Homeschool Corner

The boys are really enjoying "school" this month.  The advent Bible reading has gained their interest as have the Christmas Books and Crafts.  I realized one day last week that I need to start prepping for January.  Printing, planning, cutting and prepping all take time.  I want to do something a little different for the rest of the year and that is I want to print everything now and put it in file folders so that each week I just have to pull papers that I need.  I'm also starting to look at curriculum for K-5 next year.  I think I have it narrowed down to what I want to do and am looking forward to a Homeschooling Conference in May so that I can do some looking and shopping for curriculum there as well as attend sessions.

This is what we did this week!

The Grinch Advent
Monday - We had originally planned to take the boys to see Santa; there is a local Husband and Wife that are "official" Mr and Mrs Claus and they set up a really cool Santa House for free photos.  Well, I asked the boys if they would actually sit on his lap or stand by him and they said NO!  My kids are very shy when it comes to new people or characters . . .so I'm letting go of that "tradition" for now :-(  Instead they opened up a small stamp set . . . which they loved and made fingerprints and hand prints.  I obviously didn't think that gift through :-)

Tuesday: Nuetlla snack cups with cookie stix - a favorite treat of the boys!
Wednesday: Starburst Candy Books
Thursday: Christmas Pez Dispensers
Friday: Stuffed Animals - to which Nate promptly said, "I do not like it; do not give me stuffed animals as gifts. Geesh!
Saturday: Airplanes
Sunday: Ring Pops (a big hit!!)

Our Bible Advent
Using the Storybook Bible is fabulous.  Once we finish with the advent, I plan on using it at Bedtime - we have started reading stories at night so I think we can add reading one of the Bible stories as well.  We are not doing this advent 7 days a week . . .so I am picking and choosing some of the stories/ornaments we are doing in order to make sure we get to the end of the stories on time.

Just a sampling of what we are doing.  I mentioned to my husband this week that, well, our boys are not artistic.  It isn't that they aren't creative - they are - they just have no artistic talent HA!  Their coloring consists of one solid color and it drives me bananas.  Oh well.  They must get their non-artistic talent from me - I can't even draw a stick figure!

And since these posts have been a little less than exciting, I thought I would include some misc photos from our week.

On Saturday, the 7th, it started Snowing and the boys were over joyed.  They slipped on some boots and went outside in their PJ's Saturday morning.  Nate went out first and it was just too cute to NOT take photos! 

 Notice the glove on one hand?  He started with two gloves but realized he couldn't feel the snowflakes with the gloves on so he took one off.

 Of course, once the camera came out, Josh had to get in on the fun!

 Then, the snow really started to amp up on Sunday.

 First up, the boys found some new cookie cutters I had picked up for making Christmas cookies (remember we were going to make them last Friday but I was SOOO sick!) and they BEGGED to make cookies.  Darryl took on the task on Sunday afternoon.

 Now, really, this is all they did - they cut them out, we baked them, they ate a bite or two and that's it.  No decorating.  The cookies were made with sugar cookie dough (refrigerated) and I didn't realize that it wasn't really meant for cut out cookies . . .. they spread and the cookies had no shape.  Plus, they weren't really that tasty.  I plan on making some real cut out cookies this next week so the boys can decorate them.

 Once the cookies were made, they headed outside and played until it was dark. 

Monday brought even MORE snow!

The boys used bowls to make snow forts, got their bikes and out played "crash" in the driveway (they would fall over and the other one would rescue them) and again, played until almost dark.

The weather turned bitter so on Tuesday and Thursday they couldn't go out at all; on Wednesday, I let them go out at about 3:45 and Josh stayed out until 5:00 - he's warm blooded like me, though, so he can last a long time in the cold ;-) 

Things My Kids Say

* Nate got sick in the middle of the night last week; I heard him up and got up to meet him at the bathroom.  He nonchalantly walked past me and said, "Mom, I puked so you need to wash my big blanket.  I just need to wipe my face and go back to bed.  As he carefully wiped his chin . . .not noticing that his PJ's . . well, he had a bigger mess on his hands.  Poor little guy : -(

* I asked Nate what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, thinking he would say chocolate or vanilla.  No, his reply was, "I want a pony or rocket or maybe a bunny - you know, mom, the kind we see at the store. Lets go to the store and buy one." LOL  I love how he thinks.

*Nate looked at me one morning as I came out of the bathroom (he had been waiting for me . . . .) and said, "Mom, that was a long shower.  I used to take long showers when I was a grown up like you too.".   Where does he come up with this stuff???

* At the end of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse they sing "The Hot Dog Song."  Nate stood up and said, "Everyone is singing and dancing, including I!!" LOL  Then he danced. :-)

*Josh is my perfectionist.  So, sickness is not on his list of "perfect things".  This past week he has also been hit with the flu but anytime I say, "Well, you feel like that because you got sick last night."  He'll respond with, "Mom, I'm not sick, I just . . . drank too much water, ate too much dinner, was too hot, was scared of something in the room  . ..  .(you get the idea)".  It makes me snicker . . .someday he will accept that being sick doesn't impact his "perfectness" LOL 

Our Book Advent - Week 2

December 9

Since "Mooseltoe" was checking everything off of his list - we made a simple little Christmas decor craft that I picked up at Michael's a few weeks ago :-)

 Josh's Wreath :-)

Nate's Wreath :-)
December 10:

This book goes through the Alphabet with lots of fun things . . .I liked Jingle Bells so we did a fun craft from Education.com.

The boys enjoyed this project - they each had their own sheet of stickers along with some left over foam stickers from Monday to decorate their Jingle Bell Cups.  It surprised me that Nate enjoyed this project the most - he used every last sticker up (His is the cup on the left!)

December 11

My original plan was to make pine cone Christmas Trees but I came up dry on pine cones - shoot, I couldn't even order them on Amazon because they were sold out!  My boys have been begging to paint and I've been wanting to do Q-Tip painting so I figured we would paint Christmas trees.  Josh loved this craft and ended up making two trees.  Nate "got tired" and wanted me to paint for him (which just means he is done!)

 Nate's Christmas Trees . . .

Josh's Christmas Trees - paint is Josh's friend!

December 12

And this is real life . .. I didn't feel like doing anything today so instead of doing my orignally planned craft . . I pulled out another purchase from Micheals.  These were Scratch Ornaments . . except you can't see the scratch part because once the boys scratched off all of the black part they covered it all up with the foam stickers.  They did love doing the scratch off part though :-)

December 13

Naturally, we decorated Gingerbread men today (and then ate some!)

 My cookie :-)

 Josh's plate of sprinkles . .. I mean his cookie HA!

Nate's cookie - yes, there are Halloween Sprinkles on this cookie too!

Food Friday - Butterscotch Magic Bars

Butterscotch Magic Bars
adapted from a friend 

One of the mom's made these bars for the "mom snack" at Friday School this last semester and I had to remove myself from the snack table or I would have eaten the pan.  I am a sucker for anything Butterscotch then add Sweetened Condensed Milk and, well, I'm sunk HA!  They are so easy to make and just so darn tasty! 

2 cups crushed graham crackers (about 1 sleeve)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

Mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a pan that is lined with parchment paper and very well greased 8x8 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Allow to cool completely.

* A few pointers:
1) I am normally not one to use parchment paper but I learned from the mom who made these (as she had to pry them out of the pan) that these are sticky!  So parchment paper will save you a lot of work.  Once these had cooled, I just used the parchment paper to lift the whole thing out of the pan and set it on a cooling rack. 
2) These are not nearly as good warm.  They need to set up completely so allowing them to cool is the best thing to do.  Granted I may or may not have taste tested these well before they were cool :-)
 

Weekly Menu - The week with a Birthday Party

After months of dealing with my husband's stomach issues and him not being able to eat much of anything, guess who got an awful case of the stomach flu that had lasting effects past a week?  ME!  Uuugg!  I have so lost any desire to cook.  We are eating Cream of Wheat, Frozen Waffles, eggs, and crackers.  Seriously.  My "poor" kids are eating surviving on Mac and Cheese, Hot Dogs, and PB and J.  It just is not fun to cook when no one eats it!!  Darryl and I have always been normal foodies (meaning we don't eat weird stuff) but right now, we can hardly eat normal stuff!  Here's our menu for this coming week :

Friday - Darryl and I were talking the other day about how all of my "staples" are out of commisison right now - thinks like Chili, Lots of Soups, Sloppy Joes . . . . he can't eat any of them.  I miss them.  It would be different if my boys were 15 and ate everything I made but it seems kind of useless to make a huge pot of Chili that only I eat!  Anyway, I've decided to go ahead with Taco Night tonight.  We haven't had them in awhile.  Darryl can eat most of the taco fixings especially if I shred some chicken for him without seasoning. 

Saturday - We are celebrating Nate's birthday today with the grandparents so it is his choice - ready?  Mac and Cheese.  Yep, that is what he wanted.  Now, I am adding a little more to it ;-)  We'll add Chili Dogs with Chili from our favorite Coney Place by my parents.  Some chips and I'm going to make "Ken's Fruit Salad".  In thinking about Darryl, I'm going to have some cheese and crackers too. Of course, we'll also have dessert - cupcakes :-)

Sunday - I am planning to head to town after church to finish up some shopping so we'll have a roast, potatoes and Carrots right after church so I can hit the road.  I'm not really a "Sunday" shopper but our Saturday's are busy and by the time Darryl gets home, for me to turn around and go back to town - it just makes it too late.

Monday - I'm miss my homemade soups!!!  I think I'll make Chicken and Dumplings . . . .and bread.  Hopefully it won't bother our stomachs!

Tuesday - And what do I always make after Chicken and Dumplings?  Some homemade Chicken and Noodle Soup.

Wednesday - Breakfast :-)  Eggs, Toast, Hashbrowns, and fruit sounds good!

Thursday  - Oven roasted Pork Loin, Potatoes, Green Beans and biscuits.

Snowmen

Last year I saw this all over Pinterest last year and wanted to add this to my Christmas Decor this year:

I tried to be "sneaky" and just create this on the fridge but the kids caught me so I ended up with a little more than I bargained for :-)

 I created my snowman on the top of the fridge . .. but had help with the very last button . . .can you tell? 

 Josh then had to create his own snowman on the Freezer. 

 Finally, remember this from my Dining Room Christmas Decor?  Well, Josh and Nate worked together to create this snowman as well. 

All fun Christmas Decor!

Decorating for Christmas - The Dining Room

I have to say, I'm having more fun decorating this year and I think it is because I cleaned out all of my Christmas stuff back in July but totally forgot that I did it so when I unpacked stuff, I had so much less stuff and had room to add more and because I did it all once but left room to add little touches over the next few weeks. 

 This is one of my "new" fun things.  I decided to make the tree in the dining room "mine".  I picked up some pink, purple and silver ornaments and other decor to decorate it.  I do think that next year I will find pink and purple lights - I haven't found any yet - and add those.  I'm not usually a pink/purple girl but the dining room is a deep purple so I thought it would look nice :-)

 On my marble table sits two houses.  The gingerbread house is from Halmark and I don't care how many times I pack it away, the boys find it and bring it back upstairs so this tends to reside in our house year round.  It plays music and has flashing lights which makes it a huge hit.  I also have a Clayworks House which I love!

 The silver reindeer - I got them for a steal from Home Interiors; figured they would be junky but when I got them (years ago) they were beautiful and very "sturdy".  I've never found anything else like these two.

 The archway holds the adult stockings and I'm also using it to display the kids Bible Advent pictures. 

 This is Josh's creation - a very cool snowman.  There is more to this story but I'll save it for another post.  I will say that he looked at the previously blank wall and then looked at me and said, "Wow, mom, you built this plain wall just for me to decorate." 

 Last year the boys made these cute little trees :-)  I love having crafts that they made on display.

 Another craft from several years ago - Reindeer using hands and feet :-)

 What would Christmas decor be without bows ?  (Except . .. I think I need pink instead of red . . .or maybe purple . . .)

Finally the Table . . .just a simple $2.50 plastic tablecloth made beautiful by a red glass bowl filled with tealights.  Such a simple statement.