my blessed life

I don't know about you, but I get pretty excited about choosing our curriculum for the upcoming year.  I start thinking about it way back in the early spring and generally have my choices made by early summer.  This past May I was able to attend a regional homeschool convention and visit some great vendors, so I have had nearly every single book we will use this year for a couple of months already.  I can't wait to dive in!   Now let's look at our lineup for this year. First, the family subjects --we have several of those.  It's great to be able to come together from individual studies and work together on some subjects.   Bible :  this year we are going to use God's Great Covenant: New Testament I .  This was review product from this past year and we have obviously already begun it, but are going to complete it this year.  You can read my review of it here .   Science : we are continuing with Apologia's Exploring ...

 Ah, one of the big topics of discussion among homeschoolers: methods . Are you more Classically inclined?  Do you lean more toward Charlotte Mason 's methods ?  Do you subscribe more to Montessori style?  Do you enjoy teaching with unit studies ?  Are you simply traditiona l?  Or are you an eclectic combination of more than one method? When it comes to my own personal style, I am a healthy mix of Charlotte Mason, Classical, and more ....a true eclectic! We have homeschooled our children from the beginning.  And while we had always known that we wanted to do that, when our oldest was about four years old I began researching in earnest all the ways of homeschooling.  I read several really good books on homeschooling, a favorite being So You're Thinking About Homeschooling by Lisa Welchel.  I liked this book because it introduces the reader to 15 different homeschool families, which means 15 different ways to homeschool.  L...

This week we had the very fun opportunity to go on an all-day field trip with some families from our homeschool group.  We decided to take in two national parks in one day!  Our first stop was at Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace near Hodgenville, KY.   We really enjoyed the museum area in the visitor's center and also walking around on the grounds.  The kids all had fun working towards their Jr. Ranger badges, too. It's fun visiting these sites with lots of kiddos because they have the best questions.  And the rangers here were very gracious to answer them all. We had visited here before , but did have time to walk all over the grounds.  This time we walked the path where the local boundary oak used to stand. We also got to see the Sinking Spring, which was one of the reasons Abraham Lincoln's parents wanted to settle here.   The kids had fun working through their workbooks and earning their jr. ranger badges and al...

This past weekend we made our 2nd visit (you can read about our 1st visit here ) to the Creation Museum !  We love that place!!  The entire facility is so beautiful and the exhibits so well done.  Both visits have been great experiences for us.  The exhibits, the films, the interactive displays ...truly a fun and educational experience.  I especially love their bookstore, too, so many great things in there!  Here are some highlights from our 2-day visit (right now your tickets are good for two consecutive days!) .   the mastadon skeleton in the main entrance hall reading some interesting displays checking out the {very cool} new *Lucy* exhibit taking a little break to work a Noah's Ark puzzle sporting their dinosaur balloon hats made for them by a friend having fun *helping Noah build the ark* with a fun interactive computer game walking in the gardens {they are really beautiful!} trying to pet the goats ...

So many gifts each and every day... 0561.  fun family time on a road trip 0562.  listening to my son humming while he plays 0563.  a cool, refreshing dip in a pool on a hot summer day 0564.  my favorite pillow 0565.  late night conversations with my love 0566.  knowing that I'm right where God wants me even if it's a tough place to be sometimes 0567.  having fun with friends 0568.  discovering more truths in God's Word when I dig deeper 0569.  frozen coffee 0570.  fresh okra, fried up Southern-style

While summer sort of feels like it's winding down a little, it's definitely not over for us.  In fact, we have several road trips coming up before we settle completely into our Fall routine. And you know what road trips mean, right?  Having plenty of activities for the kiddos! Before going on any road trip with my family we do the following: Pack them each their own snack bag .  I use insulated lunch-style bags and fill them with all sorts of things in individual servings: crackers, fruit, cookies, veggies, etc.  Don't forget the napkins and plasticware if needed. Allow each child to pack their own toy bag for the trip.  Mine like to use either a small backpack or a tote bag.  I do allow them to choose their own toys, but make sure they include things like the toy they want to sleep with (if I don't do this, I'll regret it later when the fave one is forgotten), a few books to read, a notebook/pad, coloring book and colored pencils or crayons. ...

Not only have I had lots of banana peppers this summer, we're getting lots of beautiful tomatoes!  I didn't want them to go to waste, so here we go with the canning again :)  I'm really feeling pioneer-ish these days--ha!  Seriously though, I can't wait to use these this winter for chili, soups, casseroles and more!   Of course the first thing I did was to call my mom--because she has canning experience--and get some tips from her.  She was very helpful and gave me a much simpler game plan that all those canning websites I'd been reading.  You can really can tomatoes without all of that fancy equipment (as handy as I'm sure it is).  The only specialized canning "equipment" that I have is one of those plastic canning funnels.  Yep, that's it.  I simply use large stock pots for the rest of the process.   So, let's can some tomatoes... 1.  Get your jars ready.  (I used pint jars instead of quart simply because the...

Even though we did not get a garden planted this year we have been abundantly blessed with the overflow of our neighbors' and friends' gardens.   I've got a TON of banana peppers and didn't want them to go to waste, so I decided to try my hand at pickling some.  I always love those little pepper rings in salads, on pizza and on sandwiches, too.  I have hardly any experience with canning or pickling, but why not try it! Easy Pickled Banana Peppers About 2 lbs of banana peppers 5 heaping tsp. of minced garlic or 5 garlic cloves (or more garlic, if you desire) 1-1/2 cups water 1-1/2 cups white vinegar 4 tsp. salt ***** Wash the peppers, cut off the tops and remove as much of the membrane  and seeds that you can.   Slice the peppers into rings, then place the peppers  into the {sanitized} jar(s) that you want to use.   Add the minced garlic or  cloves to the jar(s).  In a medium saucepan combine the wate...

It's that time of the week again!  And our last couple of weeks have been so non-regular-schedule that I am "recycling" some of my menus that I haven't actually made yet (or recently). Monday: -grocery shopping -laundry -Dinner: Cuban Black Beans & Rice with Stuffed Banana Peppers -Moms Night Out with my homeschool peeps at Starbucks Tuesday: -house cleaning -Dinner: Grilled Fish Tacos with Grilled Squash Wednesday: -Dinner: Fish Stick Po' Boys  -Bible Study Thursday: -Dinner:  Ranch Mac & Cheese (gluten free) with Veggies Friday: Dinner: TBD Saturday: Dinner: TBD Sunday: Lunch: BBQ Chicken (crockpot) with Salad and Potatoes This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie .

I have recently created   a Facebook page for my blog.     If you would like to receive updates  from My Blessed Life  by way of Facebook    I would so appreciate it if you would  click over  using  this link     or use the box to your top right  and *like* my page!  Thank you so much! ***** So, recently I've mentioned my gluten-free experiment with my son, right?  To put it in his words, "it's a lot harder to be gluten-free than I thought it would be!".  Of course, I knew it was going to be hard ...that's why I put off trying this for so long:) This past week though I got brave and decided to try substituting gluten-free rice flour for regular flour in one of my regular recipes.  I decided to start with something that would be good for breakfast and snacking:  Pumpkin  Cream Cheese  Bread .  We all love that one! So I did, I subbed the rice flour with a li...