Our Thanksgiving Menu

I am SO excited for Thanksgiving this year. For the first time in three years my husband is NOT working for the holiday! We will be able to have Thanksgiving dinner at home 🙂 Don’t get me wrong, going to the fire station is fun, and we do think of the crew and their families as our family too, but it will be nice to be cooking in my kitchen with my kids this year. We don’t have any extended family nearby, but that’s okay. I will cook up a feast for the four of us (with help from my boys). I have been working hard this month planning our menu, and this is what I have come up with so far:

Main Course:
Maple-Bacon Turkey
This will be the first time I have tried this particular recipe, but it looks really good. Plus, as far as my husband is concerned, with bacon you can never go wrong!! 😉

Sides:
Mashed Potatoes
Gravy
Green Been Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Cheesy Broccoli Casserole with Ritz crackers (in high school my best friends mom made this one year when I was at their house for Thanksgiving and it was absolute cheesy, delicious goodness. I messaged her on Facebook for the recipe this year.)
Stuffing (from a box….I can’t make everything from scratch!)
Cranberry Sauce
Crescent Rolls

Dessert:
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Blackberry Cobbler in the crock pot

I am getting hungry just thinking about it! Of course, what I am most looking forward to is hanging at home with my family. We watch the Macy’s Parade in the morning, and then end the evening with the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special.

If you would like to share what is on your Thanksgiving menu leave me a comment! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

TOS Crew Blue Ribbon Awards!

As we wrap up another crew year it is once again time for the Blue Ribbon Awards. Each year crew members get to vote on their favorite products in various categories. This year there were some kids choice categories too! I have to say, my overall favorite product this year was Apologia’s Chemistry and Physics. My son and I are still enjoying this program and will be using it all year. It is so much fun and so easy to do!

Both of my kids voted for The Presidential Game for their choices as kids and teens. Our whole family loves to play that game (even my husband) and it provides such a great lesson on the whole election process.

Some of my other favorites from this year were Institute for Excellence in Writing and Moving Beyond the Page. If you are looking for curriculum ideas or just want to learn about some great homeschooling products, check out all the award winners here:

Announcing — The 2013 Blue Ribbon Awards!

Simple Calzone

Calzones, I LOVE them. But I have never attempted to make one because I thought they were, well, complicated. Then I started talking to my friends and found out they weren’t. So I decided to give it a try and this is what I came up with.

Ingredients:
2 frozen pizza crusts
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 package pepperoni
1 package ham
1 green pepper
1 bag shredded mozzarella
1 bag shredded parmesan
1/2 stick butter (melted)
Italian seasoning
Garlic salt
Grated parmesan

Directions:

1. Spray a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the pizza dough out on the cookie sheet.

2. Cover one half of the dough with spaghetti sauce.

3. Top the spaghetti sauce with three pieces of ham.

4. Cover the ham with some sprinkled mozzarella.

5. Place a layer of green peppers on top.

6. Cover the peppers with a layer of shredded Parmesan.

7. Top the Parmesan with a layer of pepperoni.

8. Fold the layer of pizza dough over and crimp the edges to seal.

9. Brush the top with the melted butter, and sprinkle with Italian seasoning, garlic salt, and grated Parmesan.

10. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes, until browned.

Cut and serve with the rest of the spaghetti sauce for dipping. I made this with pasta salad and my whole family loved it!! The best thing about it is that you can totally customize it with whatever fillings you want. Now, this recipe will be on a regular rotation. I am even considering making it our Christmas Eve dinner!!

To see other recipes from this week’s Try a New Recipe Tuesday, click here:

Thankfulness Overflows

Our blog cruise topic this week is “on being thankful”. Oh boy….do I have a LOT to be thankful for this year. But before I start, I want to give some more thought on what this idea of thankfulness means. So, I looked up the word gratitude on dictionary.com. and their definition is “the quality or feeling of being thankful or grateful”. Next, I searched for synonyms for gratitude, some of the results were: acknowledgment, appreciativeness, grace, praise and thanksgiving.

When searching the Blue Letter Bible website for thankfulness, I found the use of “thankful” in the context of Colossians 3:15 to mean “mindful of favors, grateful, thankful, pleasing, agreeable, acceptable to others”.

In Colossians 3:16, the word “gratitude” means “what is due to grace, the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace, that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness, benefit, bounty”.

So, when I think of being thankful in these terms, I decided to come up with my own definition of gratitude: “an attitude of gratefulness for the many blessings God has given me as one who lives within the power of his divine grace”. And this year the blessings have been numerous. For starters, we began this year with serious concerns that my husband had a deadly heart condition. For months I lived in limbo, trying to hold onto hope when the doctors kept giving us more and more bad news. And yet, God showed his divine power, when finally, after a visit to see an expert at the Mayo clinic (which we probably be paying for monthly for the next 5 years!) we found out he was misdiagnosed! I cannot even describe the feeling of overwhelming gratitude that consumed my heart when I got that phone call. In the face of incredible odds, the Lord came through yet again.

And then there was starting our homeschool year. I had been saving money monthly to buy curriculum for quite some time, and I thought we would be set for this year. Well, due to my hubby’s medical issues and few other life things that came up (2 cars breaking down within weeks of each other… a huge electric bill due to a faulty AC) all the money disappeared. I started the year wondering how on earth I was going to teach my children. And then, through blessings I received from homeschool friends who let me borrow entire curriculums for a year, and the stuff I received as a member of the TOS crew, ALL of our needs were met!!

Finally, the homeowners decided to renew our lease for another year this month. This may seem small, but to me, it is a HUGE blessing. One of the problems with renting a house is that you never know what the next year is going to bring. I HATE moving…with a passion. The whole process stresses me out. Not to mention, we are still working on recovering from our financial setbacks and do not have the money for deposits and first and last months rent right now. So to know that we have another year in this house, which we really like, is  a huge blessing!

Of course, life is far from rosy. We still have numerous day to day struggles and challenges to overcome. But when I look back at how far the Lord has brought us, how can I possibly worry about what is to come? I KNOW he has every situation firmly in hand.

Even though the road ahead may be paved with challenges, I am thankful for where I am at right now, and I trust that God is with me in every challenge I face. Granted, His solution to a problem may not be the one I envisioned in my head, but I have to trust that HE is Lord, and therefore, HE knows best.

I believe that God’s plans for me are good. Again, He knows what I need and I believe that the future He has planned for me will lead me into the abundant life He promises in His word. Now, God’s definition of abundance does not necessarily match the definition of the world we live in. Today many people define abundance by the amount of money in their bank account, how big their house is, or how much “stuff” they own. To me, abundance means the blessing of having a healthy family that gets to be together every day, having a safe place to live, food on the table, and a life that includes love, joy, and laughter. The blessing of salvation is far beyond anything I deserve, and to have all of these things on top of that is enough to make me want to shout with joy. So today, I am thankful for this messy, imperfect life of mine. I am thankful for the challenges that teach me to be more dependent on the Lord and show me that I can always count on Him. I am thankful for grace, mercy, and love. And this family that I wake up to every morning.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

To see what other members of the crew have to say on this topic, click here:

 

TOS Review: At Home in Dogwood Mudhole

I love to read and I am always looking for a new book. So for this review, I was excited to receive a copy of At Home in Dogwood Mudhole by Franklin Sanders. The book is the first of two (so far) volumes detailing the real-life adventures of Sanders and his family as they gradually move to life on a farm.

Dogwood Mudhole Cover

This book opened with a story I loved and could really relate to, the story of how Mr. Sanders got his “thirty dollar dog”. We too have dogs like this in our house. Mutts, found at the pound. Dogs that drive us crazy but also fill our lives with love and laughter. Sanders heart-felt and honest story-telling ability makes you laugh out loud while also saying “I agree” in your head.

Tar, our first “thirty-dollar dog”

Tar and his buddy, my youngest boy.

Ash, in her favorite spot, my oldest son’s bed.

At Home in Dogwood Mudhole is divided into four sections that describe the Sanders family’s gradual move from Memphis to a more rural setting, and their adjustment to life on the farm. Throughout the book the author’s deep love for his family, and their close relationships are evident. Growing up on a “mini-farm”, I could relate to many of his stories, and his devotion to the Lord is evident.

Another thing that is evident is Mr. Sander’s love for the South. Several times in the book, he talks about “The War for Southern Independence”. He and his family regularly participate in battle reenactments and visit historical sights related to the Civil War. There are many passages about Southern culture and history included in the book. Of course, not everyone will share Mr. Sanders view about this topic, but he is honest in expressing how he feels and the reason he feels this way.

The author, Mr. Sanders with is “thirty-dollar dog”.

In describing many of the frequent journeys his family takes, Mr. Sanders also highlights particular places that stood out. He frequently mentions restaurants, stores, and interesting places he has discovered, complete with contact information for the establishment. His descriptions of Southern foods often made me hungry, and I wished I could take a road trip to where he had his fried pies!

To be honest, I did get sort of bogged down in the middle of the story. There were some parts, (such as when he is describing what he went through with the IRS), where my mind started to wander. This is not the fault of the storyteller, but really just my lack of interest in that part of the story. However, if you are interested in how Mr. Sanders set up his gold bank, and the trials he faced because of it, you might not get bored.

The descriptions of the hardships, trials, and joy that come with life on a farm brought me back to my days as a young girl, and Mr. Sanders was very detailed, accurate, and humorous in those descriptions. Volume one of At Home in Dogwood Mudhole is available for $22.95 in paperback and $16.95 for download on Kindle or an e-reader. Pre-orders for volume two are being taken now.

To see what other members of the crew thought of this book, click here:

Pork and Black Bean Soup

This is a yummy crock pot recipe I just tried for the first time, and it is REALLY REALLY good!

Ingredients:
2 lb. boneless pork butt
6 cups chicken broth
4 cloves garlic
1 medium red onion
1 bag dried black beans
2 tsp. cumin
2 tbsp. adobo sauce
1 tbsp. chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 tbsp. salt

Directions:
1. Chop the onion and garlic and rinse the beans.
2. Mix the chicken broth, salt, cumin, chipotles, and adobo sauce in the crock pot.
3. Stir in the beans and onions.
4. Add the pork and cook on low for 8 hours.
5. Remove the pork to a plate to shred and return to the soup to serve.

You can garnish this with cheese, cilantro, or salsa. I served it with a salad made with the Et Tu Southwest Salad kit, which is also really good (and easy). My oldest son also wanted to eat the soup with tortilla chips.

To see more recipes from this weeks Try a New Recipe Tuesday, click here:

The Holidays Are Coming!!

I swear the holidays come earlier and earlier every year! I walked into the store the day after Halloween and they were filling the aisles with Christmas stuff! Did we just skip November altogether? Do we move straight from the candy to the presents without a pause for thankfulness? Ugh! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas. I start listening to Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving, and we put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, but still, I feel like everything is just so rushed, and I think it contributes to my holiday stress.

Every year I look forward to this time of year. I love the cooler temperatures (well, cooler for Florida), the pumpkins, the flavors, and all the fun that comes with this season. Right now, I am planning our Thanksgiving dinner. For the first time in three years, my husband is NOT working, so we actually get to eat at home instead of the fire station. I am looking forward to a day of cooking and lounging around with my family. It will be nice to have my kitchen full of holiday smells.

Here’s the thing that bothers me. I want to take this month to focus on the gratitude that comes with Thanksgiving. Before my kids get carried away with the thoughts of the gifts and the candy canes and the lights, I want them to take a moment to focus on being thankful for what they already have. I want them to understand that even though our life may be different from that of their friends, they are blessed beyond belief.

Again, I love Christmas. And I really get into giving gifts. There is something about watching someone open a present that I have picked out for them and loving it that just warms my heart. I spend hours planning gifts for my family, and I love wrapping the presents and look forward to that moment when we all get up and open gifts together. I don’t think presents are bad, I just think that focusing on the gift giving and decorations for a full two months is a little much. As I hear about people completing their Christmas lists the second week of November, I start to panic and wonder if I am falling behind. As the weeks go on and more and more of my friends Facebook posts focus on checking items off their lists, I start to really stress out.

So, this year, I am going to work to enjoy the month of November with my focus on Thanksgiving without thinking about next month. I will focus on Christmas AFTER Thanksgiving. This month, I am just going to spend time being grateful for all that I have.

TOS Review: Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics

I have reviewed (and loved) many products from Apologia Educational Ministries in the past, so I jumped at the chance to review their Exploring Creation With Chemistry and Physics curriculum! Honestly, I had been eyeballing this particular book for quite some time, but due to budget constraints, I could not purchase anything. Receiving this book for my review was a huge blessing!!

Typically the Exploring Creation books from Apologia are aimed at grades K-6, but I am using this book for my 7th grade son’s science this year and I feel it is totally appropriate for him. First, I will say the book, like all offerings from Apologia, is beautiful. The full color text has amazing pictures, and Jeannie Fulbright writes in her usual conversational tone. Each chapter is chock full of information and experiments! I will admit, we do NOT do every experiment listed in the “try this” section of the text, but we do most of them, and they are great. The experiments usually consist of items you probably already have at home (plastic cups, corn starch, salt etc.) or things you can easily purchase at the dollar store. I love the fact that each chapter has several experiments to choose from, all of which reinforce the content. There are 14 chapters on topics ranging from matter, to thermal energy, to motion.

Water density

I have tried many science programs over the years, and I have to say that Apologia’s are the most practical we have done so far. In a lot of programs I have found the the experiments are so involved, or require so many specific items, that we just skip them. With this program, we can EASILY do the majority of the experiments, and they are fun!! Easy is important to me as a busy mom. If something looks too complicated, or is too expensive, I’m probably going to skip it, but that is not the case with Exploring Chemistry and Physics.

How many pennies can it hold?

Do-it-yourself lava lamps!

I also like how very thorough this curriculum is. If you complete the whole curriculum, your kids will have a lot of knowledge when you are done. In the past we have studied Exploring Creation with Astronomy, Zoology 2, and Anatomy and Physiology, and I am impressed with just how much my kids still remember. I feel like these courses are a great way to introduce these complicated topics to your kids, and give them a reference for when they study them more in-depth in high school!

As part of the curriculum, we also got to use the Chemistry and Physics Notebooking Journal. These journals are a nice addition to the curriculum. In the front there are lesson plans that break each chapter into assignments two days per week. Each notebook has different activities including space to take notes, review questions, crosswords, copywork, and mini-books. These activities really help reinforce what your child is learning in the text.

In addition, all of the Apologia books come with a code that gives you access to exclusive content related to that book on their website. This content includes links to websites related to the topic, videos and all kinds of other things.

Studying surface tension.

My son and I are thoroughly enjoying Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics. I think this is going to be one of our best years for science yet. The lessons are meaty, but easy to complete, and he is learning so much from the experiments and activities. The Chemistry and Physics text costs $39.00, while the Notebooking Journal costs $24.00. There is even a Junior Notebooking Journal for younger kids that you can use if you are teaching multiple ages at once. I highly recommend Apologia’s science curriculum as an economical choice for a great science curriculum!

To see what other members of the crew thought of this book, click here:

Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables

MMMM….veggies. I love them. My kids, not so much. So I am always in search of recipes that bring fresh vegetables to our table in new and exciting ways. This recipe for Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables was yummy and easy.

Ingredients:
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion
2 squash
1 zucchini
3 cloves garlic
1 portobello mushroom
4 red potatoes
Sprinkle of paprika
Sprinkle of oregano
Sprinkle of garlic powder
1 cup of Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing

Directions:
1. Wash the vegetables.
2. Chop the peppers, onion, zucchini, squash, mushroom, and potatoes into one inch chunks.
3. Mince the garlic
4. Place all vegetables in a large bowl.
5. Pour the vinaigrette over the vegetables and season with the spices to taste. Toss vegetables to coat.
5. Place vegetables in pan coated with non-stick cooking spray or lined with foil.
6. Bake at 450 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Essentially, you could add whatever vegetables you want to this recipe and just add the dressing and cook! Easy-peasy. 🙂

To see other recipes from this week’s Try a New Recipe Tuesday link up click here:

My Wiggly Boys

My silly boys.

Our topic for the blog cruise this week is “teaching the chatty, wiggly child”. Oh my, I definitely have two of those. My boys are, well, all boy in the sense that they are always moving-fidgeting-fiddling around kinds of kids. They can’t be still, they ALWAYS have something to say (and more often than not, it is off topic) and they seem to be in a constant state of movement. I have to be honest, to my orderly, organized “teacher-brain”, this is the kind of behavior we try to stop in the classroom. All that movement is distracting, and once one kid is off task, they all get off task! So, learning to deal with (and love) this chase-the-rabbit-trail kind of behavior has been a process for ME in our homeschooling. These are some of the things I do to try and accommodate my active boys while still making sure we get work done.

1. Allow frequent breaks.
Seriously, some days we take a short 5 minute break after each subject. This allows my boys to run outside for a minute, pet the dog, have a conversation, look up something online they just thought of, play guitar, or add a piece to their latest Lego creation. At first, this was really hard for me, because I am a “let’s dig in and get school done” kind of girl. However, I quickly realized that my sons did not have the same attitude, and the more I tried to push them to be like me, the more miserable school became for all of us. By working small breaks into our schedule, my boys know they will have a few minutes to move around and do what they want at the end of each subject. This helps them focus more on the work at hand when they are doing it. Yes, it extends our day a bit, and we finish school around two instead of at noon, but does that really matter? Not to me!

2. Stop and Listen
Although I hate to admit it, when I am “busy” doing something, and one of my kids tries to tell me something, I often only half-listen, giving a nod when they are done and sending them on their way. The thing is, my kids KNOW when I am not paying attention to them and usually, this only causes them to talk more. I have learned that when one of my kids is just bursting to say something (even if it doesn’t really relate to what we are doing at the moment) it is best to just stop what we are doing, let them talk, and pay attention to what they have to say. So if, in the middle of grammar, my youngest suddenly interrupts and asks me if I remember the story that we read last year, about the pirate who does all this cool stuff, instead of telling him to be quiet and get back to work, I answer his question. Oddly enough, just doing that seems to resolve the problem. After we have had our conversation, my son goes back to his assigned work and finishes up. In the past, when I have been more work-focused and would not make room for these interruptions, it often led to a LONG disruption that ended with tears, fighting, and declarations of “you never want to listen to me”.

3. Keep it in Perspective.
This is probably one of the biggest things I have learned about homeschooling and life in general. One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool is to spend time with my boys because I felt they were growing up too fast and I was missing most of it. I try to remind myself that childhood comes in seasons, and that these boys who drive me crazy with their constant movement and chatter won’t always be like this. There will come a time when their lives will be full of jobs and friends and I will miss these moments. When you’re in the middle of the craziness it is hard to see, but I know that these days (however hectic) won’t last forever. At some point I may even long for a random interruption to my day because it is far too quiet. So I strive to remember that when I am trying to teach a science lesson and my boy determines he just has to ask me about last week’s trip to the grocery store right at the minute. Or when a spontaneous light saber war erupts during reading time. Or when someone decides the dog needs to wear a blanket as a cape as I am trying to explain the difference between mixed numbers and improper fractions. God made these boys the way they are for a reason, and the joy they bring to my life is worth all the craziness!

Do you have a chatty, wiggly child at your house? To see what other members of the crew had to say on this topic, check out the blog cruise here: