Visings

Brenda's first buck

2012-01-17T04:52:00.000-08:00

This account of the kill... Posted on Brenda's Facebook.

"first deer ever and it got to be a 8pt buck so yay for that. thankfully this time i dident hiperventilate and wimp out like last time. after about an hour of finding blood and trying to track where it went to it finaly paid off by finding out that it was one of the bigger bucks on our proporty. dad said that the rack is big enough to where we can get it mounted. we even found the bullet that i shot it with and we are going to put it with the mount.and i shot it with a Savage bolt action .270 cal rifle. named him ocho bucko because ocho cinco is the number 8 bangles player and my buck is an 8pt buck."

A friend said, "Did you kill it?" and Brenda responds, "Yes, it's dead." lol.

re going to put it with the mount.and i shot it with a Savage bolt action .270 cal rifle. named him ocho bucko because ocho cinco is the number 8 bangles player and my buck is an 8pt buck."
.

Twins?? Or just good friends...

2011-12-27T16:27:00.000-08:00

Another biggie on Marley's list was an American Girl Doll. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A DOLL! Have you seen her messy room?? Not a'happenin'. But so we found this cutie thing that appears to her to be an American Girl Doll. We didn't tell her that it was one, we just didn't discount her idea that it was. Then she came into our rooom today reminding me that there should be an American Girl Doll code so she can get on the computer to play games with her doll. She decided that it must have gotten thrown out and moved on (thankfully) without more thought on the problem.

A Surprise that Everyone Enjoyed

2011-12-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

Pregnant Brittany and little CallieMae showed up for a visit yesterday. They were in town for a few days before heading back to Florida. It has been months since the girls have seen CallieMae. It was such a great time for all of them. Then CallieMae got cranky quick, hitting and flailing and telling everyone "no". We snapped a few photos and they were on their way. It was a good way to end our Holiday Festivities.

Who put the Easy in this thing???

2011-12-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

So one of Marley's big ticket items on the list this year (a bit down from the million dollars and puppy that she DIDN'T receive) was an Easy Bake Oven. And I use the term Easy very lightly. Thanks to a kind friend who was moving and downsizing we aquired this lightbulb box for free and were able to turn it into a prized Christmas present with little effort.

Three days in a row, Marley and I have baked cookies (and again I use the plural 's' VERY lightly, lightly as one might step on thin ice in the middle of an ocean.) We have a choice of making one cookie (two inches in diameter) or 6 teeny little cookies. Once we made the "big" one and twice we made the six tiny ones. Each time it takes about 25 minutes to do, most of the time is spent waiting for the lightbulb to warm the plastic box. Then when it is done another 10 minutes to cool the cookie. FOR ONE COOKIE!! We could bake two dozen cookies in this time in a REAL oven. And we do bake together all the time. I love to bake, and Marley USUALLY bakes with me. So I don't understand her delight in this thing. But I am patient and I am delighted in her pride at her cookies. So one cookie at a time we go along together. And one cookie at a time, we are happy.

If I could take a moment, since it is Christmas, to relay an old childhood memory that surfaced when the Easy Bake Oven idea popped up in Marley's mind...
My sister had an Easy Bake Oven when we were little. I don't remember ever using it. But I do remember sitting in the back of the station wagon, Remember that seat that folded down in the back? The seat that when in use faced the back window/door? There was this little handle hole in the seat when folded down. A hole so that you could reach in and pull the seat back into position. In that hole, my sister saw the box for an Easy Bake Oven, and proceeded to tell my mom how she knew she was getting it for Christmas. My mom told her some story about how it wasn't for her, or it was just an empty box she was using for storage or something like that. Funny.

My sister was such a spoiler of holidays like that. I figure I was 6 or 7 when she spoiled Santa for me. We were going to visit my Grandma for Christmas and my mom said hold on in the car, she had to run into the house and get something. She was gone about 10 minutes, maybe longer. My sister insisted that Mom was in the house putting the presents under the tree so she could say Santa did it when we got home from Grandma's. Then when we got home she even pointed out how Santa's S was in my mom's writing.

We all (even Brenda and Bret) go through leaps and bounds to keep Santa in Marley's Christmas. She only has a few more years to be young. And we so want her to have that just a little bit longer.

Me and My ipod touch

2011-12-20T11:28:00.000-08:00

So we had our unschoolers xmas party, and this is what I find when I get home. :-)

Me and My ipod touch

2011-12-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

Even Marley finds purpose in my new high tech toy. Glad to have it, though it turns out i don't get to see it much, what with everyone else's hands on it all day. :-) Wise toy indeed, even though my hub doesn't agree.

Contemporary Arts Unmuseum

2011-12-20T11:18:00.000-08:00

I think activities are done for a bit. I am taking a break. The last of the girls' scout activities finally over. We headed downtown last night for Macy's free Mondays at the Contemporary Art Museum Unmuseum space. We checked out their optical illusion area, the elephant of drawers, and all the unmuseum exhibits. They we set out to make art of our own with the unlimited art supplies provided. All the kids want to go back again.

2011-12-20T10:56:00.001-08:00

2011-12-20T10:55:00.001-08:00

2011-12-20T10:53:00.001-08:00

Cadette Christmas Party

2011-12-10T20:24:00.000-08:00

Two troops collide again. Our troop of cadettes was invited to join the Northside troop for a Christmas partyish get-together. We have been involved in activities two or three other times with this great group of girls. We came to fold envelopes and attach labels for SCOOP, Inc. (a local save-the-cats outreach program). And mostly they chatted about things that 11-13 year old girls chat about, and ate a bunch of snacks. Good time. Glad to connect again.

Our Tradition Strong

2011-12-10T19:57:00.000-08:00

Every year now I take each of my kids out for Christmas Shopping. We do lunch (or dinner) we shop the malls and Wally World, Target, Half Price Books, JoAnn Fabrics, Bass Pro Shop, JCP's, Kohls, wherever else our plans take us. We snack, indulge in things we don't usually get to do, see Santa, and just hang out together really. Is has become everyone's fav part of the holiday. And when Christmas comes everyone has something to give eachother. I am so blessed to have wonderful amazing children, all of whose time is so precious to me. Even more blessed that I realize now how precious their time with me is.

Special thanks to "Rich" from Norwood Cici's who made the breaking of my traditional end-of-year fast such an enjoyable time.

It is full up!!

2011-12-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

Bret is down on our KY land hunting today. He phoned me a photo. He calls it the watering hole. I call it our lake. :-) All the rain we have had in the last week, seems to have drained down to KY. Our lake is full up. Yay! Some day we will be swimming in there and fishing. Then walking the path back up to our home. Just help me hold that image for now...

Christmas Bathroom

2011-12-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

Don't know why I am so inspired to have a Christmas bathroom this year. But our wall pictures didn't match so we made new ones. Brenda's is the snowman holding a snowflake, Bret's is the two snowmen, Marley made the wreath, and I made the snowflakes. YAY! Big fun.

Christmas Sweet Christmas

2011-12-05T07:57:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, Bret and Gaige headed over to KY to feed the deer and cut down a Christmas tree for the house. So sweet. They also brought home a bunch of little cedars for me to plant so I can have a little bit of our new-to-be home here while I wait. So sweet.

Great Fun

2011-12-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

One minute the weather is freezing, the next minute is is 55 degrees. Snow then rain. Oh well, we are making lemonaid out of our lemons. :-)

Unschoolers Co Op

2011-12-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

We have been meeting with a group of unschoolers once a week at a local park. With the weather and holidays passing we are meeting less and less. We have a meeting place starting in January. Indoors, three school rooms and a gym. All excited to start that up. I know the kids are missing our Thursday get-togethers. Now that I have a teen meet-up for and a bunch of kids Bret's age, it is time to find some kids for Lily. That has been my struggle this year.

Girl Scouts

2011-12-05T05:38:00.000-08:00

Still forging ahead. Brenda and Bret both favor Girl Scouts to most other activities (maybe even over dance and tennis). Activities and meetings all month long.

The Change-Up

2011-12-05T05:25:00.000-08:00

I am working on a camoflage afghan for Bret for Christmas, for him to bring with him on his hunting trips. My old afghan that I made years ago is his favorite blanket. This inspired Brenda to switch to crocheting too. She couldn't believe how much faster crochet is compared to knitting. She is hooked. I was given a bunch of circle hoop looms for crocheting. Those are definitely going under the tree.

Lily's six

2011-12-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

Look who has turned 6. We headed to Chuckie Cheese with a friend for her birthday. We got her ears pierced. She didn't even flinch and she didn't even stop the lady from piercing the other ear, in spite of the pain! We shopped and bought a birthday outfit. A good day had for all. Brenda and Bret each gave her a LaLa Loopsy doll. They found them at a garage sale for $.25. So her day was as fab as she is.

Coop

2011-12-05T05:16:00.000-08:00

Yes I said COOP. AKA Co Op (as in cooperative learning). We joined up with a co op this year and the girls were given choices of some classes they could take. Brenda took Photography, kick boxing, speech, and computer web design. Almost immediately she quit web design, and kick boxing was replaced with set design (for the play Willie Wonka they are putting on). Next to go was speech. After that she was settled with only photography and set design.
Bret chose art (with a little history sneaked in), drama (the Willie Wonka play she got the part of the snotty girl schoolmate named Matilda and an ooma loompa), taokwando (which she LOVES!!!) and I picked Botany for her. She and I have so much fun together with the botany. She was so ready to chuck it out because it was too schooly. Now even Brenda is in the class because it is so much fun!
Marley, Kindergarten doesn't get many choices. She has gym, arts n crafts, and lang arts (abc's). She is in the choir for the play. She was so excited when the choir went around Christmas caroling for all the classrooms. She is such a bundle of song anyway. I hear her singing the songs she learns there (most of them religious) all over the house. Sometimes I sneak over to where she is and start singing them too. lol.

Homecoming

2011-12-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

Turns out Brenda has been more defensive of her home education (well more so her choice to unschool). Making her own decisions. Growing up. She and I had so much fun getting her ready for this dance. There were so many kids there, and she knew a lot of them. So much for the big how can homeschool kids get proper socialization. So sweet to watch her growing up. She came home from the dance and we stayed up for hours talking and laughing together.

So as you can see...

2011-11-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

So as you can see, all this activity going on, PLUS our Mon COOP, Tue Tennis lessons (Brenda), Tu and Wed Dance classes (Bret Lily), Th and Fri Girl Scouts (All three girls), T Th Basket Ball (Gaige), Th Unschoolers Park Days. With our left over time, Bret and I hang out and work on our love for Botany, we knit, do puzzles, Lily and I work on our weekly letter (this week is J, we made a jelly roll yum) play math and lang arts games, and just mostly "live" happily. See you soon!

Camp Spookybrook

2011-11-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

She is finally old enough! Brenda has been waiting for years to participate in the PA activities of Girl Scouts. Camp Spookybrook is put together by girls for girls. The older scouts work as tour guides, haunts in the haunted house, crafters, fun house leaders, camp firers to put together an amazing halloween treat for the younger scouts. THey spend the morning setting up the camp to be spooky and halloweenish. By one o'clock the troops begin to arrive.

Brenda and Miranda chose to be tour guides. They get one troop at a time to guide through the maze of halloween fun. They lead the girls in song, help them through the house, feed them snacks, etc. (Brenda was Mother Earth this day, and Miranda, a baby.)

This is the girls with the new Camp Director, Itchy. We have known Itchy since Bret and I went to Camp WhipPoorWill for Me and My Gal Camp, three years ago. She used to be a camp counciler there but has recently taken the job of director at Stonybrook. She is Bret's favorite camp counciler, and my most memorable one too.

And of course, it was an opportunity to make new friends, and connect with a bunch of girls their own ages while doing something good for the Girl Scout community at the same time.

I was supposed to stay, but turns out there was nothing for me to do, but go for a hike and hang out in the beloved Camp Stonybrook forest. SO win/win for everyone involved.

To Kentucky and back

2011-11-04T06:57:00.000-07:00

We headed to KY for some fun before the weather turned.
Scott has a trailer out there about 10 minutes from the land so we stayed there, did some hunting, and made it a weekend.

The trailer park where we stay has a merry go round! The kids have never been on one before so this was big fun every day. Also they have those swings like the old days where the bars are high so the chains are long and you can swing real high on them. This park is such a blast from the past!

There is a lake right by the trailer. We scouted out cool rocks and took walks on the land.

When Lily was hunting with her dad, we sat on the bed for hours laughing, making jokes, taking photos of us with silly faces.

Brenda was there to work on her photography project so we took a hike on the land looking for natural frames. This is me posing for Brenda under one of Dad's blinds.

Hallowe-'en

2011-11-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

We started our holiday by Trunk-or-treating at a local church. There was free chili (even amazing vegetarian chili for me!!!!) and hot dogs, a jump house, balloon animals, cotton candy and pop corn, and of course trunk-or-treats.

Next we headed over to Carie's Seventh Street Gifts in Newport for their amazing halloween festival they throw! There was food, fun, fire, friends, and more.

Brenda met "life" at this party. Life handed her a lemon. When she got home we made lemonaid. lol.

Let out the ghouls and goblins, we are heading back to Hebron. Bret was working overtime again and the girls wanted out of town for their Tricks and Treats. Paula was throwing a party so we headed to KY to visit old friends and collect some candy.

Bret was an 80's girl until too many people called her Belinda Carlisle, during Trunk-or-Treats. She turned into Belinda for Paula's house.

Here is Marley with Paula and her son. Marley was actually several things this year, Rapunzle, a witch, a vampire...

And Brenda, lots of people thought she was rain, but she was really a jellyfish. Her facebook has been Brenda Jellyfish for months now. lol.

So Much So Little

2011-11-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

Updating my life is seeming to be an impossible feat. We are growing and expanding our lives this year so much. It seems like to give any extra attention to anything other than what we have going on already would be to take from what we have. The kids have been so amazing this year. They are all growing into these perfect creatures of lovliness. (Don't tell them I said this or they might puke.) :-)

We went to Niederman Farm Pumpkin Patch this year with a bunch of friends. Here is Bret and Sophie in the corn maze. We finally had to go in and get them! They were actually wandering around in the corn (not in the maze) having a fine time together! There was a jumping pillow, pig race, duck races, hay ride, pumpkin picking, two corn mazes. We all had such a good time!

We have a weekly gathering this year of unschoolers. We meet at a park and hang out together. When it is warmer there is a water park area, the park, a track, a skate park. Something for everyone. There are a bunch of teen kids showing up too which is great for Brenda. It has made a huge difference to have her around homeschool teens this fall and backing off from hanging out so much with the friends in the neighborhood. She is really coming into her own. Anyway here is Lily playing in the skate park. It is like an empty pool. The kids all go to the top and slide down on their butts. lol.

Here is Bret's girl scout troop making a spider web snack for their meeting. Her troop has really expanded into a great group of kids! I am really excited about what Tina, my co leader, is doing with the girls!

Bullied Again In St Bernard

2011-10-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

Do if you are keeping up with my facebook or just our family lives in general, you know our Girl Scout troops had a big summer upset this year when a parent (and my co-leader) lost her temper at camp and couldn't regain her composure, pointing swearing accusing, in both of my daughters' faces. Are my kids always perfect and always right? Maybe not, but we are adults and we must rise to the occasion and be the adults. So she eventually was told to leave, when it finally snowballed totally out of control. Ever since our family has been the butt of most of her conversations. She yelled at me and my girls at swim team and her daughter talked to all the kids about us calling us liars and all kinds of other things. I have refused to discuss her behavior with anyone, citing the need to move on and not gossip, but she is on a St Bernard Smear Campaign to destroy us the best she and her family can. My girls have even decided to quit Swim Team so they don't have to deal with the family any more. It is very sad that she just cannot move on. Her daughter walks past mine and shoves her whenever she gets the chance, she has actively tried to talk girls out of being in our Girl Scout troop, she called me a Dirty B**** in front of my Girl Scouts, adding that her mother said she could say it, she makes hand gestures at me (this is an 11 year old BTW.) I explain to my girls that someone who is secure and happy with her life doesn't act like this, even to people she doesn't like, but it is hard to really get them to understand it the way I do.

So in regards to our bullying situation I thought to post a yet another life lost to bullying. Don't do it. There is no good that ever comes of being a bully. Not for the people you bully. Not even for you, the bully.

Jamey Rodemeyer’s Family Speaks Out About Bullying
Monday, October 03, 2011 5:31AM
Just a few weeks ago, after years of being bullied by classmates, taunted and teased for his sexuality, 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer took his own life outside of his suburban home in Buffalo.

According to Jamey’s family, the 9th grader had been teased since he was in the 5th grade. “He would come home crying and we would have to talk to him… sometimes on a daily basis,” says his mother, Tracy. Last year someone from his school anonymously posted a message online saying, “Jamey is stupid, fat and ugly. He must die.” I wouldn’t care if you died. :) No one would -- just do it. It would make everyone way more happier.”

On September 9th, 2011, Jamey wrote online, “I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens.” Nine days later on September 18, around 1:30 in the morning, he wrote a message to Lady Gaga, “Bye Mother Monster... Thank you for all you have done... Paws up forever.”

Read more: http://www.andersoncooper.com/2011/10/02/jamey-rodemeyer-family-speaks-out-about-bullying/#ixzz1ZuvoBsY9

Gym, Art, and Math

2011-09-14T17:14:00.001-07:00

How, you ask, is playing hopscotch gym? Oh it is. And for sure the walk to the dollar store for more chalk qualified too. (Or run, in Lily's case.)

Totally Math and Art combined!!! Shapes and sidewalk art! lol.

We had such a colorful and fun day! We are not going around trying to find school in what we do all day. But it is extra fun to point it out when we can. :-)

HOW TO: Dye your hair with Kool-Aid

2011-09-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

This photo is from Brenda's Nintendo, but I swear it is actually blue. So here is what we did. First of all, Brenda has a lot of hair, so we bought enough kool-aid packets to make a thick paste for her hair (5 I think for her, 3 or 4 for Bret's shorter and less thick hair). Squeeze enough conditioner into a bowl to cover her hair (for Brenda this was more than 1/3 of the bottle, no kidding!) and mix the kool-aid into it. Then apply thickly onto the hair. Cover the hair with a plastic bag (I used a Kroger bag and tied it at the back of her head so it was tight around her head.)

Leave the hair sit over night. The girls both tell me it was itchy on their scalp. Bret's hair was pink lemonaid. It washed out pretty quickly within a month. Brenda's blue never did wash out completely, but this is not a concern of hers and she is ready for her next color. lol.

HOW TO: Make 5 Year Old Science for an unschooler

2011-09-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

So we decided to make our yearly terrarium today. The container is from a foam abc kit. But you can use anything. Last year we made a "We-are-not-weeds" Garden on a plate so it doesn't even have to be a terrarium to succeed. The same basic plants were in our WANW Garden from last year. This just needs to be watered more often. So the bottom is a thick layer of rocks. This is where the water drains to. Next is a thicker layer of dirt from our REAL garden.

We only have a sidewalk and patio around our house. No grass. So my dirt in my pot garden (otherwise known as a container garden) is a combination of leaf mold, compost, and some dirt from the gardening department of any store.

Then we went for a walk. We always have moss collecting on our sidewalk because our gutters leak. So that is a bonus to leaky gutters for us. :-) We lined the container with moss and picked up a few "not"-weeds from a walk around the block. Planted them and wah-lah. (This of course is voila but I saw someone type wah-lah and thought it was really funny!)

On our way around the block, we came across a vacant house with a few peaches on the driveway. I looked up and there was a PEACH TREE! I didn't know PEACH TREES GROW AROUND HERE!!! So we came up with the brillian idea to plant some of the seeds and try to have a couple peach trees in our KY property. I googled HOW TO make a peach tree from pit, got a couple different ideas, shared the peaches I collected with all three girls while sharing my planting seed ideas.

And that is how my 5 year old unschooler got her science in for the day.

Brenda's 12

2011-09-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Brenda's birthday present was expended in May so she could have a Nintendo DSIex for our trip to the Kalahari Unschooler's Waterpark Gathering. So this year she had 3 girls spend the night and we sang happy birthday to her with hoho's and nutter butters. However she celebrated three weeks early this year. The weekend before her birthday she and a good friend from Sandusky, OH made plans to be together over here in Cinti for the weekend. They left together to spend the week in Sandusky with her family. Then we meet up at the Unschoolers Campout Gathering where I would bring her back.

This was the photo the girls sent me from the mall. Brenda wanted to know if I would purchase this for her if she would let me put spaghetti straps onto it. Is she turning 12 or 21? It is a hard life to feel grown up and still be young.

So back to our KY roots (or at least Bret's)

2011-09-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

"Do we work for and pay for all this convenience in order to live our lives, or do we live our lives in order to work for and pay for all this convenience..." Colin Beavin

Bret has said for years that he wants to retire at 50. Because he has plans of dying early. Well maybe not plans, but definitely expectations. So we are getting older, by the day obviously. And each day we wondered when we would get there. I homeschool the girls, I take them to their dance classes, and their swim team practices, and their Girl Scouts. We eat dinner together a few times a week like a "good family should". We try to keep a small garden in the back "yard" which if you have been to my house you know is just a patio of cement big enough for a small table, a few chairs and a pot belly grill, we recycle, we try to reuse as often as possible. Freecycle has always been my friend.

But really we want more than waking up, working, and going to sleep each day.

We finally saved enough money. We looked at many properties, but Bret kept coming back to this one. Here is the two of us looking like a Van Gogh painting in what will soon be our new yard. Our cabin will overlook the valley. Bret's goal? Have an amazing place to hunt. My goal, learn how to live with as little as possible help from the outside world.

Here is one of the food plots that the past owner provided us with. We have many deer and turkey that visit the food plots. Bret suggested that this 65 acres is better than any 100 acres he saw anywhere for his hunting purposes.

Already made watering hole for the deer, a must if you want to get them coming your way.

Our dug-out pond. (Tehehe I am calling it a lake.) It is in a valley where water drains naturally, so we expect it to be a full pond by spring's first melt.

My husband is a man of many toys. The bass boat that he was so sure would be worth tons more than the amazing deal he got it for. The tons of music equipment his band days (which was just last year still) the hunting equipment (which is the newest and most expensive so far. I used to laugh that the first deer he killed was THE MOST EXPENSIVE piece of meat we have ever eaten.) The deal stands that all those other toys must go.

We will downsize from our 7,000+ sq ft building to a 1,500 sq ft cabin that we will build. Personally I think that is too much room. I was hoping for 1,000 sq ft. After all, by the time we build and move in, Gaige will be long gone, Brenda will have one foot out the door, and Little Bret will be right behind her. This is my 5 year plan. It will take time to save up to build the house. Absolutely no credit! Off the grid? I don't know if that is possible. How to live off the land with as little help from outside as possible. Can we survive without Pizza Hut and frozen meals, garbage pick-up twice a week, shopping trips 3 times a week, $500.00 gas&electric bills, etc. Can I provide enough food for us to can for the year, will I be able to can that much food, will a garden that big be more work than I can handle, will I be able to talk Bret into an alpaca and/or sheep so I can have yarn? And if so how will I feed THEM? How to wisely use the rainwater? How to everything?? Who will want to read my facebook updates when the only thing to update is the quality of my veggie garden and the lovely time I spent watching the sun go down? Maybe I won't care about facebook by then...

First for our house (building?) Plans to have it sold in a year. We are on our way.

The Challenger Mission

2011-06-23T06:40:00.000-07:00

In Dayton OH there is a Challenger Mission Center. Remember the Callenger Mission? When the teacher went up into space with the astronauts? And no one came back down alive? Well at the Challenger Mission Center the kids get a chance to learn about the mission. Then they are all given jobs in the shuttle or ground control and they are in a simulation center to do their jobs. Brenda was a doctor. A sign of things to come? Probably not, but it is a great experience.

I took Marley and Bret to Boonshoft Discovery Center since we were already in the area. Last school activity of the year.

Circling With Friends

2011-06-23T06:27:00.000-07:00

2011-06-23T06:23:00.001-07:00

It has been so long since I have been to Circle. Summer Solstice just seemed right. And so much new good news from everyone. We lit flying lanterns and set our blessings free. Let us all remember how to dance like children.

In Cold Water again

2011-06-23T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yes it is that time again. Our first swim meet. I think we won by some crazy numbers against Norwood on Tuesday. 130something to 475 or something crazy like that. Hurry up and... wait. THat is the mantra of swim team. Gotta love it anyway.

Daisies in the Garden

2011-06-23T06:17:00.000-07:00

Such sweet Daisies. They had their investiture ceremony last week. (HOW DO YOU EVEN PRONOUNCE THIS WORD??) We made 4th of July hats as our craft, ate some cookies and snacks, and they all got pinned. So sweet.

Summer fun

2011-06-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

THESE ARE NOT FROGS! lol. This is Gir. Gir is the dog on Invaders Zim. Look it up. It's him all right. Constant sleepovers, hanging out toasting by the pool, riding bikes to the dollar store and Wendy's for their dollar menu burgers, texting late into the night, and never ending fun. THat is what summer is all about.

Field Day

2011-06-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

I know, no pics of Field Day, right? Well we did the same thing basically as usually only after all the rain we got it was a little muddier. Then the kids all threw water balloons afterward. That is the big hit of course.

But this is by far my fav part. Check out last year's field day to show how this is NOT brand new. We started with puddles in the sand box so that made things worse perhaps, but every year Marley gets down and muddy while the other kids participate in Field Day. This year however, after the fun she was embarressed about her appearance and refused to go in the grocery store with me. I so wanted to walk through the aisles as the proud mom of this amazing child!!

We watched parent after parent walk through the park telling their kids don't you even think of it, as they saw our kids swimming in this muck. Not us. We always come prepared with towels for the ride home. lol.

Memorial Day Parade

2011-06-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Annual Memorial Day Parade. Here are our Girl SCouts. Memaw loaned us her husband driver and truck so we could ride, rather than walk. Memaw is so wonderful. Everyone loves her!!

Some of our older girls participated in the flag ceremonies for the program after the parade. Here is Brenda putting flags in their spots in memory of our local veterans who died in service.

Kalahari Here We Come

2011-06-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

How can I put in words all the excitement, friendships, adventures, that come out of our UWG (Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering) each year. This is our third year in a row. It exhausts me to put this trip together for the girls. But it is some of their best memories of the year.

Some things we did this year: Nerf Wars, Nintendo DS meetup, Talent show, high ropes course, zip line, Fairy Godparent gifting, Balloon animal making, juggling, the Unschoolers carnival, of course there is the waterpark. They meet up with friends they only see once a year, and feel like they didn't even skip a beat. There is a week of speakers for me, of course I never get to any of that with all my running I do with the girls.

Oh to be young and free again.

Gaige in Chicago

2011-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

Finally the boy gets to the Sears Tower. He has wanted to do this for a while. Only now it is Willis Tower??? What the heck? How can they just change the name of a land mark like that? Anyway, he comes home with an idea to skip college and just move to Chicago. He really wants to move to a big city. I am suggesting moving to a big city WHILE going to college. Of course that is the more expensive way to do it. But it might be for the best. He has his sights on big free city life. Who can blame him? I had too once.

2011-06-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

So this is the Hat.

Brenda's first Etsy online purchase. I helped her learn how to make the transaction. I guess I should have taught her how to read the item description also I suppose, because it was a purchase for a pattern not a hat. So having no experience reading a crochet pattern, I sat down with the pattern and youtube and figured out the new initials. Two days later I emerged with the hat. And Luckily I had enough black and white worsted weight yarn it didn't cost us another penny. And it everyone loves it. Her friends are always wearing it. I think a frog hat next.

It Starts Again

2011-06-14T10:05:00.001-07:00

So a bit of a catch up. No computer yet. But Gaige is a dear! Isn't he?? Swim Team is in full swing again. MWF practice. TTH meets. And we are off... Last year Marley was the youngest swimmer. This year she has lots of friends.

BeBack SOON

2011-05-27T05:53:00.000-07:00

Yes Technically we are HERE. All three of our computers are down. Gaige has graciously allowed me to get on his laptop a couple times a day to check emails and such. I just found out I am not a laptop kinda person. But I am thankful.

Kalahari Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering
May Girl Scout CampOut Weekend Fiasco
My new knitted monsters
Lily's GS trip to the animal shelter
Easter Pics
Big Bret and Brenda's New Archery Range in our Basement
Memorial Day Parade
Field Day homeschool style
And so much more to follow!!

As soon as my computers are fixed... See ya soon!

Water Recycling and Sanitation

2011-04-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

So what are some ways we use water? Less than 1% of the water on Earth is fresh water that people can use for these purposes. Where does that water go? How does it come back to us clean? How can we conserve water at home?

Most water treatments have a substance added to the water to make certain kinds of particles in the water sink to the bottom. Then filtering systems are used to clean out the remaining purities. Here was the experiment.

I shaved a bar of soap with a cheese grater. We poured soap into two glasses of water and mixed it up. To one glass we added table salt. To the other we added Epsom Salt. Again we mixed them up. Then we used two new glasses with filters to filter the water. The Epsom Salted soap water came out looking clear. The Table Salt Soap Water was cloudy. Same glasses same filters same soapy water, different substance added.

Wetlands and the Water Cycle

2011-04-13T09:44:00.000-07:00

So to go along with a trip to the sanitation district, we did a couple experiments that have to do with water. Here is the first one.

Here we see a wetlands. The sponges represent the waterlogged soil. Here is what we did. First we put a puddle of water at the bottom of the paint pan. We gave the upper land some animals and put the spongy soil inbetween the land and water. Then we poured on some pollution (hole punches and powdered cocoa). Then we let it rain. (Water falling from a watering can). The sponges held a lot of the powdered cocoa from reaching the water. AND only one hole punch got in.

Here we let half the land be wetland and half be non-wetlands. The cocoa powder all got in, along with the hole punches. You can see that the wetlands area is "less poluted" than the non wetlands however it is infiltrating into the wetlands.

What WE did...

2011-04-12T14:59:00.001-07:00

So while the girls were off investigating "scat" Marley and I decided to do Easter decorating crafts.
We started at the dollar store. We found these great little hangable sparkle foam eggs, two little baskets, and some green plant foam. So each craft was about 3 dollars. We had hunted out some branches yesterday in the rain and set them out to dry.

Here is Marley painting the branches white.

Here she is putting the branches into their green plant foam. We set the foam in there with a couple inches short of the basket so there was room for the rocks. Also I stuffed some paper bag pieces in the sides to keep the foam and branches from moving.

And the final product. We made two. One for the dining room table and one for the family room. We put rocks over the foam and paper (found outside) and hung eggs from the branches. And wah laa. (I saw someone spell voila that way the other day and have loved the spelling ever since. lol.)

A Flutter With Activity

2011-04-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

So spring has officially sprung. We are getting out far more. Being part of the world again.

So I set the girls up to do a park program called Nature CSI for today. We had no idea what it would be ahead of time. I guess a rabbit was killed and it was their job to find out who killed it and who ate it based on foot prints, scat, hair, etc.

Brenda's only complaint... It was cold and rainy today. She wished they didn't have so far to hike to get to the taped off crime scene. lol.

Accessorizing

2011-04-08T12:25:00.000-07:00

News just in. Marley is an A+ accessorizor. She has THE style.

Gettin Into Everything

2011-04-08T12:23:00.000-07:00

It is that time again. Callie is at that age where every door, drawer, space, and crevice is just a place to explore. :-)

A Day With Old Friends

2011-04-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

We decided to make plans with an old friend we hadn't seen since the move. By old I mean that we have been friends for years, not that she is old. So we headed back to the ol' KY to enjoy a lunch, bike riding and just good olfashioned hanging out. Paula said her grandkids were getting too old for the My Little Pony castle so of course now it belongs to us!!! Marley has played with it since. She even put her tooth in there for the tooth fairy last night. I am sure the tooth fairy loved hanging out in the castle before heading out to the next house.

Invention Convention Day

2011-04-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

Toward the end of the "school" year the girls start staying up later, sleeping in. So today they ended up sleeping past the time to go to today's invention convention. But we headed up there around noon to drop Bret off to spend the night with her friend. When we got there it turned out we were still in time to help set off some rockets. Pressure, air, water, vinegar, baking soda, plastic bottles, and away they went. And Marley did what she does best. She got good and muddy in the sand box. It looked to be a stormy day, but turned out to be great!

Cinnamon Bubble Rolls

2011-04-01T05:44:00.000-07:00

Again! It took two times to download this before I got it to stick! Oh well. So is life. In our new edition of Family Fun there was a fun-looking recipe for this bubble bread (that incidentally tastes like cinnamon rolls). So I got some yeast and asked Marley if she wanted to help which of course she did.

Lately I have heard all about how the older girls get to do whatever they want and she NEVER gets to do ANYTHING she wants to do. So I have been working on just finding ways to attract her attention to other fun things.

This bubble bread was so fun! There was the issue of my yeast not leavening properly. That has been happening to me since I moved to this house. I blame the house. Anyway so we were making these balls of dough and then we were to roll them in butter and next into our sugar cinnamon mix. Finally 5 go in each cupcake tin and they rise (except mine don't) and then they cook (this is where ours finally rise lol.)

The rule was to pat your hands in flour before you role the dough pieces so they don't stick. She rolled a bunch herself then offered me to help. I started rolling them at a faster speed. Marley corrected me. "You don't need more flour, Mom. Slow and easy, Mom. Slow and easy. Then they don't stick to your hands." And when I forgot and sped up she would remind me. lol.

Little Josh

2011-03-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

So we usually keep this sweet little kitten overnight on weekends now a days. Last Sunday, after she woke up and dressed we headed over to Papa Jim's house for a short visit on our way to pick the girls up from the cousin's sleepover birthday party. I call her Little Josh. Ignore the ponytail and dress and I would swear she is Josh. No mistaking whose baby this is.

COOKIES BE GONE

2011-03-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

Oh when oh when will we be done??? In just a week. YAY!!

On a side note, I don't know why I am having so many problems downloading pics on blogger lately. But it is getting annoying to download pictures two and three times sometimes to get them to stick. Google, are you out there???

When Two Troops Collide

2011-03-30T09:53:00.000-07:00

So my older girls are growing up AGAIN. They will be bridging over to Cadettes at the campout this spring. We met with a Cadette troop to learn how they run their troop. What is different, what is the same. We worked on the fashion badge together. Shared a snack. Played some Girl Scout games. I got to press the leaders for ideas on how to solve some of life's little Girl Scout problems that show up from time to time.

I came home exhasted so it must have been a successful activity.

Crafty Kids Day

2011-03-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Crafty Kids Day is where a bunch of home schoolers get together with their shared crafting stuff to make whatever they want. There are beads and ribbon, yarn, cardboard, paper, crayons, glue, markers, egg cartons, eyeballs, pompoms, popsicle sticks, and anything else you can think of.

Here are some puppets Brenda made.

The end of the Simple Machines Unit Study

2011-03-30T09:40:00.001-07:00

Simple Machines day at Green Acres. So this is how we ended our study on Simple Machines. We headed over to the fabulous Green Acres to learn about the simple machines, the Green Acres way (hands on). We used screws, wheels, levers, wedges, saws. We learned about FLE 123 (Fulcrum, Leverage, and Energy. The kids lifted a horse pulled wagon. A blast of a hands on time for everyone.

Girl Scout Cookies

2011-03-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

So you know far too many cookies have passed through my house when we are using them to cook. lol.

People have been telling us... I remember when they were $.50. And I remember when this and that. And I was a leader 35 years ago for my girls. I got a hold of an original 1920's cookie recipe from when the Girl Scouts actually baked the cookies they sold.

Time has changed since then. I remember loving Thin Mints when I was little. I don't know how much they costed at the time. They just showed up in the house I guess. Right? Anyway here is a recipe we used to make Thin Mint Chocolate Cheesecake.

Instant Cheesecake mix. I followed directions for making the crust. Instead of pressing the crust into a pie pan, I pressed it into cupcake cups. Then I made the cheesecake as directed except I used chocolate milk (since I had no white milk) and turned it into chocolate cheesecake. I topped it with crushed thin mint cookies. We all love it. Next time I will mix the cookies into the cheesecake instead of putting them on top. It will make it easier to eat.

Girl Scout day at the City Building

2011-03-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Every year they ask if my Girl Scouts will do Scout day, and every year I think they are too young. But finally I give it a try. Brenda's troop is 5th and 6th grade. They can read well enough to pull it off I think. And they do. They love it. Each girl gets a City Council member to be for the meeting. The city council members sit behind them and tell them what to say and when. One of our girls were missing so even Marley got to sit in as a city council member. She will tell you she got a patch for saying I (aye) twice. lol.

This week's simple machines

2011-02-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

Today we worked on levers. True to form, Marley was only one step behind. She worked on her wheels in her maze. This she did all by herself.

After the girls were done with levers, Marley and I went on playing. Here we were checking out which made the wheel move faster and farther, the maze with blocks farther apart or closer together. I thought there would be more momentum with the blocks further away from eachother because they would fall harder. I was wrong. The maze with blocks closer together both times pushed the wheel further and faster. It was also the first maze to get to the wheel.

Pottery Day

2011-02-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

Marley has been bugging me to take out the pottery wheel they got for Christmas from Brittany. So here it is. Messy mess mess and all! Getting their hands dirty. And the walls, and the chairs. And the table. And the floor. lol. Now our pottery is drying. Tomorrow we will paint.

Language Arts Game

2011-02-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was a worksheet. Today is a game.

So here is my list of words. I cut them out and we display them in a random order next to the second paper.

So same set of groups, except we added "Possessive Nouns" to our definitions. There are 5 words for every box. Choose a word and put it in the right box.

English for the older girls

2011-02-22T09:48:00.000-08:00

So these are all things that my girls have worked on. Plus Bret and I have been talking about classifying. I combined two in one. I had a list of words on one paper and asked them to classify each word in the right catagory. They have a notebook of definitions already so if they were to say I don't know what pronoun is, I would tell them to look it up in their notebook. They have the meaning of pronoun in their own words with applicable examples.

Don't like worksheets? Make it into a game. Write each catagory down on a big poster size paper. Then have every word on the list of words on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and make it a human sized game.

Or take the premade game board as in the last post and make cards such as this.

"Which word is a contraction?
people try she can't"

How Marley is learning her ABC's

2011-02-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

Iwant my girls to learn, but I want them to enjoy their learning? Is that too much to ask out of life?

So as many of you know, I used to help out with the Reads program at the local school. I would sit for half an hour, listen to a child read, look up a couple words in the dictionary, talk about what she/he read. If there was time left ver we would often play a learning game together.

This is a game board I made up from a set of games which all shared the similar board at Reads. This is just a generic board game for a multitude of games. Each plain colored spot is just a spot to land on or jump on. The holiday spots are go-agains. The rainbows are slides.

This game is one Marley made up, which works pretty much the same as mine, except that you can climb the ladder to skip all the start stepping stones. And I follow Marley to see how far I can move at any one time, since she pretty much makes up where we go and when. lol.

Here are three cards, one card of each of three different games that go with the board. One is a "Bb". This is a game where we recognize the letter. If we get the letter correct we turn the card over to see how many spaces we can move.

The next one reads "It snowed on the grass." Reading is not a requirement of this game. All we are doing is counting words. It gives her an understanding of how letters form words and how you can tell what a word looks like being separate from another word. Again, if we are correct we turn the card over to see how many spaces we can go.

The last card reads "pillow". For this game there must be at least one reader. The object of this game is to say the word and figure out how many syllables are in the word. So I would say pillow. Marley would clap pil-low and say 2. We would turn the card over. If two is the answer the card will tell her how many spaces to move ahead.

The first person to reach the end of the game wins and the exercise is over. You can do this with basically any basic english or math skill.

For a 4th grader, you might do a game using cards for affixes for example...

"Which means to pay again?
repay unpay copay"

You could use this game for times tables, or practicing addition facts. recognizing shapes, etc.

You could practice sight words.

You could work on history facts.

The list is endless how you could use a game board like this to make memorizing or learning into fun.

The library

2011-02-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Mr. C. would be so proud. Marley made a block library. She thought out all the things that a library needs. There is a bookshelf with books. There are two tables with computers. There is a front desk for checking out books. There are two tables with people reading. And the last thing we made was a door to come in and out. She hasn't figured out the roof issue yet, but everything else is there.

Oh yeah... The blue round blocks, those are people.

This week's word game - Compound Words

2011-02-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

$0.25 for every 100 compound words they can find.

Brenda found a couple ideas. Googling compound words. And picking one word such as micro- and looking it up to see what other words connect to it...
microwave, microorganizm, microscope, etc.

The Shun Game

2011-02-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

This week we played a word game. Competing for a $0.25 for who can make the most "Shun" (-tion)words. Brenda won with 45 words. Some good ones..

palpitations

dictionary

aspiration

abbreviation

declaration

fertilization

My Favorite Part

2011-02-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite part of all our Service Unit activities, our huge Girl Scout circle. When we have 80+ women circling together to do our Girl Scout hand squeeze. This picture is maybe 1/4 of all the girls and women who joined to sing Taps with us and share the experience.

Thinking like a Junior/Brownie

2011-02-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

No picture for this since I am Bret's troop leader. Maybe someone will send me a pic. But here is the letter we read from our Canadian Scout Family...

Sea Scouts
This year, C-- and I are in Sea Scouts (here, we call them Marine Scouts because we do not live near the sea)! Our Sea Scouts are for boys and girls that are between 9 and 14 years old. Sea Scouts are different from regular scouts because 75% of the program has to be related to water activities (swimming, boating, scuba diving, fishing...). In our scout association, there are only -- other Sea Scouts troops! There are two age groups for our Sea Scouts. The first one is for 9-10 year-old kids. We call that group "Louveteaux"* and their team name is Sea Lion, but in French it translates to Sea Wolf. The second group is for 11-14 year-olds. They are "Éclaireurs"* and their team name is Shipmates. C---'s in the "Louveteaux" and I'm in the "Éclaireurs" but both groups are together during the meetings. Because we're Sea Scouts, we play games like "Babord-Tribord"* that help us to practice marine vocabulary like "babord": port*, "tribord": starboard*, "poupe": aft* and "proue": fore*... Our troop has also bought a small sailboat which we will learn to sail. In a year, we have four camps: an autumn camp, a camp during which we say our oath, a winter camp and a summer camp. Sunday, the 31st January, we came back from our third camp (it was our winter camp). I slept out in a Quinzee, and C--- slept in a cottage. It was very FUN even if our mom wasn't with us (because she's in Sea Scout with us, but she couldn't come). For our first camp of the year, we slept in a cottage and went canoeing. This summer we may camp on an island. In our group, we're -- "Louveteaux", -- "Éclaireurs" and -- Scouts Leaders. That means that we're -- altogether. I know we're not that many kids but it's a new scout group... Our group is in ----, in ----, in ----, in Canada, in the world, on the Earth and in the universe! ;-)

Have a nice day, M-- and C--

* Louveteaux : Wolf Cubs
*Éclaireur : Scout (We're not sure how to translate Ééclaireur...)
*Babord-Tribord : Port-Starboard
*Babord, port: Left
*Tribord, starboard : Right
*Poupe, aft : Back
*Proue, fore : Front

(names and places have been bleeped out)

This is our Canadian scout family's troop at their parade, and in their quinzee (where they slept!!!)

Thinking Like An Older Girl Scout

2011-02-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

Bonjour, je m'apelle Brenda. J'aime La Dame Gaga. Qui etes-vous? This was Brenda's speech for Thinking Day. Then we all sang Alluette together. Which come to find out is a song about plucking feathers from a lark.
French to english translation...
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette je te plumerai
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette je te plumerai
Je te plumerai la tete
Je te plumerai la tete
Et la tte, et la tete
Alouette, Alouette
O-o-o-o-oh
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette je te plumerai

Lark, nice Lark (or Lark, lovely Lark)
Lark, I am going to pluck you
I am going to pluck your head,
I am going to pluck your head,
And the head, and the head,
O-o-o-o-oh

LOL.

"Thinking" with the Little 'uns

2011-02-19T16:45:00.000-08:00

So every year Marley sits with her dad and watches her sisters present their countries. This year she one of presenters. Her job was to say that Mexico's flower is the Dalia (she remembers Dolly then adds an "ah" to it at the end lol) and that they sometimes wear and sometimes dance around sombraros. At first she was too shy to talk, but in the end all the girls did well. Marley's first experience with public speaking. She says it was hard to get up there and talk. I say she did fine.

Simple Machines Pt 1

2011-02-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

Inclines and wheels. Yes Marley made her own and even told me, when I tried to help her design, that she would like to do hers alone. :-) Brenda's stopped only once, Bret's twice and Marley's went all the way to the end, although she used only inclines on her maze. She was the only one to have her maze veer off in two different directions.

Marley and Her Dad

2011-02-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Marley conned me into taking out the lego tub this morning. So here they are playing around with the legos together. Now she and I are building a castle. It is coming along slowly but surely. :-)

Simple Machines

2011-02-08T07:02:00.000-08:00

The project was supposed to make a marble maze using simple machines. When we got there the project was different than what we thought it was. So the girls did have fun making their mazes, but we will be working on simple machines and producing a maze that will actually use a series of simple machines to work.

Check it out...

2011-02-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

As homeschooling has been taking care of itself lately, and I have been knitting myself into a tizzie for the fun of it... I thought why not another blog for that fun and craziness...

http://loopsntwists.blogspot.com/

Girl Scout Day at Miami University Engineering Dept

2011-02-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

Girl Scout Engineering Day at Miami University is like no other. Earn 4 badges in one day by going from one area to another learning new topics. The program sets up one Math ,one Computer ,and two Science Badges all wrapped up in a pretty bow. I took Brenda to this activity last year and she still talked of her experience fondly when I announced that I would take Bret this year. We made paper, learned about acids and bases, learned about and made our own cookie form of asphalt; learned math tricks, worked on Geometric Shapes, used problem solving to form words on calculators; learned about simple machines, made goop, checked out our finger prints. We learned about the machines that their school uses to design programs, make cars, stretch metal. We learned to use Windows Word. Such a day like this, all kids could have every week, they would not complain about school.

Also if you remember me talking about how Bret was bullied at summer camp this last summer by some other Girl Scouts who thought no one was looking... one of those bullies were there at Girl Scout Engineering Day. Bret pointed her out to me. I told Bret let that be a lesson. If you do wrong and think no one will ever find out... Someone always remembers.

Back the the Emergency Room Again

2010-12-23T13:22:00.001-08:00

It is a joke that we have been to the emergency room now twice in one month. Prior to this month we haven't been to the emergency room since Gaige was a baby. So now it is Marley's turn. She got a 2-1/2 inch splinter in her foot. There was no way I was getting that thing out on my own. What a mess. Poor thing. I wonder if pulling it out would have hurt less than the shots she got to numb her foot! She can barely walk on that foot today.

She brought her own First Aid kit to the hospital. They let her take her splinter home for her scrap book. lol.

10 Cookies Til Christmas

2010-12-23T13:14:00.000-08:00

My husband heard about these from someone at work. He has been excited for us to try these out for a while. The lady said to use the round coctail crackers. We went a step farther and bought Keebler FlipSides crackers with one part cracker and one part pretzel. Here with those pretzels again! Again melt the chocolate the same way and dip the cracker, scraping off the excess. Bret sprinkled them with sugar sprinkles as well, but I prefered to leave some plain. I think Big Bret will like them without the sprinkles.

And really, I don't think sprinkles make anything taste better. They just look so much festive. We will sacrifice the looks for the taste today. :-)

Yes my kitchen looks like a mess. I have been up til two, three, and four in the morning shopping for Christmas and wrapping since Bret's new job keeps him all day and night. This plus our activities and meals, laundry, watching Callie (which I love to do... totally not complaining) I am just feeling a bit exhausted. So my kitchen is a bit messy. As is the rest of the house. Soon we will be back to our "clean" ish selves.

11 Cookies Til Christmas

2010-12-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Oh I have wanted to try these for so long. I knew the kids would love making them and eating them! Not really a cookie? But still along the same lines.

We had no recipe so I will tell you what I did. I melted Semi-Sweet Morsels by Nestle according to the package. I microwaved 1 cup of morsels for 1 min. Once melted we dipped the pretzels into the chocolate and scraped off excess back into the bowl and rolled the pretzels into sprinkles. So many of them are gone already!

These are great for a present. Put them in a nice cup or glass with a bow and ribbon. This is what we will probably do.

Hope Is a Verb

2010-12-23T13:01:00.000-08:00

So as I am walking Uma this morning, a car passes me by that has a bumper sticker reading "Hope is a Verb". Ok. So. I am a bit puzzled by this information. I agree with the statement. Hope is a verb. But why is it on a bumper sticker? What does that bumper sticker mean? Is this a song or a book? A famous quote that has significance in its context?

So curious why someone would have a bumper sticker that reads "Hope Is a Verb"...

Home Made Christmas Present Ideas

2010-12-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

Brenda's Girl Scout troop is collecting gently used childrens books for a local reading program. We are the book hosts so by now we have 7 or 8 hunderd books in our front patio area. We have collection bins all over town. Some of the town people want to donate but they haven't read the flyer all the way through. We are getting adult books too. So in those adult books I came across someone giving us knitting and crocheting books. There was a whole book on Granny Squares. Granny square hats and sweaters, throws and blankets, etc. It totally inspired me to temporally give up my knitting needles and open my crochet bag up. It has been years. But I LOVE the Granny Square!

This was a hat and scarf set for the gift give at our Winter Solstice Drumming Circle last night.

Lisa, my knitting friend, is jealous. She doesn't know how to crochet. I guess it is time to learn. If for no other reason, just so she can have a hat too. She knits and tats. I don't know why she wouldn't crochet.

Junie B Jones

2010-12-21T22:35:00.001-08:00

Marley has a new fascination wtih Junie B Jones. We read a chapter or two now before she goes to sleep, instead of the picture books we usually read. Here she is checking out the selection. I said one, she tried with diligence to talk me into two. We came home with Meanie Jim's Birthday Party. One of my favorites!

Christmas Crafts

2010-12-21T22:32:00.000-08:00

I hosted a Christmas Craft day at a local library. There was card making, tree ornaments to decorate, candy cane reindeer, bead stars, and glass bulbs to paint. We all came home with boxes full of crafts to display for the holiday.

4H Christmas Party

2010-12-21T22:28:00.000-08:00

So after being snowed out twice, the 4H Christmas party finally came to be. There were games, gingerbread house decorating, White Elephant Swap, snacks to share.

We made up snack bags to go to the Ronald McDonald House. My house is closest so I volunteered my family to drop the bags off after the party.

12 Cookies Til Christmas

2010-12-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

This recipe came out of a book Bret checked out from the library we went to for our Christmas Craft activity. She was all excited to find a book of cookies for us to try out.

Cinnamon Spirals

In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat 1 c. butter and 8 oz. cream cheese until creamy. Reduce speed to low gradually beating in 2-1/2 c. flour and 1/2 t. salt until well mixed. Divide dough in half, form rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hr (or freezer for 1/2 hr.)
Meanwhile in small bowl stir 2/3 c. sugar and 2 t. cinnamon until blended.
On lightly floured surface, wtih floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of dough into 15"x12" rectangle. Sprinkle 1/2 sugar cinnamon mixture evenly over dough. Starting at the long side tightly roll rectangle jelly-roll style. Brush last 1/2 inch of dough with water to seal edge. Cut log crosswise in half, place on cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining dough. Regrigerate dough 2 hr or freezer for 45 min. Preheat oven to 400. Remove two logs from frezer. wtih serrated knife cut each log crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices. Place cookies 1/2 inch apart on two ungreased cookie sheets. Bake until lightly browned 12-14 min. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool. Repeat with other logs.

So first of all, as you can see here, these cookies are very small. Not a problem. They tasted real good. They would make great coffee cookies too... if any of us drank coffee. But they are good plain too. As you can see the directions were a bit long and tedious for my style. But I thought it would be worth it for these cookies. We didn't cook them but 10 minutes and they were done.

Cinnamon Spirals

13 Cookies til Christmas

2010-12-21T22:08:00.000-08:00

These minty wonders were a joy! Marley and I made them together. We got the recipe off the Nestle Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels Bag.

Mint chocolate Delights

Combine 2 c sugar, 2/3 baking cocoa, 1 t. baking soda and 1/2 t. salt in small bowl. Beat 1 c. butter, 2/3 c. granulated sugar, 2/3 c. brown sugar, and 1 t. vanilla extract in large mixer until creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake 11-13 min at 325 or until cookies are puffed and the centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for two min. remove to wire racks to cool completely. This makes 4 dozen cookies. We cut the recpie in half to make a couple dozen instead.

We took some of the dough and put it into a pie pan and made a pie cookie out of it. We just cooked it a little longer. Maybe 10 minutes more to make this lovely mint cookie pie. This recipe? Totally a keeper. The girls agree.

The First Snow

2010-12-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

Well more like the second actual snow... But I find as I get older that I can tolerate the cold less and less. I did finally cave in and take the girls to the hill down the street.

Bret walked home almost right away. I didn't think I would ever get Marley to come home. And what were we missing?? No hot chocolate on this cold cold night. Thank goodness for hot soup and baths. :-)

14 Cookies 'Til Christmas

2010-12-14T18:43:00.001-08:00

Mary's Christmas Cookies

Cream 1 c. butter and 1 c. brown sugar together. Add 1 egg, 1t. vanilla extract, and 2c. all-purpose flour. Spread into a 15'x10' jelly role pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 min. Remove from oven and add chocolate bars while still hot. Let chocolate bars melt and spread over top. Sprinkle 1/2 to 1 c. chopped nuts and cut into small squares.

We made this right before the girls went to bed. We will tell you soon how it tastes. But it was a fun one to make!!

15 Days 'Til Christmas

2010-12-14T18:38:00.001-08:00

Cherry Tassies

I am used to making Pecan Tassies every year for my husband. As a pecan tassie maker, I tried to make the dough like I make pecan tassie dough. However Cherry Tassies have a leavening agent in them, whereas Pecan Tassies which model a pecan pie do not. So I put too much dough in the Cherry Tassies and that made them too big. But they tasted wonderful. We all loved them! For a twist to the recipe, we put little crushed chocolate pieces in with the cherry to give a chocolate cherry taste.

Also look ahead for us to try this same recipe, only with the dough surrounding the cherries like a bunch of balls.

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1-1/4 cups butter, softened
2-1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. peppermint extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely crushed striped round peppermint candies (about 18)
48 red maraschino cherries or liquor-flavored maraschino cherries with stems, drained
Coarse sugar
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat 1 3/4-inch muffin cups with nonstick spray; set aside. In large mixing bowl beat butter on medium to high for 30 seconds. Gradually beat in 1-1/2 cups of the powdered sugar, the baking powder and salt. Beat in peppermint extract, vanilla, and egg. Beat in as much of the flour as you can; stir in remaining flour and candies.

2. Place remaining 3/4 cup powdered sugar in a shallow dish. Shape dough in 1-inch balls; roll in powdered sugar. Press each ball into the bottom and sides of prepared muffin cups.

3. Place cherry, stem side up, in each cup (cherry will not fill the cup). Bake about 12 minutes or until pastry is browned. Sprinkle with coarse sugar. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Use a small sharp knife to loosen tassies from cups. Transfer to rack to cool completely.

16 Cookies 'Til Christmas

2010-12-11T17:17:00.000-08:00

Lace Roll-Ups

Heat oven to 375. Mix 1 c. flour, and 1. c finely chopped nuts. In medium saucepan heat 1/2 c. corn syrup, 1/2 c. shortening, and 2/3 c. packed brown sugar to boiling, over med heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; gradually stir in flour/nut mixture. drop dough by tspful about 3"apart onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake only 8 or 9 at a time. Bake about 5 min. cool for 3 min. before removing from baking sheet. While warm carefully roll cookies into cylindrical shapes. If cookies harden before shaping, return them to the oven for just a moment. Makes about 4 doz cookies. For chocolate dipped cookies, dip one end of the lace roll-ups in melted semi-sweet chocolate. Let cool.

Sooooooo... Well everything went well until it was time to remove those things from the pan. They stuck badly and I could not get any of the middles up. I had to run the pan over hot water in order to remove the middles. I filled the baking pan 5 times with my cookies and each time was the same. So maybe MY ingredients were a little off when Marley and I mixed them? But which way, I don't know. We got some good pieces out of them. They tasted great. The girls loved them. So not a total loss. But I stopped making them half way through and dumped the rest out into the sink since I could not get a good set.

Had to happen eventually. Not every recipe is a peach. lol.

17 Cookies 'Til Christmas

2010-12-11T17:02:00.000-08:00

Mud Cookies

Mix 2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. milk, 1/2 c. cocoa, 1/2 c. butter and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add 1/4 c. peanut butter, 3 c. oatmeal, and 1 c. chopped walnuts. Mix well. Drop on waxed paper.

This is a good no-bake recipe. I 1/2ed the whole recipe so we didn't end up with 4 or 5 dozen cookies. I didn't have walnuts so I used pecans. It was real rich. But again with the peanut butter and chocolate. That works in our house.

Neusole Glass Blowing

2010-12-11T13:31:00.001-08:00

So we are back again. This place was so cool, I knew I needed to share it. We took our Girl Scout Junior Troops to Neusole to see a demonstration and let each girl make a glass flower. What was the demo?? They made a Girl Scout Snow Man!!!! It had badges and everything! So cool. I told the guy who talked us through their demo, "You know I have to buy that now. How much are you going to charge me for it?" We will see when I pick up the flowers what they say about it. What a great time! Afterwards? We took our Big Boy Halloween coupons and our 13 Girl Scouts to our local Big Boy for kids meals. All around, a good time had for all.

There is so much to be learned at this trip, and so much to build on at home. For instance, sometimes they use wooden tools and newspaper to help form the glass. They soak them in water so they don't burn under the heat of the glass. Why does water stop them from burning?? It reminded me of the experiment that we did a couple years ago (and plan to do again soon to drive this point home) when we filled a small balloon with water and lit a candle. When placed over the lit candle the balloon didn't pop. Water absorbs all the heat so the balloon doesn't absorb it. In fact if you hold the balloon there long enough you can even boil the water.

Their ovens that they heat the glass in while they work it are at 1900 and 2000 degrees. The room gets very hot while they work. And the propane ovens are very loud. They have to really speak up for us to hear them talk.

When a glass object is made it must go directly into a cooler which is really a heater. The heater starts at 900 degrees and cools slowly. If the glass were to sit out and cool to room temp it would crack for cooling too quick.

So much more. There is tons to learn from this day. Hopefully a seed was planted somewhere.

18 Cookies 'Til Christmas

2010-12-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

So these last couple days I am cooking alone, listening to 93.3. I am listening to their nonstop Christmas music, putting the cookie groceries away a few minutes ago when I notice how much I LOVE Christmas music. I love it. I hum it when it is 10 degrees and I am outside walking Uma. The "ring ting tingling" sleigh bells, Rudolph going into history like the president, Jingle Bells and ho ho ho. When November hits I start thinking about getting out my Christmas CD's. My girls and I, we love to sing. Even if we are out of key, it doesn't matter. In Girl Scouts I make all my girls sing. Something about music just touches my soul.

What is it about Christmas for you? What makes you're heart stop for Christmas? We get so excited about decorating the house here. We love the Christmas bears and deer stuffed animals that decorate our tables. The day after Thanksgiving my girls are waking me up, begging me to bring up the boxes from the basement of Christmas stuff.

Why are there so many movies about how unhappy Christmas can be? For some people (you know who you are) the holidays are miserable. They are mean at the checkout lines. They are cranky at family gatherings. Hell-ooo... even Charlie Brown can make a crappy few branches into an inspiration. You can too!! I want to shake you and remind you about the music!

Ok maybe this is the wine talking. But probably not. Cookie pics on the way... Cherry Pecan Cookies from the Gooseberry Patch Cookie Book are today. My mom gave this book to me years ago. In fact she gave me a bunch of Gooseberry Patch cook books. Gooseberry is lots of fun! Check it out.

I will post the recipe while my cookie dough is cooling in the fridge. I will send the final product pic in a bit.

Cherry Pecan Cookies

Mix 1 c. shorting, 2 c. brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. water, 3-1/2 c. flour, 1t. baking soda, 1 t. salt, 1-1/2 c. pecans, and 2 c. maraschino cherries, cut. Chill for at least one hour. Drop by teaspoon on cookie sheet. Bake 400 degrees for 8-10 min. Makes 8 dozen.

Same issue as yesterday. Without my girls I don't need EIGHT DOZEN cookies! That is insane. So I cut the recipe way down to 1/4. Which is not easy to do when the original recipe calls for 2 eggs. We will see how it turns out.

19 Cookies 'Til Christmas

2010-12-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

I am trying to make up for lost time. First, Gaige and the hospital took my day away. The next day I had to shop for the girls for funeral attire(Bret's grandpa, Grandpa Ray, who holds the key to so many of Bret's real great childhood memories, almost 91, passed away the same day Gaige had his accident)in between dance classes. So we are two days behind. And now the girls are with their Grandpa Jim for a couple days and I might be able to get back caught up with the cookies... and perhaps my todo list too.

These are called Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.
Mix 2/3c. melted butter, 4 c. quick oatmeal, 1 c. packed brown sugar, 3/4 t. salt, 1 t. vanilla, and 1/2 c. light corn syrup together well, and press into a 10'x15' (editor's note: Clearly this was supposed to be 10"x15". Sorry for the misprint. And thanks for catching it!) pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 8-10 min (don't overbake) until light and golden. They will be bubbly. Cool and frost. let set before cutting into squares.

Frosting: melt 12 oz. bag of milk chocolate chips and mix with 2/3 c. peanut butter.

So evidentally I overbaked because the sides were hard and would not come out of the pan. That might be because I cut the recipe in half since the girls are gone until Friday. So strong note... watch this one if you try it. DON'T OVERBAKE!!! lol. Anyway, the middle part worked out great and I think they are delicious! But chocolate and peanut butter mixed together??? How can you go wrong with that combo.

19 Cookies??

2010-12-07T02:57:00.003-08:00

So we took the van in to get new tires after realizing they would not go another winter. The next morning I had to take my husband in to work, and Gaige to school. We sat down to learn about Mesopotamia... our unit study of History this week, took care of the dog, did some small minor cleaning, had lunch, and received the call. Gaige had an accident at school. He was head butted during a basketball game in gym class. His tooth went clear through his lip. (OK so the boy needs braces. It is on our very heafty list of things to afford, believe me.) I picked him up and brought him home to wait for Brittany to bring Callie (granbaby) over since this was our day. Once she arrived I sent the girls over to a friend's house because there isn't enough room for EVERYONE in my husband's SUV. Then Gaige, Callie, and I headed over to the hospital emergency room to get his stitches. 5 to be exact. By 7 oclock we were rollin out of that place, too late to get my car out of the shop. I retrieved my girls, fed everyone, and drove with Callie over to pick up my husband from work. Came home, Bret, put everyone to bed, sent Callie on her way and my day was done. Ta Da!! No cookies today. Maybe we will make two kinds tomorrow. Though I doubt it... :-)

Editor's Note: Somewhere in the end of my day I ended up at the store getting liquid protein drinks and straws so Gaige can eat while the gaping hole in his mouth (they cannot stitch the inside of his mouth) heals. And band aids. The Children's Hospital had a stock of only Snoopy band aids. I guess that was not his first choice poor guy. lol.

20 Cookies Til Christmas

2010-12-07T02:57:00.001-08:00

So Bret says that our cookies yesterday were duds. Not because they didn't taste good [the girls all loved them] but because they were not real home baked cookies. I say we can utilize store bought products and make them new and improved like we did and call it our own.

So anyway today we made Bret a special treat and baked up his favorite cookies. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. The girls agree that this is their favorite so far. I have never been a huge fan of these cookies, though and I still prefer our fingerprint jam cookies. Orange marmalade jam was the best.

Here is the recipe and here is the website we got the recipe from. Try it out. You won't be sorry. http://whippedtheblog.com/2007/12/11/the-best-white-chocolate-macadamia-nut-cookie-recipe/

White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
10 ounces white chocolate (chips or bars cut in chunks)
1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped into chunks

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 F. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt with electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, beat well. Stir together flour, and the baking soda; gradually add to butter mixture,beating until well blended. Stir in white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. (Edges are golden brown and center is set.) Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool completely.

21 Cookies 'Til Christmas

2010-12-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

We started a family tradition last year. I take each child out individually to shop for presents for the family. We hang out at the mall, thrift store, antique malls, Walmart, Target, wherever we want to go. We have lunch together and make it a fun day shopping. Today was Bret's and my day to spend together. When we got home from that we had Callie until 11:30. There wasn't much time for cookie making today.
I decided to try one of the non-bake cookie ideas that I had.

The recipe goes like this... crush up a couple candy canes. Add enough vanilla frosting to the candy canes for filling the cookie sandwiches. Next crack open a box of vanilla wafers. Put some frosting mix between two cookies to form a cookie sandwich.

Next melt some milk chocolate chips in a double boiler. If you don't have one you can do what we do. Boil an inch of water in a pan. Put a smaller pan inside it and add chocolate to melt. Do NOT try to melt the chocolate on a pan directly on the stove.

When the chocolate is melted, dip the cookies in the chocolate for a little added flavor. We are full from pizza right now so no one was really in the mood for a cookie. They were good. They may be better in the morning when our stomachs are empty. lol.