Happy All Hallow's Eve!

Pumpkin Pancakes

The perfect treat for a Fall breakfast

Pumpkin Pancakes
(from Kellie at There Is No Place Like Home)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
1-3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 egg
2 tsp. vegetable oil
*****
Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. Combine the milk, pumpkin, egg and oil in a small bowl; add to the flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Batter may be lumpy. Heat griddle or skillet over medium heat; brush lightly with oil or butter. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto hot griddle. Cook until bubbles begin to form and then turn. Cook 1-2 minutes longer. Repeat with remaining batter. Serve with maple syrup!

The Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With Pumpkins, Monet and Brains

Our very-busy-weekend is in full swing here! It's really been a great week and I'm looking forward to lots of fun this weekend.

We are staying right on track with school so far~yea! On Tuesday we took a little (much-needed for me) break and visited a pumpkin farm. The kids were so excited to pick out their pumpkins! We ended up carving them on Thursday, aka *Pumpkin Day*:) Lots of pure family fun that day!

In other school news, Mr. B finished up his first handwriting book, Getty-Dubay Italics A, this week. He has cruised right through that~he loves it! So now I need to order book B, but in the meantime he is practicing with this wonderful handwriting book I picked up last Spring at the homeschool convention. I really love it! It's put out by the Center for Essential Education. They had them for a couple of different handwriting styles, Italics included, and several skill levels, too. I have one waiting for The Princess as soon as she finishes her Getty-Dubay book D.

It's a wonderful way to practice handwriting and learn God's Word. Mr. B was so excited about it!
Things are going smoothly in the rest of the world of language arts as well. The Princess is doing great with her grammar, enjoying reading through Robinson Crusoe, whizzing through those spelling quizzes. Mr. B finished up his first reader this week~so proud of him! We are also working through a great little set of books on the long vowels that I picked up through Scholastic books last year. He also enjoys spending time on Starfall.com. If you haven't tried it yet, that's a great site for early readers.

Math continues to go well. The Princess is nearly into multiplication (she just doesn't know it yet:) and absolutely loves doing timed drills several times a week (amazing, I know!). Mr. B is all typical boy when it comes to math~it comes very easily for him and he catches on to each new concept so quickly.

In science we are studying Venus. We made our own *lava* this week to see how it flows and then hardens into *rock*. Who knew there were so many uses for flour and butter?

We are still enjoying history with Story of the World I. We're learning all about the ancient times.

In our artist/composer appreciation studies we've been learning about Beethoven and Monet. We all love listening to Beethoven's music during school time. And we're enjoying this series of books that we discovered at the library: Famous Children. Check them out here.

We also looked all through this wonderful book that was a gift from a dear friend years ago (she knew I loved Monet and was headed to France for our honeymoon:). I think we are going to give our Monet study one more week because we didn't have time to make any of the recipes in this book and the kiddos thought that would be fun. Plus I have one more painting project I wanted to do with them.

They have done several coloring sheets of his paintings though. I have to say, it is really fun instilling a love of beautiful art in my children.


This Friday marked the end of our homeschool group's 8-week co-op. It's a bittersweet time: the kids are all really sad and the moms are pretty glad to not have crazy Fridays for a while. haha Seriously though, I love co-op, too. It's fun to have different learning environments for the kids to experience.

A favorite class this time around was *Blood & Guts*. This was the week we dissected a brain...a sheep's brain to be exact. Kind of gross, I know. But the awesome mom who teaches this class really made it even grosser..er...greater by serving up brains...jello brains to be exact. Isn't that the coolest jello mold ever?! She made them with apricot jello with strawberry sauce. It was so funny to see the kids' faces when they thought she was serving real brains! :)

The Princess wasn't sure if she even wanted to taste them, but I told her we could share and she braved a few bites. If you didn't think about what shape you were eating, they were really good!

She wasn't even sure if she was going to touch the sheep brains, but she did let me get one shot of her holding them.
The evening after the final co-op was Presentation Night, when we all come together to let the classes present what they've learned. Both of my kiddos' music classes did presentations with boomwhackers and recorders. It was really a fun night!


And that wraps up our week! Whew...I'm ready for bed now. Saturday and Sunday are going to be full, full, full! I hope you have an awesome weekend, too!

This post is linked to the weekly wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Pumpkin Day

Pumpkin carving is a big deal in our family! The kids love it and, frankly, so do Vince and I. It's funny, too, because I had never carved a pumpkin in my life until I met Vince. Now we have so much fun choosing and planning our designs. You can read more about our past pumpkin carving adventures here and here.

This year was no different. Tuesday we headed to the pumpkin farm to make our choices and Thursday was dubbed *Pumpkin Day* at our house. We carved pumpkins, roasted pumpkin seeds, made pumpkin cupcakes and baked pumpkin cookies! So much fun!

So with no further ado...our family pumpkins for 2010:

The Princess': She was totally undecided until the last minute, finally choosing to recreate a face she saw on Mr. B's pumpkin t-shirt:)


Mr. B's: He had his planned for days, maybe weeks. He's like that:) He was very specific: triangle eyes, square nose, one tooth.


Vince's: He got his design from my latest issue of Martha Stewart Living. I love it~turned out great! We ended up adding electric lights because the candle just wasn't bright enough.

Mine: I found this design last year in a Country Living magazine, tore it out and saved it. I found the template on their site. Vince helped me out by painting the lantern and drilling the holes in the lantern bigger for me.
After the official pumpkin candle lighting, we headed inside to decorate the pumpkin cupcakes. They turned out so cute! Of course, we used our fave cupcake books. (We should really start getting some kind of commission from them!:)

We only made a small batch (1 dozen), just enough.

What? You don't think it's a good thing to get your kids all sugared-up right before bedtime? Oh well, halloween only comes once a year, right? And I'm pretty sure it's going to be sugar-overload the rest of the weekend!

We've got one full weekend planned, it's going to be a lot of fun! I hope you have a wonderful weekend, too!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Well, we're busy carving up those pumpkins we bought the other day! It's officially been dubbed *Pumpkin Day* around here. More pumpkin activities will be blogged soon, but I wanted to share some roasted pumpkins seeds with you...or rather share the recipe with you:) They're yummy!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
(Mennonite Country-Style Recipes)
1-1/2 tbsp. butter, melted
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. seasoned salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 cups unwashed pumpkin seeds
*****
Mix all thoroughly. Spread on a baking sheet. Bake at 275F for 1 hour or until seeds are browned and crunchy. Enjoy!

Picking Pumpkins

Yesterday we took the day off from school and drove to a pumpkin patch. It was a much-needed *down* day for me and the weather was so fall-perfect. I've been looking for a great pumpkin patch/farm since we moved back to Arkansas. I have to admit I've really missed the farm we would always go to while we lived in Alabama. I haven't found anything to compare at all.
I did find one on in the town of Clarksville, AR that I thought might be fun though, so we headed over. It was a nice drive and they did have a better selection of pumpkins, but it was not the total farm experience I was looking for.

However, we found the fattest, fuzziest caterpillar that we've ever seen:)

They had a lots of silly fall/halloween fun around, so we had to enjoy that:)
I love this shot of the kids as Frankenstein and his bride~not that the kiddos have any idea of who these characters are...haha


I could spend tons of money on pumpkins every year. I love all of the different varieties. I refrained though and we only each got a pumpkin to carve~more on those soon!


Even if it wasn't my favorite farm, it was a fun day and we were able to take some fall pics~squinty eyes and all:)


Next up: pumpkin carving and roasting the seeds! That is one of our favorite traditions!

How about you? Does your family enjoy carving pumpkins?

Red Beans & Rice

We've been eating more beans lately for protein. Since I've started buying healthier meats for our family (organic, grass-fed, no hormones, no antibiotics), we've actually cut back on eating as much because the healthy meat is so expensive. But I would rather cut back some and eat the good stuff, than expose my family to the hormones and other junk in the regular meats.

Since cutting back on meat I'm trying to find different ways to incorporate more beans into our diet other than our usual pinto beans and cornbread. And last night I found a winner: Red Beans and Rice! The whole family liked it! I'm a huge fan of Cajun food anyway, so I was really hoping that I had found a great recipe--and this one is definitely a keeper!

Red Beans and Rice
(American Home Cooking cookbook)
1 lb. dried red beans or small kidney beans
1-1/2 lbs. smoked ham hocks, cut into 1" thick slices
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup celery, chopped
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2-3 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2-1 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 cups uncooked rice
Louisiana hot sauce
*****
The night before you plan to cook the beans, cover them with water and soak them over night.* When ready to cook them, don't pour off the liquid; instead dump it with the beans into a large heavy pot. Add the ham hocks**, onions, bell pepper, celery, garlic***, bay leaves, salt, pepper and cayenne and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a bare simmer and cook the beans, stirring often, until the ham hocks are tender, about 1 hour. Remove the ham hocks and set them aside. Continue cooking the beans, occasionally stirring them, until very tender and somewhat mushy, and beginning to break apart, about an additional 1 hour or so. Add more hot water whenever the beans begin to get dry. There should be plenty of creamy, almost gravylike thick liquid. Pull the meat off the ham hocks in bite-sized pieces and return the meat to the pot. Continue cooking another few minutes. The beans are even better if you can make them far enough in advance to cool, refrigerate, covered and later reheat.
Shortly before you plan to serve the beans, cook the rice according to package instructions. Spoon rice into shallow bowls, then top each with a generous ladle of beans. Serve piping hot accompanied by hot pepper sauce and cornbread.
*I used the quick-soak method on the package and just simmered all afternoon.
**I didn't have any ham or smoked sausage, so I used bacon and it was just as delicious.
***My kiddos are kind of picky (unfortunately) about all these chopped veggies, so I used a dried onion seasoning blend that contained all of these in a tiny, dried form~no one noticed and it was just as flavorful!

(pictures from Google because we ate ours too fast to take a picture:)

One Thousand Gifts

(taken at Lake Fort Smith State Park, AR)

0321. the improvement in Vince's back

0322. my aunt's smooth recovery following surgery last Friday

0323. healing words

0324. knowing you can trust God even when you have no idea what He's up to

0325. getting to do a little shopping....alone:)

0326. being able to rely on God for His much-needed wisdom

0327. hugs from my sweet boy

0328. watching my sweet girl curled up reading for hours

0329. sneaking in a few chapters in a good book myself

0330. family lunches on Sundays

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Menu Plan Monday: Oct. 25th

Ahh....a fresh week. I'm ready for it! Last week was a bit rough~seemed like there was a lot going on that had my emotions all over the place. Sunday was a good start to a new week though and I'm looking forward to having a great one!

I didn't actually make all of the meals on my menu plan last week, but there was one stand out dinner: the cornflake-crusted tilapia with scalloped potato casserole. I just had to share the recipes with you.

Cornflake-Crusted Tilapia
(Rachel Ray Yum-O, the family cookbook)
2 cups cornflake crumbs
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tbsp. ground coriander
1/2 tbsp. paprika (I used smoked)
4 tilapia fillets
salt & pepper
2 tbsp. olive oil
*****
In a shallow dish combine the cornflake crumbs, dry mustard, coriander and paprika. Season the tilapia fillets with salt and pepper, then coat them thoroughly in the seasoned cornflake crumbs. Preheat a large nonstick skillet with the olive oil over medium-high heat. Once the oil starts to ripple, add the tilapia and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through.
*****

(personally I just wanted to eat this straight from the dish, it was SO good!)

Scalloped Potato Casserole
(my mom's recipe)
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. flour
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup onion, chopped
3-1/2 cups thinly sliced potatoes
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
*****
Melt butter in a saucepan; blend in flour. Add milk and cook until thickened; then add salt, pepper and onion. Place 1/2 of the potatoes in a greased 10 x 6 baking dish. Cover with half of the sauce mixture. Add remaining potatoes and sauce; top with cheddar cheese. Bake at 350F covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 30 minutes.

Here's what's cooking this week:

Monday: Red Beans & Rice
Tuesday: Goulash (from the freezer)
Wednesday: tostadas
Thursday: Slow Cooker 20-Garlic Chicken, mashed potatoes & peas (yes, I am going to get this made!:)
Friday: {co-op presentation night, grabbing a quick bite out}
Saturday: {small group fall festival}

We've also got some fun fall/halloween themed treats planned this week, too! What about you?

Happy Cooking to you this week!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

{Home}School: The Past Two Weeks

It's been a couple of week since I've done a *weekly wrap-up*, so brace yourself: this is one photo-heavy post!

It's been a full and somewhat exhausting two weeks around here. There have been lots of activities, but my husband has also been recovering from throwing out his back. So along with all of the usual duties, I've been a nurse, too. And honestly, I'm just not a very good nurse. I'm impatient and sort of short on mercy...just confessing my sins, y'all. But I've tried really hard this past week and a half to be better. He's been in such pain, it wasn't hard to have mercy on him. But I'm so glad that he's beginning to feel better and life around here is getting back to normal.

So here are some highlights from these past two weeks:

We've been having lots of *monster cereal* for breakfast all month long. I made the kiddos wait until October 1st before eating any so it's been sort of a big deal for them:)

Last week we took the kiddos to the property that was my grandpa's before he died in 1999. We had fun picnicking and fishing. The kids even enjoyed drawing in their nature journals.




We also spent some time at Natural Dam, AR. We were there for Vince to do some video work, but the kids had a blast playing in the stream. There's nothing like water and rocks to entertain kids for hours.

(a snakeskin that they found)

(playing *David & Goliath* with rocks~this was what Vince was videoing about:)

We began learning about Mercury in our astronomy study and crafted a salt dough model of Mercury. That turned out pretty cool!


The kiddos have been enjoying a *new* game that Vince picked up at a yard sale. It was one he enjoyed as a kid~Crossfire! They love it!

Last week in the *Blood & Guts* co-op class The Princess got to dissect a pig's kidney. I love the expression on her face here!

Over the weekend we took my mom and went to my all-time fave arts and crafts fair in War Eagle, AR. It was a gorgeous day and we had fun~I scored a gorgeous scarf with some of my birthday $$!!



This week Mr. B constructed a fort of sorts and did some of his school work there. It was a very productive time for him!

This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to take the kiddos to hear the US Marine Band~The President's Own! They were absolutely WONDERFUL!! I mean, who doesn't love a good John Phillips Sousa march?! ALL of the selections they played were fantastic! The kids thoroughly enjoyed them, too, and even Mr. B was remarkably well-behaved during the entire performance. It was a fun night!

We enjoyed making *I Want S'More Muffins* this week. Mr. B was super excited~actually he just wakes up like this...haha

We've been talking about the time in history when the Israelite nation is born. The kids enjoyed chalking out Joseph's coat of many colors on the driveway during one lesson. It was fun sitting out there reading to them while they chalked. Our driveway is often the site of fabulous works of art!


Friday was a fun day~we headed to the local performing arts center to see a production of Cinderella in *Happily Ever After*. It was really cute~I'm so glad to have opportunities to take the kiddos to live performances and productions. It's such an enriching experience!


And after a fun and busy afternoon at co-op I was more than ready to come home to relax. How excited I was to find my new (and only) pair of TOMS shoes waiting for me! They fit like a comfy, cozy pair of socks~just wonderful! And did I mention that Vince got them for me with a free $50 gift card that he received at Catalyst?!

Now I'm ready for a relaxing weekend! I hope you have a great one, too!

This post is linked to The Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

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