Our Journey

A New Journey

Drum roll please!!

So if your friends with me on Facebook then you all ready know my great announcement, but if you are not or maybe you missed it, then without father ado,…..I have been contracted to be the Director of Challenge A for our local Classical Conversation Community!!!!!

YEAAAAA!!!!2011 Independence Day Celebration at York Field. File photo

So what is a Director of Challenge A??? Good question. Let me get back to you on that, after my training, lol :) no no, actually I have gotten that question already and if you haven’t looked into Classical Conversations (CC) then I urge you to check it out. What a wonderful concept!!

Oh my job, that’s right I was telling you what I will be doing. So in the greater scheme of things, we (the CC community) will meet once a week and I will be the guide, the tutor, the leader, the director of wonderful discussion on my different subjects. I will be with the kids that are 12+ (for conventional thinkers 7th grade). If you would like to learn more about CC or maybe visit a local community check out their website.

I am super excited to begin this next chapter of our homeschooling journey!! Each year gets better and better. I honestly couldn’t imagine living our lives any other way.

There is one other bit of news that I am patiently waiting to hear back about. I know that the Lord has a wonderful plan just for me, so as I sit here anxiously waiting to hear back, I am reminded that this is all on HIS timing not mine!!

So what’s going on with you?? Anything new and interesting happening??

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

Pinching Pennies

Over the years I have become more and more resourceful! Looking back I laugh at myself and cry over the amount of money I have thrown away. throwing-away-money In my defense I can only say that I didn’t know!!! Now I try to save on most things but there are certain comforts that I just won’t give up and that is okay with me. I am willing to pay a little bit more for good customer service, organic foods, and safety measures.

What items do you think you can’t give up?

While growing up there were certain food items that you ONLY bought, and ironically my mother still buys them. Whereas I have given up brand loyalty, first because of couponing and then because of healthy lifestyle changes.

So my 1st venture into the money saving world was couponing. While I did really well with getting some great deals, I soon realized that some of these items that I was getting, even though they were free, were not so good for us. 292061_2378062291147_6942957_n I started really worrying about our health. Also thanks to a certain TV show the deals didn’t last very long. When my subscription for the newspapers came due, I use to get 10 papers every Sunday, I decided to not renew. I realized that not couponing I was actually saving money, now I wasn’t in the stores every couple of days trying to get that particular good deal which really ended up costing me because I would usually see something I had “forgotten” and pick it up! 

So now as a homeschooling mama, that really needs to feed my family healthier and save money and use this as a learning experience, I decided to take my search to Google. So here are my top 5.

1. Powered Laundry Detergent

2. DIY Naturally Scented All-Purpose Citrus Vinegar Cleaners

3. Gardening – planting your own food

4. Composting – it really easy and helps with gardening

5. Pinterest- well actually this one might cost you some but it’s kinda like recycling!!

 Do you have any money saving tip???

Check out some other money saving tips from the Crew!!! Photobucket

 

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

Happy Day

Music Monday

Happy Day

Here is a little music to get your Monday morning going.

Whenever I am feeling blah or just having a moment, when this song comes on it transforms my mood!! Hope it has the same effect for you too!!

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

Spanikopita’s

I know I told you all that I would fill you in on all the gossip, I mean update you on all that has been going on but this is not that post. I know, I know but I am still waiting on a few key things to happen before I let everyone in on what’s going on…just pray that the doors will open and that we will all have clarity on this next part of our journey!

Now talking about journey’s, we having been on one for a while but  we have taken a virtual journey to Ancient Greece, I told you yesterday about Home School in the Woods and if I didn’t tell you enough about how the kiddos love it, let me express that!! They ask everyday where are we going this week? What projects are we making? What recipes are we gonna do? They LOVE it!!!

So a couple of weeks ago we “went” to Ancient Greece, and one of the projects was to make “Spanikopita”(spinach pie) but after reading the recipe that was giving I knew that my family wouldn’t really like the spice combinations, so I took my search to the internet and thanks to a few different recipes I was able to come up with this tasty creation. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!!

 

Spanikopita Triangles

Ingredients

· 1 bag (8oz) Baby Spinach

· 1 onion, chopped finely

· 6-8 spring onions (scallions),chopped

· 2 tbsp minced garlic

· 5 oz feta cheese, crumbled Mediterranean style

· ½ cup ricotta cheese

· 1/3 cup freshly grated vegetarian parmesan

· 1 tbsp. fresh dill, chopped

· 1 tbsp Italian seasoning

· 1 generous pinch of nutmeg

· About 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

· 12 sheets of filo pastry, thawed

· About 3-4 tbsp. of unsalted butter, melted + some olive oil (or more if required)

Directions

  • Trim the stems of spinach and clean them well in cold water. Finely chop the spinach.
  • Take a skillet and heat 1 tsp. of Olive oil and sauté the onion until tender, add the garlic and spices.
  • Add the spring onions and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the spinach and cook until the leaves are wilted.
  • Drain. Squeeze out the excess water from the spinach. This step is extremely important to avoid a soggy filling.
  • Remove from heat and then combine the spinach, herbs, cheeses and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper if required. You can taste it to see if it does not have enough salt from the feta cheese.
  • Preheat the Oven to 350F (or 180C). Place the 3 sheets of filo at a time (keeping others covered to avoid drying out). Mix the butter and 2 tbsp. Olive oil in a small bowl. Brush each sheet with butter mixture and lay on top of another.
  • Cut into equal thirds lengthwise.
  • Spoon a little filling on an angle at the end of the each strip. You don’t want to be overzealous here with the portion since it will slip out later.
  • Fold the pastry over to enclose the filling to form a triangle. Now take it upwards to form another triangle Repeat this process until you reach the end. You will have a small strip at the end which you can grease with little butter mixture and stick to the pastry. Brush the top lightly with butter mixture.
  • Grease two baking sheets. Bake the triangles for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

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What are you cooking up??

Check out what others are cooking up this week

at Home to 4 Kiddos!!

 

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

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This past month we have been learning all about the Great Empires. We have been reviewing the Great Empires Activity Study from Home School in the Woods. We received the instant download, which includes the different empires starting with Egypt and goes through the USA. We printed up the timeline and the figures that go with each period.

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   Prices : Download $18.95 or a CD $19.95

Each Empire comes with a text page that gives you a overview of that particular empire. There is a projects page that directs you as to which other pages you will need to print for each day.

We used this study each day. The first week we worked on Ancient Egypt, on the 1st day we printed up everything and went over the timeline, then we read the text. On the 2nd day we did some mapping, on the 3rd day watched a documentary on Ancient Egypt, on the 4th day we did some cooking egyptcooking and then on the 5th day we made a Cartouche complete with hieroglyphs.

Cartouche

 

This activity guide is a wonderful Unit Study!! It is so easy to use that anyone could do it and it is so much fun!! The girls can’t wait until we do world history each day. Here I was nervous about teaching them about world history since I wasn’t sure about what to teach and now I don’t have to worry about it. All I need to do is print up some pages, read a bit about that empire and then do some fun hands on projects.

The weeks that followed included; Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, China. And of course they can’t wait to find out what going on with these empires; Arab-Muslims, Japan, Vikings, Mongols, England, Spain, Russia, France, Germany and the Untied States! We decided to follow the timeline and learn about each empire according to it but you could pick and choose which empire you wanted.

This guide is recommended for elementary ages. If you wanted to use it for middle school ages I would recommend using more of the Addition Reading Material list.

    Check out what the Crew is saying about Home School in the Woods!!Photobucket

“Prices are accurate at the time of this review.”

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

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©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

Error: Change of Plans

We all plan! We plan our days, our weeks, our meals, our vacations, our lessons. We make plans to meet friends, to go out, some even plan when they will have children, when to retire, and sometimes there are those few that over plan everything, or maybe that’s just me??!?! There is an old saying from a movie that says “If you build it they will come!”, we have changed it to say “If you planned it, it will happen!” But what happens when things don’t go as you planned?

What then??

So if you’re anything like me then you probably have a contingency plan, but sometimes even those don’t work. Case in point this past year hubby went through some medical issues, and that was NOT something I had every really planned for. I mean, come on we are young, we eat right better, we go to the Y, but seriously we are young so your not suppose to get sick, right?!!?!

The lesson that I learned was that I was NOT in control. I learned that sometimes, just sometimes there really isn’t anything that I can do, I just needed to let others have control of the situation and hang on for the ride. Which of course is utterly hard for me to do, you know the whole type A planning personality going on!!!

The moment I realized that this was bigger than me and that there was nothing I could do was the night my hubby had a seizure and stopped breathing. I did chest compression and called 911. While following the ambulance, I cried out to the Lord, as tears streamed down my face, I called on Him to take over.

No, everything didn’t get fixed that night, but I was able to gain peace from leaning on Him. I was able to breathe again. When other would ask “How everything was? How was I doing?” I was able to say “I’m okay! and that everything was getting better!”

So when things don’t go as planned, we could keep fighting it and try to take everything on ourselves, or we can give it Up!! This time I choose to let go and to lean on God. For me, it is easier to go to the Lord, and then for me to look for the positive in each situation. I am a firm believer in looking on the bright side. So just because someone says they are “fine” don’t always mean there is nothing wrong, it could just mean that at that moment, they can see a positive, so maybe at that moment in time they really are just fine!!!  

How do you deal with plans that don’t go as planned?

PhotobucketCheck out what some of the Crew is saying about their Change of Plans.

 

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

I know it’s been a little quiet around here lately. As you know life stops for no one; especially me!! But I made this for lunch and it was so easy and super yummy I thought I needed to share it with you! Hope you enjoy this as much as we did and yes, I will fill you in on what’s happening around here, soon.

 

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Broccoli Cauliflower Casserole

Ingredients:

1 package (16 ounces) frozen broccoli florets, thawed

1 package (16 ounces) frozen cauliflower florets, thawed

Topping:

1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoons Italian Seasoning

Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon garlic salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1¼ cups milk

1¼ cup Parmesan Cheese

4 ounces cream cheese, cubed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix bread crumbs, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, 2 tablespoons melted butter and 1/2 teaspoon of the Italian seasoning in small bowl. Set aside. Cut up any large broccoli or cauliflower florets into bite-size pieces.

2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet on medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir about 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in flour, 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning, garlic salt and pepper. Add milk; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add cream cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese; cook and stir until cream cheese is melted. Add vegetables; toss gently to coat. Spoon into 2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle top evenly with crumb mixture.

3. Bake 40 minutes or until heated through and top is lightly browned.

What are you cooking up??

Check out what others are cooking up this week at Home to 4 Kiddos!!

 

Wishing you many Blessings Rainbow

©2011- 2013. Blessings from Homeschooling.

All rights reserved. Ask before using my stuff. Contact me @ blessingsfromhomeschooling@gmail.com

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