an overload of candida albicans, which is a naturally occurring yeast in the digestive tract.  It's fine at the controlled levels but when it goes overboard you get frequent yeast infections, depression, chronic fatigue, etc.  So if you drink a lot of soda pop, have a stressful life or a stressor event, or have been on antibiotics the candida may just go haywire. 

So just with these few things, we decided Kombucha was a drink for us.  Our second brew will be done any day now.  Its exciting!

Some Kombucha links: 

brewing-kombucha-beginners-guide

Kombucha Kamp

Good video on making Kiombucha

Some more links to Kombucha and other health stuff

And a book I recently purchased:  Kombucha.  By Diana Allen and Woodland Publishing.  Kombucha book link

Magic Beans and Hollyhocks

Once upon a time, a little girl loved playing in the garden.  She was full of spunk and the sunlight loved her hair, we know that because it always turned it golden.   This little girl loved helping her mommy plant seeds and flowers but most of all she loved to dig in the dirt.  Worms lived in the dirt, you know, and when digging in the dirt you can find lots of chubby worms, skinny worms, short worms, and long worms. 



Magic Beans

And so went our day.....

We had a fun weekend.  We literally were outside ALL day Saturday.  With temps in the upper 50's our bodies were craving the sunshine on our faces, all of us.  Sunday we spent the afternoon at a Superbowl party with friends and again, as the daylight was waning I was dragging Sarah inside.  Tomorrow is suppose to be the same weather wise and hopefully we will be able to get more sunshine. 

Sarah made up the cutest story, about magic beans.  I think it was from a Clifford episode.  And speaking of beans, our order will soon be in and off.  I will once again try some hollyhocks as well.  I have tried several times to no avail.  I'm not actually sure what I am doing wrong but I am going to try them along the south side of the house along with the tomatoes.  Wish me luck.

Friday we found a little local coffee shop called Java Fusion on 6th Ave and we had a fun Mom and Daughter lunch out.  If you are in the area check them out.  Anyway, while there they had a domino set and we spent a good 20 minutes practicing the concept of adding .  It was fun, and a new method for teaching it.  I think we will look for a set soon as well.  It held her attention much longer than the standard worksheet.  She loved being able to feel the actual dots and I found her tracing the dots several times. 

I am looking at some software for photo editing as well, but really am not sure about the direction to go.  If anyone has any ideas please feel free to share the knowledge!

Obstacles everywhere

We love obstacle courses, ok maybe we is a strong word.  Bear loves obstacle courses.  It serves an educational purpose as well and it's really easy for you to create your own, even inside in a small space and with just a little imagination. 

What we did (with items we had on hand):  We got out our wooden blocks and created "piles" to walk around,  a length of rope (or if lacking that, a dog leash--yes we have walked a tightrope on the dog leash before, purely by accident....) you could even use a belt.  Just whatever you have on hand for the "balance beam"--good for gross motor skills.  Bear used the rope to walk on.  It wasn't big, just a few feet in length.  Then we used a big spoon and carried a Christmas ball that somehow missed getting packed away while we walked (OK one of us walked and the other jogged) through the course.  I gave up after once, I didn't go fast enough. 

Some other options we will do when we do it again: 

• A bin or basket full of items they must carry through the course.  With each trip they can pick a different item until the basket is empty.  I would suggest just a handful of items or it might get old and lose the spontaneity for your child.
• Add a "limbo" area.  Easy with the kitchen broom over a couple chairs.  It helps them with understanding getting down and crawling UNDER the stick. 
• A jumping or leaping area in your course.  Once again, easy with a stack of books starting low to the ground using your broom for the pole to jump over.  Raise it up higher with every pass or two until they can't leap over it. 
• Traffic cones (we have multicolored ones that I bought at a party store) but you could even save cans and then use them.  You could even paint them bright colors with craft paint.  I just didn't feel like going and digging them out, but I will soon. 
• Have the child turn directions while doing the course as well.  think "Simon Says."  Our version is "Mommy Says"  *grin*
• and more....

Another fun thing is building "forts."  This can provide hours of play, but of course you must be willing to let your house be chaotic with blankets and sheets and more!