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Showing posts from July, 2011

I did it! I made a menu plan this week!

I haven’t made a menu plan in so long that I can’t remember the last time I had a menu plan!  Oh I have my old rotating menu plans and other menu plans but I haven’t actually planned meals out with any regularity in months. This week, however, with the help of my family,  I came up with a plan for one week. This week’s plan is running Saturday through Friday: Saturday—we had marinated chuck steak that we grilled along with Rice Pilaf and green beans Sunday—Homemade Pizza… yum!  My husband is the pizza maker of the family.   The very first meal he ever cooked for me was pizza.  We hadn’t had homemade pizza in a long time.   We made one with sausage.  One with Canadian bacon and pineapple.  One with pepperoni and pineapple. And the fourth pizza?  My favorite!  Honeybear calls it garbage pizza.  BooBear and I call it veggie lover’s or supreme.  Sausage, pepperoni, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, onion and  green olives.    Left over pizza made a great lunch today! Monday—Chicken A

Reading Aloud Challenge 7/21

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I know the subject line is for Thursday and today is Sunday but Debra, over at Footprints in the Butter posts her Reading Aloud Challenge on Thursdays and it makes it easier for me to keep track if I go with Thursday’s date. Last week I posted about how we haven’t been reading aloud.  And we still haven’t.  Not exactly anyway.   I did read aloud a couple of short stories to Supergirl this week so that we could do story summaries (she was so cute… note to self:  MUST blog about it!). My homeschool has exploded all over my living room floor.  I’ve been pulling out the Sonlight books and gathering what we’ll need and trying to sort through what should back into bins.   Because the books have become so accessible to the girls, (the books are just sitting there crying out to be read!) the girls have been doing lots and lots of summer reading.   Wait!  Stop the presses.. I *did* read aloud to Supergirl!!  How could I forget?  I read from Marvels of Creation: Breathtaking Birds .  Loo

Gearing up for the new Crew Year

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If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog, then you know that I was a “crewmate” on the 2010-2011 Old Schoolhouse Review Crew.  I had an amazing, blessed and wonderful time as a crewmate so without hesitation I filled out my returning crew mate application. The new 2011-2012 Crew year is getting under way and I am getting so excited!  The upcoming vendor list is growing nearly daily.  ( You can see what’s “on deck” for the crew reviews this year by going to visit the Homeschool Crew Blog here .  The right hand sidebar lists the upcoming vendors. Check back regularly for updates!)  The first couple of vendor interest forms have been posted for the crew to fill out and I am expecting that the crewmates will see the first Vendor Review List posted this week, maybe even today! The Vendor Review List is the *the* list that crew members watch for like hawks.  If our name is on the list, it means that we will be receiving the product for review.  There’s always some nervous excitement goin

Reading… Just Not Aloud

It’s been weeks since I’ve participated in Debra’s Reading Aloud Challenge over at Footprints in the Butter . I took a sort of kind of blogging vacation during the month of June and now that we are half way through July, I’m starting to get back into the swing of blogging again. But that it isn’t really the reason I haven’t posted about reading aloud.  I haven’t posted about reading aloud because, well, we haven’t been.  I had big plans for spending lots of time reading aloud.  I envisioned myself with my children sitting outside basking in the sun and enjoying a lazy day of reading aloud.   Life, or the weather, or both has had other plans.  It’s just not really been a very sunny (or warm) summer and when we do get some sun and warmth we have other things and other ways to enjoy the sun like BBQ Picnics with the handmaidens at church or Backyard BBQ’s with friends.  Or necessary chores like yard work.   <sigh> But just because we haven’t been reading aloud doesn’t mean that w

BooBear Retires

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Several weekends ago we had a taste of summer. (We have not had much of a summer this year)  The sun came out to play on Friday and joined us for Saturday.   It must have been too much for the orange glow as it disappeared again on Sunday and didn’t make an appearance for several weeks.  It came out again for a day or 2 and disappeared again.  As I type this  I am hoping that the sun is just lost and will soon find its way back again. During that taste of summer though, the girls and I had a wonderful time at a picnic BBQ for the Handmaidens of our church.   It was a special day for BooBear.   This event marks the closing of a (rather short) season in her life. The young ladies of Orthodox parish may serve as Handmaidens.  Generally girls from around 6-8 years until 14-16 years old assist with such duties as holding the “blessed bread” during communion (this is NOT the Eucharist), putting out “too short” candles during the service, and holding icons during processions among other dut

Book Review: The Ale Boy’s Feast

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My daughter, Turtlegirl, is a huge fantasy fiction fan.  When I saw The Ale Boy’s Feast by  Jeffrey Overstreet, I knew she would enjoy it.  I requested the book so that I could read and share it with her.  Fantasy is not my first choice when I reach for a fiction book to read but the genre is growing on me.  This novel is book 4 in this series.  I requested it with some trepidation about reading the final novel first.  I took the plunge and requested the review.  From the Publisher: Book 4 of the Auralia Thread series The king is missing.His people are trapped as the woods turn deadly. Underground, the boy called Rescue has found an escape. Hopes are failing across The Expanse. The forests, once beautiful, are now haunted and bloodthirsty. House Abascar's persecuted people risk their lives to journey through those predatory trees. They seek a mythic city - Abascar's last, best hope for refuge - where they might find the source of Auralia's colors. They journey withou