my blessed life

This past month I've been reading a great book on marriage: My Beloved and My Friend   by Hal and Melanie Young.  I was very happy to be a part of this book launch since I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing  another book by these authors .   My Beloved and My Friend    is a very comprehensive book on marriage, even venturing a tiny bit into some aspects parenting.  I love that the motivation for this book was so that the authors could leave a lasting legacy of their personal convictions to their children.  What a wonderful thing to bless your children with! ~~~~~ "It seems that the peace and harmony we experience with each other in marriage is largely a reflection of how far we've come in merging ourselves together.  The friction and division we experience points out the places where we've maintained a separate sense of identity and entitlement." ~~~~~ This book addresses five areas: It is not good for man to be alone A helper suitable for him F

Yesterday was our annual family Pumpkin Day.  No, it's not on the calendars, but it's a fun family tradition for us.   We usually have some chili to eat, something pumpkin-y for dessert, carve our pumpkins, roast the seeds, and watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".  It's so much fun!   Last night our yummy pumpkin-y dessert was a Pumpkin Roll .....mmmmmm You should really make one today! Pumpkin Roll 3 eggs 1 cup granulated sugar 2/3 cup canned pumpkin 1 tsp. lemon juice 3/4 cups flour 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg ***** Beat eggs in mixer at highest speed for 5 minutes.   Gradually beat in the sugar.   Next, stir in the pumpkin and lemon juice.   Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon,  ginger, and nutmeg and fold into the pumpkin mixture.   Spread in a waxed-paper-lined 11x15 jelly roll pan.   Bake at 375F for 1

This is one busy week!  So glad for freezer meals (homemade!) and restaurant gift cards to get us through! Tonight is our annual Pumpkin Night and Vince made his amazing chili last night in order to be ready because of our busy day.  That's okay though because it's even better on the second day!  I also made a pumpkin roll last night for a special dessert for our Pumpkin Night.  We're looking forward to carving our pumpkins, roasting pumpkin seeds, and watching " It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown "! Last week I mentioned buying a couple of freezer meals at the store to help me get through this recovery season and ease getting back into the cooking routine.  They did help in that respect, I suppose, but they were so disappointing.  I can't imagine why anyone would buy them for their family.  The two that I bought ( a pasta dish and an Asian chicken dish) were really not even enough for me and my husband--he wanted seconds!  So not only are they

Today I am sharing over at Godly Glimpses as part of Jennifer's wonderful series called HeartSchooling .  I hope you'll join me there as I talk about Loving On Others .    ***** Subscribe by email and never miss anything here at My Blessed Life!

And another week is in the books!  It's hard to believe that this time next week October '13 will be over.  This year may have been the quickest one I've ever lived yet (I hear they get faster...boo).   This week felt a little bit less busy and that was nice.  While I'm a feeling much better since my surgery--not  having too much pain or soreness anymore--my energy levels still have a ways to go.  I sort of fizzle out by the end of the day.  After the kiddos are tucked in you'll find me with my feet kicked up watching some Burn Notice or Everybody Loves Raymond or if my hubby isn't watching with me it's more likely to be Poirot or Foyle's War .  I really must start going to bed earlier again:) This was a fairly good, steady week of schoolwork.  Some weeks are like that you know, just staying the course.   The kids especially had fun one day learning the secret code that Thomas Jefferson developed for communication with Lewis and Cla

I don't know about you, but some days I just want to throw in the towel with trying to encourage my son in writing exercises.  It.can.be.exhausting.   If you read my last end-of-the-week wrap-up , you may have noticed that the writing curriculum that I purchased for this year is not much of a hit at our house.  I get nothing but groans and complaints when it's time for it.   And I really have no desire to force them to do something they hate.  I want learning to be an enjoyable experience as much as possible.   So I am putting aside this writing curriculum.  Maybe for just a while.  Maybe for good.   In the meantime, I've been looking for other, more inspiring, writing options--especially for my son.  And I decided to pursue some fun-looking Lego-themed writing prompts that I've pinned on my homeschool {Legos} pin board .  Because he is completely obsessed with Legos, of course.     Today I tried one out for the first time with Mr. B.  It was a HIT!

Happy Monday!!   Monday mornings are probably the hardest of the week for me.  I'd really like it if I didn't have anything to do until ...oh, say ....noon?  That's not realistic for me though, and probably not for you either, right?  Oh, well, a girl can dream! At least I'm home this morning and I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn.  I'm still enjoying my coffee and getting ready to start homeschooling with my kiddos. I'm getting back into the swing of things with cooking, although {don't judge me too harshly} I did pick up a couple of frozen meals at the store the other day to help me along.  I just haven't been very motivated lately.  I did, however, watch Julie & Julia this past week and am once again compelled to get out my copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking .  My sister and I are going to give a recipe or two a go one night this week~I can't wait! Here's what's cooking this week: Monday:   (a froze

And here we are ...two weeks later!  The time seems to have gone by so quickly lately!  You'd think I could do a weekly wrap-up, right?! We have been tracking pretty well here at home with our lessons.  Even with me taking a little time off because of surgery we haven't really fallen behind.  At least I don't feel behind and that's the important thing, isn't it? :) Here's a little quarterly update on our curriculum ( you can see here what we've been using this year ): Mr. B is loving " stick-figuring through the Bible "--this curriculum is definitely a keeper! The Princess is also doing well with her Bible curriculum, God's Great Covenant , also and I'm pleased with how she is working well independently with it. Singapore Math is still working very well for Mr. B and the Teaching Textbooks program is very much a hit with The Princess.  I'm so glad we made that change. Still loving Story of the World and having fun getti

(this post contains affiliate links) I remember first hearing about " stick-figuring through the Bible " and was a little perplexed and a little intrigued by the concept.   Grapevine Studies were unlike any other Bible curriculum that I had seen.  So when I saw a freebie lesson offered on Facebook last winter I snagged it.   The lesson was on the Last Supper and it was perfect for our Good Friday family Bible study.  And we loved it!  The kids thought drawing out each aspect of the story was so much fun and they really enjoyed it so much.  And I did, too.  It was a joy to teach!  So when it came time to finalize our curriculum for this fall I knew that Grapevine Studies must be included.   I decided to start with New Testament Overview Part 1: Birth of John to Jesus' Ministry for my son and we have not been disappointed.  He LOVES it and requests to do it first thing every day.   We are using the Level 2 curriculum which is for ages 8-10, just

It's Tasty Tuesdays again!  Welcome! This past weekend a friend generously shared a bag of pears with me.  I knew that I needed to do something creative with them because there would not be time to simply eat them one at a time without them ruining.  And that would be a shame. Then I thought of pear butter. I'm definitely not an experienced canner, only having done it very few times and certainly never with pears.  But I thought I would give it a try, especially after finding a very simple looking crock pot recipe.   And here are the yummy results: Pear Butter Enough pears to yield 8 cups, peeled and cored 2 Tbsp. lemon juice 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. nutmeg ***** After peeling, coring, and chopping your pears, place them all in a crock pot.  Add the lemon juice, granulated sugar, brown sugar,  cinnamon, and nutmeg; stir mixture well. Cook on High for 1 hour, then turn to Low

Just popping in to say " Happy Monday " to you all! I know I've been a bit scarce around here lately, but I am focusing on getting my strength back after surgery and getting back into the swing of things here at home. I'm also working on getting back into my blogging groove as well, but that takes a little longer:)  However, I've got some really good posts that I'm currently working on and am excited to share with you soon. Meanwhile, I hope that you're having a great Monday and that you have a wonderful and blessed week! ***** Don't want to miss a thing here at My Blessed Life? Subscribe by email today!

Yesterday was our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  Even though I could only sit on the front porch and enjoy the porch swing, I wouldn't have missed it.  It's a family tradition for us to visit the pumpkin patch~wherever we may live.   When we lived in Alabama we absolutely loved McGee Farm.   In Arkansas our favorite place was  Wild Things Farm (which is technically in Oklahoma).   Here in Kentucky we simply adore Christian Way Farm.   We just wouldn't miss a chance to go feed the animals (goats, pigs, donkeys, cows, horses, kittens, dogs, you-name-it), take a ride out to the corn maze and pumpkin patch, play on the hay castle, grind some feed corn ...there's just something about being out on the farm that is so peaceful and soothing to one's soul.   Today was no different (except that I wasn't roaming the farm with the rest of the family--these photos are courtesy of my hubby).  It was a perfect fall day, with cool temps.  The first day

Well, hello there!  It's been a couple of weeks since I've made our menu plans.  In that time I had surgery and my family and our friends have taken such good care of us.  Last week we had yummy meals arriving daily and it was so fun to see what came each night:)  We enjoyed roast with carrots and potatoes, chicken casserole, pizza, fried chicken w/the fixin's, chili, Mexican chicken casserole ...oh--and the desserts!   Can't forget those!  We had chocolate chip cookies, flan, apple pie ...it was heavenly! Now I'm getting back into the swing of things and starting to cook again (and use up some of those leftovers, too).  I actually missed cooking, believe it or not.  So I spent some time (while lying around) cleaning out and reorganizing one of my recipe files.  heehee Here's what's for dinner this week: Monday: Beef Veggie Soup (using up those roast leftovers) Tuesday:   Mexican Chicken Casserole (we had so much it made two meals!) Wednesday: