Mommy Time - Winter Unit

It's the start of another year and we are kicking off our "Mommy Time" with a unit on, what else? Winter!  I wanted to share links to the blogs where I have found some wonderful things!  There are so many wonderful ideas out there!  Many of them I'm holding on to for future years to use with my kids but I found more than enough to use this year! 

One of my favorite blogs to get teachings ideas from is Musings of Me.  She posted this awesome Winter Unit.  I'm always blown away by her creativity and willingness to share so many ideas.  Make sure and check out her whole blog, this link only takes you to the Winter Unit - but she posts other units and additional "add-on" ideas to add to the Winter Unit too!

Itsybitsylearners has some really great printables too.  They not only have a Winter Unit but several other related units as well

Another site that I grabbed ideas from is Confessionsofahomeschooler  Check out all of the great ideas and printables that she has available too!

I really liked this Trinity Snowman concept found at squidoo

Another site I really love is Totally Tots.  She did a winter unit last year and you can click on the various blog posts to get tons of ideas.  I'm using ideas along with the book "The Mitten" this month.

Finally, I really enjoy the ideas I gain from 1plus1plus1equals1.  She also did a winter until previously and posted a lot of really great ideas!

Hope you enjoy these awesome sites and, again, don't stop with just the Winter Units - whatever you are teaching your kids - there are probably ideas on at least one of the above sites that you can use!! 

So, what are we doing?  You can click here to see my Calendar of Events for the month of January.  Previously, I was working in two week increments but I found that for our schedule, planning for a whole month works better.  I will not get through everything I have planned - if I can get to our Mommy Time 2-3 days a week, I'll be happy.  I'm already behind since this week, I had a lot of lose ends to tie up here at home from the holidays which took up a lot of my time.  I'm planning on getting back into the groove next week though!

So, hopefully next Friday, I'll have some pictures and some more ideas for you that we are going to do this coming week!

Enjoy :-)

Pepperoni Roll

I've seen recipes for a Pepperoni Roll on Allrecipes.com before and have heard people mention them but have never tried them before.  So, when I saw this simple recipe over at What Megans Making, I had to try it.

Ingredients:
1 loaf frozen bread dough
Olive Oil
Oregano
Basil
Pepperoni
Cheese
Pizza Sauce
egg
Italian Seasoning

Thaw a loaf of frozen bread dough in the refrigerator, than let it sit out at room temperature for a little while to warm up and rise a little.  Roll it out into a rectangle and brush it with olive oil.  Layer with cheese and pepperoni and sprinkle it with Basil and oregano.  Roll it up and put it on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.  Brush the top with a beaten egg and sprinkle with Italian seasoning on the top.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Let sit for few minutes, than slice and eat with heated pizza sauce.

 We really enjoyed this a lot. 

A couple of things I learned:
1) I should have let my dough sit out of the fridge a longer period of time - obviously, here in the North, it is cold outside and my kitchen was also chilly so the dough was still cold when I tried rolling it out.  I wasn't able to get it as thin as I would have liked so the final product was a little dense. 
2) You can't put on too much cheese :-)   I used about 3/4 of a bag of mozzarella cheese (because that is what I had) and needed the other 1/4 of a bag if not a little more.  I'm not sure if you would want to use veggies in this as the moisture might impact on the bread dough cooks

Otherwise - it was really good - my kids loved it and it was neater than pizza since they didn't miss the sauce :-) 

Enjoy :-)

Getting Organized Challenge

I am taking part in the 21 days of organization challenge over at A Bowl Full of Lemons.  Day one was the "junk" drawer. 

I'm going to combine days 2, 3, and 4 all in this one post since I did them all yesterday and today.  I'm still running a day behind but that's ok - I'll catch up!

So, day 2 is your desk - you can read her post here and below our my before and after pictures. 

My desk becomes the drop zone!  Plus it has way too many uses.

 Unlike the directions instructed, I did dig a little deeper into my desk clean-up and really worked on rearranging some things.  I still need to empty the drawers and rearrange those but that really wasn't part of the challenge!

It is so much nicer now!  I moved my computer to the other side so I can actually see out the window when I'm working online.  My label maker ran out of tape so I didn't get to do the labeling I wanted to do but I will! 

So day 3 is the dreaded Tupperware Cabinet.  Now, I do not really have a Tupperware cabinet so I chose the cabinet that holds all of our coffee fixin's and the kids stuff.

This cupboard was a disaster - most of our coffee stuff was sitting on the counter below because I couldn't fit it in.  Plus we got Tessimo coffee maker for Christmas and I wanted to be able to set up the discs in one place.

The after!!  I put the kids snacks all on one shelf and than their cups/plates/bowls just above that.  The other side holds all of our drink stuff.  It looks so much nicer now!!

And finally day 4 was the linen closet . . but . . I don't have a linen closet (I store sheets in each bedroom instead) So, I picked another kitchen cupboard - this time my baking turn-around cupboard. After the holiday baking, it really needed help.

This is the before - it is hard to tell but everything is just jam packed into that top shelf.

After picture number 1- so much neater!

And after picture #2 - everything has a home again!

I'll be linking up over at Bowlful of Lemons and hope to conquer day #5 tomorrow - which is the under the sink cabinet. 

Update on my Sister-in-Law, Nora

I've been meaning to write this update for a few days but, just didn't get it done.  If you would like to read the other posts about Nora, check them out here.  Otherwise, this is the latest from my brother, Jeff

Update: just returned from the Cancer Center. Thank you for your continued prayers. Jan. 18 Nora will be undergoing surgery to have the cancerous tumor and left lung removed. Dr. was optimistic that it is a slow growing cancer, but won't know for sure until he removes it. If so, and they are able to remove it all (he's not sure if he was able to see all of it, what he sees may be just the "tip of the iceberg"), then there is a good chance there will not need to be chemo or radiation. Please continue to pray for this major surgery, that there will not be complications and that it will get all of the cancer

In addition, the one obstacle that needs to be passed is an echocardiogram tomorrow. Dr. thought he heard something and wants to make sure she doesn't have a leaky valve in her heart, which would make things more complicated
(December 29, 2010)

As of today, I have not heard if they have gotten the results of the echocardiogram yet.

So, right now, they are preparing for surgery on January 18th to remove the lung.  Obviously this is major surgery so prayers are appreciated.

My niece, Brittany, wrote an article for a blog about this road they are walking.  Feel free to read it by clicking here

Weekly Song - How Beautiful

I wanted to be able to add this weeks song to my playlist so I went digging :-)  I really like Twila Paris as an artist - she has a voice that you instantly know when you hear it.  One of her songs "How Beautiful" is just that - beautiful.  It is a song that I've sung and we also used it in our wedding.  I hope you enjoy :-)

Encouraging One Another Link Party

One of the Blogs I mention quite frequently is Women Living Well.  This week, Courtney is hosting a Link Party for blog writers to link up with posts that will encourage each other.  I linked up with this post about living a Life on Purpose over the next year. 

So, if you are looking for encouragement today - in many areas - feel free to check out the links and/or link up one of your own!

Getting Organized Challenge

Over at A Bowl Full of Lemons a whole lot of organizing is taking place!  She is hosting a 21 day cleaning challenge and I've decided to participate in it.  The other day I wrote this post and gave two other links to blogs doing organization topics as well which are also great.  This one caught my attention because it is just small little things (so far).   I'm technically a couple of days behind since I just found this challenge yesterday but one thing I've learned from Flylady after years of flying is that "You are not behind - just start where you are at now!" 

So, Day 1 Challenge is to clear out that junk drawer.  I prefer to call it my "Misc" drawer :-)  I did this today and it took me all of about 10 minutes so don't let that drawer scare you :-)

Before



After

I'm going to link up to Day 1 of a Bowl Full of Lemons to show off my success :-)  Feel free to join up too! 

Day 2 Challenge is:  The Computer Desk - I hope to get that one done Wednesday!