The Young'ns

Summer Fun! Kid Activities & Free Printables

2013-05-20T13:35:00.001-06:00

I am so excited to share this with you!!!

I was inspired by lists of fun summer activities to do with my kiddos, like this one and this one, but of course I had to remake it so that it was just the way I wanted it If you don’t have a perfectionist and/or crafty bend, feel free to just use this one as is!

Here’s what it looks like, all set up and pretty above my dining room table:

I’ve uploaded the pdf as well as the original publisher file (which you obviously can only open if you have publisher). I made them 3.5” square and mounted them onto 4” square pieces of scrapbook paper that I already had (7 sheets of 12 x 12 paper). I used regular yarn and mini clothespins from Joann’s to attach them. I have a DONE envelope to put them in when we’re done. Here are the fonts that I used:

I also made a supplies list for myself, broken down by activity, as well as cost, if any. Of course, there are a handful of activities that are local to my neck of the woods, but you can either just toss those or replace them with ones in your area. I’ve also linked to the resources that I found to actually complete these lovely activities.

Crafts / Cooking

Make Sidewalk Paint

Cornstarch
Food Coloring

Potato Stamps

Potatoes
Paint
Knife
Paper

Make Popsicles

Dixie Cups
Popsicle Sticks
Yogurt
Strawberries
Lemon Juice
Sugar

Paint with Pudding

Pudding
Muffin Tins
Paper

Finger Paint

Sugar
Salt
Corn Starch
Food Coloring
Jars for paint

Make a Bird Feeder

Peanut Butter
Plastic bags
Bird Seed
Plastic spoons
Twine

Kool-Aid Soda Pop

Kool Aid
Sugar
Bubble Water

Make Dessert
Make Cupcakes for Neighbors

Cake mix
Frosting
Sprinkles
Printed topper
Ziplock bags

Snack Necklace

Pretzels
Cheerios
Other snack foods with holes

Make Flubber

Elmer’s Glue
Borax
Food Coloring

Make Play Dough

Flour
Salt
Cream of Tartar
Kool Aid

Caramel Popcorn

1/2 cup unpopped corn kernels (10-12 cups popped)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Craft from Magazine
Make Shirts (I mean decorate some with fabric markers)
Make Ice Cream
Bubble Snake

Plastic Water Bottle
Sock
Rubber band
Super Giant Bubble Solution

Dawn
Cornstarch
Baking Soda
Secret Ingredient from link

Make Cookies for Neighbors
Bathtub Painting

Clear Glycerin Soap
Tempera Paint
Long skinny ice cube tray

Outings that may or may not cost money

Picnic
Get a new clothing item

Swim

Movie at Theater

McDonalds Playland

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Printable
Collection bag

Get Slurpees

Bowling

Zoo
Camping
Bike to Park
Fireworks
Splash Park
Donuts
Go For a Hike

Things to do around our house

Campout in Backyard
Play a Board Game
Movie & Popcorn
Kids Plan Dinner
Ride Bikes
Lemonade Stand

Lemon Juice
Sugar
Cups
Signs
Table

Learn a New Game
Blanket Fort
Water Balloons

Water Balloons
Bucket

Breakfast for Dinner
Paper Airplanes
Swim at Our Pool
Water Bottle Fight
Treasure Hunt

Clue Cards
Envelopes and Plastic Eggs
Candy
Prizes

Things specific to us here in Fort Collins (although you might be able to find something similar where you live)

Farmer’s Market
Ride the Trolley

TCBY

Lee Martinez Farm

$3 x 3 = $9
Pony Rides $5 x 2 = $10?

Mail a Letter to Maria (our sponsored child through WorldVision.org)
Discovery Museum
Swimming at City Park
Ice Cream Truck
Noontime Notes
Walk to the Mullins
Drive In Movie
IMAX at Discovery Museum

I also was thinking that since at least half of these aren’t necessarily summer-only activities, once summer is over, I’ll be putting these in a box or something to pull out once in a while when we need something besides our usual to do.

Also, please don’t be intimidated or think that I’m some kind of super mom!! I can guarantee that we will NOT be doing ALL of these this summer. I just wanted some ideas of some things to do so that we don’t feel like our entire summer slipped away. Some days we might do several of these, but some days (or weeks), we might only get to one or two or none for that matter.

A few others things we’re doing also:

Going to as many parks in our town as possible. According to the city’s website, there are 38 parks with playgrounds.
Doing several summer reading programs including the one from our library and and a few from this list.
Nate is signed up for a music class as well as an Amazing Athletes class through the city.
Vacation Bible School! The kids are beyond thrilled and eagerly anticipating VBS

I have a pinterest board just for summer too, so we might do a few more things from there, but who knows?

What are you doing this summer?

In case you missed it in all those words, here are the download files:

pdf OR
publisher file (which you obviously can only open if you have publisher

Here are the fonts that I used:

Wordless Wednesday–Tour De Parks

2013-05-16T19:44:00.001-06:00

I’ve decided that we’re going to go to as many different parks as we can this summer. According to the city’s website, there are 38 parks with playgrounds. So far, we’ve been to three different ones this week!

You can follow our #tourdeparks adventure on Instagram too :-)

Here’s a few random pictures from our park adventures this week:

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Wordless Wednesday–Sidewalk Art

2013-05-02T15:05:00.001-06:00

Done by my aspiring artist, who is 6.

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Wordless Wednesday–Shane Praying

2013-04-25T22:43:00.001-06:00

As we were singing our mealtime prayer the other day, I look over and see Shane doing this:

Aw, how cute!

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Tot School / B4FIAR–Corduroy

2013-04-21T07:00:00.000-06:00

Nathanael is currently 46 months. Tilly is currently 40 months.

We haven’t done anything for tot school in about four weeks. We had an Easter party for all the kids in our family and the one we co-op with, then had three weeks off for packing and vacationing. I was pleasantly surprised how well the kids did after having that long off!

This week, we read Corduroy and A Pocket for Corduroy, both classics that are so easy to do with preschoolers because there are so many choices for activities! Because I just have the two tot-schoolers now, I’m not as careful in my planning. Usually I go online the night before and print a bunch of stuff, and then we just do whatever we feel like doing for that day. Here’s a few of what we chose to do:

Dot painting a brown bear from Making Learning Fun

Playing Bear Roll and Stamp from PreK Pages

Prewriting practice from Homeschool Creations

Fine motor skills using Counting Bears, Easy Grip Tweezers, and ice cube trays. This one was tricky for them, but they persevered. I did not say they had to do any kind of pattern or specific color, so it was funny to see what they ended up with:

Nate ended up doing this pattern for the whole tray. Tilly ended up doing a bunch of purple ones, then gave up and just did whatever she grabbed.

Next we played a color recognition game using my Photo Stacking Blocks and Education Cubes color inserts. I highly recommend these blocks, especially if you have any boys. Adding an active component, even if it’s just a little bit, helps Nate so much! For the game, I used the color cards that matched the counting bears plus a wild card that had them all on it. I had them take turns rolling the cube down the hall, then running to see what color it was. They then had to grab a matching bear from the bin and put it anywhere in their ice cube tray. Again, hilarious, because Nate had to stick them all in a row, all on their bottoms. Tilly just put them wherever. When a wild card came up, Tilly always picked purple, and Nate picked whatever one he grabbed first.

Our snack was teddy grahams, which is not something I usually buy, so Nate loved them! I made simple papers that had the number 1-6. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with them when I made them, but after seeing that they both needed practice with number recognition and counting, I thought up this little activity. I gave them each 21 bears in a snack cup. They then had to lay out their papers, (which is why they’re not in order), and place the correct number of bears on each page. They got to eat them afterward, of course.

We watched Corduroy from this Scholastic Storybook Treasures that Grandpa bought the kids a few years ago while they ate their snack.

We did some pattern completing from Homeschool Share. I love Nate’s facial expression in this picture :-) Also, notice in most of the pictures from today that he’s wearing a bag. He told me it was his purse, I told him it was his briefcase. So now he has a briefcase that he takes to “work” everyday. He told me it has his lunch and his coffee in it, heehee!

We then read A Pocket for Corduroy and made a Corduroy bear using the templates from Serving Pink Lemonade.

I asked them each if they wanted their own name or Corduroy on the nametag inside the pocket. Nate picked his name, Tilly picked Corduroy.

Overall, a fun and engaging unit!

Oh, and this is what happens when you don’t put away the supplies right away…

This teeny tot is too smart for me! I don’t know what there will be left to teach him when he actually gets to tot school age :-)

Links to some of the printables/resources that I found:

* Homeschool Share

*Homeschool Creations

*Serving Pink Lemonade – Great template with bear and overalls

*We Can Do All Things – Early Learning with Counting Bears

Speak Up Saturday–Book Review–Jennifer: An O’Malley Love Story

2013-04-20T21:34:00.001-06:00

Ohmygoodness! When I got the review copy on this novella, I was ecstatic! Good thing it was short, because I don’t think my husband or my kids would have been very happy with me for ignoring them for more than a day :-)

Jennifer: An O'Malley Love Story (or go here to get the ePub version right now, before the official release date!)

From the Publisher:

It's a summer of change for Jennifer O'Malley.
The busy physician has a pediatrics practice in Dallas, Texas, and meeting and falling in love with surgeon Tom Peterson is adding a rich layer to her life. She's sorting out how to introduce Tom to her family--she's the youngest of seven--and thinking about marriage.
She's falling in love with Jesus too, and knows God is good. But that faith is about to be tested, and in a way she didn't expect. The results will soon transform her entire family.

Why was I so excited to get this book? It completes the O’Malley series by Dee Henderson. This series was one of the first ones I read after getting a relationship with Jesus. This novella is about the only one of the O’Malley siblings that didn’t get a full length book, and for good reason which I will not divulge because it is part of the plot of the series.

What appeals to me about the series? The characters are believable and their emotional struggles are real. They are fun to follow along because they are more, well, celebrity for lack of a better word. I mean, they all have fairly high profile lives, but it’s fun that way. If you’re going to read a book, might as well make it something that is fantastical.

The part that I enjoy the most, however, is their stories of faith. How each one, especially Jennifer as told in this novella, come to know their Savior is powerful and awesome. Jennifer is the one who prompts the others to examine their lives and what they really believe, so to learn how her conversion came about was great.

I read this book in one evening, good thing it was only a novella! It prompted me to want to read the entire series again :-)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NetGalley as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Some links are affiliate links, which I may receive a small compensation from in connection with their affiliate program.

Wordless Wednesday–SNOW!

2013-04-17T23:25:00.001-06:00

Last week, the beach. This week, SNOW! Thank you, Colorado spring, for the beautiful, and freezing, homecoming present.

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Menu Plan Monday–April and May

2013-04-15T23:42:00.001-06:00

The last three weeks were a bit of a whirlwind. My husband’s grandmother passed away about three weeks ago, so me being me, I planned a two week road trip for my family to go to SoCal and enjoy the sights as well as go to the memorial service. Oh, and I played travel agent for the rest of his family, which include his mom and disabled dad, sister and her hubby, and two more brothers. Yeah. Made my head spin a bit. Then was the actual trip. Really good, but exhausting! Almost two weeks in a hotel room with your three kids isn’t exactly relaxing. In any way. BUT we did go to Disneyland, San Diego Zoo, the beach, and several other places. We had a great time, and are glad to be home. Except for this freak snow storm. I mean, almost a foot of snow in the middle of April?!? Welcome to Colorado spring, I guess.

Anyway…I didn’t exactly get any meal plan done for the month before we left, and then we ate out for two weeks, ugh. Now that we’re home, and it’s already the middle of the month, I decided I would just plan out April and May. So here goes. Six weeks of meals all planned out:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
14 Meatballs & Ravioli	15 Basic Tacos	16 Chicken Pot Pie Soup	17 Teriyaki Crockpot Chicken	18 Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup	19 You’re On Your Own (YOYO)	20 Hamburger Helper
21 Stuffed Jumbo Shells	22 Orange Chicken Stir-Fry	23 Chili Colorado Burritos	24 Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken	25 Date Night with that man o’ mine	26 YOYO	27 Taco Dump Soup
28 Dinner at my dad’s	29 Creamy Chicken Taquitos	30 Sweet & Sour Citrus Chicken	1 Slow Cooker Pizza	2 Parmesan Ranch Chicken	3 YOYO	4 Light and Crispy Waffles
5 Baked Pasta Casserole	6 Mexican Lasagna	7 Valencian Paella	8 Cilantro Lime Chicken	9 Date Night!	10 YOYO	11 Pizza
12 Guiltless Chicken Alfredo	13 Sweet & Sour Meatballs	14 Scalloped Potatoes & Ham	15 Crockpot Parmesan Chicken	16 Rice-a-Roni with Chicken	17 YOYO	18 Something Grilled – Probably Burgers
19 Noodles Bolognase	20 Southwest Chicken Burritos	21 Orecchiette and Sausage	22 Cheesy Hamburger Soup	23 Basic Casserole	24 YOYO	25 Chicken Lemon Soup with Orzo
26 Dinner at my dad’s	27 Mexican Lasagna	28 Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole	29 Grillin’	30 Green Beans, Potatoes, and Chicken	31 YOYO	1 Meatloaf Muffins

One more thing that I really like about meal planning in advance like this: It gives me the ability to bring people a meal more easily. I can see when I would already be making something that is easy to double, or one that I already usually double (like Stuffed Jumbo Shells), and just plan on sharing that extra meal. I have a friend who has just started chemo for breast cancer, and they don’t have a lot of local friends since they just moved here a year ago. I know which meals I will be bringing them in the next six weeks and I’m less likely to forget (what a horrible friend would I be then!) since it’s already in my family’s plan and not just on a sign-up sheet somewhere. I also have a neighbor who had a baby while we were gone in Cali. I don’t know her that well, but what better way to bless someone than by bringing them a meal?

Okay, enough talking. What are you making this week/month?

Wordless Wednesday–The Beach

2013-04-10T22:47:00.001-06:00

So…we are in California on vacation. It was a totally last minute trip; Tim’s Grandma passed away and her memorial service was near L.A. I figured since we were all going out anyway, we should make a vacation out of it. We’re nearing the end, and I am soooo ready to be home. I mean, SoCal is great and all, but living in a hotel room with my three small children is exhausting.

I’ll have a ton more pictures to post, but for now, here are a few from the Silver Strand today.

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Tasty Tuesday–Chocolate Chip Cookies Tutorial (Also includes directions for a “Big Cookie”)

2013-03-19T22:37:00.001-06:00

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!
There’s a recipe index under the food tab above if you’re ever looking for a recipe I’ve already blogged.

We all have a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, right?? Well, I’ve had several people tell me that mine are fantastic, and I really have no idea why mine turn out better than some. So, I thought maybe a tutorial would help. My husband’s all-time favorite cookies are chocolate chip. Add kids to that, and I basically *have* to be good at making them! I timed myself once, and I can have a batch of dough ready in less than five minutes. If' I take longer to make the dough than it takes the oven to heat up, I’ve taken too long :-)

Anyway, Chocolate Chip Cookies in pictures:

{Ingredients}

1 cup butter (2 sticks), salted. The real deal. No substitutions.
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar (that’s the regular white kind)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla. or so. I actually add a bit more than that, but that’s a personal preference. Also, you’ll see in the picture that I attempted to make my own vanilla extract. It didn’t work all that well, but that’s a story for another day
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour. I usually use Hungarian High Altitude, but I’m currently out, oops.
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups Nestle Chocolate Morsels. Do yourself a favor and don’t get the generic ones.

{Tools I Use}

Stand Mixer. I have a large KitchenAid 6-Quart Stand Mixer that I love, but I bet another one would work just fine too.
Parchment Paper. You can use a silicone baking sheet too, like a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat, but I really just like to use the disposable kind.
Medium Cookie Scoop. Mine is Pampered Chef, but again, another one would work as well. My smaller one is from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and works fine too.

{Directions}

Soften butter. I do this by unwrapping it into a bowl and microwaving it for 20 seconds. You can tell it’s done when you can dent the top with your finger, but there’s no melted butter in the bowl.
Place both sugars and the softened butter in the mixer and turn on low. Mix until creamy, about one minute. It should look something like this when it’s done:
While that’s going, mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. I usually just give it a bit of a stir with the teaspoon measurer.
Add both eggs and the vanilla to the mixer bowl.
Mix until it looks something like this: Beware of overmixing at this stage. You still have to mix in the dry ingredients and you don’t want your cookies to be tough. Just mix until it’s pretty well combined, but you don’t have to kill it!
Slowly add in the flour, a bit at a time, until all flour is combined. I basically cover the top of the dough with flour, and then let it mix just a bit before adding more. The reason you don’t want to add all of it is so that it doesn’t make a huge pouf of a mess AND so that you don’t overwhelm your mixer. Also, for this step, you’ll want to make sure that it’s really all mixed in! So if you need to stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape down the bowl a bit, do it! I also find that sometimes the very very bottom middle doesn’t get mixed well, so I usually scrape that too.Okay, your dough should look like this now.
Add the chocolate chips and mix just enough to combine. DO NOT OVERMIX!! This is important because you want those chips to stay whole and you really don’t want tough cookies. Really.
Now is where you’re going to love that cookie scoop and parchment paper. Lay out the parchment paper on two cookie sheets and scoop away! I have played with the configuration of the cookie balls a lot, and here’s what I have found to be the best: 8 cookies staggered like this will leave enough room between them so they don’t get stuck together, but doesn’t waste too much space either.
Bake for 9-10 minutes. They won’t look done yet. That’s okay, pull them out anyway. They should be just getting brown along the top and edges, but only a tiny bit.These are done! These are a little bit overdone. See the one in the bottom right? Brown all over. Too done.
Let cool on a rack until all the way cool. Then you’ll see why you pulled them out “early”. They brown a bit and harden a bit after they’re cool. Whatever you do, DO NOT stack them before they’re all the way cool. You’ll end up with ball-o-cookie (not that I’ve ever done that before, right Mom?) Try not to burn yourself as you break one open and enjoy the ooey gooey chocolately goodness

Okay, a note about “bar” cookies. There’s a restaurant (or two or three) that have those yummy big cookies a la mode, some of them being better than others. Want to make one at home? It’s way easier than you think! Use a 9” cake pan and this recipe for cookie dough

It takes half of a batch of dough to make a cookie this size, so you can either make two big cookies, or make one big cookie and about 16 regular cookies, your choice.

To bake the big cookie, pat it into the cake pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 or so minutes. You want it to get a bit browner than the cookies so that the middle gets all the way done. I forgot to take a picture right after I pulled it out of the oven, so this looks a bit darker than when I actually pulled it out

Slice it like a pie and eat with a glass of milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream, delicious!

I hope this helps in your chocolate chip cookie endeavors! Let me know how they turn out :-)

Wordless Wednesday–Volcanos

2013-03-13T19:06:00.001-06:00

Ah, the magic of baking soda and vinegar…

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Speak Up Saturday–Book Review–A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers

2013-03-09T22:55:00.001-07:00

I told you to watch for a blast of reviews…

A Voice in the Wind: (Mark of the Lion #1)

From the Publisher:

This classic series has already inspired nearly 2 million readers, but both loyal fans and new readers will want this 20th anniversary edition of a Christian classic, which includes a foreword from the publisher, a letter from and Q & A with Francine Rivers, color map, an illustrated glossary, and discussion questions suitable for personal and group use.

The first book in the bestselling Mark of the Lion series, A Voice in the Wind brings readers back to the first century and introduces them to a character they will never forget—Hadassah. Torn by her love for a handsome aristocrat, this young slave girl clings to her faith in the living God for deliverance from the forces of decadent Rome.

I mentioned in my last review that The O'Malley Series by Dee Henderson was one of my favorite series of books. Well, this book, A Voice in the Wind, is the first book in my favorite of all times series! I can’t believe that it’s been 20 years since she wrote this first one, wow.

I think I first read this book about 10 years ago, and I’ve read it probably five more times since then. I figured I was about up for reading it again, so I was very happy to receive this 20th anniversary edition for my kindle.

What do I love about it? It’s so masterfully written. It’s well researched. It’s about a difficult, yet well documented, time in ancient history. The emotion that it pulls out of you is simply astounding. The characters are so deep, so developed, that it’s so easy to fall into this story. I don’t think my kids like it very much when I read this book because I get drawn so far into the story, I have a hard time paying attention to anything else!

To break it down as the synopsis has done misses so much of the story. It’s set in about 70 ad, just as Jerusalem is being sacked by the Romans. It’s about Roman culture, slavery, love, corruption, but most of all, true and tenacious faith in the one true God.

One warning: this is the FIRST book in a THREE book series. Don’t stop here…keep reading! This one ends with a gut punch, but reading the next one smooths it out. Francine Rivers uses that technique in the Marta's Legacy Series too, which is very effective, got me to read the second one in that series too!

Have I mentioned yet that I love this book?!? Go, get it, read it! If you want to borrow mine, let me know! I now have two different kindle versions plus the paper version, and I am happy about it :-)

Some links are affiliate links, which I may receive a small compensation from in connection with their affiliate program.

Speak Up Saturday–Book Review–Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson

2013-03-09T22:29:00.001-07:00

Full Disclosure

From the Publisher:

Ann Silver is a cop’s cop. As the Midwest Homicide Investigator, she is called in to help local law enforcement on the worst of cases, looking for answers to murder. Hers is one of the region’s most trusted investigative positions.

Paul Falcon is the FBI’s top murder cop in the Midwest. If the victim carried a federal badge or had a security clearance, odds are good Paul and his team see the case file or work the murder.

Their lives intersect when Ann arrives to pass a case off her desk and onto his. A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter he is tracking. Paul isn’t expecting to meet someone, the kind that goes on the personal side of the ledger, but Ann Silver has his attention.

The better he gets to know her, the more Paul realizes her job barely scratches the surface of who she is. She knows spies and soldiers and U.S. Marshals, and has written books about them. She is friends with the former Vice President. People with good reason to be cautious about who they let into their lives deeply trust her. Paul wonders just what secrets Ann is keeping, until she shows him the John Doe Killer case file, and he starts to realize just who this lady he is falling in love with really is . . .

I realized that I have not written my review yet on this excellent book, slacker!! I received this as an Advanced Reader Copy back in August, I think, and finished it very shortly after I received it.

I loved it!!! One of my favorite series of books that I have read since becoming a Christian is the The O'Malley Series by Dee Henderson. I love the family dynamic, I love the suspense, the romance, the intertwining of the plots. Full Disclosure brings those characters back in glimpses while bringing in new characters that are equally interesting and a joy to get to know.

Dee Henderson is a master storyteller. She can teach you all about a person and their personality without making it laborious and while adding in other plot elements to sweeten the deal. The interactions between the characters are believable, true to life, yet pure and inspiring. The characters in her books, and Ann and Paul are no exceptions, show many characteristics that inspire me to be a better God-follower. Ms. Henderson brings their personal traits into focus, so you can see the good and the bad from their personalities and how they can really relate to me and my relationship with God.

Aside from all that, the story was fun! I truly enjoyed the plot, the characters, the visits from old friends from the O’Malleys, the new relationship between Ann and Paul. I will definitely read it again! Right after I get it back from the second friend that I loaned it to…

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Bethany House and Dee Henderson. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Some links are affiliate links, which I may receive a small compensation from in connection with their affiliate program.

Speak Up Saturday– Book Review–Isle of Shadows by Tracy Higley

2013-03-09T21:19:00.001-07:00

Isle of Shadows

From the Publisher:

Revised and updated from the original, Christy-award finalist Shadow of Colossus.
Enslaved in a World of Money and Power, Tessa Dares to be Free.
Raised as courtesan to wealthy and powerful men, Tessa of Delos serves at the whim of her current patron, the politician Glaucus. After ten years with him, Tessa has abandoned all desire for freedom or love, choosing instead to lock her heart away.
But when Glaucus meets a violent death in his own home, Tessa grasps at a fragile hope. Only she knows of his death. If she can keep it a secret long enough, she can escape.
Tessa throws herself on the mercy of the Greek god Helios, but finds instead unlikely allies in Nikos, a Greek slave, and Simeon, Glaucus’s Jewish head servant. As Simeon introduces her to a God unlike any she has ever known and Nikos begins to stir feelings she had thought long dead, Tessa fights to keep her heart protected.
As an assassination plot comes to light, Tessa must battle for her own freedom—and for those to whom she has begun to open her heart—as forces collide that shatter the island’s peace.

I just finished reading this book, and I haven’t decided exactly what I think of it. Overall, I guess I would say that I enjoyed it. I find that I enjoy historical fiction, especially well-written and well-researched historical fiction. So, let me tell you the things that I liked about it first before I tell you the things that I didn’t like.

I really liked the look into the society of ancient Greece. I find that part of history fascinatingly similar and different from our culture today, and Ms. Higley draws those things out nicely. I felt that it was a well researched book, and that was confirmed for me in the end pages of the book when she stated that she has been to Rhodes, where the story is set, twice in order to really get a feel for the place as she was writing the story. In fact, you can go to her website to see pictures from her adventures there.

I also thought the character development was decent and the interaction between characters was mostly well played. Those of the main characters was excellent, with the romance not being too pronounced but still being real and relevant. I do not enjoy reading romance books, but I do like it when a good book has a bit of romance thrown in, and this book had exactly that.

As for the things that I did not like, there were 2. The first was the length. It wasn’t too terribly wordy, but I feel that the story could have been told more succinctly with just as much effect. But, historical fiction tends toward lengthy descriptions due to explaining the culture and the location, so this wasn’t a huge deal.

What really did it for me, though, was the Christian element. I felt it was very forced. I understand that it would be difficult to squeeze it into a book that was written about “the dark times between the Old and New Testaments”, as she put it in the afterword, but if it was going to be that hard, why do it at all? Or why not develop the characters of Simeon and his family more and have them be more central? I didn’t like the way that Tessa came to faith in the One God in the span of a few short pages, but I am very glad that the story came back around to that. When we initially meet Simeon’s family and Tessa and Nikos spend time with them, it was very pleasant enjoyable, I just wish there had been more time spent on that.

Again, though, I enjoyed this book overall and think that anyone who enjoys reading historical fiction would enjoy it. I think that it tends to be more of a “girl” book, but if you’re a guy that likes historical Greece fiction, then you might enjoy it too!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book in exchange for an honest review from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Daily Photo–Playing in the snow

2013-03-09T13:53:00.001-07:00

We were predicted to get a foot of snow…we got about 2”. My kids + friends = great day to play in the snow!

Speak Up Saturday–Book Review–The Biggest and Toughest

2013-03-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Prepare for a blast of book reviews! I’m still backed up and I don’t want to be anymore!

This was a fun book to review with my kids:

The Biggest and Toughest: The Short Story of David's Big Faith

From the Publisher:
What would you do if you saw a GIANT scaring a whole army? Would you run away too? Or would you bravely take him on, if that’s what God wanted you to do? David, a small shepherd boy, shows gigantic faith and courage when he battles the nine-foot-tall Goliath using only a slingshot and stone!
Magnificent Tales are rhyming Bible stories with clever art and clear lessons that the whole family will enjoy. The stories and illustrations are so engaging that you won’t grow tired of reading and re-reading a Magnificent Tale night after night!

Nate really liked it! There were several things he particularly liked about it: the pictures, the age appropriate wording, and the fact that it was on mommy’s kindle-computer :)

I liked the biblical accuracy, yet not too advanced for my 3-year-old. I felt like it was an excellent retelling of the story of David and Goliath. I also enjoyed the rhyming flow of the book. While it might seem cheesy sometimes, I’ve noticed that it really works to get the story stuck in their heads. Nate is just catching onto rhyming words, so this worked particularly well for him.

The only drawback of reading it on my kindle is the formatting. It is not super-smooth, like one might hope. The words end up on one page and the picture on another. I used this “feature” as an opportunity to discuss the pictures in more detail than I might otherwise, so it wasn’t all bad.

Can’t wait to check out some other titles in this series! (4 stars due to Kindle formatting, story was 5 stars!!)

~S
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NetGalley as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Weekly Wrap-Up–March 8–Unit Celebration 3

2013-03-08T14:37:00.001-07:00

I have been focusing more on keeping us on schedule with our schoolwork, which has taken a lot of time and left not much for blogging. Add to that the quantity of books that I’m reading right now plus trying to be more intentional about being a better housekeeper, and that really doesn’t leave much for blogging!

Anyway…we have been doing great with keeping on track and having a good routine since January at the beginning of this “semester”. Also, I had been thinking a lot about schooling year round, and then I had a chat with my friend that I co-op with, and we both agreed that we’re going to do a modified year round schedule. That has really freed up my attitude about finishing everything that we’re “supposed” to do by the end of May, which in turn frees up my week to do other things, like skip school for a day at the park (or a day of heart training instead, which happens more often).

A few things that we decided to change at the beginning of the year:

* We started and breezed through All About Spelling Level 1. It was basic for her since she’s been reading for awhile and loves to write, but I wanted to start there to give her the spelling rules before we moved on. We’re now starting level 2 and will finish before starting 2nd grade. We also started All About Reading Level 2 and are really hoping that Level 3 will be available for next year!

* We have picked up our Artistic Pursuits book again. Now that I have us on a tighter schedule, we have time to do this, which we’re both happy about. She tells me she’s going to be an artist when she grows up, so I’m glad we have something to help her with that goal.

I also posted our current curriculum choices and what I’m thinking of for next year, which you can also get to under the “Tots and Homeschooling” tab at the top of the blog.

Okay, so what have we been up to?

A month ago, we celebrated finishing Tapestry of Grace Year 1 Unit 3 by having a mini Olympics and a Greek-inspired lunch. The kids got dressed up in their Chitons and away we went!

The horse race

The discus throwThe javelin throw

The foot race

Cheering on the last place finishers

Tasty lunch of English muffin pizzas, olives, oranges, sesame bread, and grape juice.

Can’t forget the littles!

Her display board from this unit’s projects. Not all-inclusive, for sure!

All crowned as winners with their laurel crowns (they were tired from running, and ready for lunch. Really, they had a great time!)

I have so many more pictures, but we’ll call that good. Now to not wait another 5 months before posting another weekly wrap-up!!

Also linked up at

Wordless Wednesday–Peek-a-Boo!

2013-03-08T13:17:00.001-07:00

This child of mine is funny. He likes to play peek-a-boo upside down through his legs. I think it’s just practice for standing up unassisted, but it’s still funny!

Linking up at:

Monthly Menu Plan – March

2013-03-05T15:52:00.001-07:00

So, I had questions from some friends how I come up with my monthly plan. As in, what are the steps that I use, how long does it take, how is it working for us, etc. So, here is a step by step on how I do my monthly meal plan:

Step 1: Come up with a theme for each day of the week. For example, right now mine looks like this: Monday – Mexican or Chinese, Tuesday – Something new, Wednesday – Crockpot meal, Thursday – Less than 30 minutes, Friday – Leftovers, Saturday – Family Favorite, Sunday – Italian.

Step 2: Make a permanent list of 5-10 (or more) recipes for each theme. Make sure you have recipes (or know the recipe) for each one. Nothing worse than thinking you’re going to make something, and then not being able to find the recipe.

Step 3: Print out a calendar for the month. I print out a blank one and then add in other events, like fellowship team, date night, weekend activities, etc, that will affect dinner time or my ability to cook dinner that night. I like to do this step on a separate calendar so it’s not cluttered with *everything* that I have scheduled. Also, if it’s not on my regular calendar, it’s easier to cross things out and rearrange as I go to the next steps.

Step 4: After you’ve filled out your other events, count how many of each theme you need to come up with.

Step 5: Referring to the list you already made, pick the number of recipes you need for each theme. I usually write them down on a scratch piece of paper.

Step 6: Plug your choices into the monthly calendar, taking into account how much time each recipe takes and how much money each one costs. For example, I’m not going to plan three expensive recipes in a week, nor am I going to plan three time intensive recipes. I try to balance out one time intensive and one expensive recipe per week (obviously, sometimes these are the same meal, but sometimes not. Noodles are cheap to make, but take for.ev.er.)

Step 7: Gather your recipes and make a grocery list. I still go once a week, even though I plan the whole month’s meals. This is mostly because of fresh food. I figure I’ll have to go to the store every week anyway for vegetables and milk, so I might as well just plan one week’s groceries at a time. I use two resources for planning my shopping trip. The first is this plan sheet that is organized based on how my grocery store is laid out. I just write down each item under the appropriate heading and then it’s all in order when I get to the store. For extra things, sale things, or finding coupons, I use Bargain Blessings. She’s local to me and she runs a great website that is all free. I also go to CostCo once a month, usually after I’ve made the monthly meal plan so that I can get the things that I know I will need.

That’s it! Does it work? Absolutely! There are so many things that I like about doing it this way. We don’t end up having spaghetti every night when I can’t think of anything else. We get to eat the other meals that I was forgetting about when I was just doing it weekly. AND one of the best parts, it really doesn’t take me that long!! I would say it now takes me less than 30 minutes to do, more if I spend a bunch of time looking for new recipes. (stumped for recipes? Try Our Best Bites or Food Network Magazine)

Okay, so here’s the plan for March:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
3	4 Teriyaki Burgers	5 Orange Chicken Stir Fry	6 Chili Colorado Burritos	7 Texas Roadhouse for Date Night	8 YOYO	9 Chicken Couscous
10 Dinner with Dad & Stepmom	11 Tortilla Casserole	12 Garlic-Lemon Stuffed Chicken	13 Cheesy Ham & Potatoes	14 Parmesan Ranch Chicken	15 Hubby’s Birthday! Pizza & Lemon Cake	16 YOYO
17 Basic Casserole	18 Sweet & Sour Meatballs	19 Honey Orange Pork Tenderloin	20 Chicken Chili	21 Rice-a-roni Deluxe Date Night	22 YOYO	23 Cheater Pot Pie
24 Tortellini Spinach Bake	25 Tacos	26 Green Beans, Potatoes, and Chicken	27 Parmesan Chicken	28 Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Stew	29 YOYO	30 Spaghetti and Meatballs

One more note: do not become a slave to “the plan”…if you need to make something else that night, do it! I would say I stick to the plan about 6 nights out of 7, and usually it’s just to shuffle something around. Hope this helps! Happy planning! :-) And please, if you have any questions, I’d be happy to try and help!!

Wordless Wednesday–Waffles

2013-02-27T16:17:00.001-07:00

During the snow storm we had on Sunday, I made waffles. Lots of waffles. A double batch of Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Waffles. I used this recipe, but I used cinnamon and vanilla as stated in the recipe instead of orange extract and pure lemon. I put chocolate chips on top of the batter before I closed the waffle maker, and ta-da! Chocolate Chip Waffles! I ended up with three gallon bags full of frozen waffles. I’m hoping they last more than a week, but with my kids (and hubby), you never know…Shane alone can eat almost a whole one for breakfast!

Yum!

Linking up at:

Tot School–”The Red Carpet”

2013-02-24T22:26:00.001-07:00

Nathanael is currently 44 months.

We’re plugging along with tot school and life in general around here. This week, we did a delightful book called Red Carpet by Rex Parkin. Can I just pause to say that I love my library? We have an awesome network of libraries that I have access to, all from the comfort of my home. I can request any book they have and it magically appears at the library a short time later :-)

Anyway, back to our unit. We did a lot of activities from Homeschool Creations (both from her Red Carpet pack and her unit on police) and the file that was on Homeschool Share (They’ve decided to pull it for now, hopefully it will be back soon!)

Here are a few pictures from our studies:

Drawing a red line through the city.

What is Red? mini-book

Rolling a red ribbon through the living room, just like the red carpet rolled through the town.

Creating a stop light.

How many fingerprints? mini-book

Fruit roll up for a snack :)

Some of our finished pages for our notebook.

We also made soft pretzels today, which tied in to the story as well (and they were super-tasty!)

I’ve also been having Nate do busy bags a few times a week. Some times, he loves them. Other times, not so much. It’s still such a struggle for him to work independently. I know that he’s a three-year-old boy, so hopefully this will get better with age! Anyway, here are a few he enjoyed this week:

Measuring. There are three sizes of things, with three different rulers. Sort the ribbons, etc, by size.

Clothesline. He was actually able to do the clothespins by himself, which was great, and an improvement over last week!

So, what are you doing with your tot this week? We’ll be doing “Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?” Fun!

Wordless Wednesday–Fort Collins Museum of Discovery

2013-02-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

Our first and definitely not our last visit to the newly opened Fort Collins Museum of Discovery Science Center. I feel like we just scratched the surface of what we can do there!

Linking up at:

PJammin’ Party–International Childhood Cancer Day is TODAY!

2013-02-15T21:27:00.001-07:00

In honor of International Childhood Cancer Day, and as a tribute to Esther, we held a PJammin’ party last night with a few friends.

We colored pictures to send to our representatives, ate pizza, and watched Paul and the Dragon.

The kids had a good time. They were looking forward to our pajama party all week. They wanted to stay in their pajamas all day instead of just getting dressed in them for dinner and the party.

To find out more about the reason for the coloring pages, go visit Sam’s blog. To just print off the picture, etc, keep reading!

Download a coloring page at the bottom of this post. There is one with flowers and one with a wagon. Feel free to encourage your dudes to draw their own rocket blasters on that wagon...boys like to color things if they have fire :).
There is a space for the kids to write the name of their Representative or Senator and a place for them to sign their name.
Mail a copy to your members of congress. You can find all the contact information for your Representatives here and your Senators here.
The deadline is fast approaching, make sure they arrive by March 1st.

Esther Coloring Page Flowers by slalvarado

Monthly Menu Plan–February

2013-02-04T22:04:00.001-07:00

Hey, look at that! It’s the beginning of February and I have the menu done already! Ooo, and I’m even blogging about it, amazing :-)

Here’s the plan for the month:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
3	4 Freezer Meal	5 Baked Garlic & Brown Sugar Chicken	6 White Chicken Chili	7 Bob’s Red Mill Vegi Stew	8 Polish Pierogis	9 Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
10 Dinner with Dad & Stepmom	11 Tacos	12 Dad’s choice	13 Healthy Mama Chicken	14 Parmesan Ranch Chicken	15 YOYO	16 Pizza
17 Spaghetti & Meat Sauce	18 Sweet & Sour Meatballs	19 Island Chicken	20 Southwest Chicken Burritos	21 Date Night	22 YOYO	23 Teriyaki Burgers
24 Guiltless Fettuccini Alfredo	25 Creamy Chicken Taquitos	26 Beyond Easy Pulled Pork	27 Family Night with Fellowship Team	28 Date Night	1 YOYO	2 Orange Chicken Stir Fry

This past week, we pretty much just ate leftovers from Shane’s party last Sunday. I made a bit too much food, oops. Better too much than not enough! (At least in my opinion) And I still didn’t get to those pierogis, so maybe this Friday.

The freezer to crockpot meals that I mentioned last time are going well, there were several that we absolutely loved and none that were inedible. This month, I’m going to try a few more new ones and probably double the few that I’m repeating to stock up the freezer a bit.

So, what are you having for dinner?

Tasty Tuesday–Carrot and Spinach Lasagna with Lemon Sauce

2013-01-30T23:15:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!
There’s a recipe index under the food tab above if you’re ever looking for a recipe I’ve already blogged.

I’m going to try embedding a recipe that I have entered into Kitchen Monki, which is a resource that I love! Let’s see if it will work…