What We're Eating - Corn Casserole

Corn Casserole
adapted from Made from Pinterest

I came across this recipe when someone posted a link on Facebook.  It sounded good and like something a little different for a side dish than what we usually have with dinner.  A friend of  mine shared that her family has been making this for years and it is a true favorite.  It really was tasty and it is a pretty inexpensive dish to make also.  


1 (8 ounce) box Jiffy Corn Muffin mix
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn (not drained)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together and pour into a greased 8″x8″ casserole dish.
Cook uncovered for 50 minutes or until lightly browned.
 

Homeschool Happenings - Week 16

I remember, when I taught school, how exciting this last week of school was before Christmas break.  I would plan special activities that revolved around our studies currently, make special crafts, finish up work on Christmas gifts I would make my students, and plan our Christmas party.  Really, I was just trying to make the week go faster so I could enjoy a few weeks off HA!  (Now you know how teachers feel!) I have a similar feeling this week - I want to do some fun things, wrap up some studies, and get ready to take some time off. 

 I shared on Monday about the Snowflake craft that we made this past week.  We usually do our crafts on the day that the munchkin I babysit doesn't go to preschool which is normally Friday but, this week he did not have school on Tuesday (but went on Friday instead) so we did our craft on Tuesday.  They all enjoyed glitter glue and paint to the fullest extent possible.

 The boys had fun "rolling" a gingerbread man (the idea comes from Teaching Hearts) .  They always love when they get to use the giant foam dice that we have and, amazingly, they had very few extra rolls; they had to tally mark each number that they rolled and you can see that there weren't a lot of marks!  (Josh's is the one above and Nates picture is the orange one.)

 Another day, we colored this cute little reindeer based on reading sight words. This comes from a packet created by The Moffatt Girls. 

 The boys really love to sing so using some printables from 1+1+1=1 to teach them "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  We sing one section each day and they have a number tracing sheet to do as well.

 Nate's numbers to our song.

 Josh's Numbers to our song.

I really struggled this holiday season with what to use to teach the Christmas story.  I've done something dinfferent over the past two years and thought about using one of those again but, honestly, I wasn't feeling a month long advent study - I felt like it was just too much.  Then I came across this 12 days of Christmas concept from Happy Home Fairy that was perfect.  It's just these little cards/pictures that you place inside an envelope; each day pull out the card which tells one piece of the Christmas story and the pictures.  It's a great way to talk about the Christmas Story with the boys. 

Just a peak at our White Board.  Josh likes to keep track of how many days we have to special things such as Nate's birthday (The "Happy Birthday") and Christmas.  He changes the numbers every day.

Our regular school work is going great.  Josh accomplished a big thing in phonics . . .he can sound out words; he is beginning to read!  It is so awesome to see that happen and see him start to put the sounds together. 

It's hard to believe that we are coming into our last week of school for 2014.  We will take the week of Christmas off without anything school related at all.  We will do some fun things but mostly, we'll focus on Nate's birthday and Christmas.  The week of New Years, I'd like to do as little as possible but I may plan a couple of fun crafts to break up our day. 

Make it Monday - Star Christmas Ornaments

I've mentioned before that I have tried to be intentional with our December plans by planning activities and, well, actually doing them!  The boys have enjoyed doing some crafts especially when those crafts include things like glitter glue, beads and paints! 

Mess for Less shares a simple tutorial for making some awesome snowflake ornaments that were perfect for my boys.  I love the idea of having the boys make a special ornament each year for our tree so making these was a winner!

 Nate's masterpieces which he made exactly the same. 

Josh's masterpieces - he made a rainbow and a fun snowflake with lots of beads.

I did a little prep work on these by using hot glue to make the snowflakes out of popscicle sticks.  This way, the boys could just paint and glitter and glue to their hearts content and I wouldn't need to scrap anything off to glue them together.  We made two ornaments - one to take to Great Grandma and one to keep at home (but Josh has already told me that his is for Papa and Nana so . . Mom, you might get it but it is really mine HA!) Great Grandma loved her ornaments and hung them on her super tiny tree (she lives in a nursing home). 

These would make a great craft for the family, daycare, or a Sunday School class!

Things My Kids Say

* I've had so much fun listening to the boys sing their songs for their Christmas Program.  My favorite part is how they sing the wrong words.  Such as the line in Hark the Herald Angels Sing that says, "God and Sinners reconciled".  Josh sings it, "God and Sisters reconciled"  or, a song from their program that says, "Holy Holy" and he sings, "Homey, Homey"  :-) hahaha

*We took the boys to see Santa recently (which raised all kinds of questions from whether Santa drives a car to how he knows who is naughty or nice!).  One of the Elves walked by and Josh (loudly) exclaimed, "Look mom, even the Leprechauns came to see Santa!"  We explained that they were Elves; for the next few days Josh would ask, "What are those people called who work for Santa?"

Family Fun - A Live Nativity and An adorable Nativity

This past weekend was filled with some awesome fun! 

We started out on Saturday with a trip to my Father-in-laws.  I didn't take any photos but we had a great visit.  He even took us to "The Cheese House" and bought us some awesome cheese (I love the Olive Cheese!).  Once we left there, we stopped at McDonald's for dinner and the boys got to play in the playland for a little bit too.  From there, we went to a Live Nativity put on by another local church.  Now, I have never been to a true live nativity and really wasn't sure what to expect but, it was fabulous.

 Darryl and the boys.  Josh and Nate thought this was awesome.  We got to walk down a path that was light by torches so we had to "Follow the fire"!

 As we walked along the path, there were stops where, as we arrived, a light would come on and they participates would tell the Christmas story.  It was so well done from the story itself, to the costumes, the the real live animals. 

After we had walked through the entire set, there was coffee/Hot Chocolate and coffee.  There was the option to ride in a wagon through the Nativity but we were glad we walked it so we could do it at our speed.  We did take the wagon ride from the cafeteria back to the beginning and that was fun. 
We plan to make this a tradition in coming years. 

Sunday we got to enjoy the boys Christmas program which they have been working on for months! 

 The boys singing in the choir.  Don't you just love their shirts?  I do!  I ordered from a great Etsy shop called Embrace Ethiopia.  The owner was wonderful to work with and I got the shirts very quickly! 

 Josh had a small solo in one of the songs.  It was so awesome to hear him sing out his part loud and proud (since every time we practiced at home, he whispered his part!)

 Near the end of the program, all of the younger kids left and then came back dressed up as the Nativity.  I don't know about you but to me, there is nothing cuter than a bunch of munchkins dressed up in costumes of "days of old". 

 Nate was a cow.  He picked the cow costume and loved it.  And let me tell you, there has never been a cuter cow.  Ever :-)

 I could just eat that cow right up . . .oh wait, that's kind of odd. 

 Josh picked a shepherd.  How adorable is this kid anyway?  He also said his verse without any help - he had that thing memorized and said it loud, and clear.  (we worked hard on that!). 

 The Cow, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the microphone and refused to say his verse (which is fine because cows don't talk anyway, right?).  He just chose to look cute and play with his ears. 

The boys took a bow together at the end - I loved it!

The added bonus on Sunday is that both my parents and Darryl's mom and her husband came to see the boys.  The boys were so excited to have the two sets of grandparents there to watch them. 

We had a fantastic weekend as we started the Christmas season and are looking forward to more in the coming weeks!

Weekly Menu

This is a menu that I planned for last week but, due to not having water when I thought we would, I pushed it ahead to this week.  I can, thankfully, say that we now have water and I'm cooking once again.  (And Microwaving and using a dishwasher YEAH!)  I must admit, though, as inconvenient as it was to not have water in the kitchen, I did not mind not cooking.  I could get used to Darryl bringing dinner home every night!!   The boys and I are glad to not be eating PB and J and Cheese and Crackers every single day for over a week for lunch!!! 

Saturday - What did I say about "full cooking"? Today we are going to visit Darryl's grandma for Christmas.  She lives in a nursing home so this year, each family is taking time to visit her sometime in December.  In the past we all gathered at the nursing home for a party but, lets face it, partying in the nursing home home is not that fun.  Anyway, after we leave there, we are going to do something fun - either Catch Air or the free play food at the mall, dinner and then going to see a HUGE light display at the Baseball Park.  It should be a fun day. 

Sunday - Stuffed Shells, Green Beans, Garlic Bread and yes, Spaghetti.   It's a simple Sunday dinner that I can prep on Saturday and toss in the oven when we get home. 

Monday - Ham and Scalloped Potatoes, A Veggie, and Rolls.  This is the leftover ham from the church dinner a few weeks ago.

Tuesday - Chicken and Dumplings (Mac and Cheese for the boys).  I'll be using the left over Turkey from that same dinner!

Wednesday - Chicken Noodle Soup and Rolls

Thursday - Lemon Dump Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots and Rolls

Friday - Tacos

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

This year, I wanted to be intentional with our Christmas plans so I picked a few key things to do on various weekends, made our plans, picked out crafts and other activities, put together our Christmas Countdown with little gifts, crafts, and activities and . .. forgot to plan time to decorate our tree!!!  Seriously.  So last week I looked at our calender and realized that this past Friday night was the only time we really had to decorate it and have it done sooner rather than two weeks from now.

The night started with Darryl and the boys making a trip to the store because, well, we had no lights for the tree.  See, last year I threw out our lights because I planned to buy LED lights for the tree.  (For the record we only had one strand of lights left working by the end of the season).  Then I kinda forgot that I threw them all out until, well, Friday.  They boys had fun though, so really, that's all that matters.

 Darryl worked on putting the lights on the tree (while the boys tried to play jump rope with them at the same time HA!).  We did put up our artificial tree again this year because Darryl wasn't really up to cutting one down as of yet but our plan next year is to 1)not forgot to plan to decorate the tree (geesh!) and 2) Cut one down. 

 Nathan waiting patiently to hang the ornaments.

The boys hung about 95 % of the ornaments this year so yes, our tree is very bottom heavy with ornaments, but it is the most beautiful tree ever.  They had so much fun deciding where to hang things and asking about special ornaments.