Popcorn for a good cause

My son is selling popcorn as a fund raiser for his Cub Scout pack. 70% of the sales go back to our local Council to fund our scouting programs. Part of the sales are also used to help pay for him to go to camp in the summer.

The popcorn is delicious and there are many different varieties to choose from. There are several decorative tins that make nice gifts. Perhaps you don’t like popcorn or have food allergies that prevent you from eating it. There is a trail mix available that doesn’t contain corn or you can still help out by ordering popcorn to be delivered to our military men and women through the military donation. Last year scout troops sent 300 tons of popcorn to the military through this donation.

If you’d like to help out you can order online at www.orderpopcorn.com. When you order online you will be charged a shipping fee but it will be delivered directly to your location. Be sure to type in the order key TEZBR1B or he will not get credit for the sale. There will be several prizes for different levels of sales in addition to earning money for camp so it will help him out directly if you use the order key. If you are local you can save the shipping fee by having us deliver it to you. Just check out the selection online and let me know what you would like. Send me an email and we’ll get it to you. And please feel free to forward this on to others. As long as they use the order key he will receive credit.

Thanks for your help!

The Coupon Game

I've been reading all these coupon game blogs about Walgreen’s and CVS. Have any of you ever seen these? Have any of you ever tried it? It's actually fun!

Basically these ladies take current specials, coupons and rebate offers and match it all up in combinations that save the most money. I just went to Walgreen’s and bought $47 of stuff. Using coupons (the links to them are usually in the blogs so you can print them out right there) and a $25 gift certificate I got for transferring a prescription there I ended up spending $6. Then I got a register reward for $5 off my next visit so it’s really like I spent $1.

The first few times I looked at the "scenarios" of things that people bought there I thought, "I don't use those products so it won't work for me." See, a lot of it is convenience food. But I've realized that there are lots of deals on personal care items and household cleaners that I would use. So now I scan the deals for things I normally buy anyway and ended up saving $46.

There's a lot to this and it seems daunting at first but check them out and you may find a way to save your family money too. For me it's worth it as there are two Walgreen's less than a mile from my house. So it's convenient. I recommend you start at MoneySavingMom's blog (which is a favorite of mine anyway). She has tutorials for how to do all this and links to lots of other blogs that can help.

Free Copywork!

The Old Schoolhouse is giving away a Ten Commandments Copybook e-book today only. They are having a deal of the day every day in September. It's called "The Daily Deal." Some of them are free and some are just really good deals. Check it out!

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Suddenly it became autumnal. It was 90 and we were going to the pool and then suddenly the weather cooled. I guess it's the hurricanes in the southeast but it has been lovely weather for the last few weeks...rainy and cool. So I felt it was time for pumpkin muffins.

I love pumpkin in baked goods. It makes the product moist and adds so much nutrition. This recipe I adapted from a popular vegan cookbook author. I'm not crazy about her essays in the book so I can't really recommend it. So I give you my adaptation.

Pumpkin Muffins

1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned)

1/2 cup milk or almond milk

1/2 vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons molasses

1 cup coarsely chopped cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins for 18 muffins.

Sift dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Pour wet in dry and mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated.

Fill cups 2/3rds full and bake for 20 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Walgreen's Gift Card Giveaway!

I'm new to the whole Walgreen's/CVS coupon game but I'm finding it fascinating. Basically there are several blogs out there where women share how they are being good stewards of their money by strategically planning their shopping around sales, coupons and rebates. One of those blogs The Coupon Game is offering a free Walgreen's gift card. Check it out and learn more about how to play the game yourself.

If you are new to this whole thing then I strongly urge you check out Money Saving Mom for some great information on how to do it yourself. Use the "Start Here" links on the right side of her blog.

July 22, 2008 Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

Welcome to my very first time hosting the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!!! I'm very excited to be able to present this as I think this is a fantastic carnival. I always find some wonderful pieces of information and posts. I think this edition is full of great posts as well and I hope you take some time to read through them all.

There are several posts this month on Nature Study. Leila of Freedom Academy has a great idea for displaying flowers found on nature walks. Tammy of Adventures on Beck's Bounty posts on their fascinating nature finds. Barb-Harmony Art Mom of Handbook of Nature Study updates us on her family's year long oak tree study. She has this to say about it:

Charlotte Mason suggests following a tree throughout the year to see
the changes. This is just about the end of our first year long tree study and I
hope it will inspire others to follow her direction.

Makita at Twinkling Stars Family Homeschool shares on the importance of support & comraderie, which is so important to us all.

School For Us shares two really fun handicrafts that feature origami and beading that are beautiful as well as providing opportunities for learning.

Kim at Graceful Girlhood, one of my very favorite blogs, has posted The Young Ladies Library. She describes it as "A Library of Resources for Use in Educating Young Ladies in the School and Home." You mothers of daughters won't want to miss this one.

Also in the category of homeschooling resources, Shez at Homeschooled Twins has found some fantastic resources for poetry and Growing Fruit...Part 2 has a post on living books and some recommendations for a great book to help teach grammar.

Princess Momma has a really helpful post, A Subject by Subject Approach to Charlotte Mason. She has this to say about her post:

This article is based on my notes taken at an all day CM workshop.
Having a simple outline of what was expected for each subject sure made it
easier to figure out what needed to be done without feeling
overwhelmed.

Mother Hen at Ship Full O'Pirates has posted on a topic that has been on my mind a lot recently. She has titled it Habit Reformation. There are some really practical hints in this one.

And speaking of practical, Naturegirl at Kids and Nature has a really fun way to get in some math practice. Your kids may never even know it's math : )

Whew! That's it!! I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I have. If you'd like to be a part of the fun next time submit your blog article to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

When Mother Lets Us Cook

Homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com is becoming the site I check every morning. They have managed to find so many wondeful freebies. I signed up for their newsletter that gives you a heads up at the beginning of the week as to what they will be offering during the week. That way you can mark your calendar for that one that you MUST have!

Today's offering is right up my alley. A cookbook for children from 1916. Here is an excerpt from the preface:

Recipes include everything from lemonade to applesauce to fudge to omelets. You'll find it here. Hurry up because it's only for today!

P.S. The wonderful Kara has informed me that this is available on googlebooks so you can still get it! Thank you Kara!

P.P.S Kara has gone one step further and recorded it as an audiobook. Have a listen at Librivox!

One Gray Mouse

From Lookybook:

The world of a little mouse is a grand and spectacular place when it is created by author Eugenie Fernandes and illustrated by her daughter Kim Fernandes. Together, this family team has brought us three fabulously vivid and charming stories—each revolving around a single mouse.

The signature of this trio of books is their three-dimensional illustrations. Each is hand-sculpted using Fimo clay—the kind often used for kid’s craft projects requiring baking to harden. Kim portrays each scene with painstaking attention to the tiniest detail and texture—like a sheep’s curly wool coat, or the golden straw piled on a barn’s wooden floor. Given the size of the mouse, many elements are grand in scale—like the bed-sized sneaker that the mouse inhabits in The Sleepy Little Mouse or her teapot house in Busy Little Mouse.

Kim has an expert fondness for plants, flowers and other garden foliage and is anything but shy about expressing nature’s rich palette—like the exploding garden in Big Week for Little Mouse. What’s so impressive is the movement that she creates with what you would think is a stiff medium. As the dog leaps into the pig’s pen, mud goes everywhere. Or the hummingbird that hovers above as the mouse navigates the turbulent sea on the back of a seahorse. And it is the adorable expressions on each of the animal’s faces that will ultimately captivate a child, (and a parent), and draw them deeper into this wonderfully believable mouseland. It will also leave you wondering a bit, “how did she make these tiny worlds with her not so tiny hands?”

Free Audio for Independence Day

One of my favorite websites, Learn Out Loud, is providing a lot of really great audio for free for the holiday tomorrow. I have previewed some of it and it's pretty good stuff. Check it out!

Free Resources & Podcasts for July 4th:
Patrick Henry's "Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death" Speech
The United States Declaration of Independence
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States
United States Bill of Rights
First Inaugural Address of President George Washington
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
History of the United States, Volume 2: Conflict and Independence by Charles Austin Beard
David McCullough's Biography of a Year: 1776
U.S. Presidents Podcast
Great Speeches in History Podcast

Red Velvet Cake

Sorry - this is the best photo I have of this cake!

Tomorrow is my birthday which means that right now I'm engaged in my normal birthday eve ritual. I'm making Red Velvet Cake. My mother made it for me every year as a child and now I make it for myself. I'm teaching my children to make it so they can make it one day for me (she thought dreamily).

Red Velvet Cake was supposedly called that because the cocoa in it made it look red. Today it comes about because of a bottle of red food coloring. I'm normally very picky about artificial colors in my food but I've tried other methods and I have yet to find something that tastes as good as my mother's. So I tell myself it's only once a year and indulge.

Now, I can't give you my mother's recipe. It's a secret. But I can tell you there is a recipe that looks really good here. You can also cheat like I do sometimes and buy a boxed Red Velvet Cake mix (Duncan Hines) and make the frosting youself. It will tastes pretty close. But you must absolutely chill it before you eat it. It isn't nearly as good at room temperature. That's why I make it on birthday eve.

I hope you'll try Red Velvet Cake yourself and let me know if you like it. A large glass of milk (another thing I don't drink often) is required. I think you'll thank me.