Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Little House Donuts

Isaiah is reading Farmer Boy. It's such a great book, and I swear every chapter mentions FOOD! So I picked up a cookbook called "The Little House Cookbook" and it's full of recipes from the Wilder Books...true frontier cooking. So in chapter 7 Mother is making Donuts. I thought it would be fun to see if we could make them. This chapter also mention fried "apples 'n onions" to which Isaiah showed great dislike for and said donuts would be way better to make. After we made the donuts the old fashioned way we checked out YouTube for some modern day factory takes on the donut. Super fun stuff!

"Plump! They went to the bottom, sending up bubbles. Then quickly they came popping up, to float slowly swell, till they rolled themselves over, their pale golden backs going into the fat and their plump brown bellies rising out of it" Chapter 7


For 2 dozen donuts

Lard 2 pounds

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

2 1/4 cup flour

powdered sugar

Mix ingredients, roll and twist and then pinch the ends together. Cook until brown on both sides.

Rolling out the dough
Roll and twist just like Mother did

Ok so we didn't use "Lard" but shortening worked just as good. =)


Powered sugar makes everything good.





YUM!!

May the "FORCE" be with you

So this year in our science class we are tyring a site called Supercharged Science. This site is full of stuff my boys just love...hands on experiments. Our first Unit is on Mechanics and the first lesson in mechanics is FORCE, hence the title of this post. The whole idea behind this site is to spark their interest with experiments then to do some research as to why the experiments outcome was what it was. FUN right? Yeah my kids think so. My favorite part of this site is the experiments all have a VIDEO. So you have no doubt how to do it. And if you are like me I've had my fair share of failed experiments. So even if we fail, the video at least will always be a success. Isaiah is making his own compass from a needle(magnetized) a Styrofoam packing piece, and a bowl of water. Worked like a charm.
Elijah is trying to find out which way is North.


The "Flying" paperclip.

Elijah LOVED this one. He kept trying over and over again to get his paper clip to stay "flying" It was a lot of fun.

Magnetized cereal? You bet!


With a wee little help you can watch your cereal be very attracted to each other.


"O" cereal worked the best. But we also tried LIFE and Frosted MiniWheats.



Sunday, August 29, 2010

Hannah's Dance Moves

As you can see Hannah's got some serious dance moves. =)

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Lessons of a different kind

So we had a wonderful first day of school, followed by two very sick boys. There is stomach bug going around and the boys got hit hard. They have been throwing up from one side and our the other. They are miserable. So no school today. I will however say the time has not been wasted. I had two important reminders. One, life doesn't always go how YOU plan. That is why my lesson plan book will forever be written in PENCIL. The second thing was a bit more of a spiritual reminder. Last night as I was cleaning up after Isaiah's bodily fluids from both sides, and gagging on the smell and grossness of it all, it was as though the Lord was there whispering in my ear. "This is what your sin is like to me, it's gross, it makes me ill. But I always will clean you up and wash your sins away" As I held Isaiah knowing full well he was going to throw up on me,I was thankful that God holds us close even though He knows we will sin again and need to be cleaned all over again.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

On the eve of a new school year

Another school year is upon us. We start school tomorrow. I can't believe that this is our 6th year homeschooling. I have learned a lot in those 6 years and I am hoping to carry on that knowledge to our new school year. Every year I seek to get my focus back to why we are homeschooling, to regain our vision. For our family we homeschool for One main reason and His name is Jesus Christ. Plain and simple we want our kids to know truth. We want their lives to be set apart . We want them to know they are made with a purpose, they were made to have a relationship with God. He is the Author and Finisher of our lives. Everything is secondary, very important but secondary.

Homeschooling to us is not about trying out the newest curriculum, boasting how advanced our kids are, or being prideful by looking down on others who choose another method of education for their children. I'll be the first to admit I don't have it all figured out. My kids are not in the super accelerated course, they are not 2 years ahead of the peers, we don't always do amazing enrichment activities and venture out on purposeful field trips. But I love the Lord and I love my kids. I give them all that I am capable of and the Lord fills in the gaps.

Now all that being said I do realize that it leaves one to wonder if my kids are getting any sort of traditional education and I can assure you they are. We enjoy learning together. The boys are excited about science this year. Elijah is excited about reading and Isaiah is ho humming about Math. That sounds about right to me. This year we add a one year old to the mix. Hannah will be a challenge to jungle with all we do, but she is also a very important part of the homeschool experience. It's so much easier to show the kids compassion, love and a servants heart when you have a little one toddling around who needs us. Hannah is in for an adventure as well.

I won't go into detail about all that we have planned for the year, the blog posts to follow will tell that story. I do want to share our theme verse for the year. I prayed and as I brought it all before the Lord, this is what we were given for the year. I think it's perfect for my own personal life and for our family.

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Philippians 3:14

Friday, August 20, 2010

Northwest Fair 2010

"The Fair" here in Lynden is a pretty big deal. We didn't' go last year because I was super pregnant and wasn't up for it. But this year we bought our tickets early at a discount and took it all in. I've been to Fairs before...the Springfield Fair in Maine comes to mind first. But the Northwest County Fair was much bigger than my reference point. First there are tons of vendors...everything from handmade necklaces, to Usborne Books (which of course I bought). There are tons of food vendors...every classic fair food imaginable of course at classic fair prices. There were tons of animals. I mean tons. It's huge in this area. There were cow, pigs, goats, lamas, sheep, horses, chickens, cats, dogs, it was like Noah's Ark! The kids of course had a BLAST on the rides. Isaiah had a bit more than his stomach could handle and we packed it in early. All in all a great time was had and Lord willing we will go back next year.


The boys with their good friends who showed us the ropes of the fair.
Ok so these Poffertjes are a tradition at teh fair. Lynden is a very dutch town. I lost count of how many windmills we have. Any way they are a dough that has sugar, nutmeg and some other spices and thin they are cooked on this cast iron skillet with little molds. The lady told me Poffertjes means "Little Pillow". She said they are super light and fluffy. I didn't try one...those last few pounds of baby weight are going down, but they smelled amazing.

Yeah I love his face in this picture. It pretty much sums up his day!

Cute little balloon ride.

Checking out the animals.

They had a lot of displays about the county's agriculture. We sure do smell the cows here in Lynden!

BIG pig, little babies.

Ok Alpaca or Lama, I always get them confused.

These are baby goats. They were the size of little kittens. So adorable.


Here is Elijah pretending to milk a cow. He raced against Isaiah. It was funny to watch them try to figure out how to get the "milk" out.

This was such a fun ride. They loved it. It looked like so much fun that when the boys and I went back later in the evening I paid $4.00 to try it. I yelled out "I'm super mom" it was worth the $4.00

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Yet another Milestone!

Having children a little further apart is pretty sweet. I have 3 amazing kids all at completely different stages in their lives. Isaiah my big almost as tall as mommy, 10 year old...Elijah my confident and silly 6 year old and Hannah my don't call me a baby for much longer girl. It seems like they are all constantly going through a rite of passage. First sleepovers, riding a bike with no training wheels, getting first teeth, loosing first teeth, standing, reading, it's constant and awesome. Today Elijah lost one of his front teeth. This was his special "fussed" tooth. It left a HUGE gap. He looks absolutely adorable. The other tooth is "wiggly" and won't make it much longer. He was so excited and made me call Peter to remind him of Daddy's promise to pay for his tooth. Our Bubby....Cuter than ever!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Look Mom I am standing

She'll be 11 months in 4 days. 11 months!! She's changed so much! Along with waving, clapping, saying "yayya" (aka Isaiah or Elijah)giving her baby doll kisses, climbing the stairs she is now pulling herself up to standing. She uses the couch, table, stools, her brothers, and of course this cute little activity table. The other day she let go a few times and she knew it was something big because after she dropped down she clapped and clapped.
It's been so hot here in Washington the past week, she's been sporting just a diaper. Check out her fuzzy hair sticking straight up. It's always crazy after a bath and shampoo!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Scenic Pictures

Our God is creative. Coming from Maine, which is a beautiful state I have seen some pretty amazing sights. There is the ocean shoreline, with it's rocky coast and then soft sand beaches,amazing miles and miles of breathtaking forests. Then we move to Washington and we have breathtaking mountains with snow caps all year round. Its almost hard to believe that people can look at their surroundings and still refuse to believe that all they see was made by The Creator. Here are some pictures of yesterday at Heather Meadows and Artist Point. I included some verses to go along with them. The Word and Creation go hand and hand.
Psalm 90:2
Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Psalm 36:6
Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast.


Psalm 136:6
To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, For His mercy endures forever;


Isaiah66:12
For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, And the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.


Psalm103:15
As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.


Isaiah 43:19
Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.



Prov 18:4
The words of a man's mouth are deep waters; The wellspring of wisdom is a flowing brook.



Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Sledding at Aritst Point

What an amazing fun experience for the boys. We drove about an hour and a half from our house (it was super hot today in the 90's) up the Mt Baker highway to a place called Artist Point. In my next post you'll see exactly why. But for now enjoy the fun. The kids got to go sledding. We knew there would be some snow so we brought alone the sleds. And did we find the snow. It was awesome. So sunny and warm in the 80's. We all had on shorts and t-shirts. How much fun was it to watch them? A lot...I did take one run down.


Elijah enjoyed going down on is belly. Isaiah took the more traditional approach.
Watch out bellow!

So Baby Bear didn't sled this year...but next year for sure. How adorable is she? I know I'm bias, but I can't stop thinking "she's the most beautiful little baby girl I have ever seen"

The boys sledding in August!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Summer Reading

Peter was reading a Star Wars book to Elijah and Bear just had to join the fun. Look that those cute faces...priceless.