Tuesday Reviews

Angela is now hosting this meme, Tuesday Reviews. From her site; "My first meme, I'm so excited about it! If you have a product, book, curriculum, anything that makes life better for you please write a review and then leave a comment and sign Mr. Linky so we can all see the product you are reviewing. I love to write reviews and love to read them so I think this will be so much fun! Feel free to copy the picture above and add it to your sidebar or just use it for your review entry. "


I have been on a bit of an exercise kick lately and thought I would share about one of my new favorite workout dvds.

I love using tapes and dvds to workout at home. But for me to buy one it needs to be well worth the money I spend on it. I got this dvd off Amazon for less than $10 and it is well worth that as you get so many workouts in one package! Denise Austin offers three levels of intensity (low, medium and high) for aerobics, upper body, lower body and ab workouts. No fancy equipment here, just some light weights and a chair. There is a menu screen where you can truly customize your routine...this morning I picked the low intensity cardio (20 minutes) and the medium intensity upper and lower body routines (each 10 minutes.) After you finish picking and choosing you hit play and your custom workout is ready! On days when you just want aerobics you can choose that, or opt for a complete workout, including a stretch. Another notable option for this dvd...you can choose to play the workouts with music and Denise's comments, or just the music (some people find Denise a little too, uh, cheerful.) I have had and used this dvd for 3 weeks now and there are still some routines I haven't tried. In my opinion this dvd is a great value that will stave off the boredom you may encounter with working out at home. Head on over to Angela's site for more reviews and to join in on the fun.

Tightwad Tuesday

Mary, a.k.a. Canadagirl, hosts this meme for sharing our best money saving tips. This week I'll share about how we make the most out of the computer paper we buy and use. First, I keep a folder labeled "Scrap Paper" on my desk where I put items that didn't print correctly and other papers that could not be used as intended. My kids know to go to that folder for paper to draw on or play with. I also use those scrap papers for printing coupons off the internet. If you do this regularly, you know that a lot of times only one coupon will print per page...what a waste! Printing them out on the back of a scrap paper works just fine. I also have no problems printing on the backs of scrap papers for things like recipes or lesson plans...we really try to use every piece of computer paper "to the max." I have also begun writing down recipes and lesson plans that I find on the internet...takes a little more time and effort on my part (and I don't really like my handwriting lol), but it saves money in the long run. Visit Mary's site to join in and see more frugal tips.

Sketch Tuesday

Barb at Heart of Harmony hosts this cool meme. She gives an assignment every week for us to sketch. My ds is the artist around here and he has been following the assignments for a while, but this was the first week we actually remembered to turn it in on time lol. Barb suggested sketching something with an umbrella. Ds's pic is of a windy day and an umbrella blown inside out. Sorry it is turned on it's side. This is lots of fun, as well as great practice. You don't have to sign up to join in the fun, just visit Heart of Harmony to get this week's sketch idea and email it to Barb by Monday. Or just stop by and view the slideshow of all the super contributions.

Exercise Challenge

Another good week of exercise. I did aerobics (mostly walking) 5 days and lifted weights on T and Th. I used The Firm Cardio Sculpt for the Th weight lifting...that is one good workout. I love that it incorporates aerobics and strength training, yet the aerobics is nice and gentle (but very effective...you will get your heart rate up.)

I found a 6 week walking program from Leslie Sansone at the library and I am starting it this week. I read the book in one evening...it's great. (See pic on my bookshelf on the sidebar.) She emphasises exercise over diet. She doesn't say to just eat recklessly, but her program is about getting into shape. You walk more miles, and add more intensity over the weeks (with hand weights, ab belts, etc.) And every week she has you do one simple thing to improve your health, such as drinking water or taking a vitamin. I like that it is a gentle push into getting into shape, not a do-it-all-at-once kind of program. And Leslie has so many different dvd's that you have tons of options for working out. I also like Leslie's "style"...she is a bit more real than some of these instructors and also is open about her faith. So here we go, six weeks and counting! Hope everyone had a good week of workouts!

Dinner Tonight

Was pretty darn good lol! I tried out a recipe from a Betty Crocker Slow Cooker cookbook. It's always a good dinner when you just dump it in the crockpot and forget about it until 5pm. :) Btw, that's a pic of the kind of crockpot I have right now...a Hamilton Beach Stay or Go, and I love it!

Chicken Alfredo Stew

1 jar Alfredo pasta sauce
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups refrigerated cooked diced potatoes with onions
1 1/4 lb skinless chicken thighs, cut into strips
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables

In a small bowl, mix Alfredo sauce, water, basil and salt. In slow cooker, layer half each of potatoes, chicken strips, frozen veggies and pasta sauce. Repeat layers ending with pasta sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. My notes: This is very tasty and I didn't even follow the recipe very well. I didn't have any refrigerated potatoes and just used some diced fresh red potatoes. I also used some frozen thighs I had on hand, and about an hour before I served this up I took them out of the crock, removed the skin and bones, and replaced the meat. I also didn't do the whole "layering" part in the directions...just plopped it all in lol. Anyway, it turned out pretty tasty, especially with the hot cornbread I made to sop up the sauce with. Yum!

Homeschool Hi-Light 4/21-4/25

Ellen at Fun Learning is hosting a weekly meme designed to share a highlight from our past week of homeschooling. My highlight this week actually came about Friday night. The boys had done the Green Hour Challenge Thursday afternoon, but never got around to completing the drawing portion of the assignment. So Friday night, after we were all fed and bathed and had a little time before bed, I passed out paper and pencil and had them all do their drawings. Even daddy got involved! It was fun to sit back and see them all working on something together...that doesn't happen all that often since they are in different grades (7th, 1st and preschool.) And it was neat to see daddy get a chance to join in the fun (and he learned a little about roly polys to boot lol.)

I also want to share a neat little learning tool we found at Wal-Mart this week. Ds3 (1st grade) is learning how to tell time. We found this cute learning clock which he can use to set analog time, and has a little wipe off area where he can write the digital time. He has enjoyed it and has even been trying to teach the 3yo with it. :)


I hope everyone had a great week, and I look forward to reading about your highlights.

Destination Disney: Disney Magic

Now this is my kind of meme! We are all about Disney World here at our house...I honestly don't know exactly how many times we have been, but it's over 25! (Note to self, try and come up with a more accurate count.) While we do live in Florida, we are in NW Fl (a.k.a. The Panhandle), 7 hours away from Disney. So believe it or not, our first tastes of Disney did not come until dh and I were in high school. Dh is my brother's best friend and has been forever, so I've known him all my life. I loved baseball when I was in high school, and my dad thought it would be neat one year during our spring break, to go to south Florida and see some training camps. It was neat, and some of the best times ever! Just me, my dad, my brother and dh (though not my dh or even a boyfriend then lol). The second year we went, dad decided to stop by Disney on the way home. My brother and dh spent the whole day going from Space Mountain to Pirates, back and forth over and over...Dad and I rode all we could and even stopped for food now and then, lol. We were hooked!


Since then dh returned to Disney with his mother and sister for a short trip before he entered the Air Force, and I went for my school's Grad Nite. Once we were married (and returned from his tour overseas) and had kids, we started taking regular vacations to Disney World. We are seasonal passholders and go at least once a year. We don't honestly take vacations anywhere else! (I mean, come on folks, we live at the beach lol.) We've been with babies, while pregnant (didn't know it once and fainted after riding Big Thunder Mountain!), with toddlers and teenagers, while nursing, with relatives, in the summer (never again...waaaaay too hot), at Christmas, stayed on property and off, stayed in value resorts and deluxe resorts, you name it we have done it! We have video and pics of rides that don't even exist there anymore (anyone remember Mr. Toad's Wild Ride or the Leagues Under the Sea submarine thing, or the highway in the skyway?) We were some of the first guests to stay at the Animal Kingdom lodge (hey, I have the souvenir cup to prove it!)


So needless to say, we love Disney World. How can I pick just one thing to share that we find magical about Disney?

How about sneaking kisses on rides? (I know the pic is blurry...believe it or not, ds had smudged powdered sugar on my lens and I didn't know lol.)

Or getting special Fast Passes to all the rides in Disney Studios?
Or finally being tall enough for a ride (and deciding not to go on it after all lol.)

I can't wait to see what everyone else has shared that they find magical about Disney World. If you want to see for yourself, or join in the fun, click here!

Green Hour Challenge: Time To Draw

Today we completed assignment #3 for the Green Hour Challenge. We went on a brief nature walk down our street and returned to draw some pages for a nature journal.


Ds3 found this tree interesting. We noted how it provides nice shade (it was a hot morning lol.)

Ds4 stopped to admire some wildflowers by the roadside. He liked the color and feel.

Ds2 brought along a garbage bag to pick trash up along the way! What a great kid. He had planned on doing this on Earth Day, but he was sick. Now he plans on doing this on every nature walk we take.


All three of the boys drew interesting scenes to add to our nature journal, and I'd hoped to show them but my scanner is acting up...maybe next week. Here are some quotes from their pages. The 3yo; "I saw on a nature walk some nice roly polys." The 7yo; "A good nature walk is fun. It has roly polys, trees and bark." (I sense a theme here with the roly polys lol.) I hope we will be able to continue the assignments through the summer, although today's walk gave us just a little hint of the heat to come...our future walks will probably have to happen early in the morning or later in the evening to combat that. To check out more Green Hour Challenge participants or to join in yourself, click here!

Million Dollar Cookie

So have you tried this one yet? I am glad a cookie recipe won the prize at the Pillsbury Bake Off this year. I can't wait for Food Network to broadcast the show...we really enjoyed watching last year and I have been a fan ever since of last year's winner's blog, Cookie Madness (even though her winning recipe was not for a cookie lol.) I like that this year's winning recipe is easy, uses everyday ingredients, and is quite adaptable. I made a batch and they went super quick! They look pretty and taste great. (Although my son said he wouldn't pay a million dollars for one...had to explain the whole contest concept to him lol.) Make a batch today!

Happy Earth Day and a Yummy Dessert

Did you do anything to "celebrate" Earth Day 2008? We had some fun with a few lesson plans I found on the internet. We learned about the history of Earth Day, discussed the 3 R's (although now there are 5...I'm out of the loop lol) and played a game at Recycle City. My kids realized that we already practice the three R's in our everyday life and suggested ways we could do even more.

Tonight for dinner we had Beef Quesadillas. They were pretty yummy, but next time I might add a can of cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup to the beef and refried bean mixture. Just an idea. Now here is what we had for dessert!

Well, that's just part of it. We had Chocolate Chip Strawberry Shortcake. Yum! The pic above is of the shortcakes as they came out of the oven.
This is after you cut the shortcakes in half and pile on the sweetened strawberries and whipped cream. Yeah baby! And check out the family china lol. Here is the recipe, from the new issue of Simple and Delicious magazine.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Shortcake

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
1/4 cup sugar
Biscuits:
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup plus 1 tbs butter, melted and divided
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
whipped cream

In a small bowl, combine sliced strawberries and sugar. Cover and put in fridge until serving. In a large bowl, combine flour, 2 tbs sugar, baking powder and salt. In small bowl combine 1/2 cup melted butter and whipping cream. Add to dry ingredients until thick dough forms. Gently stir in chocolate chips. Drop dough by 1/3 cupfuls onto a greased baking sheet. My tip here, I always use parchment paper for baking. Things always come out beautifully and clean up is easy. Brush with remaining melted butter and sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake at 375 for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool. Cut biscuits in half, spoon fruit onto bottom half, top with whipped cream and replace top of biscuit. Enjoy! (And don't forget to use the family china lol!)

Homeschool Hi-Lights Meme

Ellen invited me to join in on a new meme, called Homeschool Hi-Lights. Here's the low-down, from her site. "Join in every Monday for the Homeschool Highlight Meme.Write a post about a highlight from your past week of home learning. Here are some ideas: an accomplishment, an event or outing, a fun learning experience, a new educational product your family enjoys, an unexpected teachable moment. You can also use the Homeschool Hi-Lights graphic, if you want to."

I like the idea of this. I've signed up to do weekly reports before, but I either forget or don't feel like doing such a detailed post. With this we just report on the highlights (if you have any lol.)

I guess our highlight this week would be our nature walk. We are following the Green Hour Challenge at The Heart of Harmony, and we had our 2nd nature walk for assignment #2 (we are a little behind lol.) We actually completed the challenge a day early, as the boys were excited about going on the walk. Only two assignments down, and they are already getting the hang of being more observant about nature. Each one was so excited about finding something new and different to show me, and remembered some of the things we saw and talked about last time. Plus they are really getting to know their neighborhood.

If you'd like to see other homeschool highlights or join in just click here. Hope everyone has a super week!

Workout Challenge: Week 6 or 7 or something

I guess I've put in enough weeks of this to actually stop trying to keep count lol. I think this is either week 6 or 7 for me working out every day. That's enough to call it a new habit, right? Last week I did aerobics all 5 days and lifted weights on T and Th. I got to try out my new Denise Austin dvd's.


I like them, although I have to say this about Denise...she just doesn't understand what low-impact means lol. Even on her "easy walk" of just a mile for beginners she is jumping all over the place! Nonetheless, I like the dvd, especially since it has 3 different routines.


The other dvd I tried is called her Personal Trainer series, and on this one you get to pick from beginner, intermediate and advanced for both the aerobics and the weight lifting. You can really customize the workout. Oh, and she has warm-up and stretch on there as well. She doesn't have that on the walking dvd.

Well, I have to begrudgingly admit that all this exercise has given me more energy...this weekend dh and I spent both days doing yard work. This is big for me, as I'm all about spending a weekend afternoon watching a marathon of America's Next Top Model and reading a good book during commercials lol! But I got out there and dug weeds, cleared out the raised garden bed, and raked and scooped up the clippings while dh trimmed our hedges. I have the little red neck to prove it, too lol. So yea for exercise! Hope everyone had a good week of workouts.

Dinner Last Night

Was a pretty casual and easy affair. I made Pizza Roll-ups, a recipe from the July/August 2000 issue of Quick Cooking magazine (now called Simple & Delicious.) Sides were salad and cut up fruit (mango, pineapple, cantaloupe.) Everyone enjoyed the roll-ups and ate well.

Pizza Roll-Ups
1/2 pound ground beef
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tubes crescent rolls
Cook and drain the beef. Remove from heat and add tomato sauce, cheese and oregano; mix well. Separate crescent dough into eight rectangles, pinching seams together. Place about 3 tbs of meat mixture along one long side of each rectangle and roll up, jelly-roll style. Cut into three pieces and place on greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

Of course a ready made pizza sauce could substitute for the tomato sauce and oregano, and you can really use any cheese you like or have on hand. Yummy and also great as an afternoon snack.

Two Weeks of Toys Giveaway Continues!

The spectacular giveaway continues! Now the wonderful ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom have added on even more super toys including Nerf Blasters! My boys love all things Nerf, so you know I've entered this one lol. All you have to do is visit the 5 Minutes for Mom site and leave a comment on the giveaway you are interested in, as well as post a link on your blog back to their post. They have some really really good stuff, you should check it out for sure!

Show and Tell Friday: Meet Mimi

It's Friday, and time for Show n Tell with Canadagirl (Mary.) This week I'd like to introduce the newest member of our little family...Mimi! We found her a while back scared and meowing like crazy under a car in a parking lot. We've been unable to find an owner, but that's okay...she has blended in with my lot perfectly! She is so cute, black with white paws and chest, so light it feels like you are carrying around a package of cotton balls! She is so tolerant and sweet, she doesn't scratch or bite, and she lets the kiddos carry her around with no problem. We had a hard time naming her at first...the kids suggested "Stinky" because of a little gas problem (since corrected with a proper diet lol) and then we thought about "Raggedy Ann" because of how she goes limp as a rag doll when you pick her up. During a visit with my parents, my Dad said she looked like a miniature version of a cat, so we started calling her "Mini Me" which has finally transformed to Mimi...and it's perfect for her. Sweet and delicate little Mimi.

Thanks for letting me show off the "baby" lol. Have a great weekend!

Green Hour Challenge: Week 2

We had our 2nd nature walk today, a glorious day with a brisk wind, bright blue sky, and moderate temps with plenty of sunshine. For this week's assignment we were to make an effort to be quite during our nature time, so we could hear interesting things. Uh, yeah, with 3 boys all vying for my attention and giving me an earful, that in itself was the challenge for me lol. The birds were very obliging today and sang extra loud so that we actually could hear them. We started our walk in the backyard again, and meandered from there down the street until we reached the highway. The boys were still interested in their finds from last week, pill bugs and trees. During the week we did some research on the bugs, and I printed up some worksheets for ds to label the parts of a tree.

This is ds3 holding some bark we found. He is the one interested in trees.

We returned to the spot where we found the pill bugs last time, but didn't see any. I gently prodded..."Where did we learn this week that pill bugs like to hide?" They remembered about the bug's affinity for wet areas and old rotting wood. Ds2 finds this branch on the ground.
Success! Under the branch were tons of the little guys. We brought some home and had a good look at the 7 pairs of jointed legs and two antennae...see, even mom has learned something in this challenge. We then set them free in our front garden.

The name of this week's assignment is "Using Your Words." Here are my kiddos' descriptions of the things they heard, saw and felt on our adventure.

Ds2 (12yo) heard "chirping" saw a "wet log" and felt "weird tickling pill bugs."

Ds3 (7yo) heard "birds" saw "brown bark" and felt a "log."

Ds4 (3yo) heard "caw caw" saw a "stink beetle" and felt "soft and hard flowers."

We haven't started keeping any kind of journal yet, but I hope to introduce one soon. I think I'll have everyone contribute to one journal, instead of trying to keep three separate ones. If you want to participate in the Green Hour Challenge or see what others have been up to with theirs, see Barb's site The Heart of Harmony.

Book Review: Water For Elephants

I finished Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen yesterday. Now I'm all in "finished a good book and don't have another one around" mourning lol. Yes, this is a good book. Very well written, super story, fleshed out characters, well researched...a good book all-around. I am completely surprised it is written by a woman. The main character is a man, an old man when we first meet him, and in my opinion women writers just don't do a male main character justice...especially when the story is first person, as this one is. But you will completely believe that the voice you hear is a man's. This book, for me, had a pretty sad undertone, though it ends happily (and I was pleasantly surprised that it did so.) There is plenty of sex, violence, and cursing, so if you are trying to avoid that in your reading then be forewarned. I myself don't appreciate a lot of sex and or violence (or cursing!) in books I read, but I do tolerate some to get at a good story written in a good manner...and this book meets those requirements for me. We start off meeting our main character as an old man in a nursing home. The circus is coming to town, and our speaker begins recounting his life as a circus vet. We go from present to past in a seamless and enjoyable manner and by the time we get to the end (on the day the old man is to go to the circus with his family) you'll be rushing to get more reading time in to finish and find out what happens.

Happily, I am well on my way to meeting my Spring Reading Thing challenge! I am also part of a challenge to read 50 books this year, and Water For Elephants makes #15 for me. While I enjoyed this book very much, I admit that the last few novels I've read have been somewhat, er, complicated (Middlesex, Peony In Love) and I need a little literary break. In other words, I needs me some chick lit lol! I'll let you know what I find. Until then, happy reading!