Blissful Moments

I wandered lonely as a cloud....

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 02 May 2017 01:37:00 +0000

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

-- William Wordsworth

In a little town in northern Connecticut, off the main road, past several old farms, beside a narrow dirt road, there is a field of daffodils.

This is not just any field and they are most certainly not planted in neat and tidy rows. It is an old but typical New England farm. Its not flat by any means. There are trees scattered amongst the rocky fields with rock walls scattered about and a farm lane through the middle. In the distance a river passes by with a small island in the middle. But this field is different than all the rest. Its covered in daffodils. Under the trees, in the fields, even covering the island are thousands of daffodils. It is amazingly beautiful.

This isn't a public park. There are no benches. No parking lot. Just a field of daffodils on the side of a dirt road. In the middle there is a plaque explaining the purpose of these daffodils. It starts with the poem above written by William Wordsworth. Below is written the following: These daffodils were planted for all to enjoy by Virginia and Remy Morosani 1941

This lovely couple decided to set aside a part of their land and to take the time to plant thousands of daffodils for no other reason except for the Joy of it. The cool part was that you could feel the joy just being there. Even on the cold, windy overcast day that we were there, we had such a wonderfully fun time. Even as I write this a week later it fills me with joy remembering my family playing among the daffodils.

I think Wordsworth would approve.

On the way home I was thinking about the amazing thing that this couple had done. And for no other purpose but to bring joy to others. Then I started to think about my time and how I spend it, for myself and my family, and what part of what I do with my time is just for joy. Its a very small amount. Its hard, with the never ending to-do list, two kids and now a newborn. But I want more daffodils in my life, metaphorically that is. I want to make sure that I take a bit of time every week to do something that I really enjoy doing. I want each person in my family to have the time to do what they love to do.

I think the next step after that would be to think of some of our good friends and how we as a family might bring a bit of joy into their lives. There is nothing as special as brightening someones day. What a feeling it must have been to plant all those daffodils, not knowing if it would make an impact or not. I do hope they were able to see the impact that they made. I certainly will always remember the day I walked in the daffodils.

Eggs Everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 14 Apr 2017 07:00:00 +0000

My children have been asking to color eggs this Easter season. We are getting ready for a week long trip to visit my family but I wanted to make sure we did this activity before we left. We picked out this fun kit from the store and were excited to try something new.

Sadly, the box was missing all the dyes. I quickly went to my baking cupboard only to find a few drops of yellow and red food coloring. Enough to make some pale eggs. Needless to say they were not so excited about this.

Thankfully my amazing neighbor was able to save the day. They had been making Ukrainian eggs and had a jar of black and purple dye. These made some gorgeous eggs which you can see in the back row. The kids enjoyed decorating them and the afternoon was saved!

We also decided to try to make some felted eggs. We took a plastic egg and wrapped it in colorful wool.

We then dunked it in warm soapy water and rubbed it all over until they felted. Once they dry, we will make a small slit in them and slip the plastic egg out. I've never done this before. It was a little messy but fun. I will have to post the finished eggs tomorrow.

Starting Over

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 09 Apr 2017 20:11:00 +0000

Have you ever had an experience in life that changed everything for you? Not just a little change like wearing your hair different or changing your exercise routine ( or starting one). I mean something that comes along and WHAM! knocks you back, makes you stop, and then everything has to change. Your plans, your future, the way you think and make decisions. It all changes and you find yourself on a completely new path in life. Well, it happened to me.

But, lets get started on the right foot. Hi there! Remember me. Yes, its still the same person. This random post may be popping up for someone out there who thought that I had passed on from blog land. Seeing as it has been almost five years, you would have been right. Except, here I am. Its that WHAM! I was just talking about. I'll get there in a moment, I promise. Its a good thing. Worth the wait I would say.

So...five years... a lot happened. My kids grew up. I still homeshcooled. I began a small side craft business. My husband and I became licensed ministers and the Associate Pastors of our church. I started trying to grow and preserve a good amount of our own food. In essence, I got busy. Real busy. There was not time for blogs anymore.

Then WHAM!

I was out working the garden one day and I really wasn't feeling up to it. Which wouldn't have been strange as the garden is a lot of work. But I hadn't been up to a lot of things. Every day I was getting worse. Finally I decided to go see the doctor. I wasn't expecting the news she gave me. Who really is expecting it. I sobbed. I was in shock.

I was pregnant.

Didn't see that coming did you? Well, me either.

I want to get one thing very clear though. I was not sobbing about the baby, it was about the pregnancy. I wanted more kids. I had even been thinking about possibly trying to become foster parents. But pregnancy? No. My body was not made to make babies. My doctor told me that my son should be my last one. It would not be a healthy choice to have another child. But have another child it would be. And she was definitely worth it!

Unfortunately the doc was right. The pregnancy was long and rough. There was a lot of sitting and laying and doing of nothing. I literally could do nothing. No standing, no walking. no cooking. Even no knitting and crocheting! The one thing I could do...think. I did lots of thinking and observing. I watched my family. I thought about what our life was filled with and what it felt like. I thought about what was missing. The end result I did not like. I vowed to make a change. But what did I want our life to look like. Thats when I remembered this blog and the early days with my older kids. The joy of spending time with them. Having time to get all the crafts out and make a mess. To go on long walks and just enjoy the nature around us. Lots of laughter. I miss all of that.

This new child is like a new start. We have made a lot of changes already to accommodate her. But I want to make more changes. I can't have exactly what I had then. My older two are now 10 and 8. They have different needs now and definitely have their own opinions. But I want to try. I want to trade my busy days for Blissful Moments. Its my hope that by documenting this, I will stay accountable to myself. Old habits are hard to change.

( Sunset on Lake Superior this past Summer)

I hope you will enjoy joining me on this journey.

Preschool - V is for Vegetable

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:19:00 +0000

For Preschool we are in the midst of a farm theme. I will do a post very soon on exactly what I am doing for preschool. I will say though that at this point the purpose of the preschool activities is more to give Elijah some structure in the day also so that he can feel included in "school" when his sister has her school work. We were learning V is for vegetable this week. Sadly I was feeling under the weather so we didn't do everything planned and I often forgot to get the camera out. Some times I wish we had our own papparazi just to document our day.

Anyway....like i was saying....vegetables....we raided our play food stash and separated out all the vegetables from the fruit. I was pretty surprised that he knew the difference between most of them. Then for some creative play we "planted a vegetable garden.

I'm not sure where I got this green blanket, but it has been the best thing ever. It is often used for different imaginative play, a mountain side, a field or in this case a garden plot. First he planted the seeds which were little blue stones, which you can see below. The wherever the seed was he would place a different veggie for his garden. He really enjoyed this.

We also made salt dough veggies.

Here a a few pumpkins, lettuces and a pea pod. I would have shown you more since the plan was to paint them but the kids were too excited to wait and snagged them before we could pain and picture them.

I also brought out this barn I had bought during a yard sale this summer. Again lots of great play came out of this.

We did have one more non vegetable, learning experience this week. Be warned the next pictures do include an animal that is no longer alive. We had just learned about moles in our Sunday School class (even though you can't see them they leave behind evidence of their existence, just like God). Well, my father is devoted to his lawn and has been trying all summer long to catch a mole in the yard. I will confess I was rooting for the mole! But he did succeed in getting one so I figured its rare to see a mole up close so we did a little unplanned scientific study. It was really cool!

This guy was HUGE. I've seen moles before but this was a monster one. I was amazed by how large his front feet were. We noted that he had long nails kind of like small shovels on each toe and that his feet faced outward instead of inward like ours. Also for an animal that live underground his fur was quite clean and silky looking. We deduced that there must be something like an oil on its coat that helps keep it clean, but I haven't found anything that supports this theory yet.

That's it for preschool this week. We'll be back next week with tractors.

You Know Who You Are...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:11:00 +0000

So, I have recently been chastised for my lack of posts by a friend. Though she may go nameless here, she will have to put up with a bit of rib jabbing. Actually I had planned on coming back this week anyway, it has been way too long. Things had been CRAZY busy here for a while. You know that kind of busy where you are lucky to be wearing clean clothes and sometimes you actually forget to eat a meal. Haven't been that busy ever? Good for you! I don't like it and am glad it is over. But I figured if I don't have the time or energy to do my laundry then I have no business blogging. Plus I figured you guys didn't want to see pictures of my dirty laundry.

So...moving on...this past week has been a good one. We have started back into our routine of school (yes that was sacrificed as well) and I have pics and stories to share later this week. This week was also a big one in that last night was our first freeze. I hurried to salvage anything I could out of my garden. I also helped my friend, yep the same one named above. She and her family own a farm and I have had the ~~insane crazy~~ ~~exhausting~~ wonderful privilege of working once a week with her in the field as she grew produce for a CSA she has. This was my third and last year being a part of this. I have learned much, laughed a lot and made a wonderful friend. It is in honor of this friend that I have written this post. While we were harvesting some of her beautiful produce I shared with her one of my favorite fall recipes, and I thought I would share it with all of you too!

So I present:

Bountiful Fall Tortelini Dinner

(with veggies from Nature's Bounty Farm)

You will need a variety of root vegetables, tortellini and Italian Dressing

Here's My line up: parsnip, rutabaga, carrot, sweet potato, white potato, red onion and garlic.

You can use any selection of root veggie you want. Just depend on what you like or what you have on hand. But I find the more variety, the tastier the dish.

You need to wash, peel, trim and slice all the veggies into french fry size pieces. Toss them in a bit of oil of your choice and some salt.

After Roasting them at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, they will be slightly caramelized and yummy. While they were roasting you should boil some water and cook the tortellini so that it is done around the same time.

When both are done, place the still hot and steamy tortellini in a LARGE bowl.

Add in the root veggies and 1/4 - 1/2 cup Italian dressing, depending on your taste. You can also add in some parmesan cheese if you want. The heat form the tortellini warms up the dressing giving it an amazing aroma.

Mix all together. Serve with salad or crusty bread and you will be sure to have happy smiles all around the table.

So Amy I hope you are satisfied, not only did you get a new post, but my recipe to go with it. Enjoy the harvest everyone!

When the kitchen looks like this...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:00:00 +0000

...it tends to scare my husband!

But don't worry, its not what it looks like, unless you think it looks like I've been canning beets, in which case you would be right. I LOVE beets and although canning them can be a bit messy and time consuming it is well worth it to me. I thought I would share the process I go through in case anyone out there might want to try canning some themselves.

First off, you must remove all the skin from the beets before canning. Trust me, you don't want to have a bright red foamy mess in your storage area...believe me, its not pretty. What I do is remove the leaves from the beets then boil them whole until the skin slips off easily. It will take a bit of time and it all depends on the size of the beets. I usually take one out to test it. When they are ready I put them all into a large bowl of cold water

At this point I move to the counter where I have a large cutting board where I remove the top and tail and slip off the skin revealing a beautiful, shiny beet. Usually there are still a few pieces of skin sticking to the beet so for the next step...

I slip the beets into another bowl with water. This washes the beets one last time before I...

Chop them into smaller pieces. I used to slice the beets, but it took more time and I came too close to slicing my own finger too many times. Now I just make chunks and it works well for me.

Now I have a bowl of beautiful and fully prepped beets ready for canning. Because they are a low acid vegetable, they need to be canned in a pressure canner. Follow the directions given in your instruction booklet.

And thats it! I can almost taste them now just looking at them. I might just have to go open a can for a late night snack.

Flower Smashing Science

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:12:00 +0000

This was an activity we did in preparation of our upcoming Nature Adventure. We have been learning about flowers and for this activity we learned about the parts of a flower. First we went to the garden and picked some flowers. These happen to be zinnias. Then using a diagram of the parts of a flower, like this one at enchanted learning, we started to pull apart the flower looking for and identifying each part.

Here you can see the petals, the stamen and on the stem is the pistil.

After exploring the flower parts. We then removed the petals from several different flowers and we created a design with them on a piece of paper.

Then came the best part, we covered it with a second piece of paper and them hit it with a hammer. Yep, science is fun!

Eventually we realized it would work better if we used a thin piece of wood and then pounded on that.

What we were doing was pounding the pigment out of the flower petals, leaving behind beautiful designs.

Happy scientist!

Sneaky Math

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:26:00 +0000

So, my daughter has decided that she doesn't like math. In hopes of encouraging her to enjoy math more I have been seeking more living math ideas to add to our usual workbook. It has been working quite well and usually she has no idea that she is doing math. One night she overheard me explain to my husband how i was "sneaking" math into our school day. The next day Esther insisted that we do more sneaky math. I giggled inside that even though she knows its math, as long as it is "sneaky" she wants to do it. Here is one of her and my favorites. Pattern blocks and the Pattern Animal Puzzle Book.

The book has one animal for each letter of the alphabet which can be filled in using pattern blocks. But it also has several different activities to then use the blocks and animals pictures for. It covers several different math concept including, sorting, patterns graphing, comparison and many more things.

On this particular day first she had to fill in the picture of the jaguar. Then she had to create a frame around the entire picture using any blocks she wanted and in any way she wanted.

Then we counted how many of each block was used for the picture. Then we did it again for the frame. We put it all in a chart and compared the picture with the frame to see which one used more of each block. As you can tell this was a BIG hit with Esther. With the different pictures and all the different activities we can easily do one of these a week for the next year and not get tired of it.

By the way, I got my copy through Paperbackswap. I have received several homeschool books through this service and always check here first when looking for a book.

One of "those" weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Have you ever had one of those weeks when everything (and I mean everything) you had planned just goes out the window? Yep, I had one of those last week. If it wasn't friends needing help, or looming deadlines, then it was responsibilities I had agreed to, then forgot. (oops!) Or it rains for three days straight! Don't get me wrong we NEEDED the rain. But really, three straight days!? All outdoor plans were cut short. And of course when we're not running here or there, then the kids were at each others throats and Elijah decided he doesn't want to go on the potty anymore. This Momma was certainly not finding any bliss this past week.

But...today the kids are playing quietly together with no arguments. I have nowhere to be and nothing to do but to put the house back in order, something I usually dread, but today seems to be quite soothing. We may even get some school work done today. So, while the past was filled with chaos, I am choosing to say that today is going to be a great day.

....and Craft On!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:09:00 +0000

A while back, I stumbled upon a great blog called: Frontier Dreams

I have been snooping on this blog for quite a while and only recently brought myself to comment. (why is it so hard to leave comments some times? maybe its just me!?)

Anyway...she has a lovely weekly link up called Keep Calm Craft On. It is a wonderful place for crafty people to share their current projects. But, beyond the cute crafts and the great pictures, there is much more beneath this post. As she writes, "The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life.". I find myself quite agreeing with her. Whenever I sit down to sew, or knit I do find it quite calming.

In fact I have found myself recently, as I am getting frustrated or upset, repeating in my head "keep calm, craft on...keep calm, craft on" as if it is some sort of mantra. But it reminds me to not get so worked up over things, and to focus back on the little things that make me happy. Like for instance....

Making a new gift for my daughter.

This will eventually become a princess. You can find the pattern from Red Heart, here. The white was from a bag of random bits bought at a Good Will and the purple was salvaged from a sweater that did not fit any more. It should not take me much longer to finish and I promise to share a picture. But until then, check out Nicole's Blog and remember to Keep calm....

Tot School

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 03:03:00 +0000

Elijah is 3.5 years old

Here are a few highlights from our week in Tot School:

We played a simple game called Copy That I gathered a few items, making sure i had two of everything. Elijah would hide behind the couch while I paced the objects in a specific way (the plate on the left). Then Elijah would come over and have to "copy that" set up exactly. This was great in creating observation skills.

We did some color mixing using puffy paint. There are many recipes out there, but here is the one I used.

We learned about the letter E

which included the story of the cobbler and the elves with felt people.

We made a garbage gobbler with two paper plates stapled together, and learned the importance of not littering.

We used them to play a game to see who could pick up the most "trash" (crumpled used paper) Sorry for the blurry action shots.

We also went on a family adventure looking for different kinds of seeds. Click Here to see more of our adventure.

To see what others are doing in Tot School......click here!

Nature Explorers - Seeds

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 07:30:00 +0000

Welcome to The Nature Explorers Club. I am a mom who loves nature and loves to share it with others. Using my experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor and my basic love of nature, I will be venturing out to explore the great outdoors every week with my kids. Every week I will share what we did, and every week you are welcome to join us. So get your boots ready, because we're going exploring!

This week for Nature Explorers, we went on a family adventure. We focused on seeds and learning about them. Though I didn't get to do everything I wanted we still had a great week. On our adventure, the goal was to find as many seeds as we could. Luckily Daddy got to come with us!

Yep, this is the man who puts up with all my craziness...

We found several forms of seeds, in cones, in pods, in berries.

The coolest was this Paw Paw tree.

Of course a nature adventure would not be complete with out a frog. I think we may be a bit obsessed with them.

Earlier in the week we did a few other activities in preparation for our outing. We grew beans in a jar using paper towel and a little bit of water.

We learned the parts of a seed. The seed coat, endosperm (or food for the embryo), and the embryo (the wee little baby plant)

We also learned in what order a plant grows using a felt board in a file folder. First a large tap root grows, then smaller, finer roots grow off of that. It then send up a stem, with leaves following. Eventually there will be a flower. We also started to learn the parts of the flower. This next week we will learn about pollination, bees and flowers which circles back to this topic of seeds.

Some books we enjoyed were:
How a Seed Grows - Helene J. Jordan
The Tiny Seed - Eric Carle
The Berenstain Bears Grow It! - Stand & Jan Berenstain

If you and your kids went out and explored nature this week, please feel free to link up below. It is not necessary to have focused on seeds, we just want to share our adventures in the great outdoors.

Word Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:43:00 +0000

As we progress in Esther's reading, every week there are new words for her to learn and master. I use different activities to keep this exciting. Right now we have this chart hanging in our dining room. I write one word on each card and slip it into the pockets. I put it in the dining room because she sees it throughout the day and the words become more familiar to her.

Everyday, I have her read through the words. If she reads it correctly the first time, she can add a dot to the card. Five dots and the card can be removed from the chart. This way, once she masters a word, it is removed and she can focus on the harder ones. I am saving the cards to be used soon in some games.

Right now, she loves this. I often catch her standing in front of the chart, reading the words. Or she will arrange them into a sentence. I am glad she loves words so much. Now if only she would enjoy numbers as well!

The re-location of strawberries

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 01:14:00 +0000

Three years ago, we purchased 12 strawberry plants, which I planted in a corner of my garden. In the past years they have multiplied into easily over 50 plants. Sadly they have bore very little fruit. I decided enough was enough and since my garden space is limited (about 10' x 20') the strawberries had to go, so the soil could be more productive.

But I couldn't bare to just compost these plants. I mean, they did reproduce nicely. And they somehow survived the drought like summer we have had. I felt I owed it to them to re-locate.

Enter in...the milk crate!

I had watched a special on an urban farm in New York city that grew everything in milk crates. I have experimented a bit with some pepper plants.

But it occurred to me this could be the perfect strawberry planter.

First line the crate with landscape fabric, then fill with soil. I cut out squares, then stapled them together to make an open cube.

Now just cut a hole in the fabric in the side. Using your good steak knives is not mandatory.

Poke your finger in to make a hole in the soil.

Trim any dead parts off your plants.

And shove your sad looking, yet surviving plant, into the hole.

Make sure not to put it in too far so that the new leaves can make their way out.

Fill in the side leaving space between plants. Plant some more in the top, keep watered and now you have a strawberry planter.

I have 23 plants in a 1 foot square space. Hopefully next summer I will get some strawberries.

Just on the other side of my milk crates, I have tomatoes in buckets. I am trying to use any available space and this seems to be working. Now I just need more crates and buckets!

Nature Explorers - Family Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 19:00:00 +0000

I didn't have anything specific planned for our outdoor adventure this week. I did an online search for parks in our area, hoping to find one we have not yet visited. Surprisingly, I found one just 15 minutes away.

It is a public park which I believe is privately operated. It seemed to be a trust in honor of two people (Kathe and Cali). We didn't have too much time to explore since the temperature was rapidly rising and some one in the family does not tolerate heat well. (me!!) There was a little playground which made all the kids happy, including the big one.

Once on the trail we found some blackberries, which was a surprise considering the drought. They were good!

The trail led to some woods, which is rare around here since we mainly see fields of corn and soy beans. It was such a treat to be in the cool of the forest.

We found some sassafras trees, which is one of my favorite trees. The leaves are distinctive in that they have three different shapes all on one tree: the oval, the mitten and the dinosaur print. Yep, those are the technical terms when identifying them. Ok, maybe not, but that was how I first learned and I have never forgotten.

Another fun fact about sassafras is that this is were root beer, or sarsaparilla, originated. If you happen to be in a location where you can did things up, (which we weren't) find a small sapling and dig it up, making sure to recover the root. Just smelling it will remind you of root beer. There is debate as to whether the leaves are safe to consume or not, but Here is a website with more information and recipes to make your own root beer.

Either way the leaves and stems have their own wonderful smell. They in themselves are worth smelling. We found many other treasures along the way, making a truly wonderful trip.

That's what we did to explore the great outdoors. Next week we are focusing on seeds. I hope you were able to get out and do some exploring yourself. I am still trying to figure out the link up, everything has changed since I was last blogging. So much to learn! Hopefully next week you all can join me too.

Ever Frozen a Pickle?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:27:00 +0000

After flipping through this book:

The Joy of Pickling by Linda Ziedrich

I decided to try making cilantro freezer pickles. At first I wondered why freezing the pickles was a good idea, then I realized it was the best way to preserve the fresh flavor of cilantro. Lucky for me, a vendor at the farmers market was selling a half bushel of these cool snake like cucumbers.

Using my ancient "Oster" I sliced the cucumbers as thin as I could. Elijah Loves helping with the Oster.

I also sliced an onion in with the cukes.

Next I mixed 1 1/2 cups vinegar, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tsp cumin. I used a jar to shake it up and mix well.

I then finely chopped 1/4 cup of cilantro

I then mixed it all together and moved it to a covered container and put it in the fridge overnight.

Then I transferred it to some freezer bags, leaving some in a jar for the fridge because they are just so yummy! These should be so fresh to eat in the winter.

I have decided to link up with a carnival about preserving at Laura Williams' Musings. If you are interested in food preservation, you should check it out.

Tot School

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:43:00 +0000

Yay! I am finally back at Tot School! My homeschool/Blog adventure all started here three years ago with my daughter. Now I am here (at least for a bit) with my son.

Elijah is 3.5 years old

Here are a few activities we did this week:

Colored paper, with a number and the corresponding number of dots. Today we used mini erasers to cover each of the dots

Tub of rice and beans with letter hidden in it

Using stamps. Always a favorite for fine-motor skills

Color mixing on a coffee filter. I used an eye dropper and food coloring in water.

Special Art project: color coffee filter with washable markers then spray with water for colors to run together.

We left them out to dry and were going to make butterflies with them and pipe-cleaners, but a storm blew through and blew them away. We'll try again next week.

For this file folder game, you have to roll the dice and which ever number you roll, that animal moves forward one dot. Each time we play this, we use different objects in the "race". This week, the dog won! Congratulations!

We practiced letters using pom-poms on magnets. I first saw these at Mama Jenn. I would make a letter and Elijah would guess what it was. Then he would make a letter and I would guess.

And finally, Elijah's current favorite activities, hole punching and scissor cutting.

That's it for this week. To see what others have done, check out some other Tot School posts Here!

Beans and Potatos for Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:00:00 +0000

I would like to share with you my favorite early summer recipe. It is so simple and I love it soooo much. It is so hard to patient for the first green beans of the season. But once they're here, Oh man, I have to make this right away.

There are three simple ingredients. Ok, four if you count butter.
1. Butter
2. Potatos
3.Green Beans
4. Mustard

I prefer to use a cast iron pan, but I am sure any pan will do. First melt about three tablespoons butter in the pan. This works best with lots of butter. Meanwhile, cut up the potatoes into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the faster it cooks.

Add them to the pan and mix it around to make sure all potatoes are covered in butter. (note: you can add diced onion here if you want, it is equally delicious) Cover the pan and let it cook over medium heat. Now, prep your green beans. I like to cut them in half. They are easier to eat with the small potatoes. After about 5 minutes, add the beans, then cover again.

About every five minutes, check the potatoes and give the whole pan a stir. The point is to get it nice and brown on all sides and to cook the potatoes through. Once the potatoes are cooked all the way through, turn the burner off and get ready to add the final ingredient.

Mustard!

I have the great benefit of having a wonderful farmers market where I can get things like the fingerling potatoes and the purple and yellow beans that you see. I also can get this amazing homemade mustard. It is a family tradition from the lady I buy it from and it is delicious. If you do not have a source for good homemade mustard, any good mustard would do, just not yellow mustard.

I slather the beans and potatoes in this mustard. Use how much you want depending on your taste. I use 1/4 cup, you may want less. Just try a bit and give it a taste.

And that's it! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Nature Explorers - Frogs

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 00:32:00 +0000

Last year, on this blog I had started a group called Nature Explorers. Every week I purposed to get my kids out in nature to explore, learn something and have fun. I shared from my knowledge and experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor so that others could join in our fun. I hope to fully start this program again soon and I hope others will join in as well.

This week, for our outdoor exploration time, we went to the arboretum across the street from us in search of frogs. The first pond we found was so low in water and filled with duckweed, it made finding and catching frogs very difficult.

We did see several turtles basking in the sun in a larger pond.

We also saw the moon. It was odd to see it in the middle of the day, but the kids thought it was pretty cool.

Finally we found some frogs. And after much screeching and laughing we finally caught a frog. Note to self: next time use a net without a hole in the bottom.

He was a pretty good size frog, and I am pretty sure he was a green frog, though I did not get out the field guide to check. When catching frogs the best way to hold them is around their "waist". (do frogs have waists?!) We had some great lessons about the anatomy of amphibians. The favorite parts were the special see through eyelid the frog has that covers its eye when it goes under water. Also that frogs have no ears. Instead they have a tympanum (the round circle behind the eye). It acts like a drum and feels vibrations.

Unfortunately this is where my camera batteries died. Esther did bring along her camera though and she made her own video, which you can check out below which is featured on her youtube channel.

I hope you were able to get outside with your kids this week as well. Next week, I will hopefully have a place for you to link up, if you would like to join us with Nature Explorers

The Math Monster!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:23:00 +0000

Our school has been invaded by monsters!! Ok, its just one monster, and it is very much loved by my kids. This creation is used to practice simple math facts. You place the card with the math fact on it into the mouth of the monster.

After giving your answer, you let the monster "eat" the problem and then the answer is spit back out of the mouth.

(The answer was on the back of the card)

When I first introduced the monster, Esther gladly answered the math problems, though her enthusiasm did begin to wane. But then today, she decided to make her own problems for mom to answer. Of course that meant she had to write the problems out onto cards, answers and all. She got a big kick at watching mom counting on her fingers! But in the end, she practiced adding and didn't even realize it.

Now, before you think that I created this monster all on my own imagination, let me just stop you there. I am not that creative! I got the idea out of this book...

40 Easy to Make Math Manipulatives

Every so often scholastic has a sale on their downloadable files, making most of them $1. (I know! Only $1! Its very hard to contain myself from buying everything.) Anyway... a while back I downloaded this file. Sadly, I just tried to find it on Scholastic's site, but couldn't find it. I did find it on Amazon though in paper form, just click the image above.

This is the first thing I have made out of the book, but it was worth it. Have you ever seen a kid so excited to do addition?

In Search of Bliss

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:28:00 +0000

I have been striving to find more joy, happiness and overall bliss in my and my families lives. I realized not that long ago, that me and the kids weren't doing many fun things any more. I did take them to the park every so often and we do go to events in town. But the extras like painting for the fun of it or getting every art supply out at one time and creating whatever we wanted, well, its been a while. We weren't even going on many explorations into nature, which if you know me well, you would know that this is quite a shock! Every day practically became the same thing over and over, and not very much outlet for creativity, which I am realizing we need. Plus, I really enjoyed doing those things. Its the reason I am home with the kids and one of the reasons we homeschool.

Making a very long story short, I realized that by going back to blogging I could probably solve this. When I blogged I was kept accountable. I know it may sound bad, but making sure we did something so I could bog about it, actually made me do things! I know...It sounds horrible, but I'm not afraid to say it. Plus I had this wonderful community of like-minded people who would share and comment and then give me even more ideas. I need that. I need that spark to help my creative juices flow.

So what's different this time.
1. Opposite to what you may think after reading the above, I am not planning activities simply so I can blog about them. I am planning activities so that my children can have a creative outlet, so I can make memories, so their worlds can be expanded. The Blog will just keep me accountable to this. Hopefully I can keep it this way and not be come a slave to it.

2. I want to use this space to reflect on my days. Try to find the things to be thankful for. Grateful for. And find the things I want to change to make me and my home into what I want it to be.

3. Due to a shift in our families eating routine, you will see more recipes and more about gardening/preserving.

What will be the same

1. I will still share our homeschool doings.

2. I plan on reinstating Young Explorers. I am not ready to formally reinstate it, but I will be sharing our outdoor adventures until I am ready.

3. I will keep it as real as I can. I want to share the real me, my real kids and our real life, no matter how messy or silly it may be :)

That's it in a nutshell. I am looking forward to a great future.

A sticky visitor

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Early one morning I was putting a tarp away on our deck, when I was greeted by a little friend.....

This is a Grey Tree Frog, which are very common here in Michigan. Even though my kids were still in their PJ's I quickly called them out on the deck. Sadly I didn't get pictures of Esther.

A few tips about frogs in general:
1. Make sure your hands are wet when handling them, their skin is very thin and can rip easily.
2. They do not "pee" on you. This is a defense mechanism and it is just water stored in their body. Its their way of saying "hey, let me go!"
3. You cannot get warts from frogs!

After visiting for a bit, we put him in a pot on the deck and I was able to get this cool shot of him.

One other fun fact....grey tree frogs can change the color of their skin to camouflage with their surroundings. So cool!

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 01:14:00 +0000

Hello? He-lloooo!! Anybody out there. You probably were saying the same thing for this blog. You may have questions. Where have you been? Are your really back or just pretending? Are you still homeschooling?

Well, in the shortest way possible, yes I have been gone for quite a while. In fact over a year. Things changed here at home making blogging less of a priority, then I just simply got out of the habit.

Yes I am still homeschooling and in fact that is part of the reason why I am back. I seemed to have lost most of the fun in our school time, as well as most of the rest of the time. Believe it or not I truly believe blogging may help to bring the "fun" back to my home and ultimately let us start enjoying some bliss around here. I hope to explain more in future posts.

If you are some of the few stragglers who never deleted me off your reader list, I just want to say thanks. Thanks for hanging in there. I am really excited to be sharing more of me with the rest of you out there.

What we are doing for school - Kindergarten

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:35:00 +0000

I have decided to start Esther with My Fathers World Kindergarten. I decided to start kindergarten because she really just wanted to learn more and more. She knows her alphabet, sounds and is beginning to read. She can already print her alphabet quite well and knows all her colors, shapes and numbers. She is extremely curious and does seems to become quite irritable if we are not doing some sort of constructive learning. I also realized that I needed some type of structure to go by. So in comes My Fathers World.

We are using the curriculum at a much slower pace. Instead of one week per topic, we take two weeks. I also am not using their phonics program, instead we are using "Teach Your Child to Read in One Hundred Lessons". We are on lesson 42 and she really likes it. I like it too because everything I need is written right in the book. I was skeptical at first, but I really do like it alot. We will see how well she is reading at the end of the book.

Overall, I love the program. It gives me just enough structure that I'm not frantically trying to pull lessons together, but enough freedom to add in my own activities. I love how "hands on" it is. I just ordered ants which should arrive soon to fill our ant farm, plus we have been able to do other things like sew, model with clay and cook. For Esther it seems to be a good mix of worksheets (which she loves) and hands-on activities. I also use Kumon books, filefolder games as well as puzzles and board games.

I hope to show bi-weekly updates as we work our way through the curriculum.

Time Flies...

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:04:00 +0000

I cannot believe how fast time can move on me when I'm not looking. Of course we have been quite busy. I had the joy of planning the Easter Egg Hunt at our church this year.

It was lots of fun, especially because my mother came to visit.

It was a last minute trip, and we only had the weekend but it was a lot of fun.

The weekend after the egg hunt I also co directed a childrens puppet show based on the "The Tale of Three Trees" There were a few techinical difficulties, but was entirely enjoyed by the church. (sadly no pictures were taken)
We then celebrated Easter with my husbands family, and had a great time. The following day I collapsed in exhaustion. Ok not really, but I was completely exhausted and took the next week to recuperate.

It was about this time that my husband and I put in our application to get credentials within our church. My husband has always felt called to be a pastor and has had to overcome many obstacles, but now we are able to start the process to become liscenced ministers. Long story short, we started bible college just last Tuesday. Its exciting and overwhelming all at once.

We have been busy with school, I have been in my gardens everyday and I think I may just have a handle on how to feed my soy-allergic son. Whew! Can't wait to see what happens in the next month!