Lessons learned

Lessons  Learned I learned last week. I know I am late on this post by two days but know that I am thinking about you even when I am not posting. I think it is the time of year when I would rather be in the kitchen baking and candy making add on that we are homeschooling and I am in college and we have a clash of responsibilities verses hobbies. I do my best and I always find a way to write to you again.

My favorite lesson I learned this week comes from Martha Stewart’s School of Cooking book. You can freeze cookie dough for up to a month. So I baked one dozen and then carefully divided the rest of the dough into two dozen cookies and froze them in a Ziploc bag.  That means I get fast cookies that are better than Tollhouse Cookies (sorry Tollhouse I am just against the random preservatives that you have to put in your cookie dough to sell to the general public. Don’t take it personally.).

Froozen cookies

Froozen cookies ready for the oven

Fresh from the oven

So I am going to Share with you the cookie recipe which can be found in Martha’s School of Cooking with my own notes added along to suit my tastes. This is a basic recipe so you can add anything that makes you happy. Don’t be afraid just through in those yummy mini M&M’s, heath bits, or butterscotch chips, or dark chocolate, or milk chocolate, and any nut you can think of or a combination of all of the above.

Basic Drop Cookies

3 cups All Purpose Flour

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (or whatever kind of butter you normally buy.) room temperature (it makes it easier to cream)

2 large eggs, room temperature (just set them out when you get started, mine were cold and the cookies were still good)

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

2 Cups add- ins(again anything you want chocolate, dried fruit, nuts, candy, whatever makes your heart sing)

Preheat oven to 350* line pan with parchment paper (I didn’t do anything to the pan). Combine dry ingredients flour, salt, and baking soda. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy then add eggs one at a time, and then stir in vanilla. Add dry ingredients in three additions and stirring until completely incorporated. Then stir in two cups of your add-ins (I did three. Two cups milk chocolate chips and 1 cup of walnuts). Then use an ice cream scoop to drop the cookies on to the pan. Bake for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool. After I put the cookies in the oven I used my little scoop to sort out the cookies for the freezer.

yummy...

p.s. I just wrote the highlights of the recipe. Here is a link to her website http://www.marthastewart.com/food

Did you know that when Chickens molt they stop laying eggs? I guess it gives their reproduction systems a welcome break, which leads to healthier chickens, and better quality eggs. They molt for 2-6 months depending on the bred. It is good for them, and it is good for me but I have found a love of fresh eggs. I am happy that the famer is so natural and wonderful and treats these animals with respect. So when she announced the molt I was both happy and a little sad. Maybe I should disclose that I buy five dozen eggs every two weeks.  If you make the switch to a local farmer with the same high standards as The Hanson Family farm you will understand how wonderful an egg can truly be. Honestly the price is slightly higher than the organic eggs at the market. I pay $3 a dozen; $2.75 if I return the egg carton which I do.  Like I have said before it is a wonderful feeling to know the farmer you are supporting. There is no middle man, there is no supermarket. I hand my money to the farmers, they take it and use it on their animals, or to care for their family. I am the lucky one because I get to support their dreams. It is really a beautiful cycle.  When was the last time you went to a grocery store and could say the same by buying factory eggs that are .99 cents a dozen.  

Okay enough about food. I learned how to end crochet projects by threading about twelve inches into the hat. I also learned how to attach the flowers on to my hats. I only made eight hats last week. I have a problem. I will make more next week.

I bought Rob a Pecan Tree for Christmas.  He planted it and then said lets go look at this nursery I found. They had trees on sale we bought three more. I got two roses 60% off. Rob planted all of them. I hope that we get some fruit off of these trees before we are forced to sale the house in 3-? Years.

Speaking of trees I let the boys pick the tree with out me. Because it was so short I also let them decorate it. Too. So far this is how the tree looks. Damian is working on Christmas banners to hang on it.

My post is getting long so I will stop now. For your sake. You know I could carry on unashamed.

I hope that your week is filled with magic, music, love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons Learned December 5

Lessons I learned last week.

My lovely husband was home all last week which is why my blog has been quiet. I love having him home but I am always glad to get the house back when he returns to work. I have no idea what we are going to do when he retires. Wait we'll be farmers so he will be busy with a thousand projects that need to get done.

So last week nap time some how became optional and went out the window. I am paying for this today and most likely tomorrow too.

School work for all parties became unbearable. With all the extra help less got done then normal.

I read Chaucer for the first time. I was surprised that his vulgar story telling is considered classic, also I had to write a short paper on whether he was for or against the church. I am pretty sure he was against it.

I sent the boys to pick our Christmas tree and some how all three of them decided on a 5 foot tree. I am 5'7". The lesson is always go as a family to pick the Christmas tree. It is pretty all dressed up even if it is the smallest tree we have ever had.

Finally I have found a new obsession . . .

Hats

Flowers

Adding flowers to Hats

Making my boys model flowery hats.

I have to be honest this yarn is some that someone gave me because they didn't like it. I have kept it around to try things out. If I don't like the outcome no big deal. It is kind of Christmasy if you squint a little to the left.

Then I discovered the five petal flowers. 

Oh yes friends, I like these flowers a lot.

Now what can I attach them too.

You guessed right a hat. I love the color of the flowers on the white hat.

The boys realized that these were girl hats.

I had to force him to model it for me.

I made them each their own hat. Which caused happy faces. Isn't he cute!

I am glad he is missing a tooth if he wasn't he would look a lot older. Then I would worry.

This is for one of my little nieces. I am so happy her mom said I could make her stuff with flowers on it. Then she said in natural colors or yellow. Wait! What? I want pink. Still I like the hat. I hope she does too.

So I am afraid you will be seeing more crocheted flowers and other stuff as I learn how to do them. I want to learn to make socks. Then I can make myself socks with flowers on them. I wonder if that is hard?

Any chance you were impressed by this new super talent? No. I don't blame you. Yes? You would not be so impressed if you knew how super easy these projects are. If you want to learn the secret to these lovelies check youtube. That is right step by step instructions. I hope you don't mind all of the pictures this week. I can not control myself. Do you know what I found that is next on my list? I won't make you guess it is a dinosaur hat. I have to buy yarn. I also need to con some people into letting me make them one. Do you need a hat? I am just kidding, kind of.

I hope you have a wonderful week filled with Holiday cheer (We celebrate Christmas but I love saying happy Holiday's because we are all in it together trying to spread goodwill to all)  I hope it is full of peace and hope and Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons learned 28 Nov. 2011

Lessons I learned this last week.


Now we are going to start with Thanksgiving pictures because most of the week was spent cooking. Keep in mind that I used Rachel Rays Everyday Thanksgiving Recipes for most of the dishes.

Yes, I know this is not a great picture but look at how happy James is.

Damian is starting to love food almost as much as I already do. Here is a random lesson I learned If you use those super nice crystal glasses your saving for special occasion and beg your kids to be super careful with them don't break one in front of said kids. They will never let you live it down!

Kiss of Lemon Turkey. My husband loves to make the turkey and it turned out lovely.

Classic sausage stuffing. I cried on Friday because Rob ate the very last bite! I love stuffing and it loves to stick to my hips.

The best sweet potato dish I have ever made. Carmel Apple Sweet Potato Casserole.

Green Beans with toasted pumpkin seeds. I love fresh crunchy green beans.

Cranberry Raspberry sauce completely my own recipe and I should have made more! The kids licked their plants to get every little taste of wonderful that they could.

Turns out the boys love Turkey legs.

So we told them until they have little boys of their own they will get a turkey leg every year.

I loved doing this Thankfulness tree.

I am thinking about doing it all year by updating to different seasons. Changing these leaves to snowflakes and the ribbon to a pretty blue or red christmas ribbon. It is nice to be thankful.

This week we also sorted through a ton of the boys' things and found out out we do have a school room after all. Who knew?

The boys love this room more then they ever did when it was a toy room/library.

I love this room now too. We still do school work at the kitchen table in the mornings.

This is a miracle. I never thought I could organize anything.

Okay so I love that Damian loves to Read to his brother, but I was trying to show off our world map.

I saw a picture of a hat that my friend made. It was wonderful and she swore it was only the second thing she had ever crocheted. So I looked it up on Youtube (which is wonderful and truely evil) and began to make a hat. My first hat ever. It is not as easy as my friend claimed... Or I am not great at following directions. So here is my first hat ever.

Not bad. I could do better I am sure. I learned a lot about crochet while I worked on this hat. First I want to point out that it took me about three hours to make. I started over a million times. Really I lose count. Then I learned how to use a place marker and I didn't have to count any more. I think I missed something very important. Because look at the true size of the hat.

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Did you have to scroll down to discover my secret?I hope so.

Are you ready?

I am not

but here it goes.

That's right friends my hat fits this toy hippo and lots of his hatless friends. I think I had better try again. It seems that my idea of a great hat stayed the same size even as it was born. Lesson learned here don't be afraid to fail. Maybe next time you will get it right. I will let you know if I ever do.

I hope your week is filled with sweet lessons, happy music, Love and Laughter. Be well my friend.



Lessons Learned Nov. 13

Lessons learned a weekly debrief

Yesterday I got to spend the whole day with James just him and I for the very first time. We had a lot of fun we went to Chuck-E-Cheese and played the games for an hour. We went for a long walk we started out running and on the way back Jame got to have a piggy back ride. We ate frozen grapes and watched T.V. and we also made a pumpkin cake. Yum! We ended the night with two stories, Five Little Monkeys, and We're Going on a Bear Hunt. After James told me he was going to have dreams of monkeys and bears. It was a stress free day. I think I might need to make more time to go out on one on one dates with my boys. I do love being a mama.

Damian and Rob went on a camping trip with the cub scouts. I am sure they had lots of fun too. They are not home yet so it is hard to know but with how excited they were yesterday morning I know it was a fun time.

It is state law to have your pets fixed in the state of Texas.

This week in News Stories have been horrible and sad. The Penn State (House of Horrors), The mother who left her two year old in the car (maybe), and finally all of the horrible child abuse cases and the death of at least three children that are being blamed on How to Train up a Child. I don't want to dwell to much on these things but I do want to mention them.

In the case of Penn State and all of the writers and supporters of the Coach, All of the people who witnessed any act of child abuse and did not report it or try to stop it are just as guilty. If a report was brought to the attention of another person they had a Moral obligation to turn it in. These people choose to cover it up and the abuse continued on for 15 years at least! So please I am tired of reading how we are human and make mistakes. It could have been your son. I bet you would not be singing their praises then. My husband and I sat down and talked to our young boys about Predators who are out to hurt them. About what was going on at this school and what they would have to do if anyone anywhere ever approached them. It is a sad world that we need to warn our children of these sexual predators. I want to encourage you to have a conversation with your children, so that they are armed with an idea of what to do. Have that communication open so that they know that they can tell you and you will stop it after then first time not after they can not take the abuse any longer. Arm your children. We told the kids to scream as loud as they can, to fight kick, bite, punch and run to us. We told them that by drawing attention to themselves that the predator will most likely stop because he knows what he is doing is wrong. It was a hard conversation but I am glad that we talked to the boys about it.

The Mother that left her two year old in the car so she could walk a mile with her four year old to the gas station. Never leave your child unattended. Even if she is just stupid, she may never see that little boy. Today I read that her story was very similar to a recent Law and Order episode. If that woman is lying I hope that our justice system is able to convict her of a crime.

Finally the book on How to Train up a Child. Before it was in the news I had never heard of it. The people who wrote it should know that they fed the fire with gas. Their book tells people how to beat a child. A child abuser might do it anyway but with fuel saying it is God's way, these poor children died hating God. They did not teach them to love God. Here is a good article on Spare The Rod and spoil the child http://www.religioustolerance.org/spankin8.htm. It says that it is not in the bible at all. In fact according to this article theses are the most commonly misqouted bible verses
 Prov 13:24: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes
Prov 19:18: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
Prov 22:15: "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Prov 23:13: "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die."
Prov 23:14: "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell
Prov 29:15: "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame

Hebrews 12:6-7: "...the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?"

I checked in my bible in order to verify these verses. All of these verses are about disciplining a child so that the child will learn from his actions, that the parent should not make the discipline less because it hurts their heart. I can tell you that when James is in time out crying my heart hurts. I do not feel as if God wants me to beat him in Gods name. I would also like to point out that Proverbs is in the old testament as Christians (this is what I am and not everyone but I have very limited knowledge on other religions) we believe that Jesus was the Messiah that he was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered and died for our sins and he rose again on the third day. Jesus came to teach us to love one another. Beyond that God gave us common sense. I was an a abused child and I never learned anything but fear, humiliation, and hate. Maybe I grew up fine but a lot of people don't. Abuse is not discipline, it is an over use of power over another human being. We do not hit our children but I my boys are well behaved (at least when we are out in public most of the time).

I am getting lost on a tangent, so it is time for me to step off my little soap box. The bottom line is that if we treat our children with love, and act in ways that try to protect them the world would be a better place. I am sorry to spend so much time on this but this issue has been on my mind. I know you my friends are good people so I hope you did not feel attacked in anyway.

What else did I learn this week. . . I read some African Folk Tales which are crazy! Many of them have violence against children but they are all rescued by a God or given special powers in order to teach a lesson on discrimination. Many of them were fun to read. They boys and I watched the one the of stories Anansi the Spider Man which turned out to be lots of fun. If you have the chance I recommend watching it.

I am sure I learned more then this but it is getting a little long and I need to get myself and James ready for Mass.

I hope that your week is filled with sweet lessons, love, and laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons learned October 9, 2011

Lessons learned a weekly debrief
October 9, 2011

I know I am a day late on my Sunday lessons learned. I hope that you will forgive me.Saturday I got into a discussion about the meaning of Jeremiah 10 with a friend of my sister in law on facebook. I did a crazy amount of research so that I would sound like I knew what I was talking about and that I made my point very clear. Which turned into a debate over Christmas. It has reached an out of control level of craziness on my part. I am compelled to answer and research and answer again. I got to read large parts of the bible because I always read ahead and further after the verse given to me. I find that the meaning of any verse when taken out of context can mean anything you want it to mean. When you see the whole picture it becomes clear, and beautiful. I found this article that said everything about Christmas trees and it is worth reading. I am posting the last few paragraphs because it sums up the whole article.

Jeremiah 10 and the “Pagan” Christmas Tree by Dr. Richard P. Bucher
From the foregoing, it is abundantly clear that the "decorated tree" to which Jeremiah 10 refers is an idol, very likely the Asherah. Therefore, it is very superficial Bible interpretation and pure silliness to understand this passage as directly referring to the use of a fir tree for Christmas! If, and I repeat, if those who set up a Christmas tree fall down and worship it as a god or goddess, complete with altars and incense stands, then Jeremiah 10 applies here. Or if someone loves their Christmas tree more than God, then such a thing might also be considered spiritual idolatry. But apart from these exceptions, I think it is abundantly clear that Christians who erect Christmas trees are NOT worshiping them as gods or goddesses, nor are they loving them more than their Savior Jesus Christ. They are simply using the Christmas tree as a fun custom, one that can remind them of Jesus who is the branch of David (Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15), the root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). One that can remind them of the tree that led Adam and Eve to sin, but more importantly, the tree on which Christ Jesus died to make atonement for the sins of the whole world (Acts 5:30; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24). Christians should know that they can use a Christmas tree with a good conscience. It is unfortunate and wrong when well-meaning Christians call something sin that is not sin, and enslave the consciences of their fellow believers with imaginary sin! Shame on such Christians! Those who continue to believe that the Christmas tree is pagan and sinful, even after having their conscience correctly informed, should not use them. For it is not right to sin against conscience. This is regrettable, however, since there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a Christmas tree.

http://www.orlutheran.com/html/jer10.html

Today I learned who the Chocolate Pilot was. Sometimes I am taken off guard by something so profound that it changes a piece of me. Damian is reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a unit study I checked out every book I could find with the words Chocolate or Candy in the title. I didn't know anything about Berlin or what the people faced after War World II. This randomly chosen book Candy Bomber The Story of Berlin's Airlift's Chocolate Pilot made me cry while I was reading it to the boys. I kept thinking how will I teach my boys to be so giving, and how do I become a better person? I hope that this story stays with me always.

I learned about where Chocolate comes from, a huge pod, from a tree in South America.

I learned that if I jump on our little trampoline with James he will say the Alphabet and count to 20 with me and he thinks it is fun.

I also learned about Confucius through his books The Doctrine of Mean and The Great Learning.

I learned all about Live Oak Trees for forestry.

I read two chapters of my science book then took a test but now I don't know what I read. I am sure it is in the well I told you about in another post. I will need to drop the bucket for the final for the information but today, right now I am tired, and my brain feels full. The learning must go on!

I hope that your week is filled with learning, love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons Learned 2 October, 2011

Lessons Learned
2 October 2011

My top five google searches this week all involved Tree Identification based on leaves, bark, and fruit.

I spent the whole week rereading my science book for my midterm. I got an 84 because I second guessed my self out of the right answer.  Really if my teacher looks at my test I might get an 88. One fill in the blank question was really close.

I lost 2 pounds by osmosis this week. I only hope I can continue all the down to 153 by the end of the year. That is five more pounds to make a total weight loss of 20 pounds this year. If I could lose more so that I can zip my wedding dress up by our anniversary I would be very pleased. One can dream.

Today my family started RCIA, we are converting to Catholicism. Today's lesson was God The Father. The first part of the holy trinity. I really like how they explained Creation vs Evolution either way it starts with the Father.

Earlier in the week I was watering some of our plants and I randomly started thinking about how I should pray for a storm that will filled the cracks in the earth, and quince the the thirst of the land. It is Texas, south Texas so the sky was blue and clear and it was hot 95 degrees. Round about 6 o'clock dark clouds rolled in. It stormed. The wind blew everything across the yard, and I rushed out to save the lawn mower, and rototiller from the rain. I thought I might be lifted up off the ground and land in the cow pasture behind us. Really I felt like God said, "I heard you."

Every drop of rain is a beautiful commodity. In order to break the drought we need 15-28 inches of rain.

This drought might last until 2020!

I want to move, no I want to stay until I finish school. No, really I want to move north, Then again we bough the house and I love it. I have no say in anything! We are staying for at least three more years maybe more. All we can do is wait and see. All I do is ask my husband if he can make things happen. He basically gives me a verbal pat on the head. "Silly woman. I have no say either."

 Right now we have squash growing. Really growing. I can almost taste the fresh squash sauteed in butter. This is the first time since we've moved here that we thought we would get to eat something that we grew!

Right today I realized that there are 83 days until Christmas! Eek! Santa is not ready this year. I am making a list, checking twelve hundred times, and hopefully I will start shopping soon.

I hope that the Autumn brings you brisk breezes, pumpkins, apple cider, hot chocolate, and that all your days are filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends.

Lessons Learned September 25, 2011

Lessons I learned a weekly debrief
September 25, 2011


Reading the Odyssey and then writing 3000 words about it in a week is hardcore! I love the Odyssey, I love the misadventures of Odysseus I have read it twice before this week started. But both times before it took me a month to finish it. Reading it in a week, in an online format makes my eyes hurt. At the end of the day I just want to close my eyes and do nothing else.

Forestry lessons this week included measuring a tree three different ways. One involves measuring shadows three different times. Well it turns out if you wait until 7pm the sun is setting and there are no shadows to measure, if you try to do it in the morning well said tree's shadow is on the neighbors house making it ridiculous to bother with. So now I am waiting until later in the day when the shadow is on the ground. It is due today.

I printed out a wonderful Pirate preschool unit study for James. It is easy and quick lessons for him on numbers, numbers, sizes, matching, but there is only one letter lesson. I think letters are the foundation to reading and that is what I want to work on with James but because I declared pirate week I have to stay on theme...

The same Pirate Preschool Unit Study caused me to spend six hours cutting little details out with little tiny scissors. My hand is cramping still, my wrist is screaming, and my poor fingers are deformed. What I do for love and homeschooling.

I learned how to use my canner this week! It was stressful because I was filled with anxiety. It turned out to be easy. I breathed a sigh of relief and excitement in one exhale. Really now I want to can everything. Now if only the garden would start producing some lovely vegetables for me to can, or freeze.

Damian loves Pirate week! He has read Gulliver's Island, Kidnapped, Captain Courage, and. He carefully read each chapter of Pirates at Noon, then answered the questions and finally glued them in to the lap book he is making. I love it when he is happily learning!

Rob has done an amazing job on the garden beds and it looks like we might get squash. That is another post about the garden. The boys planted their own garden bed yesterday so I will start doing weekly garden updates so you can join us on the journey from seed to plate. Now we wait and see and hope for rain. Lots of rain!

I hope that you have a lovely week filled with love and laughter.

Lessons Learned September 18

Lessons I  learned this week.
September 18, 2011

I learned all about the spotted owl, banana slugs, red tree voles, and Douglas fir trees. They are all part of an old growth forest in the Pacific Northwest and all part of the same food web. My forestry class is interesting but it is very challenging.

I also learned about photosynthesis in plants and trees. My favorite science discovery was agroforests. It is basically in a simple explanation an edible food forest. Adding trees to farm lands helps prevent soil erosion, their roots helps to keep moisture in the soil during times of drought, shade in the summer, and they are just awesome.

My boys are going to be mummies for Halloween so I learned how to make their costumes.

The Iliad never gets easier to read, at least for me. It is a gruesome tale of war and I am just not the kind of girl who enjoys reading about spears piercing body parts, cutting off heads, stealing amour from the dead guy, and the like. I guess it is good I never joined the military even if we don't fight with swords anymore.

Season seven of Grey's Anatomy is instant play on Netflix! Too bad I can't just watch a marathon of the show. Seriously I watched the musical number they did and fell in love with Dr. Hunt. He was singing like he was still talking about trauma, I was blown away. I loved the whole episode even if Patrick Dempsy didn't sing.

I spent the week arguing with the boys to do school work, well until Thursday and then I just threw in the towel. They are taking next week off except for reading and piano playing. We need a break and I can give that to the kids from time to time, that is why we school all year around.

Damian is a brave kid. He pulled his tooth out by himself while looking in the mirror. Now he is missing his two front teeth.

I love potato and leek pizza.

No, I really love The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I love her so much that I want the cookbook she is working on now to just be mailed to me for Christmas. I guess I might get it next year when it comes out. How long does it take to get a cookbook out to the public?

Next week when the boys are back to school work we are doing a pirate themed lab book. I am so excited, I only hope they love it too. I will take pictures of that.

Two weeks into school I am not as stressed as I was last year, but it is still stressful looking at doing at lest 30 hours worth school work. For once I am only going to worry about doing the best I can and not about perfection.

I hope you have a wonderful relaxing week filled with love and laughter.

Lessons learned September 11

Lessons Learned September 11

If you need to thaw chorizo for dinner put in the refrigerator over night. Do not wait until an hour before you need to start cooking to dehttp://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4359129896002864777#editor/target=post;postID=1502497733357205907frost it. If you put it in the microwave to defrost let it cool down before you open it. If you are like me singing along to the radio and take a knife to the package over the pan you will learn one lesson the hard way. It will explode! Really like a huge chorizo bomb went off in my kitchen. It was on every wall, counter surface, and flooring in a fifty foot radius. The dog well he thought it was a celebration thrown in his honor. Thanks for helping me to clean the mess Chaz!

My discussion board post on living in Texas (forestry class) caused several people to tell how they could never live here. Truthfully I wouldn't chose to live here during the driest, hottest year on record but there is good everywhere. Here it is the history that goes back hundreds of years. The Alamo ring a bell?

Trying to read the .Iliad in a week is almost physically painful, especially when the entire text is online. Why did I think it would be a good thing to save money on text books again?

I started reading a very funny interesting book and found it hard to put it down until I realized that I needed to read three chapters in my science book and six more books in the Iliad by Wednesday. Oh my.

My kids are most imaginative when I am studying and they don't want to do "school work". Today they went on an adventure to a monstrous cave in search of Medusa armed only with the knowledge of her terrible powers. It counts as educational right?

I miss the rain. I know it is not a new lesson but it is one that gets stronger the further away I get from water falling from the sky. It seems like a dream. We have only had 6.4 inches of rain here since January, according to the forecast it is going to be hot and sunny, bright and sunny, Sunny with partial clouds, did I mention hot? Because it is going be in the low 100's all week, yeah it is the middle of September.  I miss wool socks and sweaters.

Despite the never ending heat we have managed to convince ourselves that soon it will cool to a lovely temperature someday.

I hope that your week is blessed with love and laughter.

Lessons Learned September 4

Lessons learned a weekly debrief

September 4

This week has been a week of big days and memories. Damian turned the big seven so we celebrated with his favorite restaurant Red Robin.

Damian lost another tooth, one of his front top teeth. With any luck he'll be singing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front teeth. What fun that would be!

I love spending twenty minutes working with James on his "school work". He is so funny I am guaranteed at least one laugh in the morning.

Damian's homeschool schedule seems to be less then ideal. He is struggling, so I am rethinking this years plan. He is smart so his struggle is one of motivation.

Cub Scouts sell ridiculously priced popcorn most of them are $20 a bag. I think it is going to be a hard sell. Those girl scouts have it easy with their super yummy cookies.

This week I made a yummy vegetarian meal Mushroom and Pablano Enchilada's, they made me miss tofu. It has been awhile but I love when an old favorite surprises me all over again.

I was reading an article about going Vegan/Vegetarian (not to worry I love cheese and butter to much to go vegan) and it said that most family have 8 or 9 go to recipes! That is crazy low, or maybe I am a little more unique in the kitchen department then I thought.

I missed meal plan Monday. Really, but I am ready for next week's menu and recipe Tuesday.

My classes start tomorrow beginning a new college school year, I am nervous, and scared. Maybe I will never feel prepared for what is to come. I still believe my education will be worth the effort. I am looking forward to being finished and a college graduate.



I hope that your week is filled with Love, Laughter, and glorious lessons found in the details.

Lessons Learned August 21

August 21 Lessons learned this week

My husband has been home this week and I do love spending time with him, but more importantly when he is home I am on vacation.

With all the hard work my husband has been putting in we might get to eat from our garden this fall.

We are losing the battle against fire plight and our pear trees will have to be pulled out this fall when it is cool enough for my husband to dig them up. I really had big dreams for you little trees.

The black leaves are evidence of this debilitating disease.

It is in the lower branches and we can not prune it away with out cutting the tree down.

We have been fighting the drought, but as much as we are trying to keep the ground from cracking I found a small canyon growing near the fence at the back of the yard.

Dear God, please send us some rain. Amen

My husband put up a self in the Kitchen for my cook books, and bought me a little book stand. I know I am spoiled.

 This is not all of them. Really this self makes me very happy!

I might be a little over zealous when it comes to taking pictures of food. I will show you this weeks pictures in a whole other post. It is crazy!

Amaranth is a pretty grain, but it is hard to harvest.

My husband tries to steal all the window sills for his own purposes as soon as he thinks I am not looking.

This is our bedroom window.

He wants to take over the bathroom window too.

I do love my life even when it seems a bit chaotic. I am thankful for all of the blessings that we have received.

I hope you have a full week full of learning, love, and laughter.