Saturday, January 30, 2016

52 lists--current and future goals/dreams

dreamsandgoals



So here it is, list week 4. I missed week 2 and 3, but maybe I'll make those up sometime later. I like to make a list of goals around the new year, so a lot of these are from that list. Some have been on my dream list for a very long time, and might just remain there. But, I may eventually come to a point where I can take baby steps to start in that direction!

I'm sure I could make this quite an extensive list, but this is my current (as of today) stuff I'd love to be better at or do.

My list of goals and dreams:

  • Find ways to better my health more naturally
  • Move to a new house
  • Take some classes for me (and/or finish my college education)
  • Learn to crochet
  • Make a quilt for my husband
  • Sew more
  • Paint some walls in my house
  • More home improvement projects
  • Exercise on a daily basis, and want to
  • Be a better blogger/writer
  • Own a little business
  • Be a better friend
  • Serve/give more to everyone
  • Nurture my marriage
  • Be a better meal planner
  • Read more books
  • Read aloud to the children more
  • Change my blog look to something more classy
  •  Bake more
  • Get out and hike with my family more
  • Be more consistent!
  • Make more time for what's important
I am linking this up with Chasing slow's 52 lists blog style.
52 lists with Chasing Slow


Friday, January 29, 2016

M is for making cookies




It was for sure a cookie making, cookie giving,  and cookie receiving week for us! I made a big batch of peanut butter cookies on Sunday evening. Then, on Monday morning Alex wanted to make some sugar cookies after doing school. We did just that, and they turned out so delicious! He loves helping in the kitchen.

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We baked the sugar cookies, and I had some of the peanut butter cookie dough left so we baked the rest of those too.

image Not only that, but we had a plate of cookies delivered by a friend on Sunday evening. These were delicious, and they disappeared fast!

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I think these are some sort of cookies and cream type of cookie. We are pretty sure there might be oreos in them. So good!

 Want to try the best peanut butter cookie recipe? At least, I think it's the best. Here it is:

Peanut Butter Sensations

1/2 c. butter flavor Crisco
1 c. Jif creamy peanut butter
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 Tbsp. milk
1 1/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
6 oz. chocolate or peanut butter chips (optional)

Place walnut size balls of dough on ungreased  cookie sheet. Flatten with fork in crisscross pattern. Bake at 375 * F. for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool 2 minutes before moving cookies to colling rack. Makes approximately 2 dozen cookies.

Source: Chris Beeton

Enjoy!

I am linking this up with Blogging through the alphabet

Friday, January 22, 2016

Weekly Wrap-up: Jan. 22

Life this week...

We took the plunge and bought a used treadmill. I've tossed around the idea a few times over the years, but wasn't ever sure if we had room for one. Well, Michele started thinking more seriously about it and it just seemed to be a good fit for us. He looked at a lot of options, and decided we should really look at the heavier duty commercial ones, like you'd find in a gym. So, long story short, he found us this used one! Having this in the house is going to be so nice! All the boys happily used it all this week. They were required to walk a mile each day if time permitted. Each time they walked they went above and beyond that.

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We are keeping track of everybody's mileage on a dry erase board for now. 

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 School this week...

Being on the review crew means lots of cool new things will be popping up in our school now. We started a unit on the U.S. Elections. Aaron will be doing this one, and I am so excited that he is liking it so far. It even inspired him to make a side project on his own.

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Aaron working on the Elections lapbook. Review to come soon!
Preschool corner:

Sometimes I really wish I had more time to do a lot of preschool with this guy. It's my favorite age. He had a fun week at our co-op class. We are learning about space, and did balloon rockets. We also tried astronaut ice cream. At home he worked on his Handwriting without tears, My first school book. He picked this out of his boxes, and said "I love this writing"! He really does.

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He practiced the letter J this week. He was really proud of his J's. I suggested that he color the jacket. He didn't want to until I told him he could make it look like his jacket, then he ran to the closet excited about coloring it the same.

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Movies we watched:

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For those who have been to a LDS girls camp this is a great movie. It captures the essence and craziness of a girls camp, and it made me cry. Even the boys liked this one, and they asked to watch it again several times.

Lost & Found

We also watched this cute movie called Lost and Found. Alex picked it up at the library today, and I thought it was worth mentioning. I love the animation, and it's a cute little story.

Things we made:

I was impressed that Aaron started this project, and he carried it through all the way until he finished these cute little Bob omb characters.  April loves this lady who makes these Nerdy Nummies, she even has the cookbook. Well, April showed Aaron this video of the "Bob Omb's", and he was sold.



He just had to make these. He made a list of what he needed, and begged to go to the grocery store. Here is how they came out. He did it all. Even the dipping of the chocolate. I only helped him to find ingredients, and figure out measurements!

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Places we went:

We made it to the Gilbert house this week with some friends. Alex has been asking to go for a while now. He was so happy to finally go.

Aaron made a "great wall of China" around himself.

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Now with the panda...
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They have changed a lot since we were there last. The outside discovery campground is pretty cool...
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Alex on one of the new big rocks...

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The boys asked to take a picture on the giant rocking chair. This is a classic, they love to get a picture on this every time.

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 Silly boys!

 How was your week?

Linking this up to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly wrap-up.


Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Stopping by Woods--A FIAR unit

stopping by woods
We had some fun exploring winter while rowing Stopping by woods on a snowy evening by Robert Frost. This is a beautiful poem, and I love how it is illustrated in this book. I had a hard time getting Alex to get excited about this book, but after a few days he was trying to memorize the poem right along with his brother.

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Books:

I picked up quite a few poetry books, and books about winter from the library. I enjoyed reading more Poetry for Young People by Robert Frost, and the boys really enjoyed The snow globe family. It is a cute little story about a family that lives in a snow globe and longs for the big family to shake the snow globe so they can have a big blizzard.

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So we made some snow globe art, and we used salt for a wintry affect.

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Aric's snow globe

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Alex's snow globe
We made some lap books from homeschool share. Alex is starting to enjoy lap books.

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We read a little about Arctic animals in this book, One Small Square--Arctic Tundra. I just love these books. They are so full of great information and nature.

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Alex learned the names of some animals found in Stopping by woods on a snowy evening. I wrote the name of the animal down, and he would copy it. These animal booklets are found in the homeschool share lap book.

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Science:

We had a winter fair with our local homeschool group. I was in charge of a station, and we made these snowmen shooters. They turned out cute, but they weren't the most sturdy. I would find stronger cups next time.

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We made some borax crystal snowflakes, of course.

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The crystals started setting up pretty quickly!

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The final snowflake came out pretty good.

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Jingle Bells:

The third stanza from the poem reads...
"He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake."

So, we had some fun with the song Jingle Bells. It is often associated with Christmas, but it really is just about winter. Alex just loves this song, so he just loved this part.

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He loved reading the words to the song, and did really well too! We made the booklet to put in his lapbook. Aric's job was to copywork the song.

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Then we had some fun with the hand bells. I found some sheet music with the colors of the bells so the boys could easily read it. They did pretty good. It is harder than it looks!

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They took turns, and helped each other a bit.

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Snack:

We had a fun tortilla snack (as suggested in the homeschool share lapbook).

First we cut our tortillas to look like snowflakes...

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Then I warmed them up on my griddle. The directions suggested putting them into the oven, but I thought this would be easier.

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The trick is to not leave them on too long! They will get too crispy. I didn't get a picture of the really good ones because they were gone so fast! Just this super crispy one.

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Stopping By Woods links and ideas:

Delightful Learning


Thursday, January 14, 2016

A new skateboard

Aaron has been itching to try out his new skateboard that he got for Christmas. It just hasn't been dry to even take it out, and then we got this beautiful sunny Saturday not too long ago.

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 He asked if we could go to the skate park and try his new skateboard out. I dropped everything since I knew that we might not have many sunny days like this, and we headed to the skate park.

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Those hills are very intimidating.

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Will he ever go down that hill? We may never know. But he did get around on the flat parts pretty good.

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 Of course all the boys wanted to come along...

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They can't resist some scooter fun in the sun. It felt so good to sit in the sunshine!

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These boys didn't want to leave.  I don't blame them.

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Thankful Thursday

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