Refrigerator Muffins

Today I'm participating in the Works for me Wednesday Blog Carnival. Check out other posts by clicking on the graphic above.

Last Saturday I was out of milk. This is not good because Sunday morning's breakfast is usually cereal as we dash out the door to church. So I decided to try a recipe for refrigerator muffins.

Refrigerator muffins are basically a muffin batter that you mix up ahead of time and then store in your refrigerator. You can usually store the batter for 5 days. So anytime during that five days you can bake as many or as few muffins as you like depending on the amount of batter you have.

The first recipe I tried was for Refrigerator Bran Muffins. There are LOADS of these recipes on the internet. I, and you, have probably seen them hundreds of times. The recipe I used called for any type of bran flake cereal and then you could use (or not) any type of dried fruit. What I really liked about this recipe was that it called for oatmeal which is so healthy. I made mine with Fiber One flake cereal and dried blueberries. We had 12 on Sunday and then I made the kids some more on Monday. Today I had a little hunger pang in the mid morning and had the intense joy of popping one scoop of muffin batter in a sprayed glass cup and then microwaving for 45 seconds. Tasty little muffin with tea in no time!!! I like this!!

So, I decided to see what other types of refrigerator muffin recipes are out there. Here are a few links that I haven't tried yet, but plan to:

Refrigerator Sweet Muffins - several variations in this recipe

Pumpkin Bran Muffins - this one can be kept in the refrigerator for two weeks!

Molasses Muffins - this one can be stored for three weeks and makes a spice type muffin

Refrigerator Bran Muffin - this muffin takes the prize because it can be stored for six weeks.

If you have a good refrigerator muffin please let me know in the comments!

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day

Recently I posted on the No-Knead bread I made. I've really enjoyed that recipe but wanted to learn to do more with it. Then I heard about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which is the same concept except you make a very large batch of dough and keep it in your refrigerator for up to two weeks. I finally got it from the library so I could try it out.

I made the Master recipe one afternoon in certainly no more than 10 minutes. It really was quick to put together. That night I made two EXCELLENT pizzas from the dough. Then I made a batch of orange rolls and a batch of cinnamon rolls for Sunday School the next morning. I felt the rolls needed a softer dough but they were tasty. My husband said the cinnamon "rocked" but didn't feel the orange went with the style of bread dough I used.

One week later there was still some dough in the refrigerator. I made some doughnuts with it. I had hot oil from fixing supper and so I scooped about a teaspoon of dough into the hot oil and cooked until golden brown and then dropped into cinnamon sugar. The taste was not quite what I think of when I have a doughnut but tasty. I'll try it again with the brioche recipe in the book.

With what's left I'm going to make...bread!

Paperdolls and things

You may have noticed if you read my blog regularly that I really enjoy paper crafts. I'm enamored with Ephemera in general, but especially paper toys. So just for a little fun I thought I'd give you some links to a few of my current favorites.

For some reason some of the best places for this kind of thing seem to be french. Oh well, you won't have to speak french to enjoy them. I will warn you that if you choose to look around on their blogs be aware that you might see some nudes not appropriate for children. So beware.

There were some very sweet girls on Grenouille Plus, a blog where you can find lots of fun paper crafts. You can find them here http://grandformat.blogspot.com/2007/11/meilleurs-scans-de-ces-3-cartes-dj.html. That link will take you to the flickr of Agence Eureka another blogger with some fantastic paper crafts like this fun set of articulated animals and some fantastic toys in her Paper Craft set here http://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/sets/72157601156433867/. There are so many goodies like a cowboy set, a little cottage, French Chateau's and people and furniture! You'll have a lot of fun looking through that set if you are as interested in paper toys as I am.

There are also many items on Agence Eureka's site that can be used to study history. There are Roman soldiers, American Indians, and a Louis XIII Musketeer to name a few. But there is so much more, I hope you'll take a look around this site.

Science for You - Sound

At a used curriculum fair this weekend I found a fun book from the 1950's that I'll be sharing with you later. Inside that book I found several items cut from a newspaper. Apparently, this "Science For You" was a column in this newspaper in the 1960's. Fun little experiments for an afternoon!

Homeschool Hi-Lights: Trial and Triumph

Ellen from Fun Learning invited me to be a part of a Homeschooling meme every Monday called Homeschool Hi-Lights. The idea is to write about something that was a highlight of your previous week in homeschooling. You can go to her blog to read the highlights of other home educator's week too.

One of the highlights of my week was having my son say, "Mom, don't forget to finish reading us that story." The story he was speaking of was a chapter from Trial and Triumph on Pope Gregory. When your child tells you to remember to read him something then you know he must like it!

Trial and Triumph is a book by Richard Hannula and recommended by the Ambleside Online curriculum. It's one of the few things from their curriculum that I had to buy but it was quite inexpensive on Amazon.com. Trail and Triumph tells the story of Christian church history from the early church, just after the death of Christ until 2001. The stories are mostly about important figures in church history. A list of books for further reading is included in the back of the book.

The author wrote the stories for his own children and the writing is palpable for young children (my son is 7). The stories include quotations directly from the subjects speeches and writings and he has made an effort to find the most reliable sources for background events and actions.

If you would like to teach your children about church history I recommend this book. In addition to learning about the history of their faith, they will also learn more about their faith, not to mention providing examples for them of godly men and women. I urge you to check it out.

Random Things

I've been tagged by Donna (whose blog I really like by the way)! So here goes:

The Rules -

1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.

2. Post these rules on your blog.

3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself

4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

Seven random facts about me:

1. I'll be 43 in June. My husband and I call ourselves "old parents of young children."

2. I taught Theatre in public school before having my children.

3. In college I played Stella in Streetcar Named Desire.

4. One of my favorite activities is "curbside shopping."

5. I became a Christian at age 35.

6. I am a big fan of Bluegrass music.

7. My honeymoon was a 4,000 mile meandering roadtrip from Kansas City to Las Vegas via the Grand Canyon, Arches National Park, Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Oklahoma!

And now I tag the following people. And as a bonus, these are some of my very closest friends:

Antonia

Brooke

Sandy

Dee Ann

Rachel

Melissa

Melisse

Mother's and Daughter's At Home!

My friend Dee Ann alerted us and Rachel has posted about it and now I'm joining in! Graceful Girlhood has set up something I'm really excited about. Mother's and Daughter's at Home is a special time for Mother's and their daughters to spend time together doing things they enjoy. It's the first Friday of every month.

I decided to participate because my daughter and I really don't spend much time together alone now. She will be ten in June and I'm starting to feel that my time with her is slipping away! I really want her to have memories of us doing things together. And I hope that there will be things that we enjoy doing together all our lives! I know that when I am with my own mother it is as if I'm with my perfect friend. We like the same things and we enjoy just sitting and talking together. Many times we will plan to watch movies only to spend the evening just chatting. I hope that some day my own daughter feels the same way about me.

The Author of the Graceful Girlhood blog says, "The most important thing is that relationships between mothers and their daughters are being strengthened. " And I feel that this alone is reason enough to committ to this challenge. But I am excited that afterwards, the participants will be posting about what they did with their daughters. Sounds like a great way to get some ideas for Mother/daughter times.

My daughter is nine and she and I enjoy cooking together. We also enjoy looking at magazines, or old buttons, or doing crafts together. We like shopping together or having tea and some wonderful dessert. So we may on our first night spend time cooking something my daughter wants to try and eating it! Or perhaps I'll ask her what she would like to do. Whatever it is I'll let you know!

Praiseworthy Music - Renee and Jeremy

I came across a link to this video and from there this website for Renee and Jeremy. The music is simple, sweet and delightful. The kind of music you'd listen to without your children in the room! And it's very relaxing music, something I find we need here during the day. So I urge you to check it out for yourself. You can listen to the entire album on their website.

Education in Our Home

It's been awhile since I participated in the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival and this month I was actually inspired by another blog carnival hosted by The Heart of The Matter. This is a week long carnival with a different topic for each day. Monday's topic was "A Day In the Life" and since I employ Charlotte Mason's philosophy in my children's education I thought I'd write about our typical day. And maybe even kill two birds with one stone! And perhaps some of you who don't home educate will be interested in what kind of life we lead here.

Our schedule revolves around my husband's. I rise with him in the morning and help him get ready for work. At the same time my children are getting up and hopefully making their beds. We also take our days off with my husband's work schedule so that when he is home we can spend time with him. After my husband leaves we eat breakfast and then begin our day.

My son (age 7) prefers to move into school slowly. So we start with bible study and then move through a few of his easier lessons. We end up with the hardest lesson which in our case is math. Then my son practices his piano lesson.

My daughter (age 9) prefers to "swallow the frog" as my dear friend Dana says and start with the hardest, math, and then move through her other lessons. She also ends with piano practice.

Both of my children's "core" curriculums contain the following:

Bible Study - Daily - We follow a bible study for the Word of Life program that takes a child through the bible in six years.

Math - Daily - I have always used the Saxon Math curriculum with my children and I have been very happy with it. Math was never my forte and this curriculum is scripted until year 4 so everything you have to say and do is already determined. Since my daughter has moved beyond that we also use the Dive CD's to supplement her curriculum.

Spelling - Daily - Spelling Workout

Grammar - Daily - Rod and Staff Grammar

Handwriting - Daily - Zaner Bloser (Between Handwriting and Grammar I feel my children do plenty of copywork as required by Charlotte mason so I don't give them additional)

History - 3 days per week - We are currently using the Story of the World Series by Peace Hill Press. In addition to this I use the Ambleside Online history readings. Many of these we listen to in the form of audio books. Often I download mp3 files for books we are reading and we listen to them in the car on the way to activities we go to several times a week.

Science - 2 days per week - Rod and Staff. I like this curriculum's emphasis on the Natural World and the presumption that God is the sovereign creator of all things without introducing specific doctrines.

Latin - Daily - We use the Memoria Press books for this presently.

Literature - Daily - I use the the required Literature from the Ambleside Online curriculum as well as AO's free reading lists. I highly recommend these. As with history, we often listen to these as audio books in the car. Some of them my children read on their own and some I read to them.

After lunch each day of the week we usually work on one of the following as specified by Charlotte Mason: composer study, artist study, handicrafts, and nature study. We generally follow the Ambleside Online curriculum for all these. I also try to give my children outdoor time everyday which can be difficult in the winter! I've described how we do nature study in the past. Basically each of my children have a nature notebook that they use to draw something they have observed in nature that week.

We also do a number of activities with other homeschoolers in the afternoons. We are very blessed in this area to have a LARGE group of homeschooling families. My children have several acquaintances of various ages that they interact with. My children have a homeschool PE class, a children's program at our church and piano lessons we attend weekly. My son attends Cub Scout events three times per month, my daughter attends a Keeper's At Home club for girls twice a month and we attend field trips about twice a month. It is really easy to get over committed in our area so we try to be careful about the activities we agree to so that they don't get in the way of academics. But that can be difficult sometimes!

Of course, this is a PERFECT week! We strive to attain all these goals each week but it doesn't always happen. We homeschool year round so that gives us a lot of leeway in our schedule which helps.

So this is our life. It is quite full and I feel very blessed to be able to be home with my children.

Alleluia!