Gearing Up For My Week

Tonight I am sitting here in my hubby's fave chair with the laptop, pondering my upcoming week. It's going to be a doosey!

First of all, I must get cracking on baking cookies. First, I need to bake as many cookies as I can (probably a couple hundred) for the box lunches that will be served at the youth conference our church is hosting this coming weekend. So I'll be making a couple batches of Amish Sugar Cookies. Because they are a little piece of heaven in your mouth. I'll probably have to sneak one or two:) Secondly, I want to make Valentine cookies with my kiddos. I have quite the cookie cutter collection~some for every occasion~and we love to cut them out together and then decorate them. It's usually a mess, but it's worth it every time. I really hope we get the chance to make them this week.

Then each night this week I have a different casserole planned for dinner. That way we can eat half and I can freeze half for my sister-in-law and her hubby, since she's getting ready for some major surgery next week. I'm all stocked up on foil baking pans.

I'm also preparing for this weekend when we will be hosting about 15 or so teens with a few leaders in our home as they are here for the youth conference at our church. I'm still curious how we're going to work out the shower schedule in order for everyone to have hot water...lol They really won't be here much though, the conference keeps late hours. I'm ready for them though with lots of cereal and milk~they're on their own for lunch and dinner.

Then it's also the week to prepare for Valentine's day. We are celebrating early as a family because Vince is leaving on a trip this Saturday. And I've got to help the kiddos get all of their Valentines ready to exchange at their homeschool group Valentine Skating Party on the 15th. At least we got their Valentine boxes finished tonight! Oh, and I need to bake some cupcakes for that, too. Yikes! I want to though because I have the cutest cupcake papers and toppers for Valentine's day and I'm dying to use them:)

And I'm reminding myself that all of the above is in addition to my usual schedule of homeschooling, housekeeping, you know...life! I have some fun stuff to share with you though, so you can count on me being here. Blogging is good for my soul.

One Way I Refresh During the Summer as a Homeschool Mom

As our homeschool takes some time off this summer, my mind almost never stops thinking of and planning ahead for the upcoming school year. This is probably because I'm Type A and an obsessive planner...lol Whatever the reason, I do enjoy this season of planning. But I also need to be refreshed as a homeschool mom. Homeschooling can be incredibly exhausting and all-consuming. It's not easy and it's a lot of responsibility. And I take that very seriously when I am researching curriculum and planning toward the next school year. So also taking some time to rejuvenate and refocus myself is very important. How do I do this? Each summer I take some time to read something inspiring and motivating that speaks to me as a homeschool mom. Some of my fave reads from past years--that I have nearby on my shelf and refer to often--are Educating the Wholehearted Child, The Well-Trained Mind, The Charlotte Mason Companion, A T...

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

my blessed life

Search This Blog