Keeping It Simple

In my life… This is an odd collage. This caught our early morning arrival home from mass on the 1st where I think my boys are actually still asleep in spite of having alter served AND my dear dear husband helping to get our little house cleaned up.  Which leads to the "in my life" portion of this post... our youngest daughter is getting MARRIED . So after mass my sleepy head boys and morning owl husband pitched in with me to get the house straightened up for the arrival and meeting of our daughter's future in-laws. Crazy!!  That is them! Erin and Nick.  In our homeschool… We have been working hard on the basics with a strong dose of baby care thrown in. We have also hired a tutor to help our oldest son with some of his school.  Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... In regards to the above, I was at a homeschool conference years ago when a "veteran homeschool mom of many" told a group of rapt newbie moms, me included, th...

Very unlike me , but I experimented in the kitchen (I'm usually a strict follow the recipe type!:)) So here it is:  When I walked in the door of Trader Joes this morning, I spied precut butternut squash bagged and ready to cook with. I have never cooked anything with it before, but had recently had the most heavenly butternut squash soup while eating out, so I grabbed a bag.  The bag said to cut the corner and microwave for 5-8 minutes then blend with warmed up vegetable broth. I started microwaving, but thought it just did not sound that delicious... so I detoured.  In the blender, I put one cup of vegetable broth, one cup of raw cashews,  a tablespoon plus of nutritional yeast (NOT active yeast), tossed in a very large roasted red pepper (the kind that comes in a jar), and blended it until smooth.  Then I put 2/3 C diced onions, 1 minced garlic clove , and 1 large sliced carrot in a skillet over medium heat with some veg. broth (just enou...

There are a few of those "100 best books" lists going around. It's is interesting to see what other people have read, but they leave me feel rather "unread" as I usually have the lowest "score". Okay, I know it is not a competition, but I thought I'd make my own list. I score a 100% on this list because I have read and loved each and everyone of these books. :) I am not giving a review of these books. Amazon has plenty of those! I am just giving a little of my story with each of these beautiful stories. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (the very first book that I truly loved and I used to reread it almost every year) My Antonia by Willa Cather (I couldn't get in to this book for the longest time- then one day I picked up and just loved it) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (this is the first assigned book I loved) Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix (I found this title in one of my "books on books" as...

I keep having big plans to blog a bit... you can see how that is working out! :) If you'd like to see our Halloween fun and All Saint's food, come by and say hi over here- http://catholicbabysteps.blogspot.com/2013/11/all-saints-food-and-fun.html

Happenings I mentioned that some outside classes were on the schedule for this year. Yikes!! Think long and hard before you go there if you are one of those "homebody" homeschooling types (and I am:)). That being said, we are three weeks in and I think it's a good thing. Paul is taking Biology and Art at his Friday co-op.  He also takes an Algebra class taught by his older sister, who works with many homeschool families in our area. All of this is a huge stretch! With reading being a challenge for Paul, it is taken us this long to come up with a format for him to accomplish his work as independently as possible. The great thing about homeschooling with learning challenges is that you can work at your own pace and help is just a hollar to mom (or dad or sisters...) away. That being said, I can see how working this muscle to "keep up" with class is going to be a healthy thing. It helps that there are friends in his class and that he has very understandi...

NOT BLOG HOP I love to participate in the Not Back To School Blog Hops. August was just not having it though! So here is our "Not Back to School All in One" post. Meet the students: Our oldest student at home is Paul. He is 15. He LOVES volleyball! If there is a kid around, he/she will usually find Paul. He is always willing to give a ride, read a book, or have a good wrestling match with the little ones in his life. He loves to be doing- biking, boarding, snow boarding, long boarding... School, he does not love so much, but always mostly keeps a great attitude. Mark is "the middle child" in our homeschool. Mark loves football (playing flag and watching the Raiders), anything to do with the Civil War, dogs (that's his dog Fozzie up there), drawing, and generally being a goof ball. If there is a fussy baby in the crowd, Mark is your man. He has patience galore with the little ones. As far as studies go, he is an interest led man- if he ...

And A Little Of That We had our first turn with our little visitor. I'm going to need to come up with a blog name for him- I think I'm going to have the boys work on that. That is Mark's hand in the picture. As of right now, everyone is very anxious for "their turn" to help out. I hope that sticks! :)  Getting out and walking the dog and the new remote control truck. That's normal- right?  Doing some cooking. I'm trying to find some good quick breakfast ideas. Jen @ Forever, For Always, No Matter What has some recipes posted.  The bread was such a hit that we have made it twice already. My boys, who are still retraining their tastebuds that were too used to added sugar, are not as sure about the cookies (even though I sprinkled in a few chocolate chips!). I suspect the cookies would be a hit with little ones.   Trains are the new thing with the nephews around here.  And James discovered silly putty. Poor deprived boy!...

Some of this is a rerun, but I have gotten a lot of interest in last year's American History Studies, so I thought I'd post an overview of the "Division and Civil War" portion of our studies. Mark and James (9 and 12yo) used History Pockets to document these two history units. Paul, my high school student, used notebook pages that I will add later (don't have pictures). We used " Hands on History " to document our Colonial and Revolutionary War studies, but I was not as happy with the Hands on History Civil War volume.  (By the way, if I could go back in time, I'd make this two posts. Lots of pictures and very long! It took too long to get it up, so I leave it as it is with my apologies.) American The Story of Us- Episode 4: Division  (We purchased the DVD series new at a very reasonable price after it became unavailable on Netflix) Episode Guide:  (IMPORTANT UPDATE ABOUT EPISODE GUIDES AT BOTTOM OF POST) I fi...