30 Days of Thanks

Today I am thankful...



...for all the things that have prevented me from being able to post daily during the 30 Days of Thanks

1. Caring for my family because that means I am so blessed to be surrounded by those that I love the most and who desire my time and attention.

2. Cleaning my house because that means that we have a warm house to shelter us from the winter, beds to sleep in, and lots of room to play and live.

3. Making dinner because that means that we have more than enough food and never have to go hungry.

4. Doing the laundry because it means that we all have clean warm clothes to wear.

5. Bills to pay because that means we have things like electricity, water, telephones, and so much more.

6. Planning and teaching school lessons to my kids because that means I am able to teach and train my children and have fun with them all day.

7.Spending time reading my Bible and going to church because that means that we are so blessed to have the freedom to worship our Lord without the fear of persecution.

Thank you Conny for hosting the 30 Days of Thanks once again! Sorry I didn't post as often as I wanted to, but there's always next year! :)

Wordless Wednesday: All Buddy Wants For Christmas...

...is his two front teeth!

Nutrimill Grain Mill

Beth over at Happily Domestic is having a giveaway for a Nutrimill Grain Mill.  I really want to win one of these because they are very pricy so I am letting you know about it so I get some extra entries, but please don't go enter so my chances are better! ;)

Our New Yard Decor

I think that this picture shows less than half of the shingles that were blown off last night.  I don't think there are any left on the roof!

30 Days of Thanks

Today  I am thankful...



1. For the promises God gives when we present our children to him for baptism.  Yesterday we were blessed to be able to have our little Peanut's baptism and to celebrate with our family.

2. For our warm house.  A northeaster wind has been blowing all day (taking quite a few shingles with it!) but the kids and I have been staying warm and safe inside.  My poor hubby has to be out there making sure everything stays unfrozen and buttoned down on the farm so we are praying this storm ends quickly!

Please head over to Conny's blog to see what everyone else is thankful for and to link up with your own post!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Preschool and Elementary Round-Up

I think that this has been our most productive week of school since Peanut's arrival.  I'm still trying to remember to have the camera around and then actually remember to use it, so I don't have pictures of everything we did, but here are a few highlights.

Lovebug - Tot School
Lovebug practiced his fine motor skills by stacking wooden beads on sticks from our tinker toys.

I also gave him a bucket of corn kernels, a tub, funnels, paper towel tube, and some scoopers and let him do what he wanted with it.  He immediately put one of the funnels on the tube and spent a lot of time dumping the corn down it.

Sweetie - PreK/K

I didn't get many pictures of Sweetie working on her stuff this week, but we spent most of the week learning about nests for the letter N.  Her favorite thing this week was making edible bird nests with melted chocolate, chow mien noodles, and marshmallows for the eggs.

I made this file folder game for the kids, but can't remember which site I printed it from.  Sweetie gets to match up the dots with the correct number.

Buddy gets to solve an addition problem and place it on the right answer.

Buddy - 1st grade

To practice his addition, he rolled 2 dice, added them together and recorded the answer on a bar graph to see which answer he got the most often.

Buddy has been working on long and short vowels, so I made him a file folder game using this turkey template that I found at File Folder Fun.  He just has to put the feather in the correct turkey.

He worked on this alphabet matching printable from Pre-K Pages

He also learned a lot about the beach and how waves work, began reading from his Bible reader, and began a Bible timeline, starting with Creation this week.

We also spent more time learning about the first Thanksgiving all together and adding leaves to our Thankful Tree.

We made Pilgrim hats. I found the instructions for these at Martha Stewart

And of course we had to make the Indian hats also!

We did this Indian corn craft that I found on Almost Unschoolers

We also spent some time exploring this neat site about the first Thanksgiving.

For music this week, we danced with beanbags on our heads to practice being graceful while we listened to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

I really enjoy reading about other homeschoolers' weekly wrap ups on Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, so I am going to try linking up to share about our week and share ideas with other homeschoolers. Jodi over at Granola Mom 4 God is starting a new bi-weekly Elementary Round-up, so I am going to try remember to link up with her too.  Be sure to go check out their blogs to see what others have been up to!

Scentsy Review

I've seen a lot about Scentsy on other blogs and websites lately and have wondered about all these cute warmers and good smelling waxes that everyone seems to love so much.  So when Kimberlee, an independent Scentsy consultant, offered me a warmer and wax (also called bars) to review, I was super excited! 

I received this beautiful Malta full-sized warmer and the Cozy Fireside bars, which come in a pack of eight bars.  The warmer has a removable top in which the bars are placed and a light bulb in the base that warms the wax.  I immediately plugged in the base, added one bar of wax, and turned on the light.  Within a few minutes the wax was melting and my kitchen was beginning to smell like a delicious spicy cinnamon mixture.  After having it on a few hours, I can smell it throughout the entire house, and we have a large spread-out house!  This never happens when I burn a regular candle in the kitchen.  And one bar lasted a long time! 

I highly recommend Scentsy.  As a mom, I love that this is a great option for adding fragrance to my home without the danger of open flame around my kids.  The Malta warmer is beautiful and fits in nicely with the decor in our home.  And I really love the Cozy Fireside wax bars. If you want other styles of warmers or different fragrances, there are lots to choose from. The prices of the warmers vary and the bars are $5.  I think these would make a great gift!  I will definitely be getting some more wax bars to try out some of the other scents.

Scentsy is a party based sales company that began in 2004. If you are interested in becoming a Scentsy consultant, please check out Kimberlee's site or become her friend on Facebook to learn how.  If you decide to sign up, please tell Kimberlee that you heard about Scentsy from my blog!

This is a MamaBuzz review. Kimberlee provided me the products free of charge in exchange for my honest review. Thanks Kimberlee!

Wordless Wednesday: My John Deere Boy

30 Days of Thanks

Today (now yesterday since I didn't get this finished yesterday!)  I am thankful...

that I got to spend some quality snuggle time with just my Lovebug.  All the kids (except Peanut, thanfully) have been a little under the weather, but Lovebug has been feeling the worst.  He just wants to sit and cuddle with me, which is a little difficult at times when all the other kids want my attention too.  So hubby took the older 2 out for a couple hours so I could take care of my little boy.  I am also thankful that Sweetie and Buddy could have some fun getting out of the house since that hasn't been happening too much lately.  They went to explore a local park with a waterfall and fish hatchery.  They found some huge maple leaves and had a lot of fun!

Please head over to Conny's blog to see what everyone else is thankful for and to link up with your own post!

Tasty Tuesday: Rich Mashed Potatoes

My hubby loves mashed potatoes.  I think if he could only eat one food ever again, it would be mashed potatoes.  And when I added in a few things to make rich mashed potatoes, he loves them even more.  This is a really tasty side dish that even potato-hating Buddy will eat.  It would make a great addition to one of your holiday meals this year.  Everyone will be asking for seconds though, so make sure you make enough!  I always use 2 quarts of my home canned potatoes, which are ready to mash, saving me the time of boiling the potatoes.

Ingredients
5 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed
5 tablespoons butter, divided
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, cubed
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
2 teaspoons onion salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions
Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain. Mash potatoes with 3 tablespoons of butter. Stir in the cream cheese, sour cream, onion salt, garlic powder and pepper until smooth. Spoon into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. Melt remaining butter; drizzle over the top. Cover and freeze for up to 1 month. Or bake, uncovered, at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until heated through. To use frozen potatoes: Thaw in the refrigerator. Bake as directed.

Our Week of School

I love getting fun ideas for school from other homeschool blogs, so I am going to try to post more often about what we do in school to share ideas with you guys.  Hopefully some of you moms will find this helpful for ideas to do with your kids, even if you don't homeschool!

Lovebug - Tot School

Love bug spent quite a bit of time putting poker chips through a slit I cut in an empty container

He also enjoyed trying to figure out where the pattern blocks go on the picture cards.  This is the first time he has been interested in doing this, usually he just likes to stack, scoop, or throw the blocks.

He also spent a lot of time playing with our fall sensory bin and sorting the apples.

Sweetie - Preschool/Kindergarten

Sweetie has been learning about apples for the letter A, so she made A & a with play dough. I printed these from Confessions of a Homeschooler and put them in page protectors so we can reuse them.

She also made an apple tree by tracing her arm and hand for the trunk and branches, adding leaves and a (very large) yellow bird.  Then she used her finger dipped in paint to add the apples.

She made the letter A and letter A pictures with Cuisenaire Rods.

We also made applesauce, learned about different apple varieties, learned about Johnny Appleseed, read A New House in Grasshopper on the Road, and drew a worm's house inside an apple.

Buddy - 1st grade

Buddy is learning simple addition so we have been playing store.  Buddy sells 2 products to a customer and then has to make a receipt adding the prices together.  He's also getting practice counting money this way.

He sorted out our colored pasta by shape.

He has also been learning about ir, er, ur, and aw in reading and making and illustrating an animal book.  We have been learning about rivers and we made a water filter with rocks and sand in a plastic bottle with holes in the bottom.

We have all been talking about Thanksgiving and adding to our thankful tree everyday.  We read Meet the Pilgrim Fathers to learn about the first thanksgiving.

30 Days of Thanks

Today I am thankful...

For my wonderful son who made me a mom 6 six years ago!  Yesterday we celebrated Buddy's sixth birthday.  I can't believe he's getting so big already!  I am thankful that he is a healthy, happy, fun-loving boy.  He is a great big brother to his siblings.  He loves to help Daddy and Grandpa out on the farm.  He is always thinking of fun ideas and trying to create what he thinks up.  There is never a dull moment when he is around and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with him in our lives!

.

Please head over to Conny's blog to see what everyone else is thankful for and to link up with your own post!

30 Days of Thanks

Today I am thankful...

1. That my Peanut slept NINE hours in a row last night!

2. That my 3 oldest kiddos could spend the night with grandparents last night

3. That I got to sleep in AND have a shower this morning

4. That I am getting some cleaning done without having a new mess made where I just cleaned :)

Today both kids were having fun with grandparents so we haven't done our thankful tree yet.

Please head over to Conny's blog to see what everyone else is thankful for and to link up with your own post!

Wordless Wednesday: Mission Impossible?

Finally one good one!