We Remember

For the Birds

Many people just feed and observe birds in the winter, but many experts advise feeding year round to keep the birds coming to your yard. In addition there are different birds that can be seen in the winter and summer so there are new things to see. One of my new favorite companies has a great way to do this.

Terracycle is coming up with great ideas for recycling everyday items into purposeful items for lawns and gardens. I found that not only have they come up with a really great, reusuable bird feeder, but also include a free curriculum to use with your children! So I urge you to check it out and while your there take a look at some of the other great products this innovative company has.

The Gift of a Mother

Mother and Child by Jessie Wilcox Smith

courtesy of art.com

I recall your sincere faith that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you.

2nd Timothy 1:5

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Click on the eyes to view a larger image that you can read.

Homeschool Hi-Light: Growing Food with Kids

Homeschool Hi-Lights is hosted by Ellen at Fun Learning. Be sure to check out her fantastic Ten Steps to Multiplication Memorization. And be sure to check out all the other Homeschool Hi-Lights posts.

A big highlight of our week last week was finally seeing my daughter's peas poking through the ground! Last year my children started growing small crops in pots and it's so fun for them. It not only teaches them biology it also teachs them responsibility as they must keep the plants watered. I highly recommend letting your kids grow their own food!

A great book I found is called Crops in Pots. Not only does it give you ideas for plants to put together in a pot, it also gives ideas for the type of pot to use and a recipe that utilizes all the things in that pot. I urge you to check it out and grow something with your kids!

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.