You would think this was some sort of punishment. Maybe the boys misbehaved, and i sent them to go pick up rocks in a bucket.
Nope, not these boys! Picking up rocks and collecting them in a bucket is FUN stuff! And, hard work...that bucket was heavy!
He's ordering another Veggie Tale Movie & Veggie Tale Bible :)
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| Finally got a pic...after the boys ate most of it! |
Since we unschool/relax homeschool, we do a lot of baking! Lei sure knows his way with a ring of measuring spoons. He can pick out a tablespoon from a teaspoon, and a 1/4 from 1/2.
Yes, baking is fractions at it's best. What better way to learn than by figuring out 3/4's of a banana?!
Today we made some applesauce. My house smelled so good!
Ingredients:
4 medium apples (gala work best, i used a mix of gala and regular reds) Peel and chop into 1/2 inch pieces.
3/4c. water
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1tsp brown sugar (optional)
Directions:
Mix water, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt and brown sugar in a medium pot, over medium heat. Add apples, and bring to a boil. Boil for about 15-20 minutes until apples are soft and easily pierced with a fork. Blend. I used a hand stick blender, so i'm not sure how any other blender would work. (If you try this recipe with another blender please let me know how it turned out!)
Serve immediately if you want it warm, or refrigerate for an hour or two to serve cold.
I didn't get any pics of the process :(
Next time!
I didn't get any pics of the process :(
Next time!
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The boys and I made pizza! if i knew it was this simple i would have been making our own pizza a long time ago! The recipe i have is so easy, and yeast free-which is great if you don't like to wait for rising dough. plus, most of the ingredients you probably already have in your cupboards.
Ingredients:
2 c. flour
1 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1/4c. oil
1/4c. oil
2/3 c. water
*I added some garlic salt to the crust mixture, to give it some extra flavor*
Directions:
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I topped our pizza with:
Nutritional yeast sauce
Tomato Sauce
Green Peppers
Tofu
Chick peas
Spinach
These Oatmeal Circles go fast in our house! Not only are they a great, healthy snack...but they also make a great breakfast for those days we have to leave the house early.
These circles are:
Vegan
White Refined Sugar free
Soy Free
These are good enough for you that i can't even call them cookies! It’s so fun learning about all of the ways to make things healthier without sacrificing taste or texture.
These cookies are a fabulous example of how you can make some simple changes to a recipe, making it much healthier, while keeping the effort and number of ingredients similar to the original.
In this case it’s mainly a matter of simple substitutions – oil instead of butter, a bit of flax instead of an egg, maple syrup instead of sugar, and the secret ingredient for keeping it moist yet cookie-like: a banana! (Don’t worry if you don’t like bananas, you don’t really taste it.)
Little Brother loved it straight from the bowl, and so did i-don't judge! I finally got the batter away from him and was able to portion them out.
I don't own a cookie sheet, however, the back of my cupcake pan worked great!
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cups uncooked rolled oats
- 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- pinch salt
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
- About 3/4 of a medium banana
- 1/2 cup raisins (you could also add nuts or chocolate chips)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl – make sure to blend it well enough that there’s no chunks of banana.
Place rounded spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie sheet and bake for about 7-10 minutes, until light golden brown. Remove from oven and let the cookies finish baking on the cookie sheet for about 5 more minutes.
Enjoy!
After drinking all the coconut water, we enjoyed the coconut meat!
If you're using or thinking of using cloth diapers, then you may also be using or planning to also use cloth wipes.There are so many benefits of cloth diapers, and you will see that many of the same benefits apply to cloth wipes:
Saving money
No harsh chemicals on your baby's skin
Cloth is nice and soft
They produce less waste, and that makes them better for the environment.
In the beginning i never intended to use cloth wipes. After a diaper rash on little brothers bottom that would not go away changed my mind. My first encounter with cloth wipes were in the form of a baby washcloth and soapy water.
Simple and Effective.
Not only was it really easy to just go to the sink and wet a washcloth, but little brother's bottom did a 360 in a matter of days. I was hooked.
They even cleaned better than commercial wipes. Best of all, i knew what was going on my baby's skin.
Things were going well, and eventually i moved away from the soapy solution in favor of just plain, pure H2O. There was one little problem though. Trips away from the house. Not wanting to venture too far away from a bathroom just in case i had to change a diaper, i had to think of something quick.
A spray bottle.
I filled a 4oz spray bottle with water and i was good to go! I've gotten more adventurous with the solutions, and the one in my bottle now is a blend of:
bottled water
witch hazel
lavender essential oil
peppermint essential oil
It smells so good, and i even use it as a body spray sometimes!
I've also upgraded from baby washcloths! I've used everything from:
old baby blankets, to those 1ply baby diapers.
I am now addicted, and will most likely stick with:
flannel and fleece!
They are so soft and absorbent and i wish i had tried them sooner!
I have not used store bought baby wipes in over a year. Not only did we save a ton of $$, but cloth wipes and wipe solutions are so much more fun!
So many colors and recipes you can play around with!
Also, if you are using cloth diapers, you will probably find that cloth wipes are easier to use than disposable wipes, just a quick rinse after an easy cleanup or just pop the used wipes into your diaper bucket and wash with the diapers. You are washing anyway, so what is a couple of extra items to hang out?
After our rainmaker project we had so much glitter all over! We got as much as possible back into the jar, but there was still quite a bit that just would not lift up! Sure, a vacuum would pick it up...but where's the fun in that!?
So, using some play-dough we had around, we used the extra glitter to make glitter play-dough! Just roll the play-dough over the glitter, and that's it! Pretty play-dough, and cleanup all in one!
I still needed to use my vacuum though :)
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Materials needed:
Tube container (i used a small Pringles can)
Nails
Rice and/or beans
Construction paper
Decorations
Glue
Stapler
Putting together your rainmaker:
Measure out a piece of construction paper to wrap around your tube, and decorate! We used some feathers, glitter and shape cut outs.
(This part is all Lei! I try to stay out of it as much as possible, and just sit on the side saying "oh, how pretty" and "Wow, that is so cool!" However when it comes to the stapling, i handle that part.)
Carefully hammer nails into the side of your tube...or do like Lei, and use a wooden puzzle peice as your hammer :)
We just put the randomly.
Then add your rice or beans...we added both! I didn't get a picture of this part, but we filled our can a little less than half, and i think that it was too much. You will probably get better results with less!
Wrap your decorated paper around your tube and staple to keep it in place. I found that stapling worked better than gluing since the head of the nails didn't allow the paper to stay flat enough to glue, and stay flat..
Glue or staple on lid, and your rainmaker is complete! Time to have fun, and enjoy!
Does anyone have any idea what type of flower (weed?) this is?
We have been seeing these a lot on our nature walks, and in yards. I've done a few searches, but i can't find anything!
Update:
Thanks to my dear friend Niki, Lei and i now know that this is a Shepard's Needle Flower. Definitely an addition to our nature journal.
Update:
Thanks to my dear friend Niki, Lei and i now know that this is a Shepard's Needle Flower. Definitely an addition to our nature journal.
We haven't been doing much at all with homeschooling this week. Since this was supposed to be our Ee week, we did a bit of handwriting (writing the letter Ee on our white board/unlined paper). We also talked about how the letter E makes the 'eh' sound.
Other than that we did A LOT of nature study. We talked about the northern mockingbird and the White Crowned Pigeon. Both of which are local birds, and we see almost on a daily basis! However, any picture we tried to get of them did not turn out well. So, i had to get these ones online!
White Crowned Pigeon
Northern Mockingbird
We will continue with these birds next week, when we get a calmer start to the week!
Here is the first lesson i will be working on with Lei. It's the /k/ sound, which he has been pronouncing /d/.
We will go over one row for about 15-30 minutes a day until he can say it. I'm not worried about how quick he will catch onto it, and i'm trying to make it fun for him.
These past days have been so busy. Between Drs, Dentists, and house break-ins, it feels like i haven't even been home!
On Sunday i spent 6 hours waiting in the ER. And didn't even get to see the dr! The kids were getting tired and bored, so we left. The following day, Monday, we took him to our family dr. My sweet boy has Otitis externa, an outer ear infection. Not only that, but the dr also noticed his speech issues. Lei has a lot of difficulty pronouncing certain letter sounds. For example: Four is Bore, car is dar, he completely removes the s from the beginning of words,etc. Dr says to keep working on it with him, and to keep an eye (ear?) on it. The worst it could be is Auditory Processing Disorder, which i'm pretty confident it isn't. He has a follow up Wednesday, for the ear infection.
Last night L's grandmother's house was broken into, and we found it today. She is in the US now and nobody is living there thank God. Lei, of course, had his Policeman costume with him. The one that's for Halloween, but he has worn it everyday since we bought it last Saturday! So, he had to wear it since he was a Police Officer. You can imagine his excitement when the real Police came!
Hopefully we will get back to normal soon!
