Jared's first science experiment of the year

Teething - can you tell what it is? Pineapple skin! She was sad when I took it from her and gave her a real piece of pineapple.

Oatmeal Crispies

1 C Butter
2 C Rapadura (could use 1 C honey/1 C rapadura or sucant or brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C ww pastry flour (soft white if grinding)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 C Quick Oats

Combine bake at 350* for 12 - 14 min until lightly browned. These do spread out. These are sort of plain but my kids love them.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (just for Beth - Southern Belle)

1 C rapadura (sucanat or brown sugar works fine)
1 stick butter
1 C WW pastry flour (soft white if grinding)
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp soda
1 C rolled oats
1 C nuts (I use pecans!)
1 C Chocolate (or carob) chips

Combine. Bake at 350* for 10 - 12 minutes.

*My family really does like these. I've mailed them to the girls and they traveled well. I think you could use any whole wheat - but they'd be a bit more "heft" or "industrial" tasting. LOL

Adrienne's Oatmeal Banana Muffins

Combine:
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 C melted butter
1/3 C honey
1 egg
2 mashed bananas

Combine for 5 minutes
1 C plain yogurt (I use plain or vanilla) or Buttermilk
1 C rolled oats

Combine:
1 C whole wheat four (1:1 hard and soft white if grinding your own) I used only soft today and they didn't rise as well

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all together and spoon into muffin pans (I use 1/3 C for normal size muffin tins). Bake at 375* for 15 - 20 min (always takes longer for me).

*I always make 5x this recipe. I bake 1 doz plain, add pecans and make two doz and then today I added blueberries and made another two doz. Usually I do 2 doz plain and 3 doz with pecans.

Margin? What Margin?

If I wasn’t convinced that simplifying life is the way to go – I am FULLY convinced after today. We survived the “Day of Seven Engagements”. I am not sure HOW that happened. I am not sure WHY everyone in this town and this homeschool community plan everything on Thursdays but I will not be manic like this again. LOL I’m too tired to share the “moment by moment” account of the day.

I’d been saying earlier in the week that a HOMEschool Mom needs to be HOME….and after today I’m more convinced of that than ever. Several of our things were educational, several were ministry related and several were fun…regardless of the motivation…..we still like being HOME best. :::snort:::

I’ll share one part of the day! Our art class this a.m. was to be at a studio. Somehow the email I got gave an incomplete address. I thought it may have been incomplete, but when I put that address into map quest it gave me a map. I headed out. We left 5 minutes before we had planned to leave. We were in the middle of downtown – looking, searching, retracing our steps and NOT finding this studio. I tried to call our organizer but she’d left for the class (duh! LOL). I called home and Cy couldn’t find the address in the phone book. I tried calling two friends but their phones were busy (hmmm…just realized they may have been talking to each other….Adrienne, Tricia???? Is this ANY way to treat a FRIEND? ::::snort:::) I was resigned to driving all over downtown inch by inch until I found the studio. Arielle and Nolan were being troopers but really wanted to attend the class. I said, “God – it would sure be nice if you would tell me where this place is.” The cell phone rang as I started the car. I picked it up. It was Charly. She immediately said, “You sound frazzled are you ok?” (OK, wouldn’t you sound frazzled if you thought God was calling you on the cell phone???) Charly is my friend who is currently visiting family in GA. I said, “I’m LOST”. I explained that we were trying to go to an art class that had started at 10:00 (it was 10:00) and that map quest had me downtown……she asked the name of the studio, I told her. She knew where it was. It is real close to my house…within 5 minutes. LOL Is that God or WHAT? I love it! She called from GA, I was supposed to encourage HER but she ENCOURAGED me big time…I hate to admit this as I know Mike is going to read this…but we talked as I hit the loop and drove back across town.

I’ll say it for you Mike, “Get off the phone and D*R*I*V*E*!” It was soooo nice to hear Charly’s voice in the middle of such a busy day. :::: sheepishly signing off:::::

Making spaghetti sauce....see the big stock pot? Anyway - a LOT of onions to cut up by hand....Jamin suggested goggles when the smell began to make all of THEIR eyes water...they were across the room....

Let's see since I'm here and this was such a hectic day, I'll quickly recap. Tomorrow will be even more hectic...I'm tired NOW thinking about it. I have 7 appointments tomorrow....WHY?

The a.m. was completely filled with school. We finished a couple of books and started some new ones. Since we had nothing 0n the calendar for the afternoon I had plans to: bake bread and buns, bake muffins, make spaghetti sauce, make granola and make salad dressings.

Jamin and Jared had been compiling a list of a few school things we needed. I KNEW if I didn't get them today we wouldn't have them until Friday. I thought I could run out and get all I needed....but I ended up having to go to three stores. The last store was a teaching store called The Learning Lane. I need to go back and spend more time there. I was looking for a lesson planner/daily log for Jamin. The one we get from NARHS didn't have enough subjects listed...I could NOT believe that no one had one of these. The Learning Lane had some for classroom use that I could adapt but then I saw a shelf of Apologia text books. I headed over and they had The Home School Planner.....The elementary one had more spots for subjects so I grabbed it for Jamin. I'm going to go online and see the "family" planner and "unit study" planner.....maybe.....I didn't get home until 5:45.....so we threw together burritoes for dinner. We didn't go on a walk. I made spaghetti sauce. Josiah got home from work, we all visited a bit and everyone but Zander and Stacia went down.

While making sauce I cut the same thumb, with the same knife, in the same spot....but not nearly as bad. That and the noxious onion fumes have finally almost convinced me to get the slicer/shredder attachment for the Bosch.

We did nothing exciting today - kept busy and do feel good about the day.