RECIPE TIME!

I've been trying some new recipes out again, and wanted to share just a few. Though I don't have time to put them all on here right now, hopefully I will get around to it again soon. Enjoy!

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Make your own buttermilk...

I have often made my own buttermilk by adding vinegar to milk, but I have found a much better alternative. Purchase a small amount of store-bought buttermilk, and you will never again have to buy it again. Pour 1/2 cup of the store-bought buttermilk into a quart canning jar. Fill the rest up with regualr pasteruized milk. Mix well, cover and let set on the counter for 24 hours and you have your own buttermilk. (Store in refrigerator after the 24 hours.) Repeat the process using 1/2 cup of the "homemade" buttermilk, and you will always have some on hand when you need it. Makes those pancakes or muffins super yummy, and you will never again have to purchase any!

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CHICKEN 'N DUMPLINGS

(Taken from "Hopkins' Healthy Home Cooking")

I have always wanted to make these, but never found a recipe that I wanted to try...until now. These were super easy and VERY yummy!

1 whole chicken

Put in large pot with lid. Cover chicken with water, and simmer until meat is tender. Remove chicken from pot and add to broth:

4-6 potatoes, chopped

4 carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1/4 onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 tsp. dried sage

1 tsp. dried parsley

1 cup frozen peas

Simmer until veggies are tender. Then add chopped chicken meat. Mix 1/2 cup flour into 1 cup water until smooth. Stir into boiling broth and simmer until thickened.

Egg Dumplings:

1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dried parsley

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Stir together until moistened. Drop by spoonfuls onto boiling soup. Cover pot and do not raise lid for 10 minutes. They will steam inside and be just perfect!

BACK TO SCHOOL 2007-08

WHAT WE'VE LEARNED SO FAR....

Well, I can officially say we've put in two good weeks of school this year. Our first week was cut short because of Kids' Camp at church, but we made up for it this week. It makes a difference when 2/3 of my kids are regualar participants in school instead of just 1/3. It seems to draw everyone in instead of having the opposite effect of pulling the one out.

All three of my kids sit down for school this year. Though my focus is not directly on Kiana (our two-year-old), she is absorbing more than I could have hoped. I'm beginning to realize how much I love routine in our household! Summer is great, but the lack of routine causes me to have difficulty accomplishing much of anything. When I know what is on my agenda for a day, and I wake up ready to hit it hard, I can accomplish so much more than if I'm not real sure what the day has in store. Those days I tend to spin my wheels!

Joel is doing very well. For the most part, his attention span is amazing. I can leave him with an activity and come back several minutes later to find him still working on the assigned task undistracted. He has already whipped through his first math book (which we started earlier this summer) and really the only thing slowing him down with any of it is his handwriting. He can trace anything, but he has difficulty going from the tracing to having to do it on his own. So, we are doing as much tactile work with him as possible. Salt trays and clay are his favorite and have helped him in this area already. He has learned about Ss = Sun and Mm = Moon. I love how his curriculum ties in phonics and learning the letters/sounds with science and Bible. We talked about how Jesus is like the sun and we are like the moon. The moon is dark without the light of the sun, just like we are dark without Jesus. But when we have Jesus, his light shines through us so that we can be a light to the dark world (just like the moon lights up the dark sky at night!) I thought that was a really neat analagy. This week we made raisins from grapes, a sundial and sun tea for just a couple of his activities.

Myah's school has been fun for all of us. After two weeks, I feel like we have already made some huge strides with her. I felt like her school was cut short for her a bit last year with my miscarriage throwing us off for a while right after Christmas, and then our move in April. The biggest change I see in her is that I feel like she's actually, for the most part, ENJOYING it! (Though she would probably never ADMIT that to anyone....!) :) Yes, we are trudging through some of the "must do's" of phonics, spelling and math, but with much less complaining than in past years. I think it boils down to the fact that my little girl is growing up! Together we are thoroughly enjoying learning about American History, doing science experiments and studying the names of God, along with their meanings. We started that study with talking about her name and the meaning behind it. She even sewed a pillow with her name on it to help her remember how special she is that it's our hope and desire for her to be a "Joyful servant whose heart is close to God". (Myah means "close to God" and her middle name is Joy). She is learning to look up Bible verses and is even beginning to read them herself. We studied about Leif Ericsson and Christopher Columbus from a Christian perspective, which was really neat. We made boats (Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria) and had boat races when they were sailing from "Spain" to "America" in our little pool. We also started reading a book called "American Patriots and Pioneers" from Christian Liberty Press that I would HIGHLY recommend for a read-aloud for any child. Myah has been sucked right into that book and never wants me to stop reading.

That is just a taste of what we have done these past two weeks, and though I know not every week will be as full or exciting, I am thoroughly looking forward to the rest of this year. The kids are at a place where they know what is expected of them and that helps a lot.

Before school began this year, I sat down and was just praying about our homeschool. I laid it in the Lord's hands, and he gave me a verse, which I have kind of adopted to help me keep my perspective this year through the ups and downs of school. Taken from the Psalms, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they who build it labor in vain." Unless the Lord builds our homeschooling, childrearing, etc., we will labor in vain. I have given our children to him, and I have given our homeschooling to him as well. I'm so thankful we have been called to do this task, even though the laboring will be difficult and sometimes discouraging, as I have learned in the past, the fruit is so rewarding, and I love seeing it firsthand!

"PARENTING IN THE PEW"

by Robbie Castleman

I recently started reading this book, and it has really sucked me in. Our children have their own time of worship at our church with the kids, but I've been starting to think more and more about my role of really teaching them to worship with us. My mom gave me this book a while back, and it's one that has sat on the shelf until "just the right moment" as I see it. (I have many books that have done that, and somehow they find their way into my hands with perfect timing.)

Though this book is quite different from our own circumstances, I have been able to pull many quality things out of it. For starters, I have come to a conclusion that it is completely our role to really teach our children about true worship, and not just allow Sunday School to fill in this gap. I'm thankful for our Thursday night Bible studies. Those evenings allow our kids to experience, observe and participate in worship with adults, and I am beginning to mull things over in my head about how/when to have our kids participate in our worship at church as well. Don't get me wrong... our Sunday School teachers do a fabulous job of teaching our kids about God's Word and also worship. I'm just starting to see that it isn't 100% their job, but ours as well.

A quote which defines worship...

"Worship is not a refueling to get us through another week. Worship is not a system of traditions built up over many years of congregational life until everyone feels comfortable. Worship is not a time to unwind, relax, tune out or take a mental vacation. Worship is not an hour of Christian entertainment. It is not what makes us good people, faithful Christians or successful parents. Worship is the surrender of our souls to a God who is jealous for our attention, time and love. Worship is a challenge...we need to work at our worship" (Castleman 24-25).

KEEPING FOCUS

It seems that I've been bombarded with this thought lately, through our teaching at church, and also our home Bible study. It's so easy to get distracted by life, and what distracts us may be different for every individual. The Christian walk boils down to keeping "the Main Thing, the main thing". If we take our eyes off Jesus, we will fail, but with Jesus, we can walk through anything God allows in our life. The problem is, keeping our eyes on Jesus all throughout the day is a disciplined thing. Satan is always there to lure us to a different focus -- usually a selfish one. Where is your focus today? I'm working on mine, and thankfully, I don't have to work at it alone.