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Showing posts from February, 2014

My Favorite Afternoon Beverage: Tea

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I’m a coffee in the morning person but I’m not a coffee in the afternoon person. Nope. Maybe it’s because I did a study abroad in England while in college and feel in love with “real tea”.  (That Lipton tea is not not not not real tea in my opinion!)  One of my favorite memories of my time in England was the tea break during our 2 hour Tues/Thurs afternoon class. Class started at 2pm and promptly at 3pm we would have our tea break.  The tea lady pushed a small cart containing a tea pot, cups and biscuits.  For 10p (pence) you could get a nice cup of tea.  For 10p more you could get a biscuit or two to go with it. On Mondays and Wednesdays I would get a cup of tea in the afternoon at the commons. And on days off and week-ends I would enjoy a cup of tea in the afternoon when studying. When the girls were young we had “tea time” in the afternoon.  I, of course, had real tea with milk and sugar and they usually had juice.  During this time I would read to them.  Now anytime after 2 but

Random 5 on Friday ~ Feb 21 Edition

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  1. Last week was Valentine’s Day which means it was February 14!  This day has extra special meaning to my family.  We were received into the Holy Orthodox Church on this date!  It’s my chrismation anniversary! 2. Speaking of Valentine’s Day, Honeybear gave me a giant chocolate Kiss.  I meant to take a picture of it but I didn’t.  There is a chunk of it left but it’s not worth taking a picture.  We also did something we have not done in years and years.  We went to dinner and a movie.  We ate a place called Buffalo Wild Wings.  We’d never been there before.  I had the *best* burger I ever remember eating.  And the wings?  They actually were the best wings I’ve ever had in a restaurant.  They could rival my own home made ones . 3. A week ago Sunday we had lots of snow (well for us it was lots of snow!).  For more pictures you can read my S is for Snow post. By last Friday, when I played taxi driver, the sun was shining and it was 53 degrees!  I didn’t need my coat! 4. The Schoo

My Favorite Time of Day ~ Favorite Anything 52 Week Series

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Over the years my favorite time of day has changed.  It changes to meet my current needs in the different seasons of raising children. 18 years ago my favorite time of day was naptime.  Her naptime.  I was a new mom with a new baby and I treasured those afternoon nap times. There were no other children.  Just her and I. A few years and 3 more children and naptimes were not my favorite times anymore. I had one who didn’t take naps anymore and 1 who was never (and still isn’t) a great sleeper. I remember a very short season when I loved 3:30 to 4 O’clock on most Thursday afternoons.  My two good sleepers would still be napping.  My 5 year old would be content to play quietly on the living room floor and I laid on the couch with my teeny tiny special needs 3 year old.  It was too short of a season. For many years my favorite time of the day was the early morning.  4 children asleep, a husband doing Army PT.  The house was still and quiet.  I had a morning routine that included a few cho

S is for Snow!

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This past weekend we had snow.  OK I know most of the country has been getting snow and lots of it. We weren’t.  While the Polar Vortex wreaked havoc on the Midwest, South, and Eastern parts of the US, we here in the Pacific Northwest experienced very mild and unusually warm January weather.  February arrived and that pesky short month brought cold weather and snow! The first snowfall did not amount to much.  What little bit stuck didn’t accumulate to any kind of measureable amount and our school district (that tends to cancel readily) didn’t even have a late start!  The snow was gone quickly.  That snow was no big deal and is fairly typical for us: just enough snow to look pretty but not mess up life.  I can deal with snow like that.  This past weekend?  Well it’s been a couple of years since we’ve had snow like that! It started Saturday during the late afternoon.  Big beautiful flakes of sticky snow.  And it kept falling and it kept sticking.  We went to bed and there was a thin bl

Homeschool Teaching Nemesis: Writing

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Blogging is a form of writing.  I blog therefore I write.  Right?  I love reading.  I even have a reading goal for 2014 that is nearly double what I read in 2013 (sounds impressive but really I am aiming for 40 books).  I’ve been told that to be a good writer you should be a good reader. I don’t know. I’m not sure that my love of reading has helped my writing. But what about teaching writing? Does a love of reading and a desire to write help with teaching writing? Teaching writing is my nemesis ; it is the subject that I struggle with the most to teach . I find that odd because I love grammar. I love editing. I love reading. I can teach grammar.  I can teach reading. I just can’t seem to wrap my mind around teaching someone to write. I have lost track of the number of books I have read and the number of curricula we’ve tried over the years to help me teach my daughters to write. All of these materials had two things in common: Read aloud to your child every day Write every day T

My Favorite Kitchen Spoons: Bamboo! {Favorite Series}

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A few years ago I received a box of goodies from an anonymous friend. Inside was a touching letter and things for everyone from little toys and a dress to some kitchen things for me.  My favorite things from the box are my Pampered Chef Bamboo Spoons. I will wash a dirty bamboo spoon to use rather than reaching for a clean plastic wooden-spoon-shaped spoon. The set I have includes 3 different spoons. I do have a favorite among the three for different mixing jobs.  Two are the same length (long) but have different shaped bowl ends. The third is short with a similar but deeper bowl shape. My favorite is the shorter one with the deeper bowl.  It’s perfect for when I when I need to stir something constantly, like a cream sauce or a gravy. It also works very well for mixing the cereal and seasoned melted butter for home made Chex Mix. I also reach for it first when I am stirring my popcorn to evenly distribute the butter and salt. I like the shape of the handles and how they feel in my

Random 5 on Friday {February 7th Edition}

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I can’t believe January is over!  Hello February.  I know February is only 3 days shorter than January or March but those 3 days make a huge difference.  February is 1/4 of the way gone!  So here’s my 5 Random Thoughts for this week: 1.  Today is actually Saturday, not Friday. I had every intention of finishing this blog and posting it on Friday but I went out to dinner with my family.  We rarely go out and it was a real treat.  (See number 2 below). 2.  I love Arby’s Beef and Cheddars. I know the are not good for me at all. I do only eat half the bun though but I always add extra red ranch. And I don’t like the curly fries. Nope I have to have potato cakes. 3.  I have a husband that cooks. I am blessed. 4.  I posted, I think it was last year, about Shrimp.  I have developed a taste for shrimp.  My favorite is Shrimp Creole.  I also like this Italian Shrimp that is like an appetizer or I’m thinking served with some angel hair pasta.  Saw the recipe idea on Facebook.  Take some butt

A Few of my Favorite Quotes

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When trying to think of a topic for the letter q I seem to always want to gravitate towards quotes.  Last week I combined Ben and Me’s Blogging Through the Alphabet Meme with my Favorite Anything Series. I decided to combine my Favorite Anything Series with my alphabet blogging again this week.  I couldn’t narrow it down to just one quote so I’ve picked a few of my favorite quotes to share this week. When I was in high school I decorated my notebooks with doodles and hearts and names and quotes.  Usually the quotes were song lyrics. One of those quotes still frequently comes to mind: “ It’s from yourself that you have to hide .” It’s from a song: “Come up and See Me (Make Me Smile).”  I first heard the song as a live version recorded by Duran Duran.  “It’s from yourself that you have to hide.”  It just sounds so profound.  So deep. I found it thought provoking and sometimes true. I don’t think we hide just from others but sometimes from ourselves and sometimes I think others may kn