Changes

If you follow me on Facebook you may have heard my recent rant about Google.  Annoying is all I can say.  They don’t like it that I don’t have a “real” name and I’m not popular enough to keep my pseudo name in their Google + environment.  Well, Google, guess what?  I’ve been blogging longer than Google + has been around…Anyway, I did appeal, they rejected me, so I have not other choice than to leave Blogger. 

Remember when I mentioned that Strawberry will be learning computer programing through Team Tree House?  One of the things she is learning is how to code a WordPress Blog.  It makes sense for me to move for a number of reasons, one being the aforementioned issue, the other being I’m going to have to start paying blogger because I’ve about used up all my picture storage and pictures are a huge part of blogging to me, but I DON’T want to pay to blog!! 

So in my very limited free time I have been working on a new blog, with a new name and a new design.  I think I may loose some readers during the switch, but that’s okay.  Follow along if you want, but please don’t feel like you have too!! 

I’ll give you lots of time to make the switch in whatever reader you are using.  I’m not quite ready to reveal the new title, but I love it.  And just like I feel like changes are happening in my own life the new blog will reflect the same changes.  It’s still just me though, blogging about things that make me happy, a new title, a new chapter, a new decade in the life of the Taffy’s!

Thanks for reading here, it blesses me to no end!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Having a little one in the School Room

You would think after all these years that I’ve been homeschooling I would know all the tricks to getting little ones to behave  during school time.  Well I don’t.  (smile)

My last little one, Laffy Taffy, was an easy going child, he was happy to play by himself, close to us, but happily occupied with this toys.  I really enjoyed doing Tot School with him because for about 30 minutes everyday he would attentively and happily learn what ever I was teaching him and then be content to play until the rest of us were done.

Enter Marshmallow Taffy.  She is loud.  She is MOODY.  She is NOT content to play by herself and 30 minutes of my individualized time is NOT enough.  I’m not really sure how our next year will go with her in the school room.  She doesn’t understand that if Mama is talking (reading out loud) that she should be quiet, instead, hearing my voice makes her want to say, “mom. MOM! Mommy! Mom!!!! MOOOOOOOOMMY!”  Louder and louder, with more and more drama and energy.  You would think the poor thing is completely neglected.  That’s so far from the truth…but still, it does pose a problem.

So this is what I’m praying through.  Praying for wisdom in how to deal with her.  How to actually teach her to be quiet, or at least quieter during school time.  I can’t do all of school during nap time.  I would love to hear how you deal with difficult children during school time.  There might be nothing I can do…I might just have to  grin and bear it until she’s older and understands more.  I’m not sure.  It does teach all the other children patience.  It teaches us all how to be gracious and it also allows more of my ugly impatientness  to be dealt with.  Many little eyes watching Mama, what will she do?  How will she respond?

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Monday Munchies~Turkey & Cheese Roll-ups

 

These are an every once in a while snack I like to make.  I will only make them with the Trader Joe’s refrigerator crescent rolls though.  I’m just too much of a food snob, but I do NEED to do things simple sometimes, so when I do, I’m extra thankful for Trader Joe’s.

Super easy to make.  I take the crescent roll and before rolling it up I lay in a half slice of turkey lunch meat and a little bit of cheddar cheese.

Roll them up tightly and lay them on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.

Bake them at 350 until golden brown. Between 12-18 minutes.

Such an easy and semi-nutritious snack! (grin)

The teens really love these too!

Now go feed somebody!

Mrs. Taffy

Homeschool stuff (LONG!!)

It’s been a while since I’ve done a homeschool post.  I did post the used-curriculum stuff, but I thought it might be encouraging to know that we are still plugging along here.

We started school in August and have about 10 weeks left.  Unbelievable!  It’s going by so fast!  We’ll be done the first week of May.  I just got my 4th and 2nd grader planned out through March.  Blue-Raspberry will be finishing Teaching Textbooks 4. That’s pretty exciting!  Strawberry is finishing Algebra 2 this week!  I love it when stuff starts dropping off the agenda.

I’ve mentioned a couple times how a friend of mine blessed me with an incredible amount of Sonlight material.  I’m still absorbing the magnitude of her gift to me.  I think it may be more than a gift from God, I think it may also be the “thing” that keeps me moving forward.  I’ve been homeschooling for 14 years!  That’s a long time.  I have at least 18 more years to go too.  Wow, I’m almost at the halfway point.  Interesting.  Anyway, sometimes it can get kind of dull using the same thing over and over again.  But this Sonlight stuff seems to be so interesting, if I can keep from expecting too much from myself and my children, I think this may get me through the rest of my homeschool journey!

I had to find a place to put all those books.  So, we went to Menard’s (which I personally detest) and found these black book shelves for under $15.00 each.  Oh what fun I had putting these together and organizing them!  Most of these books are for Sonlight, but I did move our science stuff out there as well.  I was able to put our graphic novels and other special books in a place that the kids could get to them without asking for help.

It’s fun to be able to display some stuff on top too.  Now these book shelves have overflown into the playroom.  Which isn’t ideal, but the kids are all in love with them so it worked out well.  Besides I’m still on this “get rid of stuff” kick so it keeps us from lining the wall with plastic toys.  I’ve gotten rid of some really special thing lately.

I put a few things on the shelves for Marshmallow.  She’s pretty good about not making a mess of my shelves.  Mostly she likes to push the books toward the back of the shelf.

I’ve got each shelf labeled by core level.  My friend was VERY organized and has each book labeled on the inside  for what level and what subject.  She made it so easy to organize them!  I think I am getting one more core, she loaned it out to another friend, if that’s the case I’ll have to  do a little rearranging but that will be a fun challenge. 

Since I was able to move my All About Reading posters, I had room to put a few things up to interest Marshmallow, these color cards and another of shape cards. 

This is our “All About” center.  I got rid of the easel and bunch of other little stuff that was hiding behind it.  This is much better place for that huge metal board.  I just flip it over when we aren’t using it so Marshmallow doesn’t try to start spelling words, which she enjoys VERY much.

The white board is often covered with Spelling too.  They are cruising through level 3.

My window to the world…our current Read-Alouds and the kid’s assigned Readers.  I’ve also got all our supplies hanging there  See all that white outside?  At least it reflects the sun and makes the basement even brighter!

These are my book baskets that hold the teacher books.  I’m thinking of getting another one of those black shelves to put there instead, some of those soft cover books are getting kind of mangled in the basket.

With all the other things going on, the hard emotional things of a healing marriage and a rebellious teen, I’ve been trying to simplify and streamline our day better. I’m so happy with how our school time is going right now.  We start about 8 and are usually done by 10:30.  I’m just working with Blue-Raspberry, Bubble Gum and Laffy Taffy, Strawberry is completely independent though she does spend most of her mornings down in the school room with us.

Here’s what we do.

I start Latin with Bubble Gum and Laffy Taffy while Blue-Raspberry does his math on the Lap Top.  Then I teach reading and math to Laffy Taffy while Bubble Gum does her independent work of: handwriting, math and reading.  While she is doing that Blue-Raspberry is working on his Latin, sometimes on the laptop, sometimes not, reading, and Word Roots.  When Bubble Gum and Blue-Raspberry are done, I read to everybody from our current Read-alouds.  After that we do grammar and spelling together and call it a morning.  Come March I’ll be including History in that schedule so it might take a little longer.  But I’m trying to cut myself a little slack and we only do AAS 3 days a week and Grammar 4.  Some of the younger kid’s things only last 4 days anyway, so if we get behind we can always make up stuff on Friday’s.  We’ve been doing our school time this way for weeks and it’s working very nicely.  Not too much for anybody.  They watch an episode of the Magic Schoolbus and the Kratt Brothers everyday for science.  It’s not ideal, but I figure it’s better than nothing and they ARE learning, so I’m satisfied.

On a side note, having a toddler in the schoolroom is VERY stressful.  If she’s not making  mess she’s unhappy about something, she wants somebody’s pencil, she wants a snack, whatever.  When I read out loud I have to be REALLY LOUD because she interprets my talking as, “it’s time to talk with Momma!”  Phew!  It’s exhausting.  Her presence is building character in each of us and for the most part she is delight, but I don’t want you to think it’s all perfect and wonderful.  The reality is, it’s difficult when she’s with us during school.  Thankfully I know this difficult time will pass, I’m just looking forward to that day with GREAT anticipation!

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

Longings

• simplicity
• worship
• a thankful heart-always
• peace regardless of what’s going on around me
• encouragement

These are my longings.  Of course there may be others, but some are too private to blog about and others are too silly share.  I find myself thinking about these particular longings quite often.

Simplicity.

Specifically this applies to my home life and my homemaking.  I desire to streamline things in such a way that they don’t require much thought in order to carry them out, like meal planning and cleaning, like clothing and homeschool.  Each thing can be so time consuming, so all consuming.  I long to simplify.  This is why I am constantly purging.  Purging closets, purging cupboards, always purging.  I can’t fight with clutter and the chaos so instead I give it to somebody else to deal with. 

Worship.

I long to have a life that is the aroma of worship.  In everything thing I do, do it to the glory of God.  As far as I can tell my stuff doesn’t glorify God in any way.  It’s just stuff.  But my words, my actions, the grace I give and the love I share, those things speak to worship, speak to God’s goodness and fullness in my life.  That’s the worship I long for.  I long to have a song on my lips, one that doesn’t glorify me or my life, but one that glorifies Him, the giver of all life.

A Thankful Heart.

I’ve always had a thankful heart, always understood the importance of thankfulness as far as God’s kingdom is concerned but what else?  Is it enough?  My dear friend gave me a book recently, a book that I’ve had in my Amazon wishlist since before Christmas and it is a book that is changing my life.  Please, if you long for the fullness of God, read this book.  Grasp onto this thankfulness, change and be filled.

Peace.

It’s not a secret and I don’t think I’m alone in this longing.  What mom doesn’t long for peace in her home, but more than in my home I long for it in my person.  I’m tired of the turmoil, tired of the roller coaster, tired of worry.  To be  able to transport myself to peace, no matter what is going on around me, that is my longing.  To rest in the fullness of God, to cling to His peace that passes my understanding, that’s where I want to be.  Always. 

Encouragement.

As carnal as it may seem, I do long for it.  For a little word of thanks, a little good job honey, a little thanks for being my friend.  God’s word is the greatest encouragement though isn’t it? And so even when I’m feeling needy and wishing for a little earthy encouragement God’s word never fails and I think the reason I love Matthew 28:20 so much is because of that promise that Jesus will never leave me, that to me is the ultimate encouragement.

The Battle is the Lord’s,

Mrs. Taffy

When the Taffy Pull Breaks Down

You know I love the image of the Taffy Pull and how I liken it to my walk with God. In the spirit of that image and in the desire to keep things honest around here I have to tell you…The Taffy Pull Broke Down.  You may have noticed I shut my blog down a little while ago.  Well, I started getting all kinds of comments and emails and realized that maybe that was kind of rude of me to just close things off without any kind of explanation.  I also realized that some of you may have come to rely on certain links or recipes that are on my blog.  But I couldn’t just go on with out some kind of explanation.  You deserve an explanation.  You also deserve to know that sometimes machines break, they need time to be repaired and rebuilt.  My gracious husband has taken the time to write this out in his own words:

There comes a time when the taffy pull machine breaks down… What happens to the taffy when it ceases to be stretched and heated properly? My wife and I have been married for almost 20 years. This is a significant number to us because many around us seem to have fallen away from each other over the years. It has been hard to watch couples separate, divorce, have affairs, or even leave the Lord. I always wonder why when I see these things happen…

Why does someone with children young and old turn away from them and the woman he made them with and enjoy himself in the arms of another woman? Why does a woman try to control every aspect of the man who provides everything for her? Why do both people treat their children like cattle and pawn them off to others for care so that they can live for themselves? Why does someone trade their belief in the living God because the person closest to them decides to profane themselves before Him in some addictive behavior they keep secret?

I have watched these things in others and wondered about them. I have watched people and listened to people lose their minds, their hearts, and their souls to the point of no return… it is scary.

My wife and I were attacked this week.

Attacked? Yes. Our marriage, our home, our children, our very purpose for breathing another breath. What does this mean? It means the taffy pull machine broke. Does this happen from time to time in any long marriage? Yep. Sure… but what do you do? I don’t know. You can’t just go buy new parts for your marriage… or can you? Not always… it depends on what broke.

Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NKJV)

¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.

We experienced this type of break this week. It is hard. We feel alone at times and there seems to be few people that have the fruit of commitment that we aspire to have. Sure, there are many who have remained married for 30+ years and that did not happen by accident. But there are few who demonstrate a truly affectionate love towards each other on daily grind level after those same years. I desire this type of relationship with my wife and she desires it with me. We want to grow old together and know the comfort of each other through all the years in the middle. So… what do you do when each person just simply lacks the ability to provide what the other person needs? Over a long time… repeatedly for both people? Get a book? Go on a retreat? Talk to people? Be patient? Pray? All of the above? What do you do when a problem remains after all these things are tried and re-sequenced without satisfaction for either person… it is hard. Quit? No… no one wants to be a quitter… not really.  But what about when the weary, tired soul is just sort of out energy and the light of hope at the end of the tunnel turned dark a long time ago?

Throw in some problems with the children, mix in several money issues at the same time, and why not the job too? Yeah… sure… just mix up and nice bunch of problems. And not fake problems… real ones… they always make the situation worse. The devil knows our vulnerabilities.

I repeat… we were attacked this week. A well laid trap. But why?

Were our defenses down? Maybe. Were we slack handed at dealing with some stuff? Maybe. Could we have been better with our money? Sure. Could we have raised our children better? Sure. Could we have been better about supporting each other through the years? Sure. But really… at some point… the answer is ‘no’ also. We are who we are and we are not Jesus. We aren’t perfect and we lack things that would make it all better. The devil knows the time to strike us too; he knows when our surroundings suck and we are at our most pathetic status.

So we break down. The Machine broke. It sits. The Taffy in idle status becomes brittle and hard and worth-less… The machine in disrepair is likened to garbage in value. Only in movement are both preserved. Only in dependence on each other. Only with replacement parts from time to time and maybe new ingredients for the taffy.

In our relationship, I try to make the environment and Mrs. Taffy gives the environment structure and definition. God made everything from nothing (environment), but He made all things with Wisdom (structure and definition). They must go together.

I am of the belief that any good marriage must go through this type of trial that we experienced this week… this type of breakdown. It is hard. Did I mention that? It is. It sucks. I can be an absolute jerk and am selfish and sometimes my lovely wife is not so lovely. We lack for each other what God intended. We do not possess the ability to fix this problem. God does. So what. Really? Did I say that? What does that mean? What I mean is that Mrs. Taffy and I have each prayed, waited, and pursued God to ‘fix’ these problems we have and He just doesn’t do it. In the meantime… more pain… more weariness… more anger…a “forget it” type mentality sets in… not good. But where is the good? Why doesn’t God just give us a miracle?

I do not want to end up like some I see where they stayed together tolerating each other to the grave… yuck. I do not want to end up slowly separating to the point of feeling better about the calloused heart and finally convincing myself that God somehow is accepting of our divide… what a crock! What a foolish conclusion!

I do not know all the answers. I can’t fix this. She can’t fix this. We don’t always know what to do. I love Mrs. Taffy with all that is in me and she loves me the same. Each in our own style, our own person… We have had many, many moments of complete happiness and blissful love too. If most of the machine is working but a significant enough part is broken, the whole machine is still broken.

Why am I writing this brutally honest post? Because it seems like so many around me go through this or have gone through it and left each other. I do not want to continue to see this occur if I can help it. Here is the only answer I have right now. I think God understands that this break down is only a matter of time before it occurs and is a result of the fallen man. We cannot achieve success here without both of us exhaustingly, maybe painfully, maybe awkwardly, maybe hopelessly trying together at the same time in faith with the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 4:10

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.

So, this is where we are at. One day at a time. One situation at a time. One look, one glance, one smile, one ear to listen, one word to speak life. One at a time… like it was almost 20 years ago when we were excited to build everything one day at a time.

I do not know what is on the other side, only that nothing is on the non-try side. Nothing. Are you in this place I speak of? If so, I am sorry. Do you have means to repent and try with your wife or husband again? If you do, you should. You should…

I liken it to a pit that we both have found ourselves in and there is nothing to grab hold of and no one around to lend a hand. It is the test. The only way out is up because there is no more down left. The only method up is together at the same time. For how long is not known but only coordination together will work. It always seems “fair-er” if the extra step is taken after noticing the other person taking an equal step.  However, the only way for this type is trying together at the same time will save us both from what we cannot do by ourselves. At the end, I believe we will recover and know what God intended for us to experience when we trust Him in everything.

This is a painfully honest look at our life.  I can only hope that being this honest with you will somehow encourage you to hang in there if you are going through problems in your own marriages or other relationships.  I know that “nothing’s new under the sun” but it feels new to us and it feels like failure.  But we have not quit.  Since the writing of this original note from my husband healing has begun.  I’m always telling my children to keep their issues in the light, sin can’t grow in the light, healing grows in the light. 

My sincere hope is that once our Taffy Pull is fixed, when it’s starts to stretch and pull with consistency and order, I can continue to contribute regularly to this blog.  And who knows, I may even share something from time to time just because.  I will leave the link live.  You are welcome here, always.  Pray for us.  We want to give God the glory.  We don’t want to end up a statistic.  Nothing is too big for God and we believe this with our whole heart. 

Thank you for your encouraging emails and notes on Facebook, you have brought me joy unexplainable!

Humbly,

Mrs. Taffy

Budgeting

Do you have a budget?  A few times through our almost 20 years of marriage we’ve had a budget.  We could never do anything like Larry Burket or Dave Ramsey because we just didn’t even make enough money to do it.  We had various financial trials throughout our marriage too, but I look back on the times of budgeting as a blessing.  Sometimes my husband was paid on commission, or monthly or weekly, it seems our finances are always changing, unpredictable.  Those times were hard to make a budget for as well.

My husband has turned in his resignation at his permanent position at a Bank here in the Twin Cities.  He had a VP title, health insurance, 5 weeks of paid vacation.  But at the end of the day he was miserable.  The commute is awful.  The environment…I’ve never worked in an office environment but the times I’ve gone to his work, I can’t believe how quiet and dull it is.  I would be asleep in 5 minutes! The hours were long, the work thankless. He was offered at contracted position at another bank in the Twin Cities, one closer to home, one with set hours and an hourly wage, no more health insurance but more freedom.  He’s worked there before and got the job without a formal interview.  He’ll be getting paid more money and will be able to work less hours.  With this new job we’ll be getting paid every week.  It’s predictable. So we decided to make a budget.

We went out to breakfast one Saturday morning, took the laptop and a note book, the bills folder and our thinking caps.  It was a wonderfully productive meeting.  The best earthly feeling, in my opinion, is being on the same page as your spouse!  I love to have a unified goal.  Love it!

Our categories look like this:

• Mortgage
• Food
• Bills (Includes: water, trash, cell phones, our Compassion Child, etc.)
• Consumable Household (Includes: toilet paper, napkins, toothbrushes, Goodnights, etc.)
• Non-Consumable Household (Includes: Printer ink, laundry baskets, brooms, photo prints, car keys, rugs, paint, stamps, etc.)
• Auto (Includes: gas, insurance, maintenance)
• Medical (Includes vitamins and Minute Clinic Visits, Dentist appt.)
• Clothes (Broke down per person, per week)
• Education (For homeschool stuff and fees for classes and tests for the teens)
• Savings (This is just a general savings for agreed upon family things.  i.e. Vacations, large car repairs, large medical bills, minor emergencies and Offerings, snow blower, etc.)
• Fun (This includes eating out)

We will also have another savings account that will hold all the money that goes beyond what we’ve allocated into these categories.  It’s complicated how we figured out the base amount, but he should be getting quite a bit more than what we budgeted for, that extra will go into a separate savings account, to be saved for emergencies or when we need a new car or sending Chocolate off to college or whatever, we want this account to keep growing.

Some of the numbers in the different categories are pretty small.  For instance, our clothing category.  It looks like this:

• Mr. Taffy- $25 a month
• Mrs. Taffy –$25 a month
• Banana Taffy- $15 a month
• Chocolate Taffy-$15 a month
• Strawberry Taffy-$10 a month

And down it goes, $10 a month per child.  That’s not much.  Mr. Taffy’s has more because he really needs some new work pants, mine is more so I can get a pretty dress for the boy’s graduation, the boys is more because we want to buy them each a suit for their graduation gift.  Could you spend $10 a month on clothes?  It’s going to be a stretch.  But like I was just telling Strawberry, “If you save all that money until May, you’ll have $50 to spend at garage sales.  You can get a LOT of clothes at garage sales for $50!!”  Some of numbers might be too aggressive.  We may have to re-evaluate in a month or two, but for now we are going to give it our best.  The kids can always use their own money if they want something new too.  They have no lack, trust me. 

Mr. Taffy has a LOT of experience in building data bases so he is working to build us our own to keep track of our purchases.  I’m going to teach Strawberry how to enter our purchases into each category.  I want her to learn how to itemize and organize.  She loves to find coupons and good deals, so this will turn into a nice .5 credit economics/accounting elective for her. 

One thing I’m doing to help me not be tempted to buy extra things is unsubscribing to all the email lists that send me wonderful amazing deals practically everyday!  Hello Gymboree?  Bye bye!  Good riddance!  I’ve given you enough money!  lol  Very Jane.  Sniff sniff…that one will be a little harder. 

It is a challenge living on one-income.  It’s even a bigger challenge when you consider how the price of food is increasing every day and how it looks like our taxes are going to be raised again.  It can be overwhelming.  I’ve been tempted to open a day-care in our home.  But God is in control and we are purposed to be good stewards of what He’s given us.  Mr. Taffy does NOT want me have a day care in our home (me either really), so we will do what we need to do and if that means we don’t get to eat out whenever we want too or if I have to spend more time in the kitchen because I’m cooking all the time, well so be it.  It’s a fair exchange to be home for my family!

What’s the hardest thing about budgeting to you?

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Playing with Pumpkins

Food gets me so excited!  Especially fresh produce.  The more the merrier!  Recently I purchased, ready for this…400 pounds of produce!  All at once!  Wanna see? 

I got 4-50 # bags of acorn squash and 2-50# bags of butternut squash.  I also got 100# of potatoes and 20# of onions.  I  guess that’s a little more than 400 pounds huh?

I’ve been reading about the Pilgrims and the incredible trails they encountered when coming to America, about how they had to grow and store all their food over the winter in order to survive.  It may sound funny, but they really inspired me.  Surely if they could do that, survive that, thrive in that, I can take care of and manage 400 pounds of produce. Surely.

I was honored to be able to purchase this food from a farmer, what I bought was part of his left overs from the year.  I spent a total of $148.00 on all this food, which still just sets me at awe!  All the produce came in burlap bags like the squash photo from the top.  It’s a handy way to transport them, but not so handy to retrieve, especially if I’m sending children out to get them.

  So in my garage I set up a table and portioned out some of the food into boxes.  All the potatoes are in a box so they stay nice and dark.  I also put the onions in a box.  One bag of acorn squash was divided between my big pantry in the house and chicken box from Sam’s Club.  All the produce is off the floor and covered with a sleeping bag in order to keep out the frigid winter air.

It’s not very attractive but I don’t care. (grin)

Since I’m showing you around my ugly garage I might as well show you my other food storage.

Buckets with bags of dry goods.  Mr. Taffy and I  feel pretty passionate about having a little bit of food on hand for eating and for emergencies.  We don’t live in fear, but I feel like part of my job as resident Homemaker is to make sure that there is food here, continually and Mr. Taffy always encourages me to stock up a little bit here and there. Plus it’s such a blessing to be able to go shopping in my garage and not be at the mercy of grocery store prices and the fluctuating market.

Along with the produce I ordered, the farmer gave me some canning pumpkins, or sugar pumpkins or pie pumpkins, not sure exactly what they are called, but they are the kind of pumpkins that make delicious pies.  I don’t really make pumpkin pies but I love to put pumpkin in EVERYTHING else.  So even though it was a stretch for me, I spent an evening “processing” those pumpkins.  With a little help from my best girls of course!

I figured out it was easier to sort of “milk” the seeds out of the center of the pumpkin, rather than scoop out everything  all at once and separate the seeds afterward.  (I washed, soaked and roasted the seeds. My husband LOVES the salty pumpkin seeds to snack on!)

So slimy!  I think we processed 8 pumpkins, I still have 2 more, but I’m going to use them for my Thanksgiving Table.

I got to wondering if I could just bake the pumpkin pieces in my roasting pan.  Guess what?  It worked, beautifully!  I roasted them in two layers, with a sheet of tin foil in between.  I baked them at 325 for about an hour and the pumpkin came out of those shells as easily as could be!  After it cooled I ran the pumpkin through my Squeeze-O and then froze the pumpkin in one and two cup portions!  No added sugar or preservatives, just look at that lovely color!

It was a pretty messy job but I’m glad we took the time to do it.

Off to make some Pumpkin Bread! 

 

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy

Weekly Wrap~13

 

I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week.  Taking pictures of the food I’ve made somehow makes it feel more important.  Granted, I have a strong belief that food is important and it’s one of the best ways I show love to my family. But I spend all that time making it and it’s gone in 10 minutes!  So taking a picture makes is last longer and feel more significant.  Try it, it might encourage you too!  (smile)

Tot School~

Sweet Marshmallow didn’t terrorize the school room too badly this week.  She still wants to be in the middle of everything and pushes people out of her way to get there, but she did manage to sit for a little bit and do some fun things.

This was a highly supervised activity.  I am so protective of that wooden ball.  It was lost for months and then I found it and now I’m being a little anal about keeping it safe.  lol

Kindergarten~

Laffy Taffy worked on lowercase j and lower case k this week.  Here he is putting jewels on his letter j for our lowercase alphabet he’s building.

These awesome pattern block sheets are from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Thanks so much for your printables! 

2nd Grade~

Still loving A Reason for Handwriting.  The lessons are short, the content great and the finished lesson is a piece of art.

4th Grade~

Here’s Blue-Raspberry reading through his Latin Vocabulary.  He got an A on his chapter test this week and he’s feeling very happy with himself.  He studied extra hard and it paid off!

 

This is from the kid’s History Book, there are two sets of heads here…I thought they looked impressive all laid out like that.  These are the friends, family and foes of Charles the Great. Each head is labeled on the back.

             

We are working our way through the Apologia Anatomy and Physiology Book, this week we set the book aside and worked on building a life size model of a body.  Blue-Raspberry and Bubble Gum each have their own.  This has been a really fun project and again, I have to say thank you to Erica for these awesome print outs! 

And finally, we wrap up the week with some HeadventureLand fun.  The kids are watching a Latin video, they also played a few Latin games.  By the way, anyone can use HeadventureLand, I think there would be some benefit even if you didn’t buy the curriculum, the website is free and there are many videos and coloring pages and games in Latin, Greek and Spanish!

That pretty much wraps up our week.  We had a fun day of watching the snow fall and drinking hot chocolate, a trip to the library and Costco, lots of laundry and even a cookie or two. 

Praying you’ve had a great week, and as you’ve rested over the weekend, had time to recharge for the week ahead!

Joyfully,

Mrs. Taffy