my blessed life

We did it! We finally got unpacked enough and got our new learning room organized enough to start back to school! Frankly, I was starting to get worried...ha Today went very well though. So far I am extremely pleased with our new curriculum choices for math and language arts. Now, if I could just actually get some lesson planning done... And get the finishing touches done in the learning room, so I can blog it! In other news, it has been a bit of a traumatic week...pet-wise. Last weekend a sweet friend (who had asked my permission beforehand) brought the kiddos their very own little fish tank with two goldfish. Well, on Sunday we noticed that The Princess' fish was pretty lethargic...dead, actually. She was sad, but she handled it fairly well. And we went to the store that evening and let her pick out a new goldfish. Well, today during our school time~the fish tank is in our learning room~we noticed Mr. B's fish was acting funny. And then he was dead. It was a...

Even though I have a potato soup recipe that is slightly more my favorite, this is right up there AND it's my kiddos' favorite. They just like it better than my recipe~as much as that hurts my pride..heehee And so I share with you my mom's potato soup recipe. It's a keeper! Potato Soup (my mom) 1. Melt 2-3 tbsp. butter in a skillet and saute 2 chopped onions and 2 stalks of celery, chopped (I used onion powder and celery salt for my kids). 2. While the veggies are sauteing, peel and dice potatoes. Use enough potatoes to fill a Dutch oven halfway . Cover the potatoes just slightly with water and put on to cook. 3. After the onions and celery are sauteed, add 1 can of chicken broth ; let simmer 20 minutes. 4. When potatoes are done, leave water in and partly mash them. When the broth mixture is finished cooking add it to the potatoes and stir well. 5. Add salt & pepper to taste. Cook about 8 minutes longer. 6. Add 1 quart half ...

It's Monday again! How did your meals go last week? I was happy to get back into cooking for my family again. Moving/vacation sure does put a damper on that:) I stuck to my plan fairly well, although the tacos didn't get made...so I've rolled them over to this week. That sounded like a great 1st-day-back-to-{home}school kind of dinner for tomorrow! I do have something exciting to share with you: as a member of TOS Homeschool Crew , I am going to be reviewing e-mealz.com over the course of these next 6 weeks or so. I am really excited about checking this site out since I've heard so much about it from others who have used it. I'm curious if it will be a good fit for our family. Plus it will be great to have some fresh inspiration for meal planning for my family. Then, in due time, I'll get to share my thoughts on it all with you! How many of you have used e-mealz.com before? Monday: Grilled brats & hot dogs with baked beans & chips T...

My favorite month is here! Maybe it's because it's my birthday month. Maybe it's because it's the month that ushers in Fall~my favorite season. Or maybe it's because it's back-to-school-and-routine. Whatever the reason, I am so happy that September is here!

The other day I told you all about the first part of our family vacation . Today I wanted to share the rest of it with you: Chicago! It was our first time to Chicago~because flying through doesn't count. Vince and I have done big cities before, but this was our first time to do one with kiddos. A bit of a different story, I must say. But a fun story, too. We arrived in town after a full day's drive from Ohio, just in time for the evening rush hour traffic~makes me happy to live in a small town. We finally made it to our hotel though and freshened up, then turned around and headed downtown for the Navy Pier . There we took advantage of the children's museum' s free admission on family night. The kids had a great time playing, even if it was just for a short while. I wish we had more time (thank you, never-ending-traffic) , because it looks like a really fun children's museum. We only had time to explore a portion of it. The kids loved the *...

Can I just tell you how happy I am to be making a weekly menu again?! It has been one long month (meal-wise) and I am ready to get back into my cooking groove! I've never been so tired of eating out in my whole life. Not that I haven't had some good food, but I could probably wait a week (or six) to eat another burger. My kitchen has been the hardest room to figure out since our move and it's still very much a work in progress. I've got LOTS of painting to do and some more organizing, but at least I think I've finally found all of the kitchen boxes (I couldn't even find my knives until this past week!) and can now function fairly well. And thank goodness, my cookbooks are accessible again because I need some inspiration. Last week I made our first homemade meal since moving in ( Stouffer's enchiladas and pasta from the freezer section doesn't count): the Pioneer Woman's spaghetti & meatballs . Really yummy! Although I got a ...

In the midst of all this moving process we planned a little family vacation for ourselves. It was good timing~even if it did leave lots of boxes waiting on us~we needed a getaway to relax! The kids and I really wanted to go to the beach, but Vince wasn't up for it...it was too hot. Then I had this idea to head up to the Great Lakes area for a few days. They have beaches, right?! I grew up in Southern Ohio and had been up to the Lake Erie area a few times as a kid, but Vince and the kiddos had not. So we thought that would be a good place to head. I'm glad we did, the weather was really perfect! We were only there for about 2 1/2 days, because we took our time along the way, stopping at antique stores or wherever we wanted. We enjoyed one day at the Cedar Point beach and it was lovely! I had never actually visited any of the beaches along Lake Erie and was really impressed with the sand~it was just as soft and fine as any beach along the Gulf Coast. At least it ...