Garage Sale Time (Finally!)

We so enjoy going to garage sales.  Here in Central Alberta the season is short, so we try to get to some while we have a chance.  In our town, garage sale season kicks off with a huge one at the local Legion and it never disappoints us. So, here are a few of the neat things I found today;

I got this outside table, a sprayer, 1 1/2 bags of bark mulch, 2 garden gnomes, metal garden flowers and the awesome sled (that we pull behind our tractor in the winter) all for $9.

All the items below were free. The record is "Perry Como Sings Christmas"

I got the set of 2 cast iron frying pans for $4(so now I have an 8", 9" and 10") And all the things on the top shelf were $2, which included storage containers, 2 mini loaf pans, a little whisk, a liquid measuring cup and a Pampered Chef salad dressing mixer (which is why I bought that box of stuff, because I want to start making big batches of salad dressing to go on the lettuce we will soon be enjoying from our garden). Oh ya, the shelf was $2 for more storage for my canning.

And lastly, I bought this old window frame mirror. I have so many old window frames that I want to make into mirrors and have only made 2, but this one is all done for me. All I have to do is paint it black and it will be done!  And it only cost me $1.

Daniel Boone Unit Study Week 11

Ben had started sewing a pair of suede moccasins awhile back and was ALMOST finished, so this week for our unit study, he finally finished them.

Here he is sewing one of them.

And here they are! They look super comfy and he did a great job.

And here they are close up. These came as a kit from Vision Forum and were fairly easy to put together. Ben did get frustrated a few times, but then again, sewing is really not his thing. So I am very happy he finished them.

Our Day's Activites

Today was the day we finally started some seeds!! Yay!  I have been waiting and waiting. We usually can't put anything out in our garden until about June 7th and I find if I get just too anxious and start seeds any earlier, they just get all long and leggy and usually die.  SO, this year, I used some self restraint.  Here is the list of what we planted today;
Tomatoes;
15 Early Girl
14 Manitoba
12 Cherry
  8 Starfire

28 Cauliflower
27 Broccoli
15 Cucumber
10 Ground Cherry (I can't wait to taste these. I'm hoping we can eat them like a fruit)
  6 Dill
  6 Zucchini (I always start squash in the garden, but I can not grow zucchini!!! I know, EVERYONE can grow zucchini. Well, not me.  Hopefully this year.)

Here are the kiddies planting some seeds.

I have been inspired by Crystal over at Homemaking on the Homestead She has been doing a lot of freezer meals.  So, I thought of something we could make for the freezer to enjoy on busy days.  With Larry gone at work,  I find I need little things for the kids and me. So, we made pizza pops.  I just used the recipe for pizza dough that I posted a while back. Then I rolled it out and cut circles. We stuffed them with a mixture of Ragu, shredded mozzarella cheese, diced ham and chopped green peppers. We sealed them shut and cut small slits in the top. I put them on parchment paper lined cookie sheet in the freezer and when they are frozen, I will put them in a ziplock bag. We baked some tonight to try for 20 mins at 375 deg. They were good and great for a quick lunch.

Here is the assembly

And the final product.





New Rooster Picture

As posted on Rebekah's Blog Country God Girl here is the picture of the Rooster picture Rebekah painted for 4-H and has now given to me.  It is an awkward size though, 9x12. I will have to get a bigger frame and a mat.

Daniel Boone Unit Study Week 10

I may as well keep posting. I'm on a roll now!  So this week for our unit study I found an amazing website for free lapbook material.  I mean, it is really cool and you have to check it out! The website is http://www.dynamic2moms.webs.com/ They had a lot of things for Daniel Boone, but I only printed off some as kind of an ongoing review. 

Here, you can see the Map of Exploration, Who is Daniel Boone?, The Wilderness Trail, "Ticklicker" his gun and my eggnog latte that I made with some eggnog I had frozen at Christmas because I LOVE eggnog lattes. (Anyway, back to the subject...)

Here are those page elements cut out and glued on the pages.

And here is the "Wilderness Trail" page.

Some Goings on Around Here

I finally was able to hang our wash outside to dry today. I have been drying it in our dryer all winter. I'm not as hardy of a stock of a lot of you out there that hang out their wash even in the freezing cold and I didn't have a place for my drying racks inside without driving my hubby nuts! So to compensate, I started using cold water to wash our clothes instead of warm.  Even still, our electric bill went up $900 last year because of rate increases, so outside it is with our clothes!

Also this week I have been making frozen shredded hashbrowns out of some potatoes that were really sprouting from our neighbour.  I used all the directions from this link for frozen shredded hashbrowns (Rebekah taught me how to rename a link! I am so excited to finally know how to do that.) These hasbrowns are SO good. They fry up so crisp in about 2 tbsp of oil, then, just before I flip them, I smear about 2 tbsp of butter all over the top. Our potatoes are so big, that I only needed one to make enough hashbrowns for all of us.

Unexpected Blessings

I have just had a wonderful day! My cousin Amy and her family had a last minute trip out this way and were able to stay the night at our house.  We had such a lovely day of fellowship.  I told her it was like "medicine for my soul".
Our kids were happy to see each other and spend some time together too.  Here are some pic's of some of them having fun outside.

Dainel Boone Unit Study Week 9

This week was easy for our unit study. All we did was watch a biography of Daniel Boone at www.biography.com It was 44 mins long and was very well done.

Moody Science Curriculum

Now that the end of our school year is fast approaching, I like to take time to go through our extra subjects. Science is one of them and we are going through the Moody Science DVDs. These are amazing dvds that look at science from a christian perspective. They were made in the 50's, but the messages and content are ageless.
Each DVD has a lesson about the subject on that DVD, then Irvin Moon has a message about how that science subject relates to God. I learned after the first DVD we watched that watching the whole thing at one time was a bit too much for my boys (although they are only 29 mins long!). So we watch the lesson one day, then the next day we watch the message at the end as part of our bible time in the morning, then we do some worksheets on the subject.

We watched "The City of the Bees" as our first DVD. So much amazing information. I went on line and found some worksheets we could go through and put into the kids' Science Duo-tang.

I found the "Bees Challenge" multiple choice worksheet at http://homeschooling.about.com/od/freeprintables/ss/beesprint_4.htm They had a bunch of neat worksheets on bees.

Below is the "Parts of a Bee" I printed it off so that the top part had the fill in the blanks and the bottom part had the blanks filled in already. I found it at http://akidsheart.com/animals/bugs/beepartsp.htm I found the link to this at a website that had a Bee Lapbook and all kinds of information. It washttp://www.squidoo.com/bee-lapbook

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ has a "Honey Bee Lapbook" and I found the Life Cycle and As Busy as a Bee printouts there. As Busy as a Bee covers all the jobs the workers bees have to do.

The second DVD we watched was, "Of Books and Sloths". I got all the printouts for this lesson from http://www.homeschoolshare.com/sloths.php We used the Anatomy Envelope Fold, Camouflage Defense, Vocabulary Flap and Jacob did the "S" is for Sloth.

I was blown away by the message Irwin Moon had at the end of this DVD. It was as if he was speaking to us today. Here are some quotes;

"Today once again the enemies of our freedom are seeking to destroy the bible. Why? Because they see something in it they fear more than the power of the atom. In it's simple truth, they see that which can wipe out their godless materialism and their pagan culture."

This is like he's talking about our own countries and our governments. They seem to be against the bible. In the last few months, I have heard of laws in Canada that ban christians from wearing crosses to work and ban bibles from even being on school property.

Right now in Alberta, we have an election and if the PC's keep control of our government, pastors might have to marry homosexuals against their beliefs and doctors will have to do abortions against their beliefs and homeschoolers might not be able to use the bible as part of their curriculum. Some might say that this is trying to destroy the bible.

He went on to say;

"If today, our christian civilization is weak, it is weak because we have forsaken our source of strength. If we have lost our sense of right and wrong, it is because we have forsaken the source of our morality. And if our young people have forsaken their faith and turned to godless materialism and pagan unbelief, it is because we have failed to hedge them about daily with a source of faith."
What an awesome encouragement for us homeschoolers: "to hedge them about daily with a source of faith." It makes me really see my job as a parent to protect my children while they are building their faith, so that they can be strong men and women of God when they are on their own.

This is the answer Mr. Moon gives for this problem;

"The only hope of our civilization today, is that we get back to God and that we get back to the salvation that He offers in the pages of His Holy Word."

AMEN!



"Keep my commands and live,And my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers;Write them on the tablet of your heart."

Proverbs 7:2-3

Daniel Boone Unit Study (After thought)

I forgot to post a picture of the boys Hunters' Bags. They sewed them together, then used a glue gun to secure the fringe.

Daniel Boone Unit Study Week 8

For this week of our Daniel Boone Unit Study, we learned about Kentucky. In the picture below you can see the flag worksheet I found at: http://www.proteacher.com/redirect.php?goto=2743 It had history and information about Kentucky and questions on it as well. Also in the picture below you can see Rebekah filling out another worksheet I found at: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/statesbw/kentucky.shtml It shows a map of Kentucky and surrounding States and asks questions about the geography of Kentucky.

Below, you can see the geography worksheet better.

In the picture below, Rebekah is answering questions about general information about Kentucky. I found that worksheet athttp://havefunteaching.com/worksheets/social-studies/states-worksheets/kentucky-worksheet-1.pdf I also found an awesome trivia page at http://www.apples4theteacher.com/usa-states/kentucky/facts/ It tells of the state flower, main industries, state tree, etc. That is the sheet on the right in the picture.

We had fun learning some things about Kentucky this week. We are hoping to go there this summer and I can tell by looking at the map that there will be tons of things we will want to see while we are there. But what an amazing field trip that will be!

“who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Hebrews 1:3

My Little Guy Has Flown the Coop (Already)

My little Jacob(5), on April 1st night, decided he was going to run away the next morning (and it wasn't a April fools joke). So, he had his older brother help him pack 2 suitcases, then he came into my room to cuddle and kiss before he went to bed. I thought all of this was cute, I was just going along with his little charade. Well, in the morning I found out it wasn't a joke. He got his 2 suitcases, kissed us all goodbye and went on his way.

Here he is just setting out.

Here he is just a little further.



And further still.

And yet further.

OK, now I'm getting worried.

I wanted him to come home on his own and didn't know what else to do, so the other kids and I went outside and howled like coyotes a couple of times. He didn't seem to react very quickly, but finally he started back. When he was finally back in the house, I asked him why he was running away. He told me that he was heading for Tim Horton's for doughnuts, then DQ for some burgers, then McDonald's for more food, then he was heading to some friends of ours to live because they have a Wii and better tobogganing hills.

I even had him talk to Larry on the phone before he left and Larry told him that he wouldn't see his Daddy anymore if he ran away. Well, Jacob's eyes got all red and tears were slipping out and his little lips were quivering and he was looking at me as if he was pleading for the agony to end. BUT, he was still determined to go.

At bed time that night as we were walking up the stairs, he turned around and gave me a hug and kiss and I asked him if he was still going to run away. He said he wasn't going to leave until he was as big as Daddy and that made my heart happy.





“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”

Ephesians 1:7

Upcoming Alberta Election

We have an election coming up in Alberta on April 23rd. Usually I would not be that interested. I have always just voted Conservative and never thought much about it. Well, this election has SO much on the line. As I have already written about, the Progressive Conservative Party was pushing a bill that could make it illegal to use the Bible while homeschooling our children. As a christian, I base our education on the Bible and could not do it any other way.

Needless to say I was very happy an election was called. This bill hasn't been put through yet, but if the PC's get back in, it will be passed.

My kids and I had the opportunity to talk to our local candidate for the Wildrose Party, which is a conservative party, and I was very pleased with his answers to my questions. When I asked him about this Bill 2, he said that their party believes the parent has the ultimate right to decide how or what or where their child learns and the government has no business trying to enforce stuff like this.

Considering this is the MAIN issue for us as a christian, homeschooling family, I am not afraid to say that we will be voting Wildrose in this election.