October Reading and Etc.

You can tell when a school break rolls around for us ... I have a minute to breathe and update my/our reading lists here. :) We have been steadily plugging along with school and activities and house renovations and are oh so very thankful for a Thanksgiving break this week! Here's a short update on what we / I read in October, with hopes that a November update might be more timely!



Lots and lots of reading aloud happening here (as always!) and we finished up three books this month in different levels of rotation. First, the boy and I have moved to reading shortish chapter books before his bedtime. (Still plenty of picture books happening as well, thank goodness!) He has been enamoured with Paddington so we finished the first book in that series, A Bear Called Paddington. We love both the movie and the book, even though there are really very dissimilar, and moved straight away into the second book in the series, More About Paddington.

Secondly, we wrapped up King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green. We had read his retelling of Robin Hood last time we were in the Middle Ages, so I knew I wanted to read his version of King Arthur. We did enjoy it, though I give the caveat that it was also long and it took several chapters to get into the feel of the older English writing. Once we were in a groove, the story seemed to move at a much quicker pace!

Thirdly, we finished up a wonderful biography of Corrie ten Boom. While we all enjoyed this, my 10 year old especially asked for "just one more chapter" as every one left us hanging as to Corrie and Betsy ten Boom's fate as they suffered the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. This was a gentle introduction to some of the scenes of WWII as well as a beautiful picture of the faith of Corrie and Betsy ten Boom and I'd highly recommend it.

For my own reading, I managed to get several books read (fall break helped immensely!)

• Being There: How to Love Those Who are Hurting by Dave Furman. This is written from a pastor in Dubai who suffers from chronic illness. He gives wonderful encouragement and examples of how you can minister to those who are in the midst of any kind of a trial or struggle - simple, practical ways to engage, assist and encourage those in the long-term battle with illness, grief, depression, etc. Highly recommend. I know this is one that I will refer to often.
• A Table by the Window by Lawana Blackwell. A clean, fun mystery that I haven't picked off the shelf in years. I have several stacks of books that I am hanging on to for nostalgia's sake though I haven't read them in years. This is one and I had the urge to read it over fall break. Still good.
• Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins. Mamas who need encouragement in the trenches of homeschooling need this books. I actually think this would encourage any mama, but she does speak a lot about homeschooling her nine children, eight of whom were boys! Autobiographical in nature, and full of stories of what worked with her crew, as well as stories of what didn't. The book comes off as a very humble retelling of the grace given to her as a mom trying to do her best with the work and privilege in front of her of educating her children. Another highly recommend.
• The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart. If you have a munchkin who loved The Mysterious Benedict Society, Mr. Lemoncello's library adventures, etc., get his book. I recommend it for adults as well, obviously, but 'tis the gift giving season, so here's a recommendation. :)
• Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. This is a book that I've had sitting on my shelf for forever, bought because I had heard descriptions of his beautiful writing and imagery. The writing is this book WAS beautiful and the story so simple as you read of Hannah's life - from childhood, through marriage, and into old age with grown children and grandchildren. This is not one that I would reread again and again, but I was certainly touched by the one time through that I did read it.

I'll leave you with this one last book recommendation, or warning, however you may take it! Do not read Ember Falls if you do not like adventure, rabbits, rabbits with swords, mortal peril, and nail biting cliffhangers at the end of the book! We finished this last week and are now left waiting for the inevitable third book in the series because we must! know! what! happens! next!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Grateful to those that still come by here and read my keyboard peckings in this small space as well as those that I have connected with through Instagram. Reading and books bring me such joy, that is wonderful to have like-minded friends and acquaintances around the world to share them with. Grace and peace to all.

Happy Birthday President Lincoln

My girls asked me yesterday what we were going to do to celebrate President Lincoln's birthday today. Obviously, by taking pictures of our Lincoln books! We don't have the right kind of pretzels to make log cabins and we have lost quite a few of the lincoln logs so this will have to do. Luckily, we are a book loving bunch.

The book in the top photo is the newest Lincoln book we have read (as of yesterday), Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman. We enjoyed her take on our 16th President and her artwork was definitely eye catching.



We found this book via list I spotted through Facebook which of course I can't find now. It generated a whole slew of new-to-us picture books that we have been working our way through and hopefully I'll have some winners to share soon.

Post that relates:
- some of our Civil War reading

Crockpot Potato Soup ... or What We are Eating on Christmas Eve

It's never too late to start a new tradition for your family ... last year marked the first year that we hosted my side of the family for Christmas Eve. For many, many years, we had spent the evening with friends and it was a much anticipated time of visiting and snacking. However, as children have grown and more and more grandchildren arrived (ourselves included!), the crowd got to be a bit much for a huge Christmas Eve get-together, and so we started our own tradition.



This recipe is courtesy of a fellow CC mom. She brought this to a recent potluck and it was delicious! Once she emailed us all the recipe, I knew this was going to be part of our Christmas dinner menu. My favorite potato soup of all is my mom's recipe which isn't quite so heavy; however, it isn't a crockpot recipe and since we'll be coming home to eat from the Christmas Eve service, I need something that doesn't take as much babying.

Kate's Crockpot Potato Soup

30 oz frozen hash brown potatoes (I diced up a bunch of potatoes since I didn't have hashbrowns and it worked just fine.)

32 oz chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken soup

8 oz cream cheese

Bacon bits (or turkey bacon)

1 c. shredded cheese

Salt, Pepper, and Granulated Garlic to taste

 

In the crock pot, put the hash brown potatoes, broth, cream of chicken soup, half of the bacon bits and salt, pepper and garlic. Cook on low for 8 hours. One hour before serving, add the cream cheese and bacon bits. If you take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator earlier than that to warm up a little bit, it will incorporate better with the soup - I also gave it a whirl with an immersion blender to smooth it out some. Serve with cheddar cheese on top.

 

Again, the verdict by the six kids in our house was that it was GOOD. I was hoping for quite a bit leftover and I had to scrape out the crockpot to get enough for one more serving the following day.

 

Another crockpot potato soup we love is here which is quite a bit cheesier and super good as well.

40 Days

I need Lent this year.

There has been a lot of complaining. (You probably have not heard it but it's there).

There has been stewing over situations and letting frustrations fester.

There has been the trying-to-do-all-the-stuff to the point that none of the stuff gets done.

40 days. I need this season. A season that isn't talked about much in the circles that I generally run in, but one that I want to learn more about and benefit from. I do not, under any circumstances, profess to be an expert on Lent. But a season of reflection in the 40 days until Easter, to think about the sacrifice that Jesus faced on the cross for me and the victory that He won. And to think about why he made that sacrifice.

Me. My sin. My shame.

Time to reflect on what he has done for me when I was so underserving.

Resources / books that I'm gathering:
Lent Journal from Naptime Diaries
Journey to the Cross Devotional from The Gospel Coalition
Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliott

Project Life Update // Thanksgiving Week!

It's Thanksgiving! (Or it was). : )

With the exception of one picture at the beginning and two pictures at the end, this entire layout (+ inserts) is all Thanksgiving, all the time. I had too many that I wanted to include and so I did!





On the left:

• a pretty leaf picture became my date card. I love using all the random nature shots as my date cards with a label slapped on them. Not that I need to justify taking the picture, but I love that I'm using them in my albums.
• The morning that we headed out for Thanksgiving a certain girl had to have a couple teeth pulled. Little teeth that didn't want to come out on their own and big teeth that wanted to make their presence known were not getting along. This was a slightly traumatic experience for all involved - the girl was NERVOUS. The mama had to have two of her other kids with her at the appointment instead of being 100% focused on calming the patient. But. We survived and there was ice cream. And happy gas.
• The giant table where we took our meals at the cabin we stayed at with my side of the family. There were twelve of us there and you could have sat another six comfortably at this table - no joke. I want a table like this in my house someday!
• T relaxing. 

On the right:

• getting the kids out of the cabin for a hike. It was cooooold this day (I think it was Wednesday?) Flurries the whole day long though nothing really accumulated.
• A lake we walked past near our cabin.
• T and B singing/working on one of the Christmas songs for the church program. A little impromptu music after we put up our tree...
• which is here! This is our first year for a LIVE tree and I am so enjoying it. This was not a great picture by any stretch of the imagination. I actually used my point and shoot for this shot and it gave the picture a funny orange tint but it's the only one we had. 

Insert #1:

On Friday, we went on a horseback / trail ride with everyone thanks to Grandpa's generosity. The kids had a blast!!! Even the boy got to ride the whole time with T and he kept turning around and telling me he was riding a black horse! This was such a thrill for them all.

The back of Insert #1:

More pictures from outside around our cabin that we stayed at, minus the selfie with the horse that I took. His name was Smokey, but it should have been Pokey. He was soooo slow.

Insert #2:

A cut down PL page to hold just a few more shots.

B put away that whole turkey leg. Pretty impressive.

A fun getaway that is DONE and in the books. 

Questions? As you can see I've had a bit more time for blogging now that we are on break and am hoping to do more in the coming weeks. I'm curious who all out there is a Project Lifer or has interest in that? Anyone taking this on for 2014? 

Supplies used in this layout:

• journaling cards from In a Creative Bubble
• I Love stamp from Elise Joy
• PL 3x4 grid cards
• blue 4x6 journaling card is from the Cobalt edition.
• red 4x6 journaling card is from a Studio Calico PL kit.
• Tracy Larson white spaces templates

Project Life is a product and a system created by Becky Higgins and available on Amazon.com, DigitalProjectLife.com, and many major craft retailers. It can be anything you want it to be. You can view all my posts about Project Life here. I'm always happy to answer questions about how Project Life works for me, if you have any. Affiliate links used where available.

Currently : December 2013 Edition

waking early. Right now it's the only time of my day to be by myself and I crave it.

finishing another week of Project Life this evening right before dinner. Maybe I'll get to share it later this week? I put in an order pics from Thanksgiving and am determined to get those journaled and DONE before the weeks get by me too fast.

watching Pioneer Woman on Amazon prime when I find twenty minutes to get on the treadmill.

walking (speaking of) slowly on the treadmill with a little running thrown in after taking about three weeks off.



shopping for a REAL Christmas tree this year. Can you believe that I've never had a real-live tree before at Christmas? I'm so sold. There is no going back now. I come from a long line of fake tree people but I have crossed over now.

loving the smell of said real tree. Truly, I was a little worried that the house would smell like a giant bad car air freshener, but it's just perfect.

appreciating the words in this post from Vita Familiae on simplifying advent. This year is s.i.m.p.l.e around here and I'm enjoying less stress about it.

unpacking from a full few days away for Thanksgiving with my side of the family. Four days of lots of romping around outside and up mountains makes for a lot of laundry.



planning and putting dates in my 2014 calendar. The stripes and the daily layout sold me.

anticipating taking the boy out for a Christmas lights drive in a few weeks. This is his year to notice them and the wonder in his voice is my new favorite thing.



working, or I should be, on some school plans for the spring. Time to look at where we are headed in our history and pick some read alouds to go along. We read some GREAT books this fall as we learned about the middle ages, knights, and the Renaissance. I could have stayed there a lot longer.

liking him. And looking forward to the next few weeks. All the date nights we haven't had over the last year will be made up for in spades.



cheering on N2 as she and I tackled getting a few teeth extracted at the dentist last week. A little medicine to relax her, a little happy gas, and we both survived.

listening to the sound of computer clicking. The house is blissfully silent right now.

eating lots of spaghetti squash. My favorite fall veggie right now. Lots of mandarin oranges as well. Trying to pack in the veggies so that I can squeeze in a few favorite holiday treats along the way.

contemplating a post on all the eating and the losing of the weight and the running and all that jazz. We are coming up on the one-year mark from when I started this "project" and oh, what a year it has been.

reading should be a whole post on its own I suppose! The girls and I are in the middle of Little Women right now. On the top of my foolishly high reading pile is Mariel of Redwall (book 4 in the Redwall series), A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens for the Reading to Know bookclub), The Greatest Gift (by Ann Voskamp), and The Question by Leigh Bortins. Lots of variety, that's for sure.

ordering Christmas goodies. Soon, I hope. We go fairly light for Christmas with our kids. The past two years we have gone the route of family gifts or have gotten them all the same gift and it has been great. While they still put together a little Christmas list, it helps keep it from becoming a regurgitation of a toy catalog and their list of what they want to do for others becomes the mile long one. I love that.

wanting to make a batch of my Grandad's peanut brittle and my Grandma's Chex Mix. Need to do a little recipe searching for the peanut brittle one.

playing lots of Uno and Skip-Bo with the kids and the rest of my family this last week on our little Thanksgiving trip. I'm not a card/game player, but it's so fun now that the girls all really get how to play.



drinking coffee.

clearing out kids' rooms. I have one that has a hard time keeping things put away and picked up so I'm hoping that elimination will be a key to success for her.

looking forward to a haircut this weekend. Sad, but true. It's been over a year since I've had a haircut and it's time.

celebrating my niece on Sunday - she turns 16! (Not. possible).



wishing you a good rest of your week!

Around the Web, a New Jelly Telly Post, and a Giveaway!

• I have a new blog up of at Club Jelly Telly today … all about taking a deep breath as we are gearing up for the beginning of a new school year and remember who is the one worthy of our trust when we get anxious. Read more here.

• Doesn’t this look like a fun little online workshop? And, if you blog about it, it’s free! So there you go. I’ve recently found Edie’s blog (Life {in} Grace) and wish I had tons of time to dig around her archives and get to know her better.

• I’ve been perusing a few of my favorite posts from Elizabeth Foss and Kendra Fletcher and trying to fire myself up for school this year. This is a busy season in our house with a VERY active 2 going on 3 year old boy and I am in need of encouragement for me and a few ideas in my pocket to keep this boy out of trouble and busy while we do school. If you aren’t subscribed to these two blogs (or at least making generous use of their archives) you need to be.
• As a fun little back-to-school treat for you, the few and faithful that read here, I’ve got a giveaway. (I don’t know the last time I’ve had one of those!) I’ve got an extra unopened copy of Volume 1 of What’s in the Bible that I’d love to mail to a new home. If you are interested, leave a comment on this post by Friday afternoon and I’ll draw a winner. (Make sure you leave me an email with your comment so I know how to track you down.) For one extra entry, you can facebook or tweet about this giveaway, and then leave me a comment with the link. Good luck!

This contest is closed - congrats Tami!

Review ::: A Simpler Season by Life as Mom

I have been a follower of the blog Life as Mom, written by Jessica Fisher, for some time now and I am excited to share a review and giveaway today from her blog!
Several summers ago I purchased a copy of her e-book, Summer Survival Guide, and it has been one of my favorite resources. By the time summer rolls around, this homeschool mama is t.i.r.e.d. and ready for a break. And planning summer activities for my kids … makes this air-conditioning lover tired. : ) Her e-book was a huge help the last two summer, giving me some creative ideas and encouragement when I was needing a little mental help.
Because I enjoyed her summer book so much, when she published her newest e-book, A Simpler Season, I snatched that one up as well. Written to encourage and inspire as you plan for the holiday season for your family, Jessica has created an e-book full of suggestions and worksheets to help you plan a simple and meaningful holiday. She helps you think through what traditions are important and what expectations you need to let go of for your family for the year and season of life. There are monthly planning calendars, budget sheets, recipes, and many other planning forms that can printed and used year after year.
You can purchase the book directly from her site here or as a Kindle e-book here (the printable pages are not included in the Kindle version but you can buy them as a packet on her site). And, for the fun part, I have a copy of A Simpler Season to give away!
To be entered in the giveaway, please leave a comment with an email. If I don’t have a way to contact you, I will draw another winner. The contest will be open until next Tuesday, November 13, at which time I’ll close the comments and draw a winner. If you can’t wait to see if you win, Jessica has a sale on the e-book through this Saturday (the 10th) – enter the code SIMPLER3 and get $3 off.
I purchased my own copy of A Simpler Season and had read and loved it before I was sent a copy to review. All opinions are my own and I haven’t been compensated in any way for this review, although I have been given a copy to giveaway.

Comments are now closed. Random.org picked comment #3 - congratulations Mills!

Weekly Wrap-up // The In and Out of Town Week

This week was light on formal schoolwork but heavy on fun for all of us! A last summer fling before the real and steady nose-to-the-grindstone begins next week. Please pardon the insane amount of pictures for this post. I couldn’t leave any of them out so if you are not a grandma or relation, please feel free to skim. : )

Monday: We had a normal day of school on Monday (so normal that I’ll leave out the nuts-and-bolts of what we checked off our lists this time).

Tuesday: We visited our Classical Conversations tutorial for orientation and meet-and-greet day! It was a fun and busy time there as the girls met their tutors and I met the class that I will be working with this coming year. I have a little group of abecedarians (5 and young 6’s, kindergarten age) and it looks like B will be in my group!

After CC, we snuck in a quick orthodontist check for N1 and she got her front four braces on today. She’s been a little sore, but otherwise a trooper about the whole thing. She thinks they are pretty cool (when they aren’t impeding with her eating) and I think they make her look older. : )

After N1’s appointment, we headed home to load up with the (and, a-hem, finish packing) and hit the road for a three-day trip to Chattanooga! T had a work meeting so the kids and I tagged along. Chattanooga is a beautiful, visitor friendly city and we enjoyed our time there!

Photo taken from the pedestrian walking bridge overlooking the Tennessee River. The building with the pointed roof on the left is the Tennessee Aquarium.

Wednesday: We hit up the Children’s Discovery Museum. This year the boy was in heaven as we wandered and played and explored. He and B (and N2 to some extent) are just the right target ages for this museum and enjoyed exploring the music, art and doctor areas. N1 was in heaven in their large art center. We easily spent three hours there before they were ready to move on and find some lunch.

 

Thursday: We saved our favorite stop for day two – the Tennessee Aquarium! The aquarium is made up of two large buildings – one that houses fresh water animals and one that is for oceanic life. We spent the morning viewing the fresh water fish. I am amazed by God’s creativity in the creatures that He created that live in the water, rarely visible to the normal, everyday eye!

Some of our favorites: (1) seahorses; (2) a large (LARGE) fresh water fish; (3) Russian sturgeon (these are some of the fish that give us caviar); (4) the aquarium has a butterfly habitat and we spotted this giant butterfly/moth that was just beautiful. It was probably the size of one of the girls’ hands! (5) Shark! (6) Large crab – tiny children.

This pic below isn’t a great pic, but I like it for a couple of reasons. One, the two shadows at the bottom are B and the boy and she’s telling him about the fish. (He has slept through the dive show we watched which was a good thing – the divers in the tanks freaked him out with their masks and gear). Two, this picture shows the immense size of the tank in the oceanic building. This tank was approximately 36 feet deep in the deepest section, 100 feet long, and 50 feet wide. An immense tank!

A stop in the shark cage is always fun. : )

You will have to indulge me if I share several photos of the same animal – jellyfish are my favorite! I am just in awe of their translucent bodies and filmy, wispy “tails”. They amaze me at how delicate they are.

 

We found time for some reading while hanging in the hotel room. (N2 finished her first big chapter book – Ramona the Pest soon after we got home from this trip!)

Friday: Did you know that there is a Towing Museum? There is and it’s in Chattanooga where the tow truck was invented in the early 1900’s. We have a boy that is very into cars right now, so we made a stop here on Friday while T was on a break from his meeting. You can see some of the tow trucks below – I was surprised by the huge range in size of the different models!

The one on the below left is the tire of a WW2 tow truck used by General Patton on the shores of Normandy. Look at how big the tires are! I loved the yellow tow truck on the below right as well – check out the wood paneling on the 1935 Ford!

This is the biggest tow truck ever built, and there were only four ever made. This big daddy can pull up to 70 tons. It was HUGE!

After depositing T back at his meeting for the wrap-up, we went for a long walk over the pedestrian bridge in Chattanooga. Needed to get some energy out before drive home later that evening. : )

At the end of the bridge, once you get over the Tennessee River is Coolidge Park with a very invited splash park. After a quick dig through the luggage to make sure we had enough dry clothes left to get us home, the kids went splashing for a big as a last romp during our time in Chattanooga.

And with that, we said good-bye to Chattanooga. Now it’s back home and back to our normal routine. While most will take a small break on Monday for Labor Day, we are going to hit the books to prepare for our first full day of CC on Tuesday. All our weekly activities – CC, Awana, and our Friday Bible study – start up this week so there will be no lack of things to report in our next weekly wrap-up!