Sunday Worship- Living Hope

This is another song that I recently heard while driving and I just loved that it was easy to sing along with and has such great words!  Music speaks to my soul.

Our Week in Photos #2

I really focused on trying to get photos this week to share!  Here's our week in review!

 We started our week saying goodbye to our tree.  I love the lights but, in order to get ready for school to start, it had to go :-( 

 Both boys helped undecorate it - but Nate posed for me. 

 Almost done.  This year, I had to take it down on a day Darryl was home because our tree was BIG!  I loved it!  The last few years we've gotten trees that were shorter than me so I could drag them out. Not this year!  It took two of us.  I'm also soooo thankful I bought a tree bag - what a huge mess saver!  

 Josh asked me if I thought he could squeeze in here . . .I said no.  He proved me wrong. 

 Finally back to AWANA.  We missed some weeks due to having one car and then it was Christmas break.  

 The cats favorite place - laying on anybody.  He really loves Josh. 

 Nate's favorite place - under his blanket on the couch HA! 

 What's this?  On Thursday my great nephew and niece came to spend the day with us.  It's easy to forget how many toys a toddler can get out in one day!  They were great fun though and we always enjoy having them spend the day with us. 

We had a full week of school as we try to wrap up the semester.  Josh had to take his MAP tests this week. These are tests the boys take 3 times a year.  Neither one loves them and I don't really either but it is one of those requirements so we just do it.  

So, that's our week!  

Weekly Menu

Last weeks menu didn't go as planned but we did eat well every night.  I just seemed to have slightly different twists on the daily menu in order to use up some food we had in the fridge/freezer.  We also ate out a couple of times which is totally out of "character" for us but . . .we were celebrating finally having a second car HA!

Here's our plan for the upcoming week.  I'm more focused this week on trying to stick to the plan so we will see how it goes!

Friday - Today is grocery shopping day and laundry day so between the two, dinner needs to be easy.  I love the idea of pot pies for the adults and chicken nuggets for the kids. 

Saturday - Lemon BBQ Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Corn, and Biscuits

Sunday - Ravioli, Green Beans and Garlic Bread

Monday - Sweet and Sour Meatballs, rice,  and green beans

Tuesday - Meatball Soup and Yeast Rolls

Wednesday - This is AWANA night and Darryl usually has practice so there will be one of two options - leftovers or something easy at home OR Taco Bell :-)

Thursday - Baked Tariyaki Chicken, Amish Butter Noodles and Broccoli

Co-Op Class Description and Plan - Oragami

This semester I am teaching a class on Origami at our Homeschool Co-Op.  I'm not really sure how I came to the idea of teaching this other than after teaching Michigan History last semester (which, honestly, I did not enjoy) I wanted to teach a class that didn't require, well, real teaching.  In this class we are totally going to focus on creating fun projects.  My basic overview is to have 1-2 simple origami folding projects each week which we will then turn into a fun displays.  For example, we will fold fish/whales and create a 3-d piece of art showing them in an ocean or we will fold flowers, put them on stems (straws) and then display them in some vases.  There is also a wreath I plan to try as well as making a "Dragon Eye".

This class requires some basic supplies that each student will need.

The two items above are what will be used in the class.  

Josh actually got this kit for his birthday over a year ago.  He is taking my class so I'm hoping it will spark an interest in it! 

(all of these items are available on Amazon)

I will also be supplementing with some other supplies such as 8x8 scrapbooking paper for the wreath so the students can have patterned paper for that project.  Plus there will be "practice paper" which is just white typing paper cut to size.  I only have 6 students with two helpers besides myself so they should be able to accomplish what is needed with the help provided. 

I plan on sharing weekly/bi-weekly what projects we complete (and the success/failure of each one as well HA!)

Our Favorite Recipes - Stuffed Shells!

I love sharing new recipes I try but I decided I would also share some of our favorites.  Some I may have shared before but many will be "new".  I used to link recipes up so you could easily find them in the "archives" but over the last few years I got a little lazy with that feature - hopefully I can get back into the habit :-)  That also helps when I'm posting the menu - when I'm really on top of things I can provide links within my menu.

I haven't figured out how to post a "print recipe" option so I just try to post them in a way that you can easily "copy and paste" the recipe and print it that way.

Quite a few years ago, before we had kids, we used to go on vacation HA!  One year, while we were in Tennessee, we made a drive to South Carolina to see some friends.  For dinner, she made Stuffed Shells with Ricotta Cheese and they were amazing.  Once we got home, I went on a recipe search and found the perfect recipe.  It's been a long standing family favorite forever.  It's super easy, fairly inexpensive, and I love that I can put it all together in advance (like on a Saturday) and then cook it later (throw it in the oven right after church and dinner is ready in about 40 minutes).  I have no idea where I found the recipe since it has been so many years but I'm pretty sure that it is pretty standard this dish.

Ingredients:
2 dozen large pasta shells
2 teaspoons salt
24 ounces part skim ricotta cheese *
1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs, Italian seasoned
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1 egg, slightly beaten
Pasta sauce (jarred or homemade)
Mozzarella Cheese

Cook the shells in boiling, salted water, following the package directions.  Drain and rinse with cool water.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl combine the ricotta cheese, bread crumbs, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, parsley and egg; mix until well blended.

Cover the bottom of of a 9x13 baking dish with a thin layer of sauce.  Carefully spoon cheese mixture into shells; arrange shells, open side down, in the tomato sauce in the pan.  Pour the rest of the sauce over the shells. Cover with Mozzarella cheese and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.  Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove the foil and cook for 10-15 more minutes or until cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.

* I usually buy the smaller container - I think it is 16 ounces - but keep the rest of the ingredients the same and it tastes fine.  It makes a slight smaller batch and I put the shells in a 9x9 pan instead.

Our Christmas Eve Gifts

I've learned through the years the often the best gift ideas come from other blogs - tried and true gift ideas from other parents and the gifts they have given their kids!  So, I thought I would start sharing some gift ideas and, when Christmas returns next year I will try to remember to post these ideas once again!

Christmas Eve - I have always tended to over think these really creative ideas for Christmas Eve gifts and, honestly, they don't go as well as I hoped they would.  For example, one year, the boys got a book called "The Monstore" and each a set of supplies to make puppets. I thought it was awesome . .. the boys, not so much HA!

 (In all fairness, this did become a favorite bedtime story book!  )

(These puppets are actually super cool - my boys just weren't into them.  I would recommend them to someone with kids that love to be creative with toys like this! ) 

This year, I decided to keep it a little more simple.  Naturally, I picked up some new PJ's for them.  I found them the week of Thanksgiving at our local Meijer when they had them on sale for "buy 1 get 1 half off" which made them super affordable. (Not to mention, they didn't ring up correctly but, when I explained it to the cashier, she was so fed up with the sales not being in the system correctly, she gave me an additional 25% off of the 15% already given so I got them for a steal!) I then got them each a set of Pokemon cards because they both love Pokemon and then I found these awesome logic games.

They can both be found on Amazon and in Meijer -- my boys had fun with them both.  Each game comes with cards.  The cards show what colored cat/dogs to use in the puzzle and the area they need to fit.  Using logic, you solve the puzzle.  Don't worry, there are also answer keys!  The Dog Pile game seemed to be a little harder and Nate and I did have to look at the first clue to figure it out but then Nate was able to complete several others without help.  Both of these puzzle games are great for quiet play and are small enough for easy transport anywhere.

These games were a perfect hit.  Both of the boys played with the game they got after opening it and they enjoyed the game!  Yeah!

Back To School

Today we return to school after about 2 1/2 weeks off.  It's been wonderful.  The boys and I worked really, really hard the week of December 17th to not only finish all of the work scheduled for that week but also to push ahead and complete just a couple of extra lessons so that I was comfortable not returning to school until today.  Technically school resumed on Thursday but I know between it being the end of the week and our little friends still being with us all day as they also return to school today that there was no way we would do school on that Thursday!

We have two weeks until the end of first semester so we will be pushing hard to accomplish all that is required.  Using the online program does force our hand a little because there are actual deadlines.  There is coursework that is required to be done so we will make sure it is done!  Outside of regular daily lessons, Nate has one paper to finish up while Josh has one paper, a social studies project and 3 reading journals.  My goal is to have the extra work done by Friday so we are just wrapping up lessons.  The good thing is that next week we just have a handful of lessons to finish and we will be done.

Our Homeschool Co-op picks back up in just under two weeks also.  This semester will be different as alot of the boys friends are taking the semester off.  Josh will actually be one of the oldest kids this time around which is odd since he is only 10!  I think we are all ready to get back together with friends though.

In all honestly, I find it hard to believe we are almost at the halfway point of school.  To make it worse, the second semester always goes faster!  I like to push to have as much of our work done by May 15th as I can so we can enjoy an early start to summer break.  (Who wants to do school when the weather is perfect!)