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Showing posts from June, 2010

Too much church?

The other day my children and I were driving along and discussing our weekend plans. My oldest and I had plans to do some jam canning with a friend from church. From the back of the van I hear “oh man… I was just about to ask what kind of service is a canning service.” It made me laugh out loud and remark out loud “you know you’ve been going to church a lot when your daughter wants to know what kind of service a canning service is” Recently we became Orthodox Christians. It’s been quite a journey as we experienced all kinds of different services: hours, royal hours, vespers, divine liturgy, vesperal divine liturgy, matins, festal matins, pre-sanctified liturgies, bridgegroom matins, agape vespers and I’m sure I’ve forgotten some. Sometimes the services are quite long; always they are quite beautiful. I’m grateful that my daughter enjoys the Orthodox services and takes all the services in stride. Canning service? Sure why not. Maybe it’s a service to bless the jam.

A Blog Walking Tour week 2

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I took another walking tour through some more of the TOS Review Crew blogs this week.  It took me a little longer this week since the sun actually came out and I spent less time on the computer and more time outside.  Special thanks to Debbie at Debbie’s Digest for the above image.  I’m enjoying getting to know some new blogs.  Here are the ones I visited this week. 1. Chubbycheeks at Second Star to the Right and Straight On Till Morning – I liked how she had book images along the sidebar.  Seeing the books reminded me of when my girls were little.  Such fun books! 2. Amanda at Surviving The Testosterone – Amanda is the mom of 3 boys.  I enjoyed her sense of humor and laughed out loud when reading her posts. 3.  At Family Style School, I found a really neat idea for a snack basket! 4. Amy will be sharing her reviews at School Around The Bible 5. While reading Andria’s blog: 1628 The Story of The Goebels 5 ,  I found a really interesting recipe for a layered casserole.  I thi

Disney-Pixar—a dream come true

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Heidi at Reviews & Reflections asked two Disney questions this week in her Disney Meme. 1) What is your favorite Disney Pixar Film? um, whatever is the most current?  Really, we have loved all of them and I have no doubt we will also enjoy Toy Story 3.  Each time a Disney-Pixar movie is released (or at least by the time we own it on DVD) it has become our family favorite…at least until the next one arrives. 2) Have you had opportunity to meet any of your favorite Disney-Pixar characters at a Disney park? Yes!  In November 2008 Super Girl was granted her wish through Make-A-Wish.  She wanted to go to Disney World so that she could meet Buzz Lightyear.  Make-A-Wish made all the arrangements for us to go to Disney World but we were on our own for meeting characters.  (We had a “magic wand” that did facilitate easier meeting)  We did not have a clue about how to go about finding Buzz.   We knew we wanted to have lunch at Pizza Planet (not nearly as cool as in the movie but fun to

Father’s Day Thoughts

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As Father’s Day draws to an end, I realize how much I miss my dad.   I can’t say that he was the greatest dad in the world.  He had his own demons that warred within him all of his life, but he was my dad.   7 years, 7 months and 1 day ago he passed from this life.   I almost feel like I had two fathers.  Oh I don’t mean two men.  I mean the relationship I had with my father when I was growing up and the relationship I had with my father after I was married.  It was like he was 2 different men. One of the memories that I treasure, isn’t from my childhood.  In August of 1997 my twins were born.  Supergirl was fighting for her life.  We were being medically evacuated from Germany so that supergirl could have open heart surgery at a top US Children’s Hospital with one of the top 7 pediatric cardiac surgeons in the world.  I remember being on the phone with my dad.  He asked me if she really needed to have this surgery.  He didn’t like the idea of his granddaughter having to undergo su

Blog Walking through the Crew Week 1

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Last week the The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew began to gather in a special forum to get to know one another. Someone had a great idea for getting to know the blogs of the crew members. Some call it a Blog walk; Some call it a blog crawl. In either case it is taking the time to read and explore a couple of blogs a day. The goal is to explore all the Crew blogs by the end of the crew year. I'm excited at this opportunity to get to know some fellow crew mates and read a wide variety of blogs. I'll be posting weekly the blogs I explore (with links) so you can have a chance to meet them as well. Here are the blogs I visited this week: 1. Alane at Reaping a Harvest —Alane is an e-maginary friend I “met” years ago on a yahoo group for homeschooling.  Check out her tab on Why Homeschool. 2. Lexi at Pink & Orange Coffee —I enjoyed Lexi’s humor and her blog is very organized. She has a tab just for homeschool reviews. 3. Alina at Live, Laugh, Learn !—I admire Alina.  She homescho

Why I Home school

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On a forum I frequent, the question has come up “Why do you home school?” I think that is a great question and I think each and every family has a different answer. I think I’ve shared glimpses of our reasons for choosing to educate our children at home but, sometimes, I forget why I am doing this as I get bogged down in the pressure to make sure I cover everything and that I use the best program. I worry about how I’m failing to teach them and I get frustrated with a messy house, undone school work and I want to scream and run away. I’m sure I’ve written on this topic before. Ah here it is. I wrote about what I liked best . That hasn’t changed and yesterday reaffirmed me that what I like best is what I love most about the privilege of home schooling my children. And it is the reason I continue to home school. Yesterday, I didn’t get a lick of the academics completed that I had planned but what I did accomplish was so much more important. Yesterday, I spent time building a relations

Perfect Weekend Weather!

So just a few days ago I posted about wondering where summer was. Tonight I am relaxing with my honeybear after enjoying a wonderful weekend with perfect summer weather. I really do love the temperate climate of the Pacific Northwest. My perfect summer day is not too hot and has lots of sun. Yesterday it was mid 70's. It was 75 degrees when we drove past the bank yesterday around dinner time. This afternoon on our way home from church the same bank said it was 71 degrees. This afternoon the clouds have rolled back in and the temperature has cooled off again but at least I had two days of summer!

Where is summer?

It's June. At least that is what the calendar says. But looking out my window, I just don't think I believe the calendar. I'm seeing posts and updates on the internet about fun summer activities and I'm wondering if summer will ever reach my corner of the world. I don't mind the rain; really, I've gotten used to it after 9 years. I don't mind the cooler weather. I felt like I was going to melt when we went to Disney World. But I do enjoy sunshine. I do enjoy 73 degree weather with a gentle breeze and lots and lots of sun. I don't remember what the actual temperature was last Saturday, but weather wise it was as close to perfect as can be. I'm just hoping that wasn't our only day of Summer this year. (So why I am a posting a complaint about the cool rainy weather? Especially since June does tend to be well chilly here.. it's just that usually we have these beautiful warm sunny days in May and we didn't have them. And most

Bedtime Entertainment?

Last night we sent the girls to bed as usual. They've been staying up later and it was now past 10pm. We could hear talking and giggling. Honeybear walked down to the room shared by 3 girls and admonished them to quiet down and go to sleep. A few minutes later we heard the giggles and the talking again. Honeybear sent me down to the dark room to investigate. I discovered three girls in bed with 4 or 5 stuffed animals. That wouldn't be a problem except that the girls were enacting some type of storytelling with the stuff animals. As I held out my hand to take the stuffed animals, I said in my sternest, gruffest voice "and don't think I didn't do the same thing when I was kid and don't think your Nana didn't do what I'm doing now." They giggled. I looked at them and said "remind me to tell you about the chick a dee stories". More giggles. Then in a more normal voice, I reminded them that it was very late and they really needed t

This Weeks Meals (June 1st)

I did several blog posts about rotating meal plans and how to create a rotating meal plan. Our needs have changed and I'm in the process of working out some new rotating meal plans. I have found that have menus planned out saves time and money. To hold myself accountable I'll be posting menu plans so that I can create some different rotating meal plans based on the Orthodox Calendar . I'm hoping to have "fasting" and "non-fasting" season meal plans. This week's plan: Tuesday: Vegetarian Minestrone Soup with French Bread Wednesday: "Sloppy Joes" with potato chips (made with dehydrated TVP) Thursday: Stir Fry-- lots of veggies... I think I'll through in some extra firm tofu Friday: NEW RECIPE we'll be trying Tomato Curry Lentil Stew from allrecipes.com Saturday: If the sun shines we'll try grilling some tilapia otherwise I'll bake it with some chives, diced tomatoes and Johnny's Seasoned Salt. I'll most likel