March Goals

March Goals!  Yes, it's that time of month to write down my goals.  As I've done the last two months, I'll start with my main focus.

My March Focus is:

Strengthen my Scrapbooking

I know, really?  But yes!  The reason I picked this is because I already have some things in place to help this happen.

1. Put together my new shelves (an early birthday present!) to house my scrapbooks.  Two of the shelves arrived; once I get those put together and organized, I will order one more if needed.
2. Sort my albums as I put them on shelves.  I need to see what is missing and what needs to be updated.
3. Update any and all albums that I can (some might have to be spread out over the year depending on what needs to be done.
4. Continue to plan to order the current months photo and one other months photos.
5. Continue to plan to order one month of digital pages a month

Even though I have a main focus, there are some other things I'm focusing on too.

1. Add exercise to our daily routine - the weather has not been our friend yet this year but maybe, just maybe March will be our month!
2. Now that the weather is starting to maybe clear, I might actually try to do my first Shipt SHop.
3. Schedule an eye appointment - I think I need new contacts and I DO need new glasses!
4. Paint the Dining Room - I'll be honest, I'm not sure I can actually fit this in this month but I want it on the radar.
5. Put up the spring/summer shower curtain (Maybe that is why it is still snowing - I still have my snowflake shower curtain up HA!)
6. Price out a different Homeschool option for next year and see if it is a doable plan if we decided to not do connections academy next year.
7. Decide about camp for the boys - they have expressed a real interest in going this summer to a full week of camp - I need to see if we can make this happen financially.
8. Find one activity to do this month as a family.
9. Continue to read - I think I'm doing pretty good on this one.
10. Make sure I have our St. Patrick's stuff in the plans are in place.
11.  Update the holiday journal
12. Purchase items for the boys Easter Basket and get their Easter outfits
13. Finalize my song to sing at church and practice it.
14. Go through all of our summer clothes and make a list of what is needed
15. Deep clean the master bedroom - I did a big clean out last September but it tends to get piles quite often and I need to clean all of that stuff out.
16. The basement.  That's all HA!
17. Finish one project with Josh for School (he has three) and finish up Nate's big Michigan History Project and his reading journals
18. Plan my fall co-op class.  I have the information, I just need to lay out a basic lesson plan.
19. Plan for summer planting.  I want to plant sunflowers and maybe some other flowers.  I'd also like to plant a few (very few) veggie plants.

A Family favorite - Carrot Cake

Darryl's favorite birthday cake is Carrot Cake.  Until I married him, I never made one or really ate one because who puts veggies in their cake!  But, since it is his favorite I knew I had to learn how to make it.  I did some searching and I think I probably found this recipe on All Recipes.com but I really am not sure.  What I am sure about is that it is amazingly easy, always turns out and is so good. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (Darryl doesn't like nuts so I leave these out)

Frosting:
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bottom and sides of a 13x9 inch pan with shortening or cooking spray.  In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, and eggs with mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended.  Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder vanilla and salt; beat on low speed 1 minute.  Add carrots and nuts; pour into pan.  Bake 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely.

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk and vanilla with mixer on low speed until smooth.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time on low speed until smooth and spreadable (I usually use about 3 cups).  Frost Cake.  Store covered in the refrigerator.

Baker Book Club

I've really enjoyed reading some great books over the past few weeks.  Both books related to the Baker Book Club, my Book Club, and just fun reading!

First up, the Baker Book Club Books.

The Girl From the Train was a book originally written in a different language.  I had started it quite awhile ago but it did not hold my interest.  It takes place during World War II and has to do with a young Jewish girl orphaned but rescued and then adopted by a family in South Africa.  It was actually a really good book once I got through the more than confusing first few chapters.  I'm glad that I did actually go back and read it and it ended really, really well.

 This was last weeks read for the Baker Book Club.  The Secret Life of Sarah Hollenbeck was a funny book that made me smile while I was reading it.  It would fit in the category of "Christian Fiction Romance" and the book is actually written about itself!  The main character in the story is a writer and, after becoming a Christian, wants to switch from writing her hot and steamy stories to writing a story that brings romance to the Christian world that is clean and fun.  She meets a new Pastor at her church and the story goes from there!  The challenge last week was to read a book by a new author to you and since I hadn't heard of this author it fit in perfectly!

 Bear Town was the book for our book club this month - we are meeting on Sunday to discuss it.  Let me tell you, this is by far one of the best books I've ever read.  It made me angry!  For real.  I was so mad as I read it and the story unfolded.  From the very first (short) first chapter, I wanted to jump to the end to find out what happened so I wouldn't be angry throughout the whole book but I forced myself to just read it.  It's the type of book that when I finished it, I wanted to reread it right away in order to see what I missed.  Now, this is not an easy read.  It is a hard read with really tough topics and some strong language.  But wow, it was amazingly written.

 These four books are all part of a series I cam across because the first book was free.  Then, the other books were all available on Kindle Unlimited as was one of the Baker Book House Books.  I decided to try Kindle Unlimited for free for one month to see if I can find enough books to read to justify the $9.99 fee each month.  I tried it once before and didn't love it.  Anyway, this series is an easy read but a great story.  One of the reasons I enjoy it is because the main character is a single woman who is about 40 years old and makes major changes in her life that bring her back home to help her family and rent a farm.  Because I was single until I was almost 30, I find books like this encouraging.  So often all books are written when the young woman finds the perfect spouse and lives happily ever after and it leaves out the single girls!  It doesn't mean that in the next book that doesn't come out until April she won't find someone but it does show that it's ok to do things on your own too. 

I just started this book yesterday.  It's a slow start but was free on Kindle Unlimited so I hope it picks up!  It was an Amazon Best Seller so I assume it will be good!

I'm trying to remember to save all of the books I read to my Pinterest Board so feel free to check it out!

Origami Week Week 5

This week, we focused on the fact that Dr. Seuss' birthday was Saturday, March 2nd. 

I opened class by reading a favorite Dr. Seuss book.

Have you read this book?  I'm not actually a big fan of Dr. Seuss.  I find his books often long and not super interesting but this book was fun to read and the kids enjoyed it too. 

Once we finished reading, I taught the students how to fold an Origami Fish (which, as they quickly learned, was not as easy as they thought it would be!).  Then the students made the following craft with their fish found at Artsy Craftsy Mom

As was the case last week, I completely forgot to take pictures of their finished projects and I leave those projects in our storage room at Friday School to put out on presentation night.  So for now, you will have to believe me when I say that they turned out really, really good! 

This week I actually had a second project planned but folding fish took the students longer than I anticipated so we didn't get to the second project.  I'll shift that one to next week plus I have one other project I hope to get to next week too!  After a slow start to the semester (and my ideas for this class) we are finally picking up speed just in time for class to be over!

Sunday Worship - He Will

Honestly, I have no idea when I heard this song - I was recently cleaning out the "notes" on my phone and came across this one listed in one of those notes.  It's a great song though and I'm glad I wrote it down!

Our Week in Photos #9

We had another quiet week this week.  On Monday, our friends had a snow day so we had a snow day too :-)  Beyond that we really stuck close to home all week!

 We started out our week celebrating Darryl's birthday Saturday and Sunday.  

We ended our week with Friday School. 

 Josh and Nate in their Grateful Hearts class. 

 Nate's fishing class. 

 The Grateful Hearts class made "Get Well Bags" and then were supposed to take them home and give them to a friend or family member. 

 The boys and their bags. 

Delivering their bags to our most wonderful neighbor Cyndi who has been sick with the flu all week.  We love Cyndi (and her whole family).  They are the best neighbors ever!  I'm thankful that this time WE could help her! 

Finally, this is Nate in his Stones and Bones class.  The students were able to bring in rocks and minerals to share with the class.  He had lots to set out on the table for showing but the ones he chose to talk about were from Brazil that my brother and sister-in-law gave him.  The best part was when the teacher asked him why he liked the rocks and he said, "Because they are from my Uncle and make me think of him."  

So, that's our week.  This time of year when we are home bound due to weather, trying to stay ahead in school, and trying to avoid everyone else that is sick, we live a pretty quiet life :-)  

Weekly Menu

Welcome to March.  I have no earthly idea where February went but it is gone and we are moving onto March.  Last weeks menu changed alot because our plans changed; weather changed; and I didn't feel like going shopping.  It's amazing what you can find in the cupboard/freezer when you don't want to go to the store HA!

Here's the plan for the coming week.

Friday:  It's Friday School day and that means I won't feel like doing much when we get home!  So, I'm putting my crock pot to good use and using it to make Chicken and Stuffing.  I'll make some green beans and crescent rolls to go with it.

Saturday:  The boys had plans to do something with Darryl for his birthday last week but we moved it to this weekend so we will eat out and do their plan :-)

Sunday: Chili  w/Spaghetti.  This was on the menu for last week and never happened.

Monday:  Crock Pot Steak Fajitas, Salad, Rice and Beans

Tuesday: Chicken Cordon Blue Pasta Bake and Rolls

Wednesday:  IF we have AWANA, we will go out to Taco Bell.

Thursday:  Leftovers or Chicken Nuggets.