What happens when you study Indians??

You have one very creative little boy outside all afternoon making bows and arrows with the jack knife his grandpa gave him. Lucas is my creative and imaginative one he can make anything out of anything. He took tree branches stripped all the bark off them with his jack knife and then proceeded to make these bows. Also arrows you can see them in the picture sticking above his head he also made them from tree branches.

We've been studying John Smith, Pocahontas, Squanto etc. in history the past few weeks. Yesterday I rented them "Squanto: A Warriors Tale" by Walt Disney pictures from the library. After seeing that they've been making Indian weapons and having wars with them. Oh the imagination of kids...I love it!!

Kaleb also made one he just missed out on the photo op he's at football practice:)

Lessons learned from homeschooling...

For those of you who Homeschool do you ever have moments when your teaching that you feel like you never went to school? I mean I graduated from high school and even went to college for a brief stint for teaching no less. Yet sometimes I feel as though I'm relearning all over again guess that is the beauty of teaching your kids yourself.

Have you ever seen that show "Smarter than a 5th grader"? I was talking with someone at the Y and he said "wow, I don't hardly know any of the answers I can't believe how smart kids are now". Well we homeschooling mothers would do quite well I think at that game show. I've actually known a lot of the answers only because I've taught my own kids and it's things we've recently learned.

So this morning while teaching complex fractions to Lucas I was a) really glad I am not in school anymore and b) that I've relearned all fractions again so that I can teach and explain complex fractions to him. Thank the Lord my oldest is good at Math or we might be in trouble! So although I'm sure I did learn complex fractions and everything else to do with them...which is a lot...I remember nil about them. Anyway I really wonder how much from school I really do remember. At least you do remember a lot better the second time around! I guess at times I really am back in school again to:)

Chocolate Coconut Bars

Today I obtained a new bar recipe that is awesome!! I've had them at a Homeschool building where my kids take classes on Friday's. I am a money collector for hot lunch which means my kids get a free hot lunch and we all get to eat yummy desserts like this. Finally today my friend Heather and I remembered to ask the lunch lady for her recipe. I made them this afternoon and now I know why they are so good...they're loaded with butter and sugar....that makes anything good:~) Not the greatest picture of the bars but you get the idea. Oh, and for you non coconut fans like myself you can't taste it and it makes the bars really good.


Chocolate Coconut Bars

Crust:

1 3/4 C. Flour
1/4 C. Cocoa (if using dutch cocoa use a little bit less)
3/4 C. Powered Sugar
1 C. Butter

Filling:

3 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 Tbs. Flour
1 C. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking power
1 c. pecans
1 1/2 C. coconut
10 oz chocolate chunks

1. Melt butter and then mix the rest of the crust ingredients with the butter. Spread in a 9x13 greased pan and bake at 350 for 15 min.

2. Mix all the filling ingredients together and pour over the hot crust. Bake an additional 20 min. at 350.

Entertainment book

Enter to win a 2009 entertainment book for your area here.

Fun at the zoo....

This morning the kids and I decided to play hookie from school and go to the zoo. It's about 1 1/2 hours away but well worth the drive. We try and go here once a year and it's always so much fun. I get a picture of my kids on this giant ant every year it's fun to see how they've grown from the previous years.

The highlight of this zoo is the giraffes that you can feed and pet. Roman was a little freaked out by their tongues at first but he quickly realized it was gross but fun.

Kaleb, my animal lover was very popular with the animals as you can see. Of course he did have food for them both times but none the less he was having a great time with all these animals. He even made sure that all the giraffes he was feeding got equal amounts of food from him. It was to cute.
Here the boys are looking for fossils and whatever you find you can take home with you....we didn't find any but they had fun looking.

We took a mile hike called "swamp adventure" we learned all about our native species that live by us. With the leaves starting to change colors it was extra pretty.

So even though we played hookie they still learned a lot...lest anyone thinks I'd really let my kids play hookie for the day :~)

CVS..to the rescue..

What do you do when you almost out of toilet paper and paper towel?? Head over to CVS of course. I hit two different stores yesterday and was able to get most of my weekly deals done ..yipee! Here's the scoop on what I got. Sorry no pic I forgot to take one when I got home.

First the deal at cvs: buy $25 in these products get $10 ecb's. Products are viva paper towel, cottonelle toilet paper, pullups, kleenex tissues, kotex tampons or panty liners, poise or depend.
I bought:

2 Packages of Cottonelle toilet paper on sale $6.49
1 package of Viva paper towel on sale$6.49
6 boxes of Kleenex tissues on sale $.99/each

I did this deal in two seperate transactions to maximize the $2//$10 coupon. I also used two cottonelle $.50/1 coupons, 1 Viva $.50/1, and two Kleenex $.40/3 coupons.

My last transaction I did the

Nivea for Men body wash $4.99 get $4.99 ecb's
Adidas Deo. $4.99 get $4.00 ecb's I had a coupon $1.00 off this and used the $2/$10 coupon.

All in all not a bad day at CVS I got lots of stuff and only lost $2.00 in ecb's. The in store ad says the cottonelle/viva deal is a limit of one. But my reciept says I can do it again so I'm thinking it's maybe a limit of two?? I'm going to try the deal again and get some pullups and more toilet paper. Might as well maximize on the deal it's a good one.

For more great deal ideas head over to money saving mom!

Fun at the Park

This morning with it being so gorgeous the boys and I went to the park to do a little nature walk and play..of course.
Kaleb showing his skills on the monkey bars.


Here are the boys studying the map of the U.S. The grass and rocks in front of the map is an actual U.S. map. The rocks are the lakes and streams going through the U.S. I loved this part of the park when I was a kid so do my boys. We actually studied it for awhile and tried to pick out all of the states so there was our geography lesson:~).

These are some of the flowers we saw on our walk through the woods and a huge meadow/field. It was really pretty we also found lots of milkweed. I'm not sure what the above flower is called it's considered a weed where I live. I thought it was pretty in white as well as purple I've never seen a white flower in this kind before. Anyone know what it's called?? ah, I'll have to google it and edit it on later.

God's blessings

As we embark on another year of homeschooling I'm ever reminded of all God's goodness to me. As our economy continues to spiral I'm ever so thankful that I can remain at home and teach my children. That the Lord has provided me with a small part time job that I am able to do. Yet still keep homeschooling and raising up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Lord has provided beyond our measure and my heart is just overflowing with thankfulness today. For a supportive, loving and above all God fearing man as the father of my children. In times when we hear so much complaining we truly have so much to be thankful for!

I am truly blessed with these three sweet little boys!!

CVS

Well I ran to CVS this morning and made yet another dollar in ECB's plus got the above items. Can't beat that! Here's what I bought.

(2) Purex 24 loads laundry detergent $2.99/each get $1.00 ecb on each one. I used (2) $.50 coupons from the smart source insert.

(1) 20 ct. excedrin $3.99 get $3.99 ecb's I used (1) $2.00 off coupon.

(1) Aleve cold and sinus 10 ct. $3.99 get $3.00 ecb's. I used a $1.00 off coupon found here.

So all in all I used above mentioned coupons and the $2/$10 CVS coupon. I used $8.00 in ecb's and paid $.24 out of pocket. I got back $9.00 in ecb's for a profit of $1.00 WAHOOOOOO.... another lovely run to CVS!

For more deal ideas and to see what CVS is all about head over to money saving mom.

CVS...how I love thee...

This week has been..well..AWESOME!!! at CVS. I've almost doubled my ECB's which I only had $12.00 of I now have $21.00. I haven't had this many since last winter. Also a plus...the new nail polish I picked out last Sunday was free plus overage..thank you CVS...is called Midnigh Affair by Revlon. Lucas who was with me said I should go for the crazy color so I did it's not really crazy just a deep blue. I guess he considers that crazy for me...maybe I need to get out more..:~)

See it's not to crazy just a cool color I love it on my piggy toes. Anyway the other three deals I did included these two items:



The Arnicare is on sale $8.99 and you can print a coupon here for $2.00 off that and you'll get $8.00 ecb's back. Then I bought one Ambi bar soap for $1.99 and you get $3.00 ecb's back. These are both monthly deals. So you buy both in one transaction and use above Arnicare coupon plus the $2/$10 CVS coupon. You will spend $8.00 out of pocket or use ecb's and get back $11.00 in ecb's..pretty fantastic huh!!!!

For more great deals at CVS you can check out Money Saving Mom which is where I got this deal idea.

My muscle men...

One of my kids favorite things to do is pretend to be superhero's, pirates whatever they come up with. Kaleb and Roman were playing "superhero's" yesterday and looked so cute. To watch them play it was hysterical...oh to be a fly on the wall..There imagination astounds me sometimes.


Can you guess who this is??? He was laughing so hard "tricking" me that he could hardly stand still.

Kaleb's first ....

Yes, this sweet face had his first football scrimmage last Saturday. They played three scrimmages and won all three. This coming Saturday is their first real game I'm so excited to go. After their scrimmages they got to meet this guy below who plays arena football near us. I think it was the highlight of Kaleb's football career.:) He had the guy autograph his helmet and also got his picture taken with him.

Can you tell he's so excited to meet this guy I mean look at that smile!

It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.


They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
Lamentations 3:22-24




Wow, aren't we blessed!! God's mercies are new every morning what a great thought to wake up to every morning!

Zucchini Bread

Alright if you've got extra zucchini and come on who doesn't this time of year you must try out this bread. It is awesome!! My two loaves I made Wednesday are gone my kids devoured it. I loved that it was an already dairy free recipe so no adjustments had to be made for Kaleb. I will be making more this weekend and hopefully slipping one loaf into the freezer for later eating:~)


Zucchini Bread

3 Eggs
1 C. Oil
2 C. Sugar
2 C. grated Zucchini
2 tsp. Vanilla
3 C. Flour
3 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C. chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees lightly grease two loaf pans.

2. In large bowl mix together the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, and zucchini

3. Combine the cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt and add to the wet ingrediants.

4. stir in the walnuts

5. Divide between the two loaf pans evenly

6. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until done.

Ain't he cute!!!

Tonight Kaleb had football pictures taken. He just looks so grown up to me in this picture:( He sure is cute! He has practice for two hours every night tonight he was just whooped! He's ready to just fall into bed. This is his first year playing tackle football and he just loves it.

These two he was trying to look really tough. But when your missing four teeth in front it's hard to look to mean:)

GRRRR~)

Labor Day Weekend

This past weekend we had nothing planned to do the calendar was clear and we were looking forward to just relaxing. And relaxing is what we did we actually were gone from home every day but relax we did. On Saturday we went over to Ben's cousins house which is a castle seriously so big Roman got lost coming back to us from the bathroom. We stayed the day for a pool party and cookout it was very relaxing and so fun. The cousins all had a blast playing together.

Here is Kaleb in the pool at Ben's cousins he wanted it to look like he was falling over the wall..it is a vanishing edge soo cool. The pool was beautiful.

Here Kaleb in all his manliest wrestling an alligator I think he won:)

Roman found this dinosaur nose and wore it a good share of the day. He thought he was so funny. Not sure where Lucas was while I was taking pictures probably watching the football game with dad in the theater room...rough life eh:)

On Sunday we had a BBQ at a friends house at night and then Monday brought another pool party followed by water skiing and tubing at night on a small lake. As exhausting as it sounds we had some great family time and a great weekend to the end of summer. Although with it being 90 degrees today I don't think summer is quite done yet!