Yucky Kale

I’ve been trying and trying and trying to like this superfood.  I just don’t like it.  Any way I make it, it’s still disgusting.  My least favorite vegetable, the only food that makes me gag when I try to swallow it:  Brussel sprouts.  I like Kale even less, though it doesn’t make me gag like Brussel Sprouts do.

I tried to make Kale Chips.  It’s in the Trim and Healthy Mama book, it’s on Pinterest, I have friends who rave about them.  Gag.

I was really careful to get all the stems off, spritz the leaves with olive oil and used this yummy vegetable seasoning that generally makes everything taste yummy.  Baked them until crispy.  They did have a nice crunch, but after the crunch, NASTINESS filled my mouth!

She didn’t like it either. She willingly tried them, with great expectation.  I ate mine before I shared them with everybody else, I thought maybe it was just me.  I promise, they didn’t see ME make this face!

“Can I spit this out?” 

Marshmallow seemed to like them, at first.  She stuffed quite a few in her mouth.

I even caught her sneaking a few.  Then I saw her spitting the kale out and putting the chewed up Kale back in the bowl.  Um…

Then she started making this face.  Yeah, no more Kale for her!  There were more Kale pieces on my floor than her mouth or stomach!

Maybe you have a suggestion?  I just can’t figure out how to eat this super food.  To me, it’s super-ly yucky!

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Bonker-tines Day

I think I went a little bonkers this Valentine’s Day.  I didn’t plan on it, it just sort of happened.  I am glad it did though because the result was a houseful of people that KNOW they are loved, by me.

I started out the morning by making cinnamon rolls.  It’s been at least 6 months since I’ve made cinnamon rolls, possibly longer. 

The best thing about this was the quiet that was heard during breakfast.  Not a word was uttered, only sighs of contentment, moans of delight, even the baby, which is AHHH-MAZING!

For lunch I made them Toad in a Hole’s but decided to use a heart shaped cookie cutter instead of my biscuit cutter.  Toast tastes better shaped like a heart, or so I’m told.

Then later in the day, for snack time, after our beloved quiet time, I made them a little party.  I just spent about $4.00 at Wal-Mart for the decorations.  But the impact, it was priceless!

On Wednesday I made Raspberry-Nut Valentine Cookies and hid them.  I wrapped some up in saran wrap with a big red bow and stuck them in the big guy’s lunches and then saved the rest for our Valentine’s Day snack time.

Just one each, with a little almond milk with pink milk ice cubes.  Bonkers…I told you!

Just look at these happy faces!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If that wasn’t enough, we watched the Mickey Mouse version of the 3 Musketeers, which is surprisingly appropriate for Valentine’s Day.  So much love!  haha!

After the movie, my teens went up to Papa Murphy’s and bought a couple pizza’s.  A heart-shaped pizza.  Yup.  Bonkers.

There was more actually, but I guess I forgot to take a picture of it.  I made the mock version of Starbuck’s Cranberry Bliss Bars and dyed the frosting pink and used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut them out.  More love and pink and deliciousness for dinner!

This is the buffet in our dining room.  Look at all those Valentines!  Some came in the mail, some are from the kids, some from my husband, some too him.  He bought me roses and M & M’s, well and meat. (smile)  I gave him season 1 of Duck Dynasty. We were told it would bring more laughter into our marriage.  (smile)  Sounds good to me!

It was such a fun day!  I didn’t mean for it to be so “much.”  But it wasn’t stressful or anything, it just worked out.  It was gorgeous outside and cozy and sweet inside.

I hope you had a day filled with love and smiles too!

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Celebrating like an American Girl

This is such an amazing time of the year for us.  I call it birthday season.  Because every time I turn around somebody is getting another year older and I find myself making cakes and lighting candles.  This was our particularly busy birthday week with two children changing up their ages.  Saturday it was Bubble Gum’s Turn.

For Bubble Gum’s birthday she wanted to go to the American Girl Place at the Mall of America, for dessert and shopping.  She’s been saving her money since Christmas and she had enough, all except for six little dollars to buy her very own, brand new American Girl Doll.  She picked Marie-Grace.

Mr. Taffy and I also let her pick out a couple things since we hadn’t wrapped and bought any other presents for her, knowing this was what she’d been wanting to do.  Wow, AG is EXPENSIVE!  So ridiculous and my frugal side was choking and gagging the whole time.  But we made it out, on budget and our daughter was on cloud 9.

After shopping we went to the café’ for some dessert.

They definitely know how to make little girls feel special!


There was singing and candles and a little “garbage disposal” who ate everybody’s left overs.

We came home later, did a bunch of kitchen tasks and then put dinner on. Bubble Gum wanted Costco Lasagna (easy) for dinner, I added sprouted wheat garlic sour dough bread and steamed broccoli to that and we were good.  I also talked her into getting cupcakes at Costco so I wouldn’t have to bake…I already had a HUGE kitchen project going on.  (I’ll share that soon.)



Just look at those eyes…what a day she had!! 

4 down…4 to go!

The Battle is the Lord’s,
Mrs. Taffy

Thanksgiving School

For the few weeks that precede Thanksgiving I like to put aside the normal text books that we use to do the majority of our learning and spend some time studying the holiday.

This year I will be using In the Hands of Child Thanksgiving Project Pack.

 

I bought this awhile ago and have been saving it for just this time.  I also got a million books from the library and added them to my own collection of Early American History and this is what I’m going to use:

The day after October 31st I found some Thanksgiving craft kits at 50% off at Walmart, I also found stickers and paper in the dollar section at Target and I printed coloring pages off the internet.  The Lapbook activities last for about a week and half, so we’ll use the other days to do some fun activities and on the final day I’m going to make soft pretzels with the kids.  The children will also do their normal math lessons everyday.

I like doing stuff like this, it kind of breaks up the monotony that I sometimes feel while homeschooling.  I can’t teach this way all the time because it’s time consuming, but it’s also so fun and so memorable! 

Do you have any special Thanksgiving school plans?  I would love to hear about them! 

Hoping the Spirit of Thankfulness will reign in my home,

Mrs. Taffy

Alive and kicking!

I just wanted to say HI!  and let you know that I’m alive and well.  I’ve been trying to figure out why I haven’t had time to blog, Lord knows it’s my desire to do so, I still don’t have the answer completely figured out.  But I do know that I’ve been focusing on school and doing it with excellence, keeping myself moving around so as to be both a good example and to burn extra calories.  I’m longing for fall and predict I’ll have more energy to blog once the crisp air of fall starts blowing through my windows. 

Here’s a few pictures of what’s been going on around here!  I pray you are all well.  Please know you are in my thoughts and prayers continually!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

I turned…gasp…40!

Birthday Lunch!

This is what happens when Daddy goes to Costco with us.  lol

Cleaning up mess and mess after mess…

MN State Fair

       

A Candid Tour of the Taffy Academy School Room

This is the video I made for the August Edition of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  Even if you don’t have a subscription, I still want to be able to share a little bit more of me with you.  Hopefully you all see that I am very normal…well maybe not, you might think I’m slightly bizarre after watching this, but I don’t mind.  lol I hope it at least makes you smile!  Thanks to Chocolate Taffy for the superb filming job!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

P.S.  Here’s the full article.

Beach Day

We have had a tradition for a few years now where on Tuesday’s we meet our friends at the beach.  It’s not really a beach, it’s a man-made lake in a Park Reserve.  It’s a pretty long drive for me, but it’s worth it.  The children have so much fun and I get to spend time with my friends, visiting.  Here’s how I get ready for a day away.

Pack a LOT of food!

Being outside and swimming makes for hungry children.  I actually dread this part of getting ready, but I’m always happy when I’m done!  For this trip I made about 12 sandwiches of the turkey, cheese and pea shoot variety.  We had peanut butter balls that Blue-Raspberry made especially for our trip.  Carrots, sugar snap peas, cherries, and potato chips.  I brought a slice of cheese, graham crackers and a peach for marshmallow.  She’ll also eat the cherries.

All the food goes into the cooler, I have the kind with wheels and a handle.  I also pack paper plates, napkins, plastic wear, cups, a target bag for trash and our picnic table cloth.  And I’m always thankful when I remember to add a knife and a little cutting board.

I try to pack light, because it’s hard to keep track of everything once we get there.  In the white and pink bag are the kid’s beach towels.  The teenagers have their own stuff that they are responsible for, so I just have stuff for 4 of the children in here.  There is also goggles and sun hats in that bag.  The Trader Joe’s bag has a change of clothes for all my little people.  I actually have them change before we leave the beach.  I just do right there in the grass, I keep them covered up with their big beach towel.  It’s so much nicer than waiting until we get home, then all the sand falls out at the beach, not in the truck or at home.  The bag then becomes the wet bag and holds everybodies wet suits for the drive home.  The little bag there is my beach diaper bag.  I normally use cloth diaper, except on beach day.  So this bag has a couple diapers, some wet wipes, the sunscreen, and some Bee Spray (for owies).

When the kids get up in the morning they put on their swimsuits right away. And we try to put on a layer of sunscreen then too, but we don’t always remember to do that.

One of my older sons loads the truck up for us.  See our big water cooler?  That butterfly bag holds the sand toys.  I have two chairs that I bring, one for in the water and one for out.  The stroller is a life saver when Marshmallow is eating lunch or needs a break from the water, plus it’s a good place to stash my purse and her diaper bag and the sunscreen.

The Park Reserve has lots of nice grass to play in, the kids love to play baseball and ultimate frisbee and other things…

But their favorite place is definitely the water!

When we get home, the whole process is reversed.  Everybody helps unload.  Everybody has a job whether it’s starting the laundry, unloading the cooler or putting away the beach stuff.  We have a pretty good system which makes it so we can keep going back.  Being organized keeps all the effort it takes to get there a joy instead of a burden.

I hope you are enjoying your summer too!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy