School Days

My focus has shifted lately to some winter-like projects I do every year, even though it has been in the 60’s this fall around these parts.

When my focus shifts to something like big winter projects, other things usually fall away without much notice -until they are noticed!

I haven’t been good about taking photos of school lately.

It takes thought and purpose to do so in the midst of our busy school days!

And then it takes time to edit them, upload them and post about them!

I LOVE to look back at photos of school since time passes so quickly though.

I better make a note to remind myself to take more photos!

I do have a few to add to my little scrapbook here!

The littles were learning the letter “P” when I took these photos of painting with pom poms!

SO fun!

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This is the look I get from Tate when I tell him to smile with his eyes open!!

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I am still loving paper plate crafts, and “P” week had us making a pink pig.

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Last week we rowed the book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and besides so many fun things we learned about, we water colored a picture of Mrs. Rabbit.

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Lane’s favorite school assignment is illustrating in his Science journal.

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The week before last we rowed the book Wee Gillis.

Such a cute story!

We spent one day learning about our lungs.

The kids loved seeing how much air capacity each of them had in their lungs by doing this experiment.

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We also cut some straws to make them make musical sounds, since we were learning about bag pipes.

They were SO loud! And they mysteriously disappeared during nap time!

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During our lunch and play visit to Kayla’s this week, we put together some gift bags to hand out to people in need.

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This week and next week we are having a unit study on Thanksgiving!

I ordered as many picture books as I could find about Thanksgiving from the library, and we are making all kinds of crafts too.

Chad even likes to participate! I love that about homeschooling!

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The littles have been learning the letter “K” this week.

Painting “K’s” with glue and then sprinkling them with Kool Aid made school smell rather fruity!

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In Math Lane is learning equations with an unknown number, and Chad is working on Finance right now. Lane tells his Daddy almost word for word what he learned about flying creatures in Science each night, and Chad is 3/4 of the way through his Human Physiology and Anatomy curriculum. They both have beautiful cursive handwriting, and Chad’s typing skills are gaining speed. Lane never misses a spelling word on his spelling test each week, and Chad is flying through the Spelling Power curriculum. Chad announced to us this week that he wants to attend Seminary and become a Pastor. I better kick into high gear for Chad’s High School years!

These days are BUSY. We are enjoying them to the fullest though! The kiddos are challenged, learning, growing and joyful. That means prayers are being answered and my goals are being accomplished!

Praise be to Him!

Very Exciting News!!

We are very excited to announce that we have another grand baby on the way!!

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Kayla is due in early June! Less than a week away from the second trimester, and hopefully when the morning sickness will disappear!

David and Kayla are also in the process of a concurrent foster placement of a sweet, beautiful baby as well!

We are CLEAR EXCITED!!!

Congratulations David, Kayla and Clyde!!

We love you FIVE SO MUCH!!

A Recipe//Monster Cookies

I have made these monster cookies for years now.

The original recipe came from a book called Breaking the Vicious Cycle. You can find info about it here.

The original recipe calls for eggs and butter, but I make these cookies gluten-free, grain-free, egg-free, and dairy-free. They are also soy-free, which is a big one for us too!

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Monster Cookies

2 TBSP flax meal mixed with 6 TBSP hot water
(set aside and let gel)
5 cups almond meal (also called almond flour)
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnut pieces
1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup honey
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (we use allergy-friendly enjoy life brand)

Mix all ingredients. I do this in my Kitchen Aid Mixer, literally dumping everything but the chocolate chips together and then turning the mixer on low until all is mixed.

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Add the chocolate chips while the mixer is still running, and let it mix until they are incorporated. You may want to measure, or not pour from a jar while taking a photo at the same time. Just saying.

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Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. We use bleach free parchment paper, to avoid chemicals being leached into the cookies.

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Use a 1 1/2″ cookie scoop to scoop out the cookies. If you do not have a cookie scoop, get it on your Christmas list pronto!

The dough will be a bit sticky, but also crumbly. Just use your fingers to press the dough together as your cookie scoop releases the cookie. I promise they will stay together once baked and cooled!

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Press the cookies down with a fork, dipping the fork in water between each press.

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Bake at 325 degrees, for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. The cookies are very fragile when hot. Let them cool completely before trying to move them. Or, get a spoon like my kiddos do and dig right in!

This recipe made 55 cookies. I store them in the fridge, and they freeze very well too!

Enjoy!

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*This is the flax meal we use to replace eggs. I buy this at Costco, but last time we checked, they were not carrying it anymore.

To replace one egg in a recipe, mix 1 TBSP of flax meal with 3 TBSP of hot water. Let it sit until it gels, and then add to recipe like you would an egg.

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Fun Facts Friday!!

It is a gorgeous Friday here in our neck of the woods!!

It is chillier than it has been all week – but no complaints here, because our weather has been non-stop warm and sunny!

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I need to dig out some warmer coats, hats and mittens for the kiddos!

And then find a place to put them all! Cause a puppy lives in our mudroom now – and she puts anything and everything into her mouth!

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Right now our hat and mitten bins are on the back porch. Which is about 3 miles from the front door!

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So about Tuesday. Everyone of age in our home voted.

That is all I will say about that.

Except that I took a crew with me. It was a good history field trip.

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As we drove over the hills and down the road, I couldn’t help but notice how the landscape has changed!

The corn is coming down, you all.

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I already posted about how we kicked off the holidays.

Every year during the holidays, I listen to this flash mob a couple of times!

It is SO beautiful! I would have loved to have been there!

Addie Mae and I have planned our Thanksgiving meal, Christmas cookie baking day, and we have drawn names within our family for our gift exchange!

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is two weeks away, can you?

I was looking for some butternut squash soup recipes.

I thought this one and this one looked good!

I have really enjoyed cooking and baking lately! More than ever!

This past Saturday it was so warm outside that Blake grilled our whole meal.

Have you ever grilled pineapple slices? SO yummy.

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We had a tiny bit of illness here this week.

The kind where I was asking “Are we getting sick?”, but one child had a slight fever for most of a day. And myself and another child felt kind of like we were fighting something, maybe? SO thankful it wasn’t anything more than that!

When I just could not get warm that day, I made a pumpkin spice latte!

And then yesterday I was just the right temperature and I made another one!

And now that I am telling you all about it, I am gonna need another one!

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We had two calls on the farm this week (yahoo!!) and may have two showings tomorrow from those calls!

We just got the house shining this morning, and the rest of the farm is ready too!

We are still hoping and praying that the Lord will bring a buyer for the farm!

Maybe, just maybe, one of these family’s will be the one!

Hope you all are having a GREAT Friday!

Have a GREAT weekend too!