My Life on a Taffy Pull

Weight~loss Journal {13}

2012-01-27T18:54:00.001-06:00

I didn’t post last week because there was too much going on, but don’t worry, I’m still here, plugging away at my goals! Speaking of goals:

I made my goal before Valentine’s Day! My new goal is to get to 170 by my firstborn’s 17th birthday. He’ll be 17 on March 1, that’s more than a month to loose about 10 pounds…

We’ve been working out about 4 times a week. It’s fun! After being home all day, going to the gym with my husband feels like a date.

We cleaned out Mr. Taffy’s closet this week and took 3 gigantic bags of clothes to Goodwill! He’s doing so well!

I’ve also decided that once I get to 160 I’m going to get a new driver’s license, just because.

Less of me. More of HIM!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Turkey Porcupine Sliders~Recipe

2012-01-26T08:30:00.001-06:00

Last weekend we had a Parent’s Night for the parent’s in our fellowship. We went to a restaurant that is known for their healthy food and delicious tea. It was a really fun night out and I really liked my dinner so I got the idea of trying to remake the recipe at home. I think I succeeded!

Ingredient list-

Ground Turkey (I’m sorry I don’t know how much I used exactly, I just buy the 4 pack from Costco, I used 1 pack, it doesn’t have the weight on it-weird!)
1 cup chopped raw spinach
1/2 cup chopped craisans
2 cups of prepared brown rice (or white or brown and wild, this is a good way to use up rice left overs)
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1 Tbsp. Parsley
1/2 tsp. all-purpose vegetable seasoning

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix well. I used my kitchen aide because my turkey was still a little frozen. Shape into little patties.

Fry them on a griddle using a little olive oil or non-stick cooking spray.

I made mine all at once and put them in a casserole dish. Then I warmed them up in the microwave before I served them. I was able to make about 20 little patties. They cooked up really fast too.

I made up a batch of potato rolls with some leftover mashed potatoes, these are mini rolls. The rest of the dough I made a loaf of bread. Here’s the recipe for the rolls. You could use any little roll with good results.

YUM!! You can see I used wild rice in mine. Some of the kids put ketchup on theirs (yuck!). If I had it I would have put lettuce and tomato on them too. Everybody really liked them, I did make Mr. Taffy’s without craisans, he doesn’t appreciate craisans. I served this with Crunchy Potatoes and Mashed Acorn Squash.

Feed your family well!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T10:34:00.001-06:00

A message to young ladies~Move Quickly!

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

As a family we have a goal of reading through the Bible this year, as I’ve mentioned before. One day last week when we were reading through Genesis and the account of how Rebekah became Isaac’s bride, I was struck with something, she moved QUICKLY!

Now the young woman was very beautiful to behold, a virgin; no man had known her. And she went down to the well, filled her pitcher and came up. And the servant ran to her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.” So she said, “Drink my lord.” Then she quickly let her pitcher down to her hand, and gave him a drink. And when she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will draw water for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.” They she quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for his camels. Genesis 24:16-20

Then a few verses later…

So the young woman ran and told her mother’s household of these things. vs. 28

Her quick movements got the attention of Abraham’s servant when he recapped what had happened, here he is speaking to Rebekah’s family,

And she made haste and let her pitcher down from her shoulder, and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels a drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink also. vs. 46

There is more evidence of her moving quickly throughout the rest of this story, but I don’t want to focus on their short engagement, I want to focus on the way she physically moved-quickly!

Noah Webster defines quickly as: Speedily; with haste or celerity (Rapidity in motion; swiftness; speed). Rebekah was not lollygagging, she was not slow and mellow, she was purposed, earnest, FAST! I love it! It’s attractive in a young lady to see her moving quickly about her tasks. It’s a beautiful thing to see a young lady know her position and purpose and do it with elegance and joy. Being quick speaks to her commitment to doing the thing which she set out to do or was asked to do. It’s no small task watering 10 camels until they have had enough! Quickness testifies to determination, exuberance, passion.

Think about the opposite of Quick: lazy, slow, sluggish. I hope I never have to use those words to describe my daughters! And I hope they never use those words to describe me!

There is a young lady in my life that reminds me of Rebekah. In her purposed joyful movements I can see a glimpse of the woman that she will become. A woman who will (and does) approach every request with determination, every situation with exuberance and joy. She has pizzazz and it’s attractive, she has a million friends because of it! She will be a fantastic wife and mother one day, using that energy, that quickness to do the things she needs to do, honoring her husband and her Lord! I have no doubt she will be able to keep up with whatever surprises the Lord sends her way because she’s quick, like Rebekah!

So my exhortation to the young ladies who read my blog and the young ladies in my life, be quick, be purposed, be swift! Do the things you need to do and do them with joy and gusto, without hesitation. The blessings of God followed Rebekah and I wouldn’t be surprised if they follow YOU too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Minnesota Historical Society

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Groupon and my sister-in-law I was able to get a great deal on a membership to the Minnesota Historical Society. One of the benefits of the membership is being able to visit the Minnesota History Museum. It’s hand’s on museum right in Down Town St. Paul.

This was in the weather room, it’s a reenactment of a famous and destructive tornado that struck not too far from our home many years ago. See the piano in the bathroom?

The children are sitting in the basement listening to the event being retold by a family who lived through it. It was very realistic with sound effects and lighting. I couldn’t stay in there with Marshmallow on my back…too scary!

The children climbing through a grain elevator. This was their favorite room for sure!

Hmmm….I don’t think he’s tall enough to play in there without supervision!

Off to market…

I forget what this room was called but it was all around the time period of World War 2. I think it was called The Greatest Generation. We loved the soda fountain, just look at those prices!

Why don’t ingredient lists look like this anymore?

There’s something almost artistic about television’s from that time period. Chocolate Taffy thought the commercials were much more tasteful back then too.

Can you read that? $65 to deliver a baby? Fantastic!

We toured a house exhibit that showed the different occupants over the years. The first family that lived there had this cool Sears Catalog. The boy’s found the page for guns first!

Our lovely capital building…

We had a really nice time and I’m really excited to go visit some other places in Minnesota that we’ve never been too before, like Fort Snelling and the Oliver Kelly Farm.

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

S.W.O.R.D~An invitation

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-06:00

I’m not exactly sure how to do this, I just know that I really want to do this! I want to invite my readers to join our S.W.O.R.D group on Facebook. My husband started this group in an effort to get people reading and discussing the Word. S.W.O.R.D stands for Supernatural Wisdom Often Revealed Daily. We are using the Bible reading planner that came with our Balancing the Sword books. Our goal is to read the through Bible, each of us in our family, during 2012. I want to invite you and your family to join us!

Sometimes we read together, sometimes we read separately. We always take Sunday’s off and most major holidays. There is a link to the reading schedule in the group under the “Docs” link. Now comes the part I don’t know how to do. I want to invite you to join us, but since it’s a closed group I don’t exactly know how to do that. So, I think what I am going to do is ask that if you are interested, leave me a comment with your Facebook I.D. and I’ll send you an invitation from the S.W.O.R.D group. I won’t publish your comment though…does that sound alright? If that doesn’t work…I work on figuring out how to make it work! Here’s the direct link….maybe you can just request to be invited? Give it try and let me know. (smile)

Reading the Word is so important! Just like eating right and exercising, just like teaching school each day and faithfully making dinner, it’s a discipline that is unequal in it’s benefits! Please join us!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

A Mile in His Shoes~Review & Giveaway!!

2012-01-18T08:20:00.001-06:00

Looking for a great family movie? Does your family love Baseball? Do you know someone on the Autism spectrum? Then I think you will really enjoy A Mile in His Shoes.

From the director of "Angels In the Outfield" comes an inspiring story about a special boy with an amazing gift, and the coach who believed. Dean Cain and Luke Schroder star in the gmc movie based on the book "The Legend of Mickey Tussler".

I don’t know much about Autism, or baseball for that matter, but this movie was very enjoyable. I had to hold my breath during a party scene…but don’t worry, it didn’t go anyway that made it inappropriate.

Here’s the trailer to the movie if you would like to see what it’s like. Here’s another clip too.

Thanks to Propeller, I’m able to giveaway a copy of this movie to one of my faithful readers!! It makes me so happy to be able to share quality entertainment with you and it makes me happy that there are more and more movies like these being made!

I’ll be drawing the winner on Tuesday, January 24, right after I get back from working out! (smile)

The Rules:

1st Entry-Be a follower of my blog and let me know that you are.
2nd entry-Watch the trailer and tell me what you thought.

Please make sure I have a way to contact you should you win, if there’s no way for me to contact you, I’ll have to select a different winner! Thanks for playing along!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Weight-Loss Journal {12}

2012-01-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

A couple good things happened this week on my weight loss journey. You’ll recall me mentioning us looking for a treadmill. Well, to no avail, so instead Mr. Taffy negotiated an amazing deal at a local fitness club for us. For 29$ a month the 5 us (over 12 years old) have a membership to this club, no sign up fee or anything. What’s even better is that our Health Insurance will reimburse both Mr. Taffy and I $20 each for going 8 times a month! We will actually be making a little money on the deal! Amazing!! So, needless to say, we have been to the club a few times this week! I’ve been using their elliptical machine, it’s nice on my knees! I’ve also been doing some light weight lifting. My goals being to strength the muscles around my knees, get rid of my pizza dough belly and my flabby underarms.

The second cool thing that happened this week is that I fit into and bought a pair of size 14 jeans!

Okay, I guess they aren’t exactly jeans…more like khaki’s, but they are cotton, not cotton stretch. When I look at these pictures I still think I have a long way to go. It does help that I have some other before pictures to compare them too. (The pants are 14 and the shirt XL. I’m not proportional…yet.)

In both of these photos the shirt is XXL. The jeans were 18, the black pants XL.

Considering it’s my “time of the month” I’m pretty happy with my weight. 181.4 What am I saying? I am actually thrilled with that!! Less than 20lbs to go! I can scarcely believe it!

My hunger pangs are subsiding greatly! And I found that I lose the most weight when I avoid gluten. Sugar doesn’t seem to be the issue as much as gluten. Interesting!

Less of me…More of HIM!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

A healthy and wholesome meal.

2012-01-13T12:44:00.001-06:00

This business of feeding my family is very time-consuming and also very satisfying. I always feel like I’ve accomplished something significant when I’ve delivered a healthy and delicious dinner to my family. Here’s one of the dinner’s we had this past week.

Homemade chicken nuggets, Crunchy Potatoes, Mashed Acorn Squash and Peas. There were also oranges on the table. I’m always trying to pack as many fruits and veggies into my children as I can afford. :)

Chicken Nuggets~

Chicken breast
Panko Bread Crumbs (Trader Joe’s)
Brown Sugar, optional
Garlic Salt

This is one of those recipes that you just make as much as you need. For my family I use three BIG chicken breasts, cut into pieces about the size of a common chicken nugget. Then in a bowl I mix together the panko, brown sugar and garlic. You can either dredge each nugget in the mixture or you can put the coating in a big Ziploc bag and cover the nuggets “shake and bake” style. Put the nuggets on a cookie sheet, lightly oiled and bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees. Cut a thick nugget in half to check for doneness.

On this pan here, you’ll see the nuggets I described above and the ones I made for myself. (Don’t worry, I didn’t eat all of those) The white ones are covered in unsweetened coconut. I eat them like this because they are gluten-free and I’m trying to avoid gluten (for weight-loss reasons). They are SO yummy this way! Not all of my family likes coconut otherwise I would make all the nuggets this way!!

Crunchy Potatoes~

6-9 Yukon Gold or 12-14 Little Red Potatoes, cut in cubes
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. all purpose vegetable seasoning
pepper to taste

Give the potatoes a good scrub and them cut them up with the skins on. Put all the little cubes a in Ziploc bag, dump the other ingredients on top, zip up the bag and shake, shake, shake! Pour the potatoes onto a buttered cookie sheet (the kind with sides, otherwise use 2-9 x 13 pans, you don’t want the potatoes piled on top of each other too high. Add a few little cubes of butter to the potatoes, scattered around. I use less than a quarter cup, just lots of little pieces. Bake at 375 for an hour, stirring occasionally. My family LOVES these things! They all cheer when they smell them baking, good ole’ stinky parmesan! lol

Mashed Acorn Squash~

If you’re intimidated by squash, don’t worry, you are not alone! I promise the hardest part is cutting it up! I took 2 acorn squash, cut them in half and scooped out the seeds. Then I gave the squash halves a good rinse and steamed them in my vegetable steamer basket on the stove top, flesh side down. I steamed them for about 30 minutes. You can check for doneness be piercing the skin with a fork, if it goes in easily, it’s soft enough. Then I let them cool for a bit, once I could stand touching them, I scooped out all the yummy orange part and put the “fruit” in a bowl. Mash with a potato masher. You can add butter and salt now, or a little chicken broth and salt, or a little honey and salt. Squash is naturally sweet, so I don’t normally add more sweetener. I like to use an ice-cream scoop when I serve it. Laffy Taffy, who does NOT appreciate squash, will eat it if I give him some unsalted pecans to use as a scoop. He loves pecans and he will eat all his squash this way!

Peas~

Personally, I think Trader Joe’s Peas are the best, sweet and not chalky at all!

There you have it! A delicious and wholesome dinner to love and nurture you family! Feed them well!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

2012/2013 Homeschool Proposal

2012-01-12T10:42:00.001-06:00

It’s that time of year again, the time when I make my annual homeschool proposal. If you are new to reading my blog, you can read this post to see what I’m talking about! I had so much fun yesterday! I would have happily foregone making dinner, but alas I pushed through and finished my proposal BEFORE dinner. Each year it seems to get a little easier, since my style and tastes become more refined. Here’s what I came up with:

Strawberry Taffy-10th Grade

Math-Algebra 2 (Teaching Textbooks)
Science-Biology (Apologia), including dissection specimens.
Language Arts-Excellence in Literature English 2 Literature and Composition (So excited about this because most of the books are FREE on Amazon for her kindle! Strawberry really enjoys literature!
Latin- Latin Alive 2 (Classical Academic Press)
History-Ancient World and Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer, WonderMaps
Extras-Thinking Putty & Learning HTML(Dad directed from various on-line resources.)

I have almost all of this stuff since her brother’s used most of it. Her total cost for 10th grade is approximately $260. The biggest expense being Latin. It seems to me that prices are going up here, just like everywhere else. Hopefully I can find some of these things used too. I’ll be looking anyway!

Blue-Raspberry Taffy-4th Grade

Math-Grade 4 (Teaching Textbooks)
Science- Anatomy and Physiology (Apologia), Anatomy and Physiology Lapbook (Live and Learn Press)
Language Arts- Phonetic Zoo (IEW), Easy Grammar, Various Reader, Writing Through the Proverbs.
Latin-Latin For Children A (Classical Academic Press)
History-The Story of the World Vol. 2, Draw & Write Through History x 2(Timberdoodle)

I’m really excited about the Phonetic Zoo. He took the placement test yesterday and listened to the sample. He got really excited about being able to earn the Animal Cards. I have about half of this stuff. Latin and Math being the most expensive. Thankfully, this is the last set of TT that I have to buy, I have all the rest all the way up to Geometry. His total, for all NEW products is approximately 350.00. Like I said before, I will try to find some of this used, the main reason for making this proposal is so that I have enough money set aside from our tax return to get them at new prices if I need too.

Bubble Gum-2nd Grade

Math- Mathematical Reasoning C (Timberdoodle) (wow! This price went up since I checked it yesterday! ouch!)
Science-See Blue-Raspberry
Language Arts-All about Spelling (Kit and Level 1), Various Readers, Handwriting Through the Proverbs.
Latin-Repeat Song School Latin 1 unless Song School Latin 2 is ready by August, then I’ll be getting that for her and Laffy Taffy.
History-See Blue-Raspberry

Super excited about All About Spelling! I would buy it right now if I could swing it. Which I might be able too…I’m going to offer some of my old stuff for sale here on my blog, be watching for it!!** Her total comes to approximately $100.00.

Laffy Taffy-PreK

All About Reading-pre-reading program
Song School Latin
Lots of Math Games

I’m pretty much freaking out about All about Reading! I really want to get this for him RIGHT NOW! I could probably take it out of my grocery budget! lol He’s going to LOVE it! I’m pretty sure I’m going to love it too and there’s no risk since she offers a money back guarantee, who does that anymore?

It’s so very odd not including Banana and Chocolate in this proposal. They will be graduating next year, pretty much all of their education will either come from their College or on-line sources. I still consider them homeschooled since I’m very much involved in helping them pick their classes and manage their time, I do pay for the little fees associated with the group they are going to that hosts the college classes also.

It always gets me so excited, all this planning and preparing. I’m so thankful to be homeschooling and so thankful for the resources that are available!

“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.” Proverbs 9:9

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

**I went ahead and made a page of Used-Curriculum that I am selling! Check it out if you having something on my proposal and you want to trade, I’m open to that as well!!

Z Guide~Review {Les Miserables}

2012-01-10T14:23:00.001-06:00

Ever have a day, or possibly series of days, when you just can’t get to the books and lessons that go with homeschooling? Ever just want a break? Maybe your family just likes movies and you want to be able to incorporate those movies into your homeschool. Introducing Z Guide to the movies.

I chose a high school guide to review--Les Miserables. This DVD was easily found at my library and we were already familiar with the story. Zeezok recommends checking with a trusted website like Plugged In! in order to see if a movie is appropriate for your family. I wish I would have taken that advice. Les Miserables does have nudity in it…we weren’t prepared and it made me sick. But that has nothing to do with the Z Guide, I just wanted to mention that so you don’t make the same mistake I did.Z Guide comes in either ebook or CD form. And you can buy them for either family use or for use in a co-op. ($12.99/$49.99) I printed out the entire guide and while two of my high-schoolers watched the movie they answered the questions. Questions cover topics like:

history
research skills
writing skills
world view
hands on activities
critical thinking
and more!!

To read more about what the Z-Guide specifically covers in each topic, visit their website. It’s full of helpful information. Banana and Strawberry really enjoyed watching the movie in a more purposed manner. They liked thinking about the different questions and felt it gave the movie depth and interest beyond being a passive viewer. Granted, they couldn’t stop discussing how the movie is so “wrong” and were especially horrified at how the young lady Cosette was portrayed . But I guess that was part of the beauty of the guide, it gave them a reason to discuss it instead of internalizing it and going about their way!

While I don’t have any intention of using movies as part of our curriculum at this time, I got to review this Z Guide at a time were there was a natural break in my children’s assignments and it was blessing to have them thinking and discussing and doing during a time when they would have been content to just watch a movie, instead watching the movie became part of their education. Even the surprise nude scene gave us plenty to discuss! (wink)

To see what other members of the CREW thought about the other Z Guides offered by Zeezok, visit the CREW blog!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given a copy of this Z Guide in exchange for my honest opinion, I was not paid.

Balancing the Sword Giveaway!!

2012-01-08T12:09:00.001-06:00

My super awesome husband is giving away a set of Balancing the Sword books! Our heart’s desire is to get people into the Word, and since many people resolve to read their Bible more in the new year, what better way to help them reach their goal than to give away a set of books!!

There’s still a week left to enter! Please read the directions carefully and have fun! Click here to enter!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

The Land of Projects

2012-01-05T10:23:00.001-06:00

You know how projects have a cascading effect. You start with one idea, which leads to another and then another and while you are doing “this” you might as well do “that” also. That’s what’s been going on here. It started a few months ago when we were trying to figure out how to get Marshmallow into the already crammed girl’s bedroom. One conversation lead to another and finally we decided the cheapest and easiest option was to move Strawberry into the office so that Marshmallow could move in with Bubble Gum. Mr. Taffy chose the week of Christmas to start the project! Really, it was just a more thorough discussion at that time because while I love this sort of activity it was overwhelming to consider doing during Christmas week. I got started on it the day after Christmas.

I’m sure I have a picture of what it looked like before somewhere, but I don’t have time to search for it now. So after pictures will have to do!

Strawberry picked out pink again, this one is softer pink than her old room. I painted the ceiling white (burned lots of calories doing that!) and then 3 of the walls. She hand painted on this scripture that is meaningful to her. I also taught her how to sponge paint and let her paint the inside of her closet. The theory being if her closet is lovely on the inside she’ll want to keep the clothes looking lovely too! I’ll let you know if that works.

On the fourth wall I starched this lovely Victorian fabric to it. It’s really more lovely in person as it’s got the pink from her walls, the green from the carpet and a warm brown to balance things out. We still need to put curtains up in there and she wants to finish decorating it this spring at garage sales. It’s so pretty and girly in there. We are so happy that she has a little bit of her own space. She’s a young lady now and needs a little space of her own.

That project lead to getting the flooring done in the hallway. We’ve had this flooring sitting around for years! Mr. Taffy gave Banana and Chocolate the job of laying it. Chocolate did most of it because he’s very careful and meticulous.

Cornball!

The bathroom floor and the hallway. The molding still needs to be put back on. Chocolate did as much as he could, Mr. Taffy has to cut some of the molding to adjust for a higher floor.

While this project was going on my house was a wreck!

I had loads of stuff from the office to find a place for too. It was big project relocating all the stuff that was in there! I still have a pile of stuff in the family room, but it’s all for Goodwill. Because this project lead to fixing up the little girls room…

…I painted the ceiling and the walls in here too. It’s a lovely lavender color, not the ceiling, just the walls. I moved a lot of stuff out of there and got this cute cubby thing at Target.

Here’s a shot from the doorway.

I bought half a yard of fabric at Wal-Mart and recovered the little chairs (so fun!). All the little girl’s clothes are in the closet now, there’s not another dresser in the bedroom, just no room. Marshmallow slept in there last night and did very well!

This project led to me having to rearrange the playroom because I moved a book shelf out of the little girl’s room and had to find a place for it…oh yeah, the homeschool room got some rearranging too since the office is no more…so much to think about!

It’s still a little crowded, but it’s working. Well this morning, I got all inspired to rearrange my bedroom, since all traces of Marshmallow are gone. I don’t have a picture though…sorry.

I’ve basically just given you a little tour of my house! Of course there is other stuff, closets had to be reorganized to hold different stuff, the garage had to be cleaned too because stuff got moved out there. I’ve been “filing” away out grown clothes since I was already working on the bedroom closets. On and on it goes! I think it’s finally coming to an end though. The little boy’s really want me to paint their room, but that will have to wait until spring, it’s back to the books for us on Monday and I want to stay on track all winter so we can do other things this spring!

I lost 2 pounds this week already from all the activity. This is the kind of exercise I like!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Regrouping for the New Year

2012-01-02T10:25:00.001-06:00

The New Year started without much hoopla here. We had a pretty nice year last year, so we weren’t waiting for a new one to begin. In years past we welcomed the new year with much more anticipation and excitement. I don’t know how it was for you, but for me 2011 flew by! Honestly, I’m still having trouble writing 2011 on my checks! We were home working on projects on New Year’s Eve. Then the evening was spent eating Peppermint Joe-Joe Ice Cream and Popcorn while watching Dolphin Tale. It was fun! My little people kind of slept in on New Year’s Day…kind of. I woke up sick though and pretty much laid in bed all day. Mr. Taffy was wonderful and fed everybody breakfast and even brought me breakfast in bed!

Now that it’s the second I’m feeling a little better physically, but mentally I’m super-charged! We aren’t returning to our homeschool this week, like most people are. I was trying to keep our home schedule lined up with the boy’s college schedule, plus I knew I would need a week to recover from the busy-ness of the holiday’s. I’m so glad I gave us that extra week! I have so many errands to run this week. Here’s my bullet list-

Get Strawberry Taffy an I.D. Card
Get Marshmallow’s Passport picture taken and Passport ordered
Take boy’s to college to get their next semester’s Books
Have lunch with Mr. Taffy at his work
Do a food testing and get paid! Not excited about the food, but excited to get paid to eat for 45 minutes! lol
Visit the University of Minnesota Surplus store and try to find a non-wobbly table to do school on.
Plan January and February School
Make Bread

Today I’m still taking it easy, my head is pounding…

Okay, the next post I do will be about our projects I promise!! I heart projects!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss Journal {11}

2011-12-30T19:47:00.001-06:00

I’m so glad Christmas is over! At least as far as my weight loss journey goes! It’s hard having my hands in my “vices” and seeing and smelling it EVERYWHERE I go! Earlier this week I weighed myself and I was back up to 189. I wasn’t too discouraged because I still was holding to my original goal of being 190 by Christmas. Well, we (Mr. Taffy and I) got busy and stopped eating so much and when I weighed in today at 186.4! Sweet!

I have had some exercise this week too. Not the typical exercise that you are thinking of, but I painted a room this week and according to Spark’s People painting for 2 hours burns upwards of 600 calories! I was painting longer than 2 hours! It’s been a very busy week, putting my house back together after the holidays and doing some big organization projects. It’s not done yet either!

Before I go to bed tonight I am going to set up my two crock-pots each with a whole chicken in it. Then in the morning I’m going to make 22 quarts of chicken soup. That will be good eatin’ for a good long while! Soup is really an awesome option for us. It’s filling and loaded with nutrients and low-cal, not to mention warm. I can eat it without crackers or bread, I do like to add some brown rice though.

I’d like to get to 180 by Valentine’s Day. We have a break from celebrations until February, then we have two birthday’s in a row. One of those children wants a triple decker chocolate cake. Yeah right!

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!!

Joyfully eating less,

Mrs. Taffy

My Christmas Baby

2011-12-28T20:31:00.001-06:00

Today was such a happy day! Today we celebrated Blue-Raspberry’s 9th birthday. He was so excited and the day before his birthday he was reporting the time to me every hour or so, just so I would know it was getting closer to his special day. He was up at 4:45 this morning…he couldn’t wait a second longer and when I sent him back to bed he accused me of torturing him! Funny boy!

This is the cake he wanted. It’s supposed to be a robot, you can see the picture we copied behind it. He helped with the placement of the various robot buttons and the strategic positioning of the donuts. It’s tradition for him to help me with making his cake, I think he enjoys that more than anything.

He opened his gifts after a breakfast of homemade whole wheat waffles.

He was pretty pleased with all the Legos he got!

He pretty much just played with his new stuff all day, built his Legos, organized Legos, etc. Then we had a yummy dinner of homemade chili, organic tortilla chips and fruit salad (his choice), followed by the cake (which was gluten-free and soy-free by the way, not the decorations though) and vanilla ice cream from Costco.

Happy Birthday Blue-Raspberry! You fill our days with Joy and we love you more than all the Legos in the whole world!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

After Christmas Catch-Up!

2011-12-27T17:20:00.001-06:00

Just like you I have been super busy, busier than normal it seems! We’ve celebrated Christmas, we’ve cleaned up from Christmas, we’ve started a new project, visited some friends and spent a lot of time talking about the weather!

Here’s some highlights…pictures are better than words in most cases.

These are the kids gifts to each other. They draw a name to see which sibling they are buying for. They opened these presents on Christmas Eve, right after we ate a lunch of frosted sugar cookies! Ahhhh…traditions!

This is Mr. Taffy’s creation, it’s him and me…so funny and disgustingly sweet, just like the two of us! hahaha!

Waiting patiently to open gifts!

Laffy Taffy and Blue-Raspberry drew each other’s names.

He looks pretty happy huh? It’s a watch if you can’t tell.

Banana and Bubble Gum drew each other’s names. See the paper on his head? That’s how she unwrapped everything, paper was flying EVERYWHERE!

Get ready Banana….she’s about to smother you with JOY!

I hope you took a deep breath before that squeeeeze!

Strawberry and Chocolate drew each other names. Isn’t it funny how they paired up? She gave him a book and a watch, he gave her an all-purpose pocket knife tool, in hot pink!

Our dessert table. Everything is soy-free except the chocolate things. Though I did make some special soy-free chocolate treats for Chocolate Taffy, I just didn’t put them out for everybody.

Christmas morning. It’s our tradition to hide the kid’s stockings so they go looking for them whilst I make the coffee! Then they all have to wait until Mr. Taffy and I are settled in with coffee cup in hand, then they can start digging! It’s loud and messy and really fun!

Another tradition we have…I can’t exactly remember when it started, is to give the children 3 gifts each. We open them one at a time, youngest to oldest. It helps make the morning last longer and helps with growing and nurturing patience and joy for others. I bought most of those gifts for Mr. Taffy. He’s lost so much weight he needs new clothes, especially under garments! He stocking was full of socks and underwear. Not that exciting, but socks for his king size feet are expensive!

This was the gift I was most excited about! Are you ready for the reveal?

He blogged all about it here!

Here’s the gift run-down if you are interested in that sort of thing:

Banana-Cowboy hat, 2 Missionary books and Cross Necklace.

Chocolate-A complicated Tank Model with Marines to build, Lego Book and Remote Control Helicopter.

Strawberry-My old Kindle (Yipee) and 2 CD’s that she REALLY wanted and a wedge book light.

Blue-Raspberry-An indoor scooter, legos and another set of legos.

Bubble Gum-3 different Melissa and Doug Horse toys, one was a stamp set.

Laffy Taffy-A Lightening McQueen sleeping bag, a stuffed sword and a learning toy that uses a “real” drill.

Marshmallow-We didn’t really buy her anything. She got a few things from other people but not us.

And me…I got a Kindle Fire! Sweet! I got to open it a little early though. It wasn’t supposed to be here until Christmas Eve, but it came early! I love it! Mr. Taffy actually bought me a few things for it, like a digital magazine subscription and a book about the evils of soy. Did I mention I’m having a little fun playing Angry Birds? What a waste of time! Fun though! It’s a nice distraction from the mess that is my house…ugh.

I took down all our Christmas decorations yesterday…they started to crowd me! It was a wonderful celebration, all but the weather, which makes us long to dig in the garden, not hunker down by the fire with our gifts! I’ll tell you about our “project” soon!

I pray your Christmas was wonderful and memorable and full of joy!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Merry Christmas from the Taffy’s

2011-12-24T05:30:00.001-06:00

As I’m doing my final preparing for the fun ahead, I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas! Be Blessed and try to ignore the mess! (that’s what I’ll be doing!)

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Christmas Date-Night

2011-12-22T15:50:00.001-06:00

Even during Christmastime it’s important for a husband and a wife to have some time together, alone! And lately I’ve been feeling even more conviction to make sure I plan things just for my husband and I. It’s so easy for us to get wrapped up in the lives of our children and our work and then forget to focus on our first loves-each other. The best gift we can give our children is parent’s who love each other and delight in each other time and presence. So, in the spirit of all that I bought Mr. Taffy tickets to see Triple Espresso.

It’s a comedy act, a clean comedy act. Oh my so funny too! We went years and years ago and then all of a sudden they were back in town, we HAD to go! I had to be pretty sneaky to make it a surprise. Thankfully my sons have their own checking accounts and check visa’s so they could get the tickets for me, paying them back was a little trickier, but it all worked out.

We had seats right on the floor in front of the stage.

Initially when I gave him the tickets he wasn’t too excited about it. After all, we have seen the show before. But I wasn’t discouraged, after the show was over, he thanked me numerous times. It was so fun! Fun to laugh and be together, fun to finish our sentences and thoughts without the usual interruptions, fun to feel young and in love! Nothing makes me happier than walking next to my husband, being his bride and sharing our “inside jokes,” and making everybody think we are newly weds!

Fight for you marriage, even during Christmastime!! Protect it, nurture it and let it bring Glory to God!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

A Season of Memories

2011-12-17T20:36:00.001-06:00

I just love a reason to celebrate! There have been so many lately! The first thing we celebrated was Banana and Chocolate finishing their first semester of college. We celebrated with their favorite dinner of spaghetti and homemade meatballs. I also made homemade bread sticks and green beans. For dessert we had fancy vanilla ice-cream with homemade fudge and caramel sauce. (I’ve been making every from scratch since discovering Chocolate’s allergy to soy.) We even sang to them-For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. It was great! That was Thursday night.

Then Friday night the girls and I went to see the Celtic Woman Christmas Concert. I hope this was just the first of many, many more “girl’s night out” with my daughters.

Here we are before the show starts. I took this picture with my little camera.

Since Strawberry is interested in all things Irish, she got attached to the Celtic Woman. I’ve allowed the obsession because the girls are so lady-like and feminine, they sing like ladies, talk like ladies and behave like ladies, dress like ladies. Strawberry knew they were coming to the Twin Cities and the day the tickets went on sale she was ready to purchase them with her own money! Well, Mr. Taffy was going to have none of that, so he bought them for his girls. It was a great night!

We were in the 3rd balcony, way up there, but it didn’t matter. The sound was amazing. The girls were on the stage with the orchestra. We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the show, this was before it started.

Strawberry and Bubble Gum imagined how wonderful it would be if it started snowing when we came out of the theater. Those girls and their dreams! (smile) It hasn’t snowed much at all this winter, but would you believe it started snowing last night when the show was over? You should have heard the squeals of delight! Downtown Minneapolis was beautifully decorated and lit up, it was a magical moment for sure.

Now for Saturday, Saturday marks the beginning of our Christmas break. We have 3 weeks off. Fellowship was cancelled on account of most everybody being sick (not us), so instead we played games, made treats and decorated gingerbread houses. What my little ones call a “family fun time.”

She was so funny, every time I pointed the camera at her, she lit up and smiled a big cheesy smile for me!

Laffy Taffy decorated some gingerbread men, so did Bubble Gum.

Bubble Gum’s Cookies.

She was totally whining until she saw the camera looking at her! So funny!

Banana and Strawberry shared a house.

Chocolate and Blue-Raspberry shared a house too. There’s was so beautiful!

The mess was tremendous but compared to the memory made it was NOTHING!

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas Season too! As the woman of the house you have all the power to make it a season of joy or stress, a season of scowling or a season of smiles! When I feel the stress of wanting everything to be perfect rising up in me, I push that beast back because it’s not what I want my children to remember about this time. I want them to remember a joyful momma who delighted in all things Christmas and Candy, sparkles and snowflakes! It’s such a short window of time we have with our little ones, we must make the most of it!

Joy, joy, joy!!

Mrs. Taffy

The World’s Greatest Story~Review

2011-12-17T13:14:00.001-06:00

My latest review for the Old Schoolhouse is called The World’s Greatest Stories. If you are anything like us, you love to have wonderful CD’s and possibly even a few Cassette Tapes around for your children to listen too. We have been collecting CD’s for YEARS! My little ones are listening to CD’s that we bought when my teens were little. Even my teens enjoy listening to those CD’s, now that they are older, and the happy memories they invoke.

Well, here’s a new set of CD’s to add to your collection. The World’s Greatest Stories is the Bible, alive on CD.

We received Volume 1-The Prophets. George W. Sarris is the mastermind behind this high-quality production. His CD’s are Bible and nothing more but so much more. He reads the Bible, word for word, from either the KJV or NIV version of the Bible. His voice changes with the reading, appropriate to who is speaking and what is being said. There’s also sound effects and music. You can hear a sample here.

I love it that he’s reading the Bible, not adding to it, not taking away from it. My children loved it too!

Turning it UP! He didn’t want to miss any of it!

The price is very affordable as well, $7.95 for a CD or Cassette. He has several different portions of the Bible to choose from. Visit the The World’s Greatest Story Website to learn more about Mr. Sarris and his vision. And visit the crew blog to see what other Crew Members thought!

Merry Christmas!

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss Journal {10}

2011-12-17T07:00:00.001-06:00

I meant to do this update on Friday, but I just couldn’t make it happen! I’ve had a pretty good week. I’ve been really energetic and really sleepy too! I’ve had really good self-control and also been tempted almost beyond what I could handle!

My prayer this week has been, “Less of me and more of You, Lord. Less of my flesh and more of your Spirit!” It’s a funny prayer, but it’s been effective!

I weighed in at 187.4 on Friday. Phew! I’ve had a few treats this week. Like Caribou had a customer appreciation day and I had a coffee. I also had a dark chocolate bar from Trader Joes…that time of the month. lol I’m starting to see it really is okay to have a treat once in a while. It’s the constant indulgence of treats that was getting me into trouble! Constant might be an understatement in all honestly.

Me and my girls ready to go see the Nutcracker. We got to see a matinee with a educators discount-$18.00 for the 4 of us!

I can see that as Christmas approaches is it going to be more and more challenging to have self-control. I’m just glad some of the cravings have stopped and the hunger pangs don’t torment me all day long anymore!!

Carry On!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-14T13:55:00.001-06:00

A Day in My Life (12-12-11)

2011-12-13T13:27:00.001-06:00

Personally, I think these types of posts are interesting. I also realize that they could cause some trouble. On the one hand some of you might get inspired on the other hand some of you might feel overwhelmed. On one hand you might think I’m “tooting my own horn” or you might think “That’s ALL you do all day?” Still some others might be a bit disappointed because you won’t see any “quiet-time” in there any where, no any personal bible study or prayer time. And honestly when I was writing out my day I thought, oh I better do something “spiritual” lest anyone think I’m not! haha! This is just an honest day in my life. Just because I didn’t sit down and read my Bible, doesn’t mean I wasn’t constantly in communion with God! My thoughts are always on Him, checking in with Him to see if I’m doing what He wants, if I’m missing anything. I didn’t talk to my husband until the evening, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t married to him during the day. Think on that a while…

4:55-Got up, got dressed etc., woke up Mr. Taffy

5:30-Checked email, sent email, read blogs, made coffee, checked the mouse traps (YUCKY!) Addressed 2 Christmas Cards and a package.

5:40-Told Laffy Taffy to go back to bed.

6:00-Made fruit salad for breakfast and made Mr. Taffy a turkey bacon and cheese omelet w/fruit salad for breakfast, and made his coffee and lunch too.

6:20-Since Laffy Taffy is allowed to get out of bed at 6, he was up and I sent him to wake up the rest of the children.

6:30-started making omelets for everybody.

7:15-cleaning up from breakfast, washing dishes and brushing hair. Everybody goes to make their beds after breakfast too.

7:30-Marshmallow wakes up and Mr. taffy leaves for work, “by honey!” Change baby and make my bed. Call for certain people to come back upstairs to do a better job making their beds! lol

7:45-carrying everything down to the school room-book basket, lap top, baby monitor, coffee. Get set up for school.

8:00 Start school with Blue-Raspberry, Bubble Gum and Laffy Taffy. We read 3 chapters in White Stallion of Lipizza. This is part of our horse unit study/lapbook that we are doing. Such a great book!

They each did a lesson in Math and we are in a review chapter in Song School Latin, so we did some reviewing too. Laffy Taffy worked on his J is for Jesus stuff from Confessions of a Homeschooler and he did some stenciling too. (We are in “fun school” mode, it’s pretty light until after the New Year.) Somewhere in there I switched the laundry nursed the baby and laid the baby down for her morning nap.

9:45- Organized all the printables I have been cutting and laminating. FUN! Switched the Laundry again.

10:00-Vacuumed the laundry room and the playroom rugs. They were bad!

10:15-Marshmallow woke up, needed a diaper change a nursing session.

10:40-Started making lunch-Broccoli Cauliflower Soup, bread, fruit. Also, got Mr. Taffy’s lunch ready for tomorrow (left over soup, bread, raw cauliflower)

11:10-Lunch time! We ate and I read a chapter in Tabitha’s Travels. We started late so we are really far behind in our book!

11:40-Lunch is over, we clean up and I run down to switch the laundry real quick. Also start the diaper load.

12:10-Nurse Baby and sit down to write this post!

12:30-Put little ones to quiet time, put baby in the pouch on my back and iron Mr. Taffy’s work shirts! Big ones are going to watch Les Miserables for a review I’m doing, I’m going to watch it too while I’m ironing! (Disappointing movie-FOTF Radio Theater is WAY better!)

1:30-Done ironing. Switching the laundry for the final time today. Played with Marshmallow and watched the movie with the teens.

2:30-quiet time over. Made a snack of hot chocolate and trail mix and dried mangos. Also, sent Banana and Strawberry on two errands-to the Post office and the library! Love having a driver home during the day!

3:00-let the little ones play with homemade play dough while I started dinner. Laid baby down for a nap.

3:15- Errands runners got home and brought the mail in with them! Love getting mail this time of year! 3 packages and 4 Christmas Cards and 1 magazine! Jackpot!

4:00-Fish Chowder is underway. Cleaned sunroom.

Before

After

4:30-baby up, nursing session. Made garlic cheese biscuits.

5:00- Called Mr. Taffy (first time all day) to see when he would be home. Made Marshmallows dinner.

5:30-Dinners on the table. (Mr. Taffy calls me back and I talk to him throughout all of dinner and clean up too.)

6:00-Cleaning up dinner.

6:30-Orchestrate bathtime and put away laundry at the same time. Baths or showers for everybody 8 and down, fingernails trimmed, teeth and hair brushed.

6:50-I let kid’s open a present that came in the mail today as per our tradition! Fun!

7:10-Everybody 8 and down is in bed, except the baby.

7:30-The teens finish the rest of their movie. I lock myself in my room to wrap presents and get a package ready to ship to WA. (it’s on it’s way mom!) I also tried on some skirts that have been too tight, they aren’t tight anymore!!

8:30-Spend time talking to Mr. Taffy about his day.

9:00-Snuggle time in bed with Marshmallow and Mr. Taffy. Watched Hawaii Five-O. (sheepish grin)

10:00-Light’s out.

Then I got woke up various times throughout the night by my power-nurser and started all over at 5:00 am Tuesday!

I’m finished this post up on Tuesday so I added some commentary (in italics). There were moments of joy and frustration throughout the day too, this is just a task list, it leaves out the happy moments and the loud moments and the discipline sessions. They were all there though, just like your day! Each day is unique, yet similar. There’s always something to do, always somebody to teach or feed, always a prayer being sent up, always a mess to straighten. This is the life of a Mom. It’s a good life and one I am abundantly Thankful For!

If you want to write out your entire day and link it up, I would LOVE to see what you’ve been up too! I bet many of you get more done in a day than I do!

²³ And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Vintage Remedies~Review

2011-12-13T12:51:00.001-06:00

As part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew I was blessed to be able to review a wonderful nutritional education book for young children. This book is the essence of Delight-Led Learning!

This curriculum helps you teach little ones how to choose healthy foods, how to prepare some fun and delicious snacks, how to establish prevention based habits, and how they can participate in your family's natural lifestyle. The workbook is flexible and can be used for playgroups or as a fun family project. Children at this age learn best with active lessons, so this isn't a sit and read style picture book! It's a guide for parents that is packed with hands on activities that are perfect for little hands, but fun for all ages. Each of the 18 chapters includes a brief age appropriate lesson on the topic that parents can use to discuss with little ones while they are preparing for the projects, a featured project to teaches the lesson, additional instructions for parents to include these lessons in the family's lifestyle, and a selection of additional projects on the topic for additional fun. The book also contains sample schedules for preschoolers and convenient shopping lists for each project, complete with a resource guide and tips for parents and leaders. (From the Website)

If you’ve read my blog for any amount of time you know I both love to cook and love to talk about food and I am especially interested in nutrition as it pertains to making healthy kids and parents. This book takes the things I already love to do and discuss with my children and sets it up in a book with suggestions and recipes. I’ve had some of the best conversations with my little people regarding food thanks to this book!

The book is written in a very conversational tone and is easy to read and understand. If you know nothing or everything about nutrition and food you will still be able to get something from this handy book!

Vintage Remedies for Kids sells for $25.00. You can order it, or read more about it and other Vintage Remedies books here. Also, to read reviews about this book and others by Vintage Remedies visit the Crew Blog!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given this book in exchange for an honest review, I was not paid.

Playing with Fractions~Review

2011-12-11T14:43:00.001-06:00

Fractazmic is a 2-4 player game that uses math and language skills. The object of Fractazmic trap is to gather as many hands as possible before the first player runs out of cards. Hands are captured by either (1) playing a card that brings the sum of all cards thrown to 1 or (2) forcing the next player to throw a card that brings the sum to greater than 1. If any of these events occur – the player captures the round and is the first to start the next round.

Each card clearly numbered

Each card clearly labeled with the fraction and reinforcing graphic (from the website)

Fractazmic is designed for ages 1st through 4th Grade. Looking at the cards and the directions I KNEW without a shadow of a doubt that my 1st grader would NOT understand how to play this game. I wasn’t sure my 3rd grader could either! Thankfully my 3rd grader is pretty bright so it didn’t take him long to catch on, but he needed a cheat sheet to help him initially.

That’s my 15 year old, who is in college, explaining to the 3rd grader how to play. It even took him a while to figure out how the 3rd grader was going to understand it. You really have to be able to add fractions in your head, quickly, unless you have a cheat sheet to look at until your memorize how it works.

See, even my 9th grader need a piece of scratch paper to help her! It’s a little tricky, but I think once the concept is understood it’s a great way reinforce fractions, especially around 7th grade when fractions are taught more in depth .

Fractazmic sells for $6.95 for 60 cards. It’s a great price for a game that could really reinforce fractions, especially if you have a child who either really likes playing games or really hates fractions. I just don’t think it’s realistic to say a 1st or 2nd grader can play…unless of course they are very gifted in math!

To see what my other Crew Mates thought, visit the Crew Blog!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given this card game to review in exchange for my honest review, I was not paid.

Weight-loss Journal {9}

2011-12-09T21:40:00.001-06:00

I’m posting a little early this week because today marks our 2 month anniversary of new life style of eating. I weighed in this morning at 189.2! I was so surprised! And so happy! Earlier in the week I weighed myself and I was up (194), but I was having that same gassy belly that I described a few weeks ago. I think I overdosed on nuts. Anyway, I’m glad all that gas has passed (oh my word I am on a roll with the puns! lol) Sorry, I’m easily amused.

I ran my errands today with the intention of getting myself a reward, but I didn’t find anything that appealed to me. It must have been because Mr. Taffy had his own plans for a reward!

I was cleaning up from dinner when he brought this home! An Edible Bouquet! So pretty!

The balloon your can’t see says I LOVE YOU!

Here’s a close up. Those white things are bananas dipped in white and dark chocolate! Oh my! I know you aren’t supposed to reward weight-loss with food, but I let myself enjoy the gift anyway. Besides, I had LOTS of help eating it!

Even Marshmallow enjoyed some mashed up cantaloupe. She devoured it!

This was all that was left after we had our “weigh” with it! haha! So then we made this-

If I could, I would give this to my friend Lisa! She would love this too and the whole time I kept thinking how fun it would be to share it with her! (She lives far away from me.) So here you go Lisa…sending you a little weight-loss reward too!

I’m almost halfway to my goal! Woo hoo! I keep thinking how fun it’s going to be this summer to hang out at the beach with my children and to not feel totally self-conscience. I don’t wear a swimsuit-ever. But I do like to get a little sun on my arms and legs. Hope we can keep this up!

Until Next Week!

Mrs. Taffy

P.S. I hope these posts don’t sound braggy. I have a very cheerful outlook on life and sometimes I think that comes across as braggy! Sorry if it does! Tell me about your weigh-loss successes, or failures, and I’ll rejoice or weep with you too!

Getting Kids to do their Chores

2011-12-07T05:22:00.001-06:00

A question was posed-how do I get my children to do their chores? I’ve been thinking about it and trying to figure out what it is exactly that we do. Since we’ve got kids on all ranges of the age spectrum there are different things appropriate for each age.

Preschoolers~

My little guy, Laffy Taffy, he’s in major training mode. Sometimes he likes to do his chores, other times he throws a tremendous fit. Like today, I asked him to unload the silverware from the dishwasher, this is not a hard job for him, he’s done it dozen’s of times. But it’s not new and exciting anymore, now it’s work. So lately it’s been going something like this:

“Laffy Taffy, Please come unload the silverware.”

“WHAT?! “Ugh!” followed by various mooing and groaning sounds and sometimes fake tears, falling to the floor, etc. Whatever.

“Okay, let’s try that again. Laffy Taffy, Please come unload the silverware.”

Now one of two things happens, he either remembers what happens if he repeats what he did before or he throws another fit. If he answers “yes mom” like I expect I give him lots of verbal praise. But, if he repeats the first offense, his actions are swiftly followed by a meeting with the wooden spoon…and his butt. Then we try again, and usually that’s the end of it. But let me tell you, this training is endless. Even if he has a couple of good days, he reverts back to his ornery ways and we’ll have to do some more training.

Elementary~

For me, these are the easiest to get to do their chores. That doesn’t mean that they are always happy about it, but if I’ve trained them right, and they just saw their little brother get “it” for not obeying, then they are pretty eager to do well. Obviously I don’t only want them to comply because they are afraid of getting in trouble, rather I want them to understand that their role in our family is vital and we NEED them! I make sure that they know how much I appreciate them and their help, that we are a family and we all need to contribute to keep things running smoothly.

Learning how to set a rat trap…for the chipmunks that were getting into our beehives.

Blue-Raspberry is an especially eager helper. He’s just at that helpful age and he’s very capable at doing many a wonderful things like: Carrying the vacuum all the way up the stairs and vacuuming the entire top floor. Unloading the entire dishwasher, fetching food for me from various places around the house, emptying all the garbage's, making his bed, his little brother’s bed and changing the sheets! He’s awesome!

Junior High/High School~

If I’ve done my job right and properly trained everybody, then doing chores at this age isn’t a problem. But every once in a while attitudes or laziness show up and the best thing, especially for teenaged boys, is the threat of not being fed. It’s scriptural! Recently we were having trouble with everybody leaving their shoes all over the place in the garage. It was ridiculous. There is a place for every pair of shoes out there, we have a LOT of shoes and LOT of super-sized feet in this house. I was dead-serious when I told those BIG boys that if I see their shoes like that again, they wouldn’t be eating until further notice. And they believed me too!

Lest you think I’m totally a meanie, understand that I do almost every thing with the belief that they are watching me. If they see me doing my work with grumbling and complaining, they are going to do their work that way too. If they see me working cheerfully, they can’t help but catch the “cheerful bug.” I’m a little sensitive about the work load being fair, because of my “Cinderella years.” Those are the years between age 15-18. I wasn’t living with my mom at the time, but I definitely felt like the work load was unfair towards me. That being said, I did learn to work hard, but I don’t ever want my children to think or feel like they have to do all the work while I sit around and blog or whatever!

“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” Philippians 2:14-15

Another thing I want to mention, is that we have a lot of family work days, Where we are all working toward a common goal. Sometimes it’s yard work, sometimes it’s cleaning out the garage, sometimes it’s a painting project, or setting up for a garage sale. Whatever it is, working together gives my husband and I the opportunity to teach them how to work hard and how to work cheerfully!

And just like absolutely EVERYTHING else we do as parents, we have to remain diligent and consistent and follow through with our threats! Mr. Taffy and I have a renewed resolve toward staying the course. We slacked off for a while enjoying the fruits of our labor with our older three, but eventually saw that we couldn’t quit. We were getting too relaxed. If we want our little ones to grow up to be the incredible blessings that our older children are then we have to remain diligent, even when we are exhausted!

Carry on Mom! God is with you!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Nearing Home by Billy Graham Giveaway

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

My husband is giving away Billy Graham’s newest book on his blog. To enter click here.

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss Journal{8}

2011-12-04T18:54:00.001-06:00

Happy Sigh…I am feeling pretty pleased with my weight-loss this week! I weighed in at 192.2 right before dinner tonight. Dinner was really yummy too, thank you very much!

I didn’t do any exercise this week either, other than all the stairs that I am constantly going up and down and up and down. We have a multi-level home with two full stair cases and one mini stair case. We school in the basement, the baby sleeps on the top floor…up and down, up and down. I haven’t been tracking my food either, just too lazy or maybe too busy, let’s just say that I’ve been “bazy.” Still I can usually tell when I’ve eaten too much or am getting close to it.

I took some more pictures, so you can see my shrunken behind. lol

These were taken on 10/23/11.

These were taken on 12/4/11.

The shirts are identical other than the neck line. They are both Eddie Bauer (love them for their long sleeves) and they are both size XXL. I can see more when I look at the side view. Whatever…I’m hoping I’ll see more and more as time goes on. (I just got done washing dishes, that’s why my shirt is wet.)

I am so close to weighing less than my teenage sons! I don’t think it’s right for me to weigh more than them, they both tower over me!

Until next Weigh-in!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

p.s. I updated my weight-loss ticker…it’s so awesome to see my weight-loss at 20 pounds, I’ve NEVER done that before!

FREE Christmas Issue of The Old Schoolhouse

2011-12-03T10:33:00.001-06:00

This is a beautiful gift issue for you to enjoy! Just click on the picture above and it will take you right to the digital version. Be sure to check out page 71! You might recognize some of the writing or possibly the picture on there, you might not recognize the name though…in truth it’s ME!

Blessings,

Mrs. Taffy

Adding in some Easy Art~Artistic Pursuits Review

2011-11-30T16:14:00.001-06:00

As a member of the Old Schoolhouse Crew I’m happy to share with you a recent product that I reviewed. Artistic Pursuits is a very doable and gentle approach to learning and teaching art.

With some very basic supplies and the ability to read and follow directions I was able to let my children explore and learn. I love ART, but I hate “doing” art. It’s so messy…takes so much time to set up and clean up…But Artistic Pursuits has done a really good job making all those jobs easier for me. While the book can’t clean up after itself (wouldn’t that be nifty?!) it does make the lessons simple and non complicated with lots of warning as to what we will be doing ahead of time so I’m not standing there going, “where’s the….?”

Drawing, coloring and then later painting with water, a “happy memory.”

And while the lesson was to paint a picture of a wonderful day she had, she draws what she wants her future to look like-all things barns and horses. That’s okay, art can be flexible like that. Here’s a sample lesson to check out.

Isn’t it pretty? And it wasn’t messy at all! She was so happy with her creation! And I was so happy to give her this time to explore water colors. Another thing I really liked is that there were examples in the book of what other children made for the same assignment. That took the pressure off for them to make their art as perfect at the “master” they were learning about. We have had meltdowns in the past when a certain art book made them feel like their drawing had to be as good as the example.

Even I gave it a try.

I’ve never used water color crayons before. It was pretty fun!

Even my little guy tried out a drawing. He always loves to be included.

Written to the student - NO teacher preparation is needed
Complete art history - Examining works of the Great Masters
32 projects in each book include drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and more!
Easy organized system for handling materials
Sharp color images printed on bright heavy-weight paper, soft bound(From the Website)

I reviewed the first book in a series of 3 aimed at children in grades K-3. Artistic Pursuits sells this non-consumable book for $42.95 , they also sell Art Supply Packs. We’ve only gone through 5 Lessons, but as soon as we finish this book I’ll be getting the next one. This is art even an art-phobic mom like me can handle!

To see what the other members of the Crew thought of Artistic Pursuits and to check out different levels of books, visit the Crew Blog!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given this Art Curriculum for the sole purpose of this review. All opinions expressed here are my own, I was not paid.

Homeschool happenings

2011-11-28T20:44:00.001-06:00

It’s been a while since I’ve shared what we are up to on our homeschool front. I have lots to share.

Earlier this month I registered Banana Taffy and Chocolate Taffy for their second semester of College. It’s going by so fast, I can hardly believe it! They have finals over the next few weeks, each class seems to do it a little differently. Friday night Banana Taffy has his final business presentation, we found a suit for him to wear. Be still my heart…he’s looking like a young man! Here’s what they are taking next semester:

Banana Taffy~

Principles of Marketing

Communication in Business

Principles of Management

Chocolate Taffy~

General Psychology

American Literature

Health Education

We’ve also made an agreement…since they are only taking 12 credits, they are also going to fast track their way through their Geometry book and study to CLEP out of Biology.

It’s actually going to be nice because all of their classes are on the same day, so it’s less driving during the winter.

Strawberry Taffy is plugging away. She’s finished her first novel using Write the Novel Way. She’s patiently waiting for me to get it printed for her. She’s about done with her Composer’s Study and is about to start her second unit in Excellence in Literature. I let her take a break after the first unit on short stories so that her history and literature would be in sync, she’ll be reading Around the World in 80 Days for both classes at the same time.

We have just three weeks of school between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break so we are taking this time to do some fun things. We are still doing math and Latin. On black Friday I took advantage of some deals at Hands of a Child. Two of the things I ordered (downloaded) we unit study lapbooks. The one we are doing this week is on the book Katy and the Big Snow.

It’s for grades PK through 3rd grade. Perfect for what I have here! Even Laffy Taffy can participate. It took a long time to print out all those little things and cut them up and organize them. But it was totally worth it!

The next two weeks of school we’ll be doing a horse study in honor of Bubble Gum’s recent obsession with horses. I haven’t started printing and cutting all that stuff yet, but I did reserve some books at the library!

Sweet Marshmallow, she got to check out the Little People Nativity today! She especially loved sucking on the lambs! (See the hand print on the side of her forehead? She woke up like that, she must have been sleeping on her hand.)

That’s about it! We are just moving along, slowly but surely. Soon I’ll be ordering tests and packing up stuff to take to a used curriculum sale! Time just moves by so fast!

Hope your homeschooling is going well too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss Journal {7}

2011-11-27T19:47:00.001-06:00

Well, I made it through Thanksgiving with nary a pound gained! Hallelujah! I was a little worried since we gave ourselves a day of not counting calories. It was so fun! I still tried to make good choices but I did enjoy those Coconut Bon-Bon’s! YUM! Another indulgence was homemade peppermint whip cream in my coffee, I think I could LIVE on that alone!

We weighed in before and after Thanksgiving and we also took each others measurements. I have lost 3 inches in my butt. That’s cracks me up! (no pun intended) I’ve also lost an inch in my waist. Mr. Taffy has lost 2 inches in his midsection. And, I’m happy to report that I lost a pound despite all those bon-bon’s and whip cream! Yay! I’m at 195.4 now.

It’s time to get back on track though! I’ve got about 30 days to lose another 5 pounds to reach my goal of 190 by Christmas. I’ll probably do another full body photo soon too, because I’m curious to see those missing 3 inches.

My husband did a blog post about his part in this new life style, it’s pretty cute with lots of pictures of us over the years. If you are interested in reading about this from his perspective, visit his blog-I am Drawn to Him.

Until next week!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Family Quirks

2011-11-26T20:38:00.001-06:00

Every family has them, that special something that makes some people love us and some people roll their eyes. Well, my family is no different. We have a quirk or two or ten…

The particular quirk that I’m thinking of has to do with unity. Maybe. The bottom line is we don’t like doing things apart from each other. In other words, when one person can’t participate, nobody wants to participate. Early in our marriage it used to make my husband so mad when I would suggest he go ahead and do something without me. It’s not like we don’t ever do things apart from each other, but we prefer to be together if it’s appropriate.

Being as my sons are getting older it is happening more and more where they either can’t do things with us, or have to do things that have nothing to do with the rest of us. It’s okay, we don’t mind. But if one person is sick and can’t go somewhere, none of us wants to go! Unity. We are in this “thing” together! I think sometimes this little quirk of ours might make people feel bad or question our reasoning. I don’t really have an answer to that, it’s just who we are and how we like things. That’s why we can get a great family picture, because we like being together!

It might be silly and unrealistic to live life this way, but it’s our way, something that makes our family unique.

What makes your family unique? I would LOVE to know!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

The End of an Amazing Day

2011-11-24T21:45:00.001-06:00

Not everything went as planned, but our day was great anyway! Peace reigned! We weren’t rushed, we weren’t stressed, we weren’t bored, just peaceful and thankful and joyful and belly-full!

We do pretty much the same thing every Thanksgiving. One of the things we do is our family photo for our Christmas Card.

This is the best one of the bunch. My focus is a little off, but I can’t complain otherwise!

Some silliness to get everybody relaxed.

Our little Thanksgiving coffee treat! YUM!

The babies.

Strawberry getting the table set. Almost time to eat!

Everything was so yummy! Everybody was so appreciative!

After dinner it was game-time! We played lots of games! Dutch Blitz, Uno Spin, Thomas the Tank Engine, Wits and Wagers.

Around 6 we had dessert. We were hoping to have company for dessert but that didn’t work out. After dessert the kids got their jammies on and watched Horton Hears a Who. The day went by so fast!

One of our traditions is to have some slips of papers and pens out for everybody to write their thankful things on throughout the day. Then they put them in a jar and Mr. Taffy reads them out loud during dessert. It’s a wonderful memento to have from each year!

My hope is that my everyday life reflects the Thankfulness that I feel and often overwhelms me. I don’t need to be told all the blessings I have, I KNOW I’m blessed. More than anything I’m amazed at the blessings in my life and try to fall asleep each night with words of thanks on my lips.

You are blessed just like I! Maybe even more so! Focus on the blessings and your heart will overflow with Thanksgiving too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Thanksgiving Prep Day 3

2011-11-23T17:32:00.001-06:00

Oh my word I’m tired. I didn’t complete all the things on my list. Let me rephrase that. I completed everything on my Wednesday list and started to tackle my Thursday list and then decided I didn’t need all that food. I must have been hungry when I made my menu! Here’s what I did do today.

Deviled Eggs, some with bacon, some with paprika. The little separate container is for Chocolate Taffy. I made his eggs with soy free mayonnaise and the bacon is soy free too. Everything has soy in it…

Pumpkin White Chocolate Cheesecake. It’s a good thing I took a picture right when it came out of the oven because as it cooled it split. It’s still going to taste amazing though!

Once baked Twice Baked Smashed Potatoes. They will get their “twice bake” tomorrow. There is chunks of sharp cheddar and cream cheese mixed in there. YUM!

Wild Rice Casserole. This smells so good! It’s not really a casserole in my opinion though, it’s just basically wild rice. The recipe came from the Living Without Magazine.

I got the carrots ready for steaming.

My first attempt at Gluten-free rolls. They smell weird.

Vanilla Pumpkin Cupcakes. These are Gluten and Soy free too, these are for after dinner tonight. I tried one, strange texture but good taste.

Our centerpiece. I bought the basket at Goodwill for $2.99, but everything else I had. I’m thinking that basket might look pretty spray painted navy blue. Hmmm…

The Buffet. I will set out our horse-devours here tomorrow. Cheese and Crackers and Summer Sausage, Deviled Eggs, Punch, maybe a few Whoppie Pies.

The kids made a simple yet adorable banner for the dining room. I love it!

And finally a few gifts. These are mostly games. With the age range of children we have here, I had to get a couple different ones. They are going to have so much fun tomorrow!

Thanks for following along with me during this week of preparations. I hope your week has been going well too and that you have been able to get the things done that you wanted too and still keep your sanity. I love Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for. So much. One of the things I am thankful for is this blog and the people who take the time to read it. Thank you for being a part of my life.

God Bless you as you celebrate Thankfulness tomorrow. May your hearts be ever mindful of the Creator who gives us all good things. All our thankfulness should be directed to Him, He loves a thankful heart!

¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:15-17

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Thanksgiving Prep Day 2

2011-11-22T19:29:00.001-06:00

Another busy day here! Isn’t it great to be busy at home? No idleness going on here.

The boys were out the door by 6:00 this morning, so I had some time between when they left (breakfast round 1) and when everybody else got up (breakfast round 2). During that time I got the cookie part of these pumpkin whoppie pies mostly made-dough all mixed and a couple batches through the oven. That’s a nice smell to wake up to I’m told.

After breakfast and chores Strawberry and I started on the apple pies.

Here she is brushing the crusts with whipping cream. Gives the crust a lovely color. Lest you think more highly of me than you ought…I bought the pie crusts from Azure. Even I have my limits! lol

Fresh out of the oven. I used little leaf cookie cutters to vent the crust.

Here is the first step of the Cranberry Chutney. I just thought it was so pretty. Apples, Cranberries, onions, lots of spices and sugar. Nobody likes this but me. That’s one of the things I love about Thanksgiving, special food that I don’t make any other time of the year.

This what the chutney looks like after its been cooked down, it’s nice and thick and perfectly delicious on a turkey sandwich!

And finally the Coconut Bon-Bon’s. Strawberry made these all on her own. She made enough for Thanksgiving, her Christmas Tea Party and Christmas. Planning ahead!

Oh Yum!

These are filled with coconut and covered in Dark Chocolate.

I had to run a few errands today too. I had to pick up the boy’s from College, find a pair of dressy shoes for Marshmallow, and get some sweetened condensed milk for the bon-bons (opps, that didn’t make it on my list!). There was more I wanted to do today…like make a quiche for breakfast tomorrow, clean the little bathroom, wrap a few Christmas presents. That’s okay though. Tomorrow is going to be a big day! We are getting closer to our day of Thanks!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Preparing for Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T15:01:00.001-06:00

I spent some time over the weekend planning how I was going to get everything done that I need to do for Thanksgiving and the days following. I’m going to share with you how I did that exactly and what I got done this Monday before Thanksgiving.

First off (Saturday), I started by getting out all my recipes and lists that had anything to do with our Thanksgiving Meal. I went through each menu item and took inventory on the ingredients. If I didn’t already have what I needed, I wrote it on my list for whatever store I was shopping at. I like to have one piece of paper with subtitles of the places I am planning on shopping. So in this case, one column for Trader Joe’s and one column for Costco.

After I finished making my lists, I pulled off 5 lined posted notes and stuck them to the table. I gave each post-it a title: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Take to Friend’s house.

Then I went through my menu and wrote various dishes down on each day.

Monday-

Make Bread for Sandwiches

Tuesday-

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Cranberry Chutney
Coconut Bon-Bons
Apple Pie x 2
Quiche for Wednesday

Wednesday-

Pumpkin White Chocolate Cheese Cake
Twice Baked Smashed Potatoes
Deviled Eggs
Wild Rice Casserole

Thursday-

Turkey
Butternut Squash w/Thyme
Steamed Carrots
Honey Glazed Rolls
Gravy
Quinoa Salad
Soak Beans for Friday (Mr. Taffy and I will be gone all day, but I still have to feed my little people! They are going to have Honduras Burritos.)

Take to Friends (We are actually going visiting twice, so I have two lists that say the same thing with subtitles.)

Thursday-

Coconut Bon-Bons
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Gifts
Hostess Gift

Saturday-

Turkey and Cheese Braid x 2
Apple Pie and Whip Cream

In case I forgot to mention it, we aren’t doing school this week. haha!

So today being Monday I got really ambitious and made bread and a whole bunch more. I’ll show you!

I made 4 loaves of bread and 2 dozen of these knot rolls. The bread is for leftover turkey sandwiches and for lunches this week. The rolls are for leftovers too. I made some thanksgiving rolls last week and I’ll be making another kind on Thursday.

Ready for the Freezer!

These cinnamon rolls are raw, I covered them and stuck them in the freezer. Once they are frozen I’ll bag them up and save them for the weekend after Thanksgiving-for a special “I love my family” treat.

A single batch of granola, for me. I love a couple tablespoons mixed in yogurt for a mid-morning snack.

Granola Bars for the kids to snack on this week. Isn’t if funny how people still have to eat everyday, even though I’m spending everyday getting ready for a one big day of eating? Hmmm….

Gluten (and soy) free Peanut Butter Cookies for the boy’s lunches. This is my mom’s recipe that I’ll share soon.

And finally, Blue-Raspberry made Trail Mix for his siblings. He loves to make this and he’s so good at it. We only use a little bit of M & M’s, but the rest is peanuts, almonds, raisins and craisins.

You can see a little bit of my mess in the background too.

The last thing I did was grind enough wheat for the rest of my baking needs. Phew! My back hurts, but I’m very happy and I have a nice sense of accomplishment. Off to make dinner!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss Journal {6}

2011-11-20T20:47:00.001-06:00

I don’t have much time for an update this week. My children have all been sick in varying degrees. Thankfully it seems they are on their way up, into recovery mode. Even with the stress of illness I was able to lose two more pounds this week. Yay!

Want to hear something really honest? I got all teary eyed at Trader Joe’s. No joking! Oh the sadness at not being able to buy, or rather choosing not to buy peppermint Joe-Joe’s or dark chocolate covered star cookies…It was agonizing. I was triumphant though and left there with only a few stocking stuffers for the children besides our regular groceries.

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving. Mr. Taffy and I are choosing not to count calories on that day, instead we are just going enjoy ourselves and celebrate God’s goodness and all we have to be thankful for. We will be spending part of the day by ourselves, and part of the day with dear friends. We have SO much to be thankful for!

Until next week!

Mrs.Taffy

P.S. I updated my weight loss ticker! I LOVE seeing the apple move it’s way down the celery!

Family Night Movie~Review!

2011-11-19T08:00:00.000-06:00

Remember Family Movie Night and the sometimes awkward but always fun movies that Wal-Mart and Proctor and Gamble are making? Well, they’ve made a new one and I had a chance to preview it.

Click the picture to watch the Trailer!

'Game of Your Life' Synopsis

When industrious high school gamer Zach Taylor lands a prized scholarship to the prestigious Digital Institute of Game Design (DIGD), his future breaks wide open. The opportunity to study under gaming legend Marcus Bentton and alongside the country’s most creative minds will certainly propel him into a successful career as a video game designer. That is, if he can pass the infamous freshman project that eliminates more than half of the class within the first three months.

Paired with brilliant yet socially awkward teammates Phillip and Donald, the trio persuades Sara Ramirez – a determined and striking team leader with whom Zach has a history (and possibly a future) – to join their team. Working off-campus in the teched-out Lincoln Alley loft, the four set out to involve the entire campus in a quirky new social interactive game. But as the group becomes entrenched in the project, Zach learns that his father Billy, a widower, is facing growing financial woes at home. To help out, Zach accepts an opportunity to work directly with Marcus Bentton on a secretive side project that seems too good to be true. The effort requires nearly all of Zach’s time and energy, which he should be devoting to the project. Struggling to keep it together, Zach is torn between his responsibility to his team, his admiration for Bentton and a chance to help his father.

Everything comes to a breaking point when Zach’s team threatens to remove him from the group and the deceptive truth behind Bentton’s project comes to light. With the guidance of Professor Abbie Lambert, Zach must make a decision that not only affects his future, but the lives and livelihoods of the people around him as well. It’s a revealing story that recognizes the magnitude behind the choices we make and the importance loyalty plays in making good decisions. (from the publisher)

My thoughts:

Being someone who doesn’t like computer games, pretty much at all, I was surprised at how much I liked this movie. They really kept it on the light side of gaming with some of silly games that even I know about. This Family Night Movie was probably the funniest of the bunch so far, I found myself laughing repeatedly. I would say this movie is geared more toward the older teens as well, since the actors play college kids. We did let our 8 year old watch it with us and he liked it, but he didn’t really understand the ramifications of the choices the main character was making or the funny antics of the college roomies.

There was one scene where a pool party was mentioned, as in “bring your swimsuit.” I basically held my breath until the scene was revealed and I’m happy to report there wasn’t a female bathing suit to be seen. I was particularly looking for bikini’s. I think there was only one guy actually swimming in the pool, but nobody was walking around in their unmentionables. Thanks Wal-Mart and P& G for that, this mom REALLY appreciates it!

So after the Thanksgiving left-over are gone and you’ve recovered from Black Friday, you can look forward a fun Family Movie Night on December 2, 7pm on NBC. Watch for it!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was able to watch the preview of this movie in exchange for my honest review. I was not paid!

Happy Birthday Laffy Taffy!

2011-11-17T21:27:00.001-06:00

Today officially began what I affectionately call “Birthday Season.” We’ll have 1 birthday a month for a while, except January, but we make up for it with 2 in February. Anyway, today was Laffy Taffy’s birthday! My sweet little boy turned a whopping 4!

Here’s his loot! His birthday bounty! Most everything I got for his birthday, save the Mac and Cheese, came from garage sales over the summer! I think I spent more on the wrapping paper than on his actual gifts!

Checking out his Mac and Cheese. This was a MAJOR treat! He was so excited!

We let him open a few things before Mr. Taffy went to work. I hid a few things in his new back pack. His big brother bought him the CARS 2 dvd, there was also a couple keys hidden in there to unlock a money bank that had both money (change) and Fruit snacks in it.

After his lunch of Mac and Cheese we packed up and went to a free children’s opera. It was interesting to say the least. This photo is courtesy of Blue-Raspberry Taffy.

After we got home, the little ones took a nap and I decorated the cake.

I found this idea on-line after googling “Monkey Cake.” It was SO easy to put together! With the left over cake mix I made cupcakes too.

He’s young enough not to mind a little pink. He has sisters after all.

For dinner Laffy Taffy wanted Pizza, his very favorite thing. So I let him make his own! I don’t know what came over me.

This is probably his favorite memory from the day too!

He ate EVERY bite!

Happy Birthday to you!

Some of the “guests.” Marshmallow did not appreciate the noise makers! That’s why she’s hiding in the basket with daddy.

A few more presents and the day is done! What a happy day we had! Poor Miss Bubble Gum missed the party, she was in bed with a bad belly. She was so sad to miss the cake, but she needn’t worry, since Mr. Taffy and Chocolate and I didn’t have any cake, there’s loads left!

Happy Birthday sweet boy! You make my life richer with your presence, your smile lights up my day and your kisses are worth more than all the M&M’s in the whole world!

Joyfully,

Momma Taffy

First of the season…

2011-11-16T09:14:00.001-06:00

Normally I save the first hot chocolate for the first snowfall. We are late…last year at this time we had a foot of snow on the ground. So being the softy that I am, I went ahead and let the kid’s have their first hot chocolate!

Joyfully!

Mrs. Taffy

Salmon Patties

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-06:00

Okay, as requested, here’s the recipe that I can take total credit for! Usually I’m modifying somebody else’s recipe, but not this time.

This is what I used to make 12 little Salmon Patties.

3 cans boneless & skinless pink salmon from Costco
2 eggs
1 cup of chopped spinach
1 tbsp of parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
a dribble of chicken broth if needed

Directions-

Drain the salmon and flake into your mixer bowl, add two eggs and everything else. Save the chicken broth to see if you need a little more moisture to hold the patties together. I just remembered the first time I made these I added a little lemon juice, very yummy addition.

In a heated pan add 1 tbsp. of coconut oil. While that’s heating up, shape your patties. I prefer to make many little ones, but you could make bigger ones if you want.

I’d say these were about 3 inches in diameter and about 1/2 inch thick. Gently place your patties in the hot oil and brown, flip and get the other side golden brown. Allow to cool on a paper towel.

I served these with Quinoa and broccoli. My family LOVES these! They have just the right amount of crispy outer layer. They have approximately 96.5 calories per patty.

This is what I used to make the Quinoa. Quinoa is so cool because it’s a perfect protein and it’s loaded with calcium and iron. You cook it similar to rice: 1 part quinoa to 2 parts liquid. After rinsing the quinoa, put it in a pot with your liquid of choice. I chose chicken stock. Bring it to a boil, once it’s boils, reduce heat to a simmer and let it simmer covered until all the liquid is absorbed. It will look funny, kind of like there’s little baby finger nails mixed in there. I added a couple tablespoons of parmesan cheese to give it a little more flavor. It has a nice semi crunchy/chewy texture.

This was our protein packed lunch! YUM!

Be Blessed as you nourish your family on the inside and out!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Tintin for young readers~Review

2011-11-15T04:30:00.000-06:00

As part of the Timberdoodle Blogger Review Team I was given a copy of this fascinating Young Reader’s Edition of The Adventures of Tin-Tin: Red Rackham’s Treasure.

Just look at that tongue…apparently Tintin requires a lot of concentration!

Written for children 9 and up. Let me just say that there wasn’t one child in my family NOT interested in this book. In fact, my oldest two were so excited to see it, they snatched it up and took it hunting with them! They both gave the book positive reviews and Banana Taffy really enjoyed the end of the book, where the REAL adventure along with actual photographs and descriptions is shared. Here’s what Timberdoodle says about it:

New historical photos, original sketches, timelines, and more!
Now some of the most beloved titles are available in a popular, easy to pack standard paperback size. What makes this especially appealing is that there are now character biographies at the start of each book, so new Tintin readers can get to know the players in each episode. Even more exciting are the additional twenty-five pages of back-story. Parents who want more than a gutsy tale will be thrilled to find the global history of Tintin, with character and story inspirations, historical photos, original sketches, actual diagrams upon which the vehicles in the books were based, timelines, and more included in these newer reprints!

Sweet Strawberry Taffy has been so sick…this book was a great distraction for her!

I never realized that Tintin’s adventure’s were based on actual events! The children all really love to read books comic style and to have them learning something at the same time makes for a happy Momma!

Finally! He was the LAST one to get his hand’s on the book!

I even found myself laughing at some of the funny antics of the different character’s in Tintin’s adventure! My only complaint, and this is just the result of my age more than anything…the words were a little small and I had to wearing my “granny glasses” in order to read the story. The children didn’t complain though! lol

Timberdoodle sells several different Tintin Adventures in this Young Reader version, which includes the historical information at the end of the book. They sell for $7.99. If this sounds like something you would love to get for your budding historian/adventurer, visit Timberdoodle!

Tis the Season!!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Legal Disclosure:
As a member of Timberdoodle's Blogger Review Team I received a free copy of Red Rackham's Treasure Young Readers Edition in exchange for a frank and unbiased review.

Weight-loss Journal {5}

2011-11-13T10:20:00.001-06:00

I have GOOD news! I made my very first goal this week! Here’s the proof:

Excuse my Olay face, I so have my Grandma’s eyebrows!

I weighed myself early this week and actually met my goal around Thursday. Then on Friday I took my children for a long 2+ hour drive into Wisconsin and I pretty much had to eat the entire drive. I tried to make good choices: tangerines, bitter carrots, a turkey, goat cheese and spinach wrap on a sprouted grain tortilla. The not so good choice was the Kettle Corn. My weight was back up yesterday but I was feeling very bloated, so I was hoping after a good night’s sleep and gallon of water I would get back down and sure enough I did! Yay! I didn’t have any witnesses the first time I weighed myself so I was so thankful I could get the same reading on Sunday morning.

For my reward I bought this:

It’s a handmade basket with a wood bottom. I love it so much! It’s so great to carry all my multiple reading materials and list making paraphernalia! Here’s another view. It even smells good!

So now I have to come up with another goal…I think my next goal should be my actual weight and my driver’s license weight being in agreement with each other. That would be 180 pounds. (yeah, it’s been a lie for pretty much a decade…sigh) Is 18 pounds too long of time to wait for a reward? Maybe a intermediate goal should be 190. Okay, my goal is to get to 190 by Christmas. That should be doable.

We still haven’t replaced our treadmill yet, but are hoping to find a great deal as Black Friday gets closer.

I’m making handmade Salmon Patties for lunch today, I’ll share the recipe soon!

So happy!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

P.S. I have to mention something here…it’s really significant that I made this goal this week, because Mr. Taffy was gone hunting for 3 days . In the past I would have spent a lot time eating while he was away (lonely trigger). God is so GRACIOUS!

The Grace Effect~Book Review & Giveaway!

2011-11-13T09:37:00.001-06:00

Just Seconds ago I finished reading The Grace Effect. To say I am overwhelmed is an understatement. I fear I will not be able to give this book the review it deserves. My heart is swollen with joy! Mr. Taunton has effectively and passionately given words to the mystery of grace as believed by the Christian, through the account of adopting his daughter from the Ukraine.

About The Grace Effect:

"Simply defined, the ‘grace effect’ is an observable phenomenon—that life is demonstrably better where authentic Christianity flourishes.”

What does Christianity give us beyond televangelists, potlucks, and bad basketball leagues? Not much, according to the secular Left. The world, they say, would be a better place without it.

Historian and Christian apologist Larry Taunton has spent much of his career refuting just this sort of thinking, but when he encounters Sasha, a golden-haired orphan girl whose life has been shaped by atheistic theorists, he discovers an unlikely champion for the transforming power of grace.

Through the narrative of Sasha’s redemption, we see the false promises of socialism; the soul-destroying influence of unbelief; and how a society cultivates its own demise when it rejects the ultimate source of grace. We see, in short, the kind of world the atheists would give us: a world without Christianity—cold, pitiless, and graceless.

And yet, as Sasha shows us, it is a world that is not beyond the healing power of “the grace effect.” Occasionally infuriating, often amusing, but always inspiring, The Grace Effect will have you cheering for the courageous little girl who shamed the academic elitists of our day. (from the Publisher)

I finish this book feeling inspired and even empowered to continue living out my faith and sharing the Grace that I have so undeservedly been given.

If you are looking to be inspired, if you are looking for “proof” that Grace is still alive and flourishing today and if you want read a heartfelt account of an adoption that is so beautiful it leaves you breathless, you must read The Grace Effect. You can find a copy here and read more about the author and the interesting ministry/career he has here.

What a GREAT book! Highly recommended!

I almost forgot!! I get to giveaway a copy too! Yay! Think FREE Christmas gift!! To enter, please just leave a comment telling me something that you are thankful for (since it’s almost Thanksgiving) and include a way to for me to contact you should you win!

I’ll draw the winner on 11-18-11 at 9pm.

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Soy and Chocolate DO NOT go together!

2011-11-11T21:27:00.001-06:00

A bit of a misleading title, but it serves my purpose. I’m not talking about chocolate (lowercase c as in the yummy stuff I often crave) I’m talking about Chocolate (capital C, also know as My SON.) Phew, lot’s of punctuation marks there…

I have been on a mission to get my son well. All his life he’s had some stomach irritation or some skin irritation. When he was a baby, we thought it was milk and he spent a lot of his post-nursing babyhood drinking Rice Milk. He seemed to be fine but this past year his skin has gotten consistently worse, as in red, itchy, peely. UGLY. His troubling spots were his “inverse elbows,” neck, head, hands and eyelids. Poor kid, to say he had raccoon eyes would be an understatement. Well, we tried taking him off milk again, to see if there was some improvement, we did see a tiny little bit, but not enough. I still wasn’t satisfied. Then something really interesting happened. Chocolate went out for coffee and had them replace the milk with soy milk. Wow, did he have a reaction to that, like instantly! It was a blessing in disguise and it revealed the real source of his allergy-SOY!

So we have been going through the house and the food we normally buy and getting rid of all the soy. I never realized how much soy is in EVERYTHING that we eat, even healthy stuff! He’s making great improvements in the condition of his skin and by his own admission, he is starting to feel better. I am so thankful for resources like Trader Joe’s and Costco and Azure that offer healthy choices, soy free. Chocolate is out hunting this weekend and Mr. Taffy and I went to a local health food store and read label after label after label. We found him his favorite snacks, all soy free! To say I’m thankful is an understatement, to say he’s thankful is an even GREATER understatement. This boy LOVES chips and crackers and CHOCOLATE!

This is my new favorite magazine! My aunt recommended it and my library carries all the back issues. I love it so much I even asked for a subscription for Christmas. I’m learning so much about cooking for people with food allergies and sensitivities. And while we don’t have serious issues like Celiac and Autism, it’s still such great information. And since I’ve been trying to eat Gluten Free as per my blood type, this magazine has been invaluable for that. Today I made my first batch of Gluten Free Chocolate Chip cookies! Yum! Yum!

It’s so great to finally know what’s causing his problems to get him well!

Joyfully,

Mrs.Taffy

College Prep Genius~TOS Review

2011-11-11T20:29:00.001-06:00

Oh if I had only had this product a couple months ago…Both Banana Taffy and Chocolate Taffy took the PSAT this past October through the local High School, after watching some of the DVD’s that come with this amazing course, I KNOW without a doubt they would have went into the test without the fear and trepidation that they had, and instead would have went in with confidence and the tools they needed to be successful! We don’t have the results yet…waiting ever so patiently!

“Hosted by author Jean Burk, the DVD covers all three sections of the SAT & PSAT/NMSQT and is a thorough review of the College Prep Genius curriculum. The second edition of the “Master the SAT Class” breaks this revolutionary curriculum into 12 easy lessons.” from the Website.

I received The College Prep DVD Set. Lessons include:

Introduction to the SAT
Critical Reading-Long Passage
Critical Reading Short Passage and Dual Passage
Critical Reading-Sentence Completion
Math-Multiple Choice
Math-Multiple Choice Practice Problems and Answers
Math-Student Response
Math-Student Response Practice Problems and Answers
Writing-The Essay
Writing-Sentence Error
Writing-Improving Sentences and Improving Paragraphs

Chocolate Taffy wants to be a Mechanical Engineer, a scholarship would sure help him in his Career Goals. If your child dreams of college as well, the small investment in this program will greatly increase his/her chances of getting a scholarship!

The College Prep Genius DVD Set sells for $99 and includes the Textbook, Workbook and DVD set. You have a whole 30 days to try it out! You can also sign up for a free newsletter on the College Prep Website and see other products to help your high-schoolers.

Rest assured, Strawberry Taffy will be going through this course the summer of 2012, so she can take the PSAT in October of her sophomore year! She will be SO READY!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given a copy of College Press Genius to Review, I was not paid!

Afraid of the “Big-Yellow-Bus!”

2011-11-08T19:20:00.001-06:00

You may think that I started homeschooling because of some passion or conviction. You may think I started homeschooling because I’m the teaching type or because we lived in the slums when Banana Taffy was born, the truth of the matter is that I was afraid. Afraid of what you ask?

The school bus. Plan and simple. How in the world was I going to stick this adorable, helpless, innocent, perfect little person on that big scary school bus?

And how about his brother close behind him…could I stick him on there?

There was just NO WAY I could do it!!

Just look at that face…

So now you know the truth…no passion, no conviction, no great revelation, just plain and simple fear.

All that said, now I do have passion and conviction and revelation to keep me on this path, but it all started out really simply. “No busses for us!”

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss Journal {4}

2011-11-07T14:02:00.001-06:00

Phew…so glad another week is over with! Honestly I think this week Mr. Taffy and I have gone through a bit of mourning as it applies to food and what it has meant in our life. We were a sight on Sunday. We were running around doing errands and the sky had the look and feel of snow, it made us crave a fattening coffee and an apple fritter like crazy! But we were there for each other, joked about it and moved on.

I’m happy to report, that even without a smidge of exercise last week I still lost a little over a pound. I am so close to my first goal of getting under 200 that I can taste (that’s probably not the right word) it!

I actually did a little shopping this weekend. I don’t really like to buy clothes for myself unless I’m getting a really good deal, like at a garage sale or Goodwill. But when I was looking through my closet this weekend, at all the “used” stuff in my closet I just made a comment about needing something different to wear and my wonderful husband said let’s go shopping! I didn’t really want to go sopping until I lost some more weight, but since he was offering…how could I refuse! The fun part was when I tried on stuff in size 16, like jeans, they actually fit! No sucking in…no stuffing in. One pair of jeans just didn’t look cute, but I bought the other pair! And I got a lovely top to wear for our family Christmas picture and Mr. Taffy picked out a few tops for me as well. It was really fun!

Some of the interesting things I cooked this week included-

Butternut Squash Soup
Turkey and Spinach Meatballs
Salmon Patties (homemade with spinach)
Quinoa cooked in chicken broth with a little parmesan cheese
Spinach and Parmesan Omelets

I ordered massive amounts of apples and carrots from Azure so I have been juicing too. My good friend also let me buy some of her ample supply of winter veggies. I have a 50 pound bag of Yukon Gold potatoes and loads of butternut and acorn squash to use. I am so excited about produce!!

I also learned that Quinoa has a huge amount of calcium and iron in it and is a perfect protein by itself! All that calcium didn’t register in my Spark’s Nutrition but I’m still comforted to know it’s there. I haven’t had much in the form of dairy since watching what I eat.

I could go on and on but I must move on to other things! Please don’t ever hesitate to give me advice regarding my weight-loss journey, I will take all the help I can get!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Feeling a little Christmassy?

2011-11-02T20:58:00.001-05:00

I have a daughter who hasn’t stopped talking about Christmas since before last Christmas!! She’s what you call “Christmas Crazy.” It might be partly my fault, her middle name is Noel. Well you can imagine how excited we were to get to review a new Christmas movie!!

“Thomas Kinkade presents Christmas Lodge: a place where a heart-warming past and loving future meet for one remarkable group of people. During a weekend trip to the mountains, Mary (Erin Karpluk) finds herself at the now- dilapidated lodge where she spent the holidays with her family growing up. She becomes determined to restore the building to its former glory. Inspired by her grandfather and guided by her grandmother in heaven, Mary throws herself into the project, and during the process finds herself drawn to Jack (Michael Shanks), a handsome man who loves the lodge as much as she does. Historically unlucky in love, this chance encounter allows Mary to renew her faith in life and discover her one true love. For an uplifting story about the importance of faith, family and the true holiday spirit, go to the Christmas Lodge.” From Publisher

Strawberry and I wholeheartedly enjoyed this movie, with one exception…it didn’t have any or not nearly enough Christmas music in it, no tinkling bells or silent night. Still, watching this G rated family movie a great way to spend a cold winter evening! You can view the trailer here.

And it brings me great joy to be able to give-away a copy of this Christmas Movie to YOU! You might even get it in time for Thanksgiving, which to us, is the “official” beginning of the Christmas season!

Rules to Enter:

Be a follower of my blog-let me know that you are! (required)
Watch the trailer for an extra entry and tell me what you think.
Share with me your FAVORITE Christmas movie in a separate comment for another entry.

Please be sure to include your email address or have your name linked to your blog so I can get in touch with you! You can enter up to three times! Hopefully the rules are easy enough so this giveaway is a blessing~that is ALWAYS my intention!! (I’ll draw the winner on 11-9-11 @ 9pm.)

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given a copy of this movie to review, I was not paid!

Monkey Chase

2011-10-31T16:01:00.001-05:00

Years ago, when Bubble Gum was a little baby, my mom got her this adorable little monkey. I’ve always loved it and so have all the little babies that have played with it.

Look how good she’s sitting up now!

She’ll be 7 months old in about a week! My how time has flown by! She’s got one little tooth peeking through on the bottom. She’s loves carrots and squash and Momma’s Milk. She’s not sleeping through the night, but she does sleep, so I’m good with that!

Loving my Marshmallow,

Mrs. Taffy

Weight-loss journal {3}

2011-10-30T09:20:00.001-05:00

Well, let’s shake things up a little this week. I’m going to smash down my pride some more and reveal the “authentic me.” At least the part that’s on the outside…

Ugh…I had to do it, I had to get a shot like this so that I can be encouraged in a couple months. The hope, being that I WILL see some improvement, right?

I’m not sucking in and I’m not pushing out, just trying to be relaxed and real. These clothes actually used to big tighter, so that does encourage me somewhat.

Here’s some pictures of the healthy stuff I ate last week-

Fish Chowder and oat rice muffins.

Taco-ish Salad with Raspberries.

Monster Muffins and fruit salad. These muffins are loaded with amazing stuff but sport almost 500 calories each, I only had half of one.

My exercise this week included about 5 hours of raking leaves and an hour or two of painting our shed. I also tried to do some “vigorous” cleaning each day. Hopefully we’ll be able to replace our treadmill soon.

As for our weight-loss this week…how discouraging. We didn’t gain anything but Mr. Taffy and I only lost a pound each. I was ready to throw in the towel and totally quit on Thursday. It was one of those days when both of my triggers were working against me overtime. Maybe that was Wednesday…I don’t know, I know I didn’t track my food that day and I think I even indulged in a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Mortifying I know. Sigh…One day at a time, one day at a time, I’m never going back, never going back…

I haven’t had a Caribou Dark Chocolate Mocha in over 3 weeks, nor has one miniature candy bar touched my lips. My children had a sample of chocolate covered peanuts at Costco and I satisfied myself by smelling the little cup they were served in…”inhale deeply through the nose!” I must have looked ridiculous!

So here we go on a new week. I’ve got black-bean chowder on the menu for dinner tonight. I need to figure out what else I’m going to make for the rest of the week. I bought a bag of sweet potatoes and I have lots of chicken and spinach. I made turkey meatballs last week with spinach chopped up in them, they were delicious and the kids didn’t even mind the spinach, they are used to seeing green stuff in their food. I don’t think fresh spinach has much taste anyway.

Walking my way to health…Ephesians 5.

Joyfully with a tiny little bit of discouragement,

Mrs. Taffy

The Blessing of a well-laid Plan

2011-10-27T09:55:00.001-05:00

By nature I am a planner. I couldn’t stop if I tried. I’m always spouting off to my family the order of the day and what they can expect. I make a menu and a grocery list every week, I even lay out clothes for all the people under 12 in my household, me included. I’m constantly thinking ahead and planning for the unseen, because of this obsession we are rarely ever late, but the downside is…I can be a bit of a nag. (sheepish grin)

This overflow of plan-bility pours into our homeschool too. I’m starting to reap the benefits of planning as my two oldest are taking college classes this year and are on track to graduate from high school, with almost an AA, in 2013.

Last year I discovered the Old Schoolhouse Planners. I know this sounds like a plug, it isn’t meant too, I really do use it all the time!

This is what my planning book looks like. I love the weekly planning pages because I can type in the different boxes, this is completely customizable! I print out each week for each child and then store them in a page protector. I’m using a planner from last year. I like to plan our school in 6 week increments. For my 9th grader, she keeps all her planning pages in her own binder, this one here primarily holds the pages for the 1st and 3rd grader.

Planning all that school for a highschooler and two elementary children takes some pretty concentrated effort, so I give my family lots of warning. I don’t have to be alone to plan, but I do need less than normal interruptions. So I make my expectations pretty clear: “You can play down here but don’t show me your toys.” “You can have a snack but ask somebody else to get it for you.” Stuff like that.

Each week I pull out a planner page for the two children, I like to put them back to back with a paper clip so I can just flip them over to mark things as completed. This really satisfies my other obsession, marking things off a list!! As we complete the task I outline the square with a highlighter, if I decide not to teach a certain subject or if what I planned at the beginning the 6 weeks isn’t working in real life, I just put a diagonal line through it. I also like to write notes on there about what scriptures they worked on and if they had a sick day. When the week is completed, I hole punch it and put it in a different section of my planning binder.

My sons that are doing college are learning to schedule and plan their own time. I am here to offer suggestions if they need it, but they are doing really well accomplishing their tasks and goals on a weekly basis. I think this is because they’ve been exposed to some structural planning throughout their homeschool experience.

I should mention that even though our schedule looks like it goes in order from first to last, I generally let the children decide which order they want to do things in. My ultimate goal for each of them is to get them to be successful and effective time management people. I won’t be able to plan their entire life, though I think it would be fun! ha! ha!

There’s no right or wrong way to plan your homeschool, I would encourage you to try different things and see what works for you! If you are afraid to plan, pray about it, find out what is the root of that fear and pray for wisdom, God loves to give us wisdom in great quantities!! (James 1:5)

Blessings on an amazing journey of learning!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Excellence in Literature~TOS Review

2011-10-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

As part of the Old Schoolhouse Crew, I’ve recently been given the opportunity to review a “new to me” product called Excellence in Literature.

Self-Directed, Week-by-Week Lesson Plans
Classic Literature-Based
College Preparatory, with Optional Honors Track
High-School English for Home Schools, Private Schools, and Charter Schools

I received the e-book to review ($27.00), it is also available in a hard copy for $29.00 + shipping. I have so many things to say about this great curriculum, I don’t really know where to start!

First off let me say that this is more student directed than parent taught, which I love. Also it’s written in a way that I didn’t have any trouble understanding and neither did Strawberry.

The awesome thing about getting the ebook is that there are live links in the ebook. As your child is working their way through the lessons, they can click the different links to either read the books/short stories or get more information about the author, etc.

We started with the first Unit on Short Stories. I chose to get the books from the library as apposed to having her read them on-line. Though there was one short story that we couldn’t find in a book so the on-line version was perfect!

Here’s the table of contents for the book we reviewed:

Introduction
Overview and Objectives for Excellence in Literature
Frequently Asked Questions
How to Read A Book
Discerning Worldview Through Literary Periods
***Units 1-9 compose the bulk of the book, providing guidance for weekly lessons.
Honors
Formats and Models
Approach Paper Format
Historical Approach Paper Format
Author Profile Format
Literature Summary Format
Sample Poetry Analysis
What an MLA Formatted Essay Looks Like
Excellence in Literature Evaluation Rubric
Excellence in Literature Evaluation Rubric for IEW Students
Glossary
Selected Resources

Strawberry loved the Format and Models section of the book, each type of paper is clearly explained with examples to follow. Her first short story response paper was alarming in it’s beauty and accurateness!

Here is what she wrote for the essay question portion of the response paper-

1. In Sylvia’s unknown loneliness, she almost succumbs to the stranger’s friendly ways. But in the end she stood up for the heron. Do you approve of her choice? Why or why not?

2. Why was the offered money so special to Sylvia? Is there a difference in the things ten dollars could have bought in 1886 compared to 2011? Research this and write down your answer.

3. In the end Sylvia gives up the ten dollars for the white heron. What would you have done? Explain why.

My daughter wants to be a writer, what better training than to be reading some of greatest writers of history?! I honestly didn’t know what to use to help her in her dreams of writing, but I can see clearly that Excellence in Literature will be on her school list for the rest of her high school career. And the price…it’s so reasonable!

Another amazing thing about this program is the Honors Option! Strawberry has decided to do the honors track in hopes of CLEPing out of Literature. I can’t recommend this product enough, especially if you are like me and desire to equip your children with the ability to learn independently.

Here is a more complete description of the program. Here is sample unit. And here is list of books that are used throughout the entire program. If my big boys weren’t doing PSEO I would have them doing this program also, as a matter of fact, when Chocolate Taffy saw the books that Strawberry gets to read he immediately said, “Hey, can I do that too?” Need I say more?

Too see what my other Crew-mates thought, visit the Crew Blog!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Disclaimer-I was given a copy of this ebook for the purpose of this review, I was not paid.

Weight-loss Journal {2}

2011-10-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

Today was our weigh-in. My husband called me back to his office fairly early in the day, BEFORE, he ate breakfast. Funny and a little unfair…I had already eaten. lol

I’m happy to report I’m down another 3 1/2 pounds! Yay! I was discouraged earlier this week because I was SO hungry, pretty much ALL the time. My aunt, who knows a lot about food and gets paid to tell people what to eat, gave me some helpful advice and I’ve been using some of her ideas. The main one being that since I’ve got type O blood, to try and incorporate eating in a way that benefits my blood type. Which basically means no gluten, corn and limiting eggs, lots of protein. Being as I’m the only one in my house with type O it’s proving to be a little challenging, doable but challenging. Thankfully oatmeal is on the neutral list, I eat a lot of oatmeal.

Some thoughts for this week~

I really like having my clothes fit better.
It’s getting easier to “run” on the treadmill, but the treadmill got returned because of a manufacturer defect, we haven’t been able to find a suitable replacement.
I don’t really like to eat salad, unless it has some chips crunched up in it. We discovered some good root vegetable chips, they are made with sweet potatoes from different countries and they taste amazing on a salad.
A burrito bowl from Chipotle will keep me full for half a day! Oh how I love a burrito bowl!

If I put a scoop of Starbuck’s hot-chocolate in my morning coffee it has less calories than cream and sugar and tastes just as good!

Some goals and rewards~

I’ve decided to make some goals for myself. It’s hard for me to think beyond food though, you know, food as a reward. Here’s some short-term goals I’ve come up with, they may change over time.

Get below 200 by Thanksgiving~Reward: Pedicure with my best friend (Mr. Taffy) lol He’s got to love the foot massage part, I just want to have pretty toe-nails.
Have my actual weight and my driver’s license agree with each other (180)~Reward: I’m thinking I’m going to get myself a pair of Keen’s here. I’ve been wanting a pair but haven’t wanted to spend the money, this would be a good excuse.

I might need a goal between the first one and the second one, 20 pounds seems like it might take awhile, maybe not. He’s already dropped below 300 and I told him he has to stop telling people he weighs over 300 pounds, if he says it again he’s going to have to give a hundred dollar bill to do with as I please…got to change some how! lol

Do you have any suggestions as rewards that aren’t food related? The rewards can include the whole family since that would motivate them to help me stay on the straight and narrow also!

I think that wraps up this edition of my weight-loss journal. It’s only been two weeks and I have an incredibly long “weigh” to go, but if I keep things in perspective and take each day as it comes, I will be happier in the end and even if I don’t lose any weight, at least I won’t be gaining any, hopefully!

Thanks for keeping me company on this journey! Your kind thoughts and encouraging words have meant more than you can know!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Wits & Wagers Family

2011-10-22T01:23:00.000-05:00

Looking for a fun family-night game? How about a game to break the ice and get people laughing? Wits & Wagers Family is the perfect solution!

“Wits & Wagers Family simplifies the rules and scoring system of the popular Wits & Wagers. Now families and kids can get into the Wits & Wagers action! First, every player writes down a guess to a fun question. Then players try to score points by choosing which guess is closest to the right answer without going over. That is it!

The game features 300 new family-friendly questions. And even better than that, Wits & Wagers Family includes Meeples-- fun, cute, human shaped wooden pieces that the players use to select which answers they think are correct. Meeples have been a hallmark in European style strategy games for years, but this is the first time they have made an appearance in a party game.

So check out Wits & Wagers Family, the game that combines laughter and learning in a way that all ages can enjoy together!” ~From the website.

Geared for ages 8 and up, and if you have a big family, you’ll love that this game can accommodate upwards of 10 people! And what’s even better, in my opinion, is that games take an average of 20 minutes to play! A lot of laughter in a short amount of time is a definite recipe for success!

You can purchase Wits & Wagers Family anywhere games are sold, or here on Amazon. To see what other Crew Members thought, visit the Crew Blog!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

2011-10-21T09:20:00.001-05:00

Sometimes the key to losing weight, even when you are surrounded by people that need to eat constantly, is to make things mini. My daughter requested these muffins, so to accommodate her need and my need, I shrunk them (and changed a few ingredients)!

Mini Pumpkin Muffins~

1 1/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup milk (I used rice milk because of milk allergies)
1 egg
1tsp vanilla

Topping~

1/4 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut oil

Heat oven to 400. Generously Grease mini muffin pans. Combine dry ingredients. Add pumpkin, brown sugar, oil, applesauce, milk, egg and vanilla, stirring just until moistened. Fill muffin cups. I put the batter in a large baggie, snipped a hole in the corner and squeezed the batter out into the muffin pan. Much less messy! Next combine the topping ingredients until crumbly and spoon on top of muffins. I had left-over topping.

For mini muffins bake for 8 minutes, makes 44.
For standard muffins bake for 15-20 minutes, makes 18.

The muffins do better uncovered, when I made them I put them in a container until later and the topping got a little soft, if you want a crunchy topping, keep them uncovered until serving, unless you aren’t planning on eating them the same day.

There are approximately 69 calories per mini muffin. Of course my children ate several each, but I was content with just one, well maybe not content, but definitely resigned…it tasted amazing! I have a special attachment to these muffins because they were served at our wedding. We had brunch and these muffins along with some others were served!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Mighty Macs~Review

2011-10-21T09:03:00.001-05:00

Guess what’s coming out in Theaters today? Mighty Macs!!

Don’t you just love a good family movie?

“It's 1971. Cathy Rush is a woman ahead of her time ... and she's about to embark on an adventure for the ages. A new era is dawning in the country and in collegiate athletics, where a national champion will be crowned for the first time in women's basketball.

In the lead up to this historical season, major universities are preparing their game plans to win that first title. Meanwhile a tiny all-women's Catholic college in Philadelphia has a more modest goal: find a coach before the season begins. Providentially, Cathy Rush is about to find Immaculata College.

Recently married, Cathy is dealing with the aftermath of a truncated playing career. While cultural norms would have her staying at home, she's willing to do the hard work necessary to help her new team reach their goals—or perhaps she's just trying to achieve her unfulfilled dreams through them.

From the beginning, her challenges are as imposing as the big-school teams Immaculata will face on the court. Cathy learns there is no gymnasium on campus, she receives little support from the school's Mother Superior, and the school is in dire financial straits. To top it off, she may not even have enough players to field a team!

While it appears the Macs don't have a prayer, all hope is not lost. With the help of Sister Sunday—a spunky assistant coach—and the support of a booster club of elderly nuns, Coach Rush creates a new game plan that just might bring the team—and the school—together.

Will this pioneer buck cultural norms and spur her rag-tag team to unexpected heights? Or will her hard-driving ways create a wedge between the coach and everyone around her? One thing's for certain: there's never been anyone like Cathy Rush at Immaculata!” ~From the Producer

My opinion: Mr. Taffy and I watched the movie together and we really enjoyed it! It was a tad bit slow, but over all very entertaining and inspiring. Honestly, I got such a big kick out of the clothes, being born in the 70’s the clothing really blessed me! hehe! My sarcastic side was a little loud during the movie though, all these young girls had such a great desire to get married and start a family and I know from History that most of the marriages that took place in the late 60’s and 70’s ended in divorce…sigh…that doesn’t really have to do anything with the movie though! There is one scene where the coach and a nun are in a bar having beers…slight innuendos were detected there from a bar patron and the nun…a little inappropriate if you ask me, considering the theme and rating of the movie-G. But I wouldn’t hesitate in showing the movie to my children! I especially think my teens would enjoy the movie, the younger ones might lose interest.

There are tons of movie clips and pictures on the Might Mac website. The occurrence of family friendly movies seems to be increasing, I for one, am very thankful for this!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Crunchy Peanut Squares

2011-10-18T13:37:00.001-05:00

Okay, remember I promised some new recipes? The fact of the matter is, I like treats, I like to eat them and I like to give them to other people to eat. We have a home-church at our house every other Saturday night and a big part of our fellowship time is eating. Since I’m the hostess, I like to make a lot of food, including treats! This is one of the treats I made for our last Fellowship, the kids thought they were rice crispy treats, but I knew they were much better than that!

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil
1/3 cup raw honey
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup organic peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups popcorn (air would be best, but I used oil popped)
2 cups rice crispies
2 cups oat circle cereal (I used cinnamon cheerios)
1/3 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped
1/3 cup chocolate chips (optional) Yeah right!

Line a 9x13 pan with foil, spray with Pam.

In a large sauce pan, melt coconut oil, honey and brown sugar over low heat, stirring constantly. Once it’s melted, remove from heat while you add the peanut butter and vanilla. Return to burner and stir until melted.

Remove pan from stove and add the rest of the ingredients, I should have added the chocolate chips here, but I sprinkled mine on top and they just fell off. After a good mixing press the mixture into your 9x13 pan. Take a piece of wax paper sprayed with pam and press it in firmly. As soon as they cool, they are ready to be cut and eaten!

If you can get them cut into 24 squares, then they will be about 82 calories each and they even give you 2 grams of protein! I hope you like them! We sure did!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

p.s. I had half of one bar before fellowship to make sure they were good enough, then I had another one after dinner. That’s it. In my previous life I probably could have eaten the whole pan…just sayin’…

Educating the WholeHearted Child~TOS Review

2011-10-17T13:42:00.001-05:00

Once again I’ve had the privilege to review a recently revised book published by Apologia. Educating the WholeHearted Child, by Clay and Sally Clarkson, is basically an enormous manual revealing the heart of homeschooling and the heart of your child.

With a whopping 375 pages, you’ll get more than just curriculum recommendations, what you’re getting is a guidebook leading you down a path to create an environment of nurturing and growth.

Chapter 1 is called The Christian Home: Learning to Be at Home with Christ. If all you read was this first chapter, you would be well on your way to setting the proper foundation in your home.

“In the same way that we seek after God until we find him, children will seek after the kind of home and family life they instinctively desire, even though they are too young to do anything about it. Every child bears the image of God, their Creator, in their soul. Since the ideal of a godly home and family was part of God’s original creation before the Fall and an expression of his creative nature, we believe it is etched in every child’s heart. Your child is made for and naturally longs for the home that you can provide. If a child finds that kind of home, the vacuum will be filled and they will be more likely to find contentment and fulfillment that will shape the rest of their lives; if they do not find it, they will be more likely to seek to fill that vacuum with substitutes and counterfeits, and that futile search will shape the rest of their restless lives.”

I found myself repeatedly reading snippets of this book out loud to my husband, I was just so excited to read so much truth and passion in one place! I highlighted so many things to share with you, but fear you will grow weary of reading them on this blog! So you’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s amazing!

Divided into 3 sections: Home, Learning and Methods, you could be revisit this book for years to come and still benefit from it’s wisdom.

I loved how the Clarkson’s included “In our Home” snippets, to let the reader experience how they personally did things. The resource section in the back is loaded with ideas and worksheets to help you in planning and implementing the things you’ve learned.

Selling for $22.00 from Apologia, this book should be on your curriculum list, under the section: For Teacher! If you are new to homeschooling and you can catch the vision of what the Clarkson’s are teaching, you’ll be way ahead of the rest of us!

To see what my other Crew Mates thought, visit the Crew Blog.

Joyfully,

Mrs.Taffy

Disclosure-I was given a copy of this book for free, in exchange for my opinion, I was not paid.

Obedience & Keeping it really really real.

2011-10-16T19:06:00.001-05:00

This post is actually about weight-loss, which to me translates to obedience. You may have noticed the little weight loss ticker under my picture? Isn’t it cute? I’m honestly mortified to be putting my weight out there for the world to read…at least my little world, but something about putting it “into the light” takes away all the power of denial. I’m blessed to be tall, so I probably don’t look like I weight that much…unless that’s just more of that denial. And thankfully I don’t carry much weight in my face. Maybe it’s because my husband is HUGE, so that makes me feel smaller too. That was intentional by the way, marrying somebody bigger than me! lol

Obedience comes in when I reflect on what I feel like the Lord told me to do years ago. There’s just so many levels to it, but it can wrapped up in one word: Self-Control. That is a fruit of the Spirit after all so why in the world is it so hard? I actually know the answer and while my spirit is willing, my flesh is weak.

I have two main eating triggers-

loneliness
tiredness

I can look back over my life and see that some of my greatest binges happened when I was alone, or feeling alone. I was alone a lot and even in a house full of people I still go through periods of feeling alone. It’s sad. I’m working through that.

I’m pretty much tired on a consistent basis. Partly because I’m eating too much and partly because I’m a busy mom, nursing a baby that doesn’t sleep through the night. I’ve been that mom for years.

Anyway, recognizing the triggers has helped me tremendously in discerning when and how to eat. Plus I have this monstrous sweet-tooth…that’s another story.

Mr. Taffy bought us a treadmill. It’s right in the middle of our family room. I’ve been on it twice. I don’t like it. To me exercise feels like a waste of time…but I’m working through that too. I cut out a picture of a lady in the Land’s End catalog, I liked her outfit, I removed her head and replaced it with my head. I taped it on the wall above the treadmill. I don’t honestly think I’ll ever be as skinny as her, but I would love to wear that outfit and have it look cute on me, maybe in a size 10, not a size 4. I also posted the entire book of Ephesians 5. Which is my motivational scripture for spending time on that treadmill. That chapter deals with walking: in love, in the light, in truth, etc. This is also the portion of scripture that talks about redeeming the time, which is what my ultimate goal is!

I know this post is getting long, but I have to share one more thing…Mr.Taffy and I have joined Spark’s People, to track both our nutrition and fitness. It’s a free on-line program that helps you with your weight-loss goals. It’ s a little tedious entering all the recipes that we normally eat in there, but it’s effective. We started last Sunday and Mr. Taffy has already lost 12 pounds, I have lost 6. It’s working! If you want to join and be friends, here’s my homepage: Mrs. Taffy I would love some company on there!

I’ve been experimenting with some of my recipes to tone them down a little and I have two to share with you that I have revamped, they are both delicious and healthy. I will be posting those soon!

Thanks for listening! Mr. Taffy and I will be doing our weigh-ins on Sunday’s so hopefully my weight-loss ticker will reflect some good progress!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

My Life on a Taffy Pull

Weight~loss Journal {13}

Turkey Porcupine Sliders~Recipe

Wordless Wednesday

A message to young ladies~Move Quickly!

Minnesota Historical Society

S.W.O.R.D~An invitation

A Mile in His Shoes~Review & Giveaway!!

Weight-Loss Journal {12}

A healthy and wholesome meal.

2012/2013 Homeschool Proposal

Z Guide~Review {Les Miserables}

Balancing the Sword Giveaway!!

The Land of Projects

Regrouping for the New Year

Weight-loss Journal {11}

My Christmas Baby

After Christmas Catch-Up!

Merry Christmas from the Taffy’s

Christmas Date-Night

A Season of Memories

The World’s Greatest Story~Review

Weight-loss Journal {10}

Wordless Wednesday

A Day in My Life (12-12-11)

Vintage Remedies~Review

Playing with Fractions~Review

Weight-loss Journal {9}

Getting Kids to do their Chores

Nearing Home by Billy Graham Giveaway

Weight-loss Journal{8}

FREE Christmas Issue of The Old Schoolhouse

Adding in some Easy Art~Artistic Pursuits Review

Homeschool happenings

Weight-loss Journal {7}

Family Quirks

The End of an Amazing Day

Thanksgiving Prep Day 3

Thanksgiving Prep Day 2

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Weight-loss Journal {6}

Family Night Movie~Review!

Happy Birthday Laffy Taffy!

First of the season…

Salmon Patties

Tintin for young readers~Review

Weight-loss Journal {5}

The Grace Effect~Book Review & Giveaway!

Soy and Chocolate DO NOT go together!

College Prep Genius~TOS Review

Afraid of the “Big-Yellow-Bus!”

Weight-loss Journal {4}

Feeling a little Christmassy?

Monkey Chase

Weight-loss journal {3}

The Blessing of a well-laid Plan

Excellence in Literature~TOS Review

Self-Directed, Week-by-Week Lesson Plans

Classic Literature-Based

College Preparatory, with Optional Honors Track

High-School English for Home Schools, Private Schools, and Charter Schools

I received the e-book to review ($27.00), it is also available in a hard copy for $29.00 + shipping. I have so many things to say about this great curriculum, I don’t really know where to start!

Weight-loss Journal {2}

Wits & Wagers Family

Mini Pumpkin Muffins

Mighty Macs~Review

Crunchy Peanut Squares

Educating the WholeHearted Child~TOS Review

Obedience & Keeping it really really real.