Not Me Monday: I am not messy!

I have told y'all before that I am not messy.

Really, I'm not. Not me. Not a bit messy!

Saturday, when I finished making soap, my kitchen table did not look like this.

Why is the game cabinet open? Don't look inside! I didn't drink that Vanilla Coke in the foreground, either. As one commenter said last week, I am the "Energizer Bunny". I don't need caffeine.

I would never allow my work space to become that cluttered. I am all about organization and efficiency.

To further establish my case, I give you exhibit B. These pictures prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not messy.

At least the floor's clean...

and this leak didn't require the services of a plumber, an electrician and a carpenter!

The soapy mess all over my kitchen floor did not spew from my dishwasher because I did not cram it full of measuring cups and spatulas covered in soap film. I realize that adding too much soap to the dishwasher is hazardous and carefully scraped away all dried-on soap before loading.

So there you have it. Proof positive that I am not messy.

Come back soon when I will prove that I am not scatterbrained. Nope, not me! I always remember....


Um... what was I saying?

Making Soap

I made soap today that I plan to sell at a Christmas Crafts Bazaar being held by my local hsa next week.

This is my cucumber melon collection.

I made these layered stars from olive oil and goats milk soaps.

These are my lemon verbena soaps. They make me think of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I made these glycerin soaps with kids in mind. There are vehicles, animals, toys, and other fun items kids like.

This is the Sweat Pea collection with glycerin and goats milk soaps.

Last but not least is my Christmas collection. There are smaller soaps for the sink or kids bath, popsicle soap, Christmas trees, and snowflakes.

If you are a local friend and are interested in purchasing my soaps, call me for more information.

If you are an online friend, I won't be selling via the internet this year. If the Lord wills, perhaps next. Feel free to let me know what you think of my soap collection in comments.

The Edublog Awards 2009

Nominations are currently being taken by the edublogawards, and I would like to nominate in one category.

For Best educational use of audio, I would like to nominate My Audio School. MAS "exists to provide children with excellent audio content on a variety of school subjects in a format that they can easily use all by themselves."* My sons enjoy using the site, and it has enhanced their studies. You can read more of my thoughts about MAS here.

Thank you to Molly Evert, MAS creator and owner, for all of her hard work and dedication to creating a site to enrich the lives of students.

You can nominate your favorite educational blogs, too. Visit the edublogawards homepage for details.

*taken from www.myaudioschool.com

Workboxes a la Olive Plants

I wrote in my review of Sue Patrick's Workbox System that I would share a few of the modifications I have made to fit our homeschool needs.

What I found most difficult about workboxing was having to fill the boxes every night. Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I love to teach/lesson plan/do anything school-related. However, filling the boxes was taking over an hour each night.

Maybe that's because I'm an overachiever and do too much.

Maybe that's because I'm getting old and don't move as fast as I used to.

Maybe that's just because workboxing takes that much work.

I don't know for sure but I do know that I could not keep up with it all.

Then I read this at the HSBA Post and decided to make some changes. Rhonda's idea of using Homeschool Tracker is great, but I don't have a subscription or the money to buy one right now. So, I did what homeschoolers do best and improvised.

I have nine boxes for each boy. I have designated one box for each of the following: math, writing, reading/journaling, geography, memory work, handwriting/copy work/coloring, other language arts (spelling, reading skills, etc.), project, extra-curricular.

These are Wilbur's workboxes.

Here are Orville's boxes.

On Saturdays, I place all the materials needed for the upcoming week's assignments in each box. I include activities like computer work and musical instrument practice. Sometimes a box will be filled with materials for a project. Sometimes it will contain a workbook or a game. Sometimes it will simply contain a card that says, "Complete two levels of math practice on mathletics.com each day this week." It takes me about three hours to put it all together which is still a lot of work. However, it makes the week run much more smoothly, and I have the energy for it on Saturdays, unlike at 8 p.m. each week night.

Here is a better view of Wilbur's boxes. He has a card box that contains a game, a DVD to watch, workboooks, copywork, and a cd with one activity in the bottom row.

I place the index card with instructions for each day on top of the materials.

Here is an example card:

Occasionally, I write "see me" if the instructions are too complicated to write out or if I know I will need to assist or give a test.

After a couple of weeks, I also stopped using the schedule strip. I kept putting the same numbers on it in the same order every day, so it seemed superfluous. I let the boys decide the order they will complete their work. This means if they want to do box 6 first, then so be it. Just so long as it all gets done, right?

When each boy has completed a box, he removes the tag from the front of it (I have them attached to the front of the boxes with Velcro) and places it inside the box. When all his tags are removed, he asks me to check his work. If everything is complete, he is done for the day.

Those are our changes. I'm curious, though. How many of you use workboxes and what works best for you? Please share. I have started a conversation in my Blog Frog community.

Congratulations HSBA Winners!

The Homeschool Blog Award winners have been announced, and I was not among them this year. However, it really was an honor to be nominated, especially in three categories. I know who nominated me for Best Crafts, etc. and Best Encourager but have no clue who nominated me for Best Super. You really surprised me with that one!

Thank you to everyone who voted for Olive Plants, too. I really appreciate you guys and am glad that you are blessed by this blog.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Thank you to everyone at the HSBA Post. Hosting these awards has to be a HUGE undertaking, and all of us who participate profit from it, win or lose. Thank you!

Dawn

Freezer Cooking Plan

Those of you who read my Not Me Monday post this week already know what all I did (not) cook for the freezer this month. I really did as much as I could, feeling, for many reasons, the need to work ahead.

First, I am dieting. I most frequently fall off the dieting wagon because I don't have a proper plan for dinner or I don't have the energy to follow through with a plan I have made. On nights that I don't know what is for dinner or I am just exhausted from everything the day required, I make something quick and easy (read fattening) or we eat out (read fattening).

Second, menu planning and shopping exhaust me. These are my least favorite responsibilities, right behind doing the laundry. I would rather clean the bathroom, really. It is the perpetual nature of the tasks. I know I can't do away with the work altogether but I wanted to streamline it as much as possible.

Finally, I wanted to spend more time with my family each night and less time in the kitchen. With the major cooking done, dinner prep is so easy. Clean-up literally takes minutes, especially with all four of us contributing.

However, preparing for the cooking day itself and keeping the kitchen running on the cooking day required careful planning. There are many ways to go about freezer cooking. In fact, Money Saving Mom has a meme going right now on the topic where you can get lots of ideas.

Actually, that was my first step... to gather lots of ideas. For about three months, I read blog posts and thought about why I wanted to bulk cook. Some moms do a little here and there and some do a month's worth like me. Others bulk cook every other month or a few times each year. One group of moms co-op their freezer cooking day. It is really important to decide what will be most helpful for you and make your plans accordingly.

Once I decided that I would take the plunge and cook a full month's worth of breakfasts, dinners, and desserts, I bought a spiral notebook with five sections. I labeled each section as follows: breakfasts, lunches, snacks, dinner- main dishes, dinner- sides, desserts. Though I would not be cooking lunches or snacks for the freezer, I still wanted to gather more ideas. As I visited blogs and looked through cooking sites and books, I jotted down several ideas in each category.

Then I narrowed it down to seven main dishes with accompanying sides, three breakfasts, and two desserts. I created a page for each dinner dish and wrote its recipe along with ingredients and cookware needed on that page. Then I decided on side dishes and wrote them on the page with the main dish they would accompany. Some of the sides were things I could cook and freeze, some were things I could buy already frozen. A few things will have to be bought and prepared fresh. Everything can't go in the freezer. Trust me, I tried! :)

Here are the final menus:

1. Chicken Pot Pie with roasted sweet potatoes and corn
2. Tater Tot Casserole with orange glazed carrots and peas
3. Swedish Meatballs (low fat version) with salad
4. Chicken Stir Fry with fresh fruit
5. Mexican Chicken with Molly's Mac n Cheese (for the non-dieters in the family), green beans, and fruit and nut bread (bought from the Kroger bakery, ready-to-bake)
6. Tagliarini, okra with onions and peppers, and Italian bread (bought from Kroger, ready-to-bake)
7. Baked Chicken (to be made the night of), brown rice, hominy, broccoli, fruit and nut bread
8. muffins
9. pancakes
10. sausage biscuits
11. two batches of cookie dough (frozen in sets of six- take from freezer and bake in a portion that does not tempt me to indulge)

I made 3-5 portions of each main dish. This gives us enough for one month with a couple extras to give to my parents. On weekends, I will make a crockpot meal. The breakfasts are for the boys. We thaw the night before or microwave in the morning, and they have a piece of fruit to go with. Also, this plan often provides leftovers for lunch the next day.

Here is the plan I followed for cooking day:

1. Cook all ground beef while boiling noodles for mac n cheese.
2. Strain ground beef and store in fridge. Mix mac n cheese, place in four foil baking pans and bake.
3. Boil pasta for tagliarini. Assemble tater tot casseroles, except for cheese, and freeze.
4. Remove mac and cheese from oven and allow to cool. Strain pasta and mix tagliarini. Set aside to cool.
5. Boil carrots while peeling sweet potatoes.
6. Prepare sweet potatoes and place in four foil baking pans and place in oven. Strain carrots and add glaze. Set aside to cool.
7. Wrap mac n cheese and Tag and place in freezer.
8. Remove sweet potatoes from oven and set aside to cool.
9. Prepare Mexican Chicken. Place in oven to bake. Wrap and freeze chicken breasts for Baked Chicken. Cube chicken and prepare stir fry.
10. Set aside Mexican Chicken and Stir Fry to cool. Wrap and freeze sweet potatoes and carrots.
11. Prepare Chicken Pot Pie filling and set aside to cool. Make meatballs for Swedish Meatballs. Set aside to cool.
12. Mix muffins and bake first round. While baking, make sauce for Swedish Meatballs and set aside to cool.
13. Mix second batch of muffins. Remove first batch and allow to cool. Put second batch in to bake. Wrap and freeze chicken pot pie filling, except for one portion which goes to the refrigerator. Wrap and freeze meatballs and sauce in separate containers.
14. Remove second batch of muffins and allow to cool. Mix third batch and bake. Mix cookie dough.
15. Remove muffins from oven and allow to cool. Place 1st batch of biscuits in oven to bake (I used canned... shhhhh).
16. Spoon cookie dough onto Glad Press and Seal paper. Seal in groups of six, place in large freezer bags, and place in freezer. Wrap muffins individually, place in freezer bags, and place in freezer. During this step, remove biscuits from oven and place the second batch in to bake.
17. Remove second batch of biscuits and allow them to cool. Cook sausage and cool.
18. Mix pancake batter and cook. Stack pancakes on a platter and allow them to cool.
19. Assemble sausage biscuits, wrap, place in large freezer bags, and place in the freezer.
20. Wrap pancakes individually in press and seal paper. Place in large freezer bags and into the freezer.
21. Line a deep dish pie pan with a pre-made pie crust. Fill with pot pie filling that was stored in the fridge. Top with second crust, seal, cut slits, and brush with egg. Bake in oven on 400 for 30 minutes along with one portion of sweet potatoes. Microwave frozen corn. Serve for dinner.
22. Clean the kitchen.
23. Take long bath.
24. Take three Excedrine Back and Body pain pills.
25. Go to bed and sleep well, knowing there will be very little cooking to do for the next month! :)

Happy Cooking!

Dawn

Celebrating Advent

During the Advent season, our family worship takes on a Christmas theme. Last year I wrote Advent about our traditions. Michael reads to us from Scripture that explains one element of our Jesse tree each night. We sing Christmas hymns, memorize Bible verses from the Christmas story, and read The Advent book.

This year, Michael thought we needed to change things a little. The boys have reached that place in their development that they know the Christmas story inside and out. We are also incorporating a lot of Scripture memory into our regular school day. It's not that we think you can reach a place of knowing Scripture too well; however, he thought it would be beneficial to build on the foundation that has been laid. This year he is not reading the Advent book and we are not having the boys memorize Christmas verses.

Instead he is holding a sword drill. Each night he reads an Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament fulfillment and requires the boys to learn the Scripture reference for each. After he does some teaching and discussing with us, I read one of the passages for the night, not naming the reference. He and the boys seek it out in their Bibles and step forward when it is found. Once all three have located the passage, I call on one of them to read the reference and the first phrase, much like a traditional Sword Drill.

In between passages, I call out a book of the Bible. Each boy locates it and steps forward. Michael participates and occasionally pretends to have difficulty locating the book. The boys think this is a lot of fun and work hard to "get there" before Dad.

We still sing Christmas hymns and let the boys explain the Jesse tree ornaments. We are having such a great Advent season singing and worshipping, spending time in the Word, learning together, and having fun as a family.

When we finish our family worship time, the boys take a piece of candy from this candy tree we made quickly and easily with toothpicks and a Styrofoam base.

I would love to hear from you. What are your Advent traditions? You can leave a comment if you would like or participate in the new discussion I started on the topic in my Blog Frog community.

Happy Advent!

Dawn

Teaching Tip Tuesday: Reading Music

I made this chart to help my flute student learn to read music.

I drew the staff on card stock and then laminated it. I drew a variety of notes, rests, and time signatures on index cards, laminated, and cut them out. Then I attached Velcro to the index card pieces and the staff. She is able to change the time signature and place the appropriate "amount" of notes within the measure. I also have her move a whole note from line-to-line or space-to-space and state which note is which.

I made this small, 8.5 x 11'', so it would be portable. She practices with it at home, and we use it during her lessons each week. If I could make a few changes, I would increase the size. Probably make it an interactive bulletin board for home use only. I would add in a space for the key signature. I would also make the treble clef interchangeable with a bass clef. Flute reads treble only, but for my pianist at home, I would want both.

Happy Teaching!

Dawn

Avon Give-away

Heather @ Kingdom Arrows is giving away a set of Avon Naturals Pomegranate and Mango bath products. It is a great give-away, so don't miss your chance to win! Visit Kingdom Arrows for the details.

16 x 20 Rolled Canvass Print Give-away

Kimberly @ Raising Olives is giving away one 16 x 20 rolled canvass print of your favorite picture from Online Poster Printing. This would make a fabulous Christmas present and can be yours for free. Visit Raising Olives for the details.