Juliette's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!

Today I made my friend Juliette's almost famous chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. This recipe has been circulating through a small group of friends. I never actually made this recipe but when someone posted again on Facebook I thought I had better try it. Today was a perfect day. One kid not feeling well. Dreary day. So we baked some cookies and sat down to make some Christmas wish lists from the sears catalogs.

Unfortunately I forgot that this recipe does not fit in my kitchen aid. Therefore I dirtied more bowls than I wanted. Oh well. The cookies more than make up for the effort!

Here is the recipe for these wonderful cookies

Juliette’s Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Cream together:
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

In a separate bowl sift together:
4 cups flour
5 cups oatmeal (blended in a food processor or blender, I use a food processor)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda

Sift together dry ingredients, then mix with creamed mixture.

Add:
24 ounces of chocolate chips
3 cups chopped nuts (if desired, or raisins.)

Bake at 375 for approximately 12 min until golden brown

Kiddo's working on their christmas wish lists and enjoying cookies

Be-tween You and God. Book review and Giveaway!!!!

Recently I had the opportunity to review an excellent book. Tyndale publishing has sent me another book for review.  They don't require that I give them a positive review in exchange for the book.  I enjoyed reviewing this book because I got to share it with "J".  

This book is a one year devotional devoted entirely to girls ages 9-14.  With "J"turning 10 in 2 weeks, she fits perfectly into this bracket.  Each devotion is only one page long which is great because it is not overwhelming for her.  At the top of the page there is a question which leads to the topic of the devotional.  For example today's question was "Dear God, My older teenage sister says mean things, including that she hates me.  She never wants to be with me. What should I do?"  It then has 3-5 paragraphs talking about that question.  It also has a bible verse and a question to make her think.

I really love this book.  When I first gave it to her, she sat down immediately and read that day's devotion.  It definitely made her think about the topic more closely and made her want to read her bible more.  The one thing that I don't like about this book is that some of the topics don't apply to her very well at this point in her life.  But I'm sure as she grows and experiences more, she will remember these devotions and maybe even look back on them.  She keeps the book up in her bed and I'm excited to have her reading these devotions every night.

I asked her what she thought of the book.  This is what she said "I really like the book.  I like the bible verses at the bottom of the page and how the author explains things."

Tyndale has offered me the chance to give away a copy of this book to one of my readers soooo if you have a daughter/granddaughter or know a little girl that you think would enjoy this book, leave me a comment!  I'll leave it open for a few days. I'll have "J" draw a name out of a hat of all the commenter's to pick the winner on Thursday  after she is done of her school work   So considering she is usually finished school around lunch time, you have until Thursday at 11:30 to comment.  Oh to make it interesting, lets answer a question.  What is your favorite book/devotional?  

Edited to add.  If you have difficulty commenting on this post, if you share this blog post on facebook and tag me in it  I'll consider that an entry!!

Fun news!

So I am sitting here watching my boy in his karate class. By the way I have noticed that he is super focused this year which is awesome!

Anyway I thought I would write and tell anyone that reads this blog that I just got word that I will be able to offer my very first giveaway! It will be sometime in october for one very lucky reader Very exciting times. Unfortunately I have no idea who reads this blog because I hardly have any comments. Soooo if you read could you please comment. I'm not sure how I will work this give away but I'll figure it out! I'm very excited about it.

Soo. Stay tuned in october!!! In the meantime, here's an awesome picture of my awesome son mid kick!

Fun filled day

Today my friend Holly and I did a kid swap. She watched my Monster boy and sweet pea while I took her two girlies with my two oldest to the Anne of Green Gables musical with another friend and her girl. It was a very good play and we had a lot of fun. Some of these antics happened....

This evening I had a great evening with some ladies in my church.

As I came home, "T" stopped me as I walked past his opened window and he says "I want to ask you a riddle. What falls every day but never breaks?" I gave him a couple of guesses and then I said "I give up what is the answer?". He says "I have no idea, I'm just trying to figure it out!". Haha. What a silly boy.

I'm feeling very blessed today. I have a wonderful family and wonderful friends.

I'm six weeks minus one day away from leaving for Africa. I shared tonight that every time I think about it, I get butterflies in my stomach. It's not that I'm nervous about going to Africa but that I'm nervous about leaving my family. Although I know and am reminded all the time that they will be well taken care of. I still worry. My very wise friend Darcia said that from what she has seen with the fundraisers the kids have done, they are not only okay with my leaving but they support me. I felt very encouraged by that so Darcia if you are reading this..... Thank you!!!

What the heck do we teach our children anyway???

The kids and I had a fabulous time this morning sitting at the kitchen table, laughing and joking and learning some spelling words.   It was one of those times where I sat back and realized how blessed I am to have such funny wonderful kids and being able to be at home and teach them.  The memories we are making sitting at that table will last forever.  I just wanted to take a picture.  So I did....

Many people ask me what resources there is available for home schoolers.  I also have people ask what curriculum I use.  That's such a hard question because I don't use one set curriculum.  It would be so easy if I could but in the 6 years that we've been home schooling, I haven't actually found one curriculum that works for my kids in every subject so I mix and match and make up my own curriculum.   I figured that I would write up a blog post on what we are using this year so that I can send the people who ask me online here to answer all their questions!

Let me just say first that we got off to a rough start this year.  Mainly because "T" for some reason thought that writing things out by hand was a form of torture.  Ya think he might be a product of his generation?  

But I stuck it through and eventually he realized that handwriting wasn't the end of the world and if he stopped complaining and whining about it, he could actually get through it pretty quickly.  Besides his complaining and whining wasn't getting him very far with me.

We are three and a half weeks into our school year and we have settled into a routine and things are going fabulous.  I'm actually way more organized this year and it's actually making my day go smoother!

Okay so what are we actually teaching anyway?  Well lets see.....

"J" is in 5th grade now... She is doing amazing at getting straight to work without so much daydreaming and being distracted.  She's like a completely different kid! hehe Here's what she is doing...

LANGUAGE ARTS

Switched on Schoolhouse Language Arts~ This is a computer based program.  We did Switched on schoolhouse for history and science last year but we didn't like it as it was too much computer time for her. We do like it for language arts though.

Explode the Code book 8~ This is a workbook that helps with grammar.

Canadian Handwriting Book D~  Just your basic cursive writing workbook.

HISTORY

We are doing some Canadian History this year. A complete Canadian History curriculum is very hard to come by so I sort of pieced one together.  Surprisingly when I started to plan what we were going to do, I found out that they all work together really well and the workbook had a teaching plan in it that included the two other materials!  "J" is also following along and participating in "T's" history lessons but more about those later.

Courage and Conquest~ A workbook by the author Donna Ward.  We have done other Canada study books as well as a Africa unit study written by her and have really enjoyed them.

Canada, A People's History~  I found this video series made by cbc and just had to have it.  

Discovering Canada Book Series!  There are about 10 of these books on different subjects.  They have fun little projects in them and lots of information.

MATH

Teaching Textbooks 5~ This is a computer based program as well.  It's great. It grades all her work and gives her lectures on what she is studying.  She can choose to just work on the computer or she can work in the textbook and transfer it onto the computer.  This year she decided that it is easier to work in the textbook and then transfer it.  This is our third year using this program and quite honestly it's such a relief to me.  We used to struggle so much with math before using this program.  It would take her 2 hours to do one page of math but since switching to this program, it takes her 20-30 minutes tops to complete it and understand it.

SCIENCE

Exploring Creation through Zoology 1: The Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day ~ We decided to combine science this year with "J" and "T".  It's working out really really well.  "T" who is completely fascinated with animals of all kinds, loves this book and we are only 2 lessons in.  "J" is not quite so enthusiastic about it.  I think she's dreading the lessons on bats and insects. hehe but she likes the activities that we do and they are always asking to do Science and History first so that tells you something.

ELECTIVES

Switched on Schoolhouse Health Quest ~ Once again a computer based program. It's a health course.. not really much else I could tell you about it.  She's only done 2 lessons so far.  I won't bother putting a picture up since it looks like the language arts one.

Exploring the History of Medicine ~ This one was completely "J's" choosing.  We were standing in line at the home school curriculum fair waiting to pay for our books when she saw this book and wanted to do it. We haven't actually opened it yet since I kind of forgot to schedule it in but I think this will be one that she and I do together since it really interests me too.  

I have a french program for her also but I can't seem to get it to work on her computer so I am waiting on Jeff to help me get that figured out.  And that's what "J"is doing.  

"T" is in second grade and working well now.  He doesn't like reading practice or handwriting but he gets through them without too much complaint now.  He is very into science so he loves doing that. He is really good with math as well. He seems to be able to grasp a concept within minutes of it being introduced.

LANGUAGE ARTS

First Language Lessons For the Well Trained Mind Lvl 2 ~ We just switched to this language arts book this year.  Previous years we had been using Alpha Omega Lifepacs but the kids found them a bit too dry and it took them too long to do them.  With this book we spend about 10-15 minutes per lesson and he's really remembering the stuff he's learning.

Writing with Ease ~ This is a writing program.  He doesn't enjoy it but it's helping him to form full sentences so that's great!  

Explode the Code Books 1 & 2 ~ Again Grammar workbooks.

MATH

As I said "T" is very good at math.  He knows a lot of the grade 2 math already so I've decided to move him up to third grade math.   Right now we are using a grade 2 math workbook that I found at the superstore as a review.  He is breezing through it like no tomorrow.  He's already half way through the book and we are only 3.5 weeks into school.  

Teaching Textbooks 3 ~ This is the same curriculum as "J" uses.  Computer based.  It only starts in grade three but I really wish they made it for grades 1 and 2 as well.  "T" will start this after he finishes the grade 2 workbook.

HISTORY

The Story of the World Vol 1: The Ancient Times~  We actually started this program at the beginning of the summer and we are still working on it.  I love love love this program.  This is one that "J" and "T" are doing together and it's their favorite subject I think.. well I guess that's not true.. I just asked "T" what his favorite subject was and he said Math!  Anyway, it's excellent and we are having fun with it.

The Story of the World Vol 2: The Middle Ages ~  When we are finished with Volume 1 which will be the middle to end of October, we will start with Volume 2.  As I said I really really love this history curriculum!

And that's that.. I think... Oh and we use a variety of readers for "T" to practice reading such as the "Little Bear" series and the "Frog and Toad" series.    And this summer I found at a library sale a bunch of old novels such as Moby Dick, The Wizard of Oz, Pollyanna so "J" is practicing her reading with those.

Well I hope you like my blog post today.. I hope I didn't miss anything.... it took a couple hours to write what with getting the family supper and taking "T" to Karate but here you go.. now I"m going to head off to my dad's to vaccum my van out.. well that's after I get the kids to bed....

A post from my phone.

Hello all.

I'm just testing out posting from my phone.  I really want to make a point to be posting on an almost daily basis and in order to do that I may need to post from my phone once and a while.  But considering it just took me five tries to type the word "may". It might not happen often.

Anyway.   My thoughts for today.  I can't believe my baby is sleeping in a big girl bed!!!

Imagine a picture here because apparently I need to download an app in order to post pictures from my phone.  So night.

Edited to add that I gave in an downloaded the app and wala! A picture!

5 years ago today.....

A new little love came into my life.  Boy #2  arrived after 5 hours of labor and was in such a hurry, they were yelling for the doctor to run down the hallway.  She barely made it before he arrived.  My first words upon hearing them say "it's a boy" was his name.. A name I had loved since a teen.  I fell in love with this little buddy before I knew him.

What I didn't know that day was what a ride the next 5 years would be.  In the same way he was born, he goes through life.  Always moving, in a hurry to do things that he shouldn't be able to do.  This kid was crawling at barely 6 months, took his first steps at 9 months, learned to climb the bunk bed ladder at 12 months... then when we took the ladder away, at 15 months he figured out how to climb the headboards up to the top bunk.... A dresser placed in front of the headboard detered him for a couple months but at 18 months he figured out he could climb the dresser to get up at the top bunk.

Constantly moving.. that's how I describe him.  He's a funny little guy.

Who is growing up to be a wonderfully funny boy.

I can't imagine my life without this boy.  I can't believe he's five years old!