Dinner Tonight

I decided to stop posting on my recipe blog and just post recipes here.  I wish I had taken pics, but I will remember next time.  :)

Slow Cooker Ribs

4 pounds boneless pork spareribs
1 onion thinly sliced
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Place onion in slow cooker and ribs on top.  Combine remaining ingredients and pour over ribs.  Cover and cook on low 8-9  hours.  These come out moist and tasty…you could even shred the meat and add back to the sauce for tasty sandwiches.  Yum.

This Looks Like Fun!

A Not Back-to-School Blog Hop hosted by Darcy at My 3 Boybarians.  For 4 weeks in August we post about different topics and link up to see how we are all starting out our school years!  She picked some great topics and it’s fun to “meet” fellow homeschoolers, so I hope you join in.  Head over to My 3 Boybarians for all the info and to grab the button.  Because I said so that’s why!  :)

Homeschool Kindergarten: My Father’s World

Slowly, but surely, I have been making progress with my lesson planning and general preparations for the new school year.  I am using My Father’s World Kindergarten with ds4 (my 4yo) this year as I really needed a “boxed” or already prepared curriculum for at least one of my pupils this year lol.  I am pretty much ready to get started with him (although actually we started the program a few months ago and did already complete 3 lessons…now we just need to resume formal learning.)

I put all of the picture sound cards on the wall under our chalkboard for easier reference.

I typed up a “cheat sheet” for me that lists the lessons for each day.  In MFWK you do the same thing on certain days, just with whatever sound we are learning for the week.  The cheat sheet keeps me from having to constantly refer to the manual.  I slipped it into a page protector so I can highlight when we have completed a step.  Inside the folder is the pen for highlighting, the worksheets ds will use that week and another sheet protector for holding my plans for the daily “special activities” associated with the letter sound.

As MFWK days are basically broken down into three parts (daily activities, reading lesson and special activity) I labeled three workboxes accordingly for ds4.  The bottom three boxes are for the tactile activities when he learns a new letter.  The top 6 boxes are for ds3.  Worked out pretty well!

Here is ds’s little workbox card where he puts the numbers from his boxes as he completes them…when the card is full he is done for the day.

Finally I labeled folders with the theme for each week and put them in my file drawer.  Now when I come across something that would be good to include in a certain unit I can file it away and not lose or forget about it.

Well, that’s about it.  I had wanted to begin school the first week of August, but I won a ticket to the online homeschool conference at Heart of the Matter so I am going to enjoy that and start school the next week. :)

Muffin Tin Monday

We went with another breakfast muffin tin this week.  Ds4 wanted cereal but couldn’t decide which one so an image of a muffin tin with a variety of cereal choices immediately popped into my head.

And here we go!  I also tossed in a couple of mini donuts leftover from Sunday morning (they were actually ds’s idea, as I had suggested toast lol.)

A thumbs up!  He approves. :)

What a cutie.

Join in on the muffin tin fun and see the creative meals other moms have come up with over at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Itch To Pitch: Spice Cabinet

I am still hanging in there with the Itch To Pitch challenge hosted by The Happy Housewife.  I still really need to tackle my bedroom closet, but I’ll have to be in a real good mood to start that one lol.  Today I decided to clean out the spice cabinet.

Yikes.  Three shelves and it’s still not enough!  For one thing, the cabinet is too high for me, I can only really reach the bottom shelf.  For another thing, the shelves are deep and I can’t reach the back of them for anything, not even on a step stool!  How can I manage to organize this with these limitations?

Yes, this little shelf thingy comes in handy.  I took it and the liner out to clean them and discovered another shelf thingy stacked under the first!  How funny is that?  I was planning on making my own and now I don’t have to. :) 

After.  Much cleaner, much nicer.  I stored things based on frequency of use…the bottom shelf holds items I use often, the second shelf not so often, etc.  And I brought it all to the front of the shelves…easier to see and reach.  Found out I had an unopened container of Cajun spices (and we just bought more yesterday to make gumbo…silly us.)  Also firmly believe that red food dye is evil and should be banished.  Other than an empty can of pepper and a really old container of celery seed (what in the world could I have ever bought that for?) I didn’t really pitch much.  Join in on the organizational fun and cure your Itch To Pitch!

Picture Practice: Part Deux

Okay, I just had to do a second, follow up post to my picture practice link to A Familiar Path’s Show and Tell this morning.  Melissa was kind enough to leave me a comment about using my macro setting and I wanted to try her advice right away.  All I can say is WOW.

My hibiscus is sleeping in this morning so I couldn’t recreate the shots from the first photo shoot, but look at what I did get!

Before, with my auto setting.

After, with macro!  How cool is that?  And what are those things?  They look like little bb gun pellets but they are nestled on my zucchini plant leaves.

Oh, I made a shadow on this one, but still, look at the detail!  They don’t even look that neat in person.  And be sure and click on the pic, it will be even better.

Thanks, Melissa!  I am now a macro setting convert.  My poor camera won’t leave my side today lol.

Picture Practice

 

Is there a difference in the pictures you take when you use camera settings other than “auto"?  We are about to find out.

Disclaimer:  This only applies of course to my non-existent photography skills and my lovely little camera, a Cannon PowerShot SD790 IS Digital Elph.  And no, I have no idea what all that means.  Thank you for listening.

One of my lovely hibiscus plants out front is blooming.  It is spectacular!  I took multiple shots of the same bloom with different camera settings.  Note too that it was overcast and a little windy.

  First shot, auto setting.

Second shot, foliage setting.  Maybe just slightly brighter?  A little more color?  The ant that bit my toe made me lean in a little more?

Third shot, Iso 3200.  No idea what that means, but obviously not as good as the previous shots.

Fourth attempt, Macro setting.  Hmm, not loving this one either.  Oops, got my foot in on that one. :)

Last one, Macro and foliage.   And my foot again.

Okay, sorry, but the best one in my opinion is the first!  Auto setting rules lol.  I have found this to be true most all of the time.  I’ve had my new camera since April now and have gotten to try using some of the other settings in their intended locales…the beach setting on the beach, fireworks setting on the fourth, kids and pets setting on my kids and cats.  I haven’t ever found one of the specific settings to give me a better shot than plain old auto.  I could very well be doing it all wrong, but that’s just my humble experience.  Who are we kidding?  I probably am doing it all wrong, but that’s why Canon invented the auto setting, for people like me.  :)  Thank you Canon.

I am linking this up to A Familiar Path, a wonderful blog with some really good pics by a woman who doesn’t need the auto setting…and she is being kind enough to teach those of us who do how to not do.  What?  Okay my fish oil pill has not kicked in this morning lol.  Anyway, head over to A Familiar Path if you want to see some good pics and learn just how to take them yourself. 

 

 

You Know You Are A Homeschool Mom When…

you get super excited about the books you found at the local homeschool shop lol.  I am!  I am so very blessed to have access to a store that consigns homeschool items.  It is run by the most kind woman I have ever met, so quiet and gentle.  She has 4 daughters, all of whom she has homeschooled and all of whom have helped her out in the store as they were growing up.  She only has one at home now, and as I’ve been going to this store for over 10 years now I remember her as a baby lol!  The owner only opens shop 4 days a week and only from 1-5 in the afternoon to accommodate homeschooling.  She helped me when I was just starting on this fantastic journey and I owe her more than she knows.

Anywho, the boys and I were in town last Friday and I had the chance to stop by the store.  As it happens, it was full of cool stuff as people are bringing in things to consign before the new school year begins.  I was a little disappointed at first, because I went in with a wish list of sorts and found none of it, but wound up finding plenty of great things we can use.

That pic is so tiny!  It’s called World Famous Landmarks.  We are following Galloping The Globe for geography this year and this beauty will come in handy for sure!  It has neat posters with pics of famous landmarks from each continent, and worksheets and projects to do as well.

Also with GTG we will be covering Russia as our first country.  Bears are the designated animal to study and I found this super cute book that will appeal to both my 4yo and 8yo.

Ds3 will be studying Native Americans this year and I happened upon this neat activity book, full of fun and hands-on ideas.

Now I am getting antsy for school to start lol.  I am still working on lesson plans and will post about final curriculum choices and such soon.  It’s going to be a good year!

A Familiar Sight

Can you guess what I am smack dab up to my neck right in the middle of?  Two guesses.  Go.

Lesson planning!!  Yikes!!  Sweet tea, tylenol and prayers, please.  That is all. :)

End Of An Era? (a.k.a. A Personal Rant)

I am a magazine junkie, I admit it.  Is it really any surprise?  I love to read, love to learn new things; let’s face it, magazines were invented for suckers like me. :)

The thing is, I think I am “outgrowing” some of my mags.  I flip through them and think, “Huh, didn’t get anything out of that one.”  Or I just don’t seem to relate to some of the topics in the articles.  One in particular?  Parents.  I have read Parents magazine since before I even became a mommy.  I’ve always enjoyed the informational articles, the tips and advice from fellow parents, even the ads for the cool new kid stuff.

I got my latest issue in the mail yesterday.  I flipped through and noted a few good articles, like which common backyard plants are poisonous (and exactly what they do) and how we should monitor our children’s video game time closely.  Then I got to a Q & A section and saw this question:

Is it safe to fill our baby pool with water from the garden hose?

Okay, are you kidding me?  What are you going to fill it with, Dasani?  How about Vitamin Water.  And even more surprising to me was the answer…yes, but with precautions.  Precautions?  Oh, you mean like watching your baby at all times, making sure you keep them in the shade, etc.  Uh, no.  According to the “expert” you have to purchase a “safe for drinking” hose, or run the water a while in your old hose to flush out the lead “because kids often drink some pool water.”  And please never ever let them drink directly from the hose.  My response? 

1.  If you are watching your kids they won’t drink the water.

2.  Your child would have to drink the whole pool to get any of the small amount of lead that finds it’s way into a pool full of water!

3.  Show me a report, a study, any firm (reliable) evidence that drinking water from a hose leads to lead in your body.  Please.  Because I will need to contact everyone from my generation to have them tested as we drank nothing but hose water when we were outside.  Well, except for Kool Aid.

4.  When in doubt, see #1.

An article in this same issue is titled “Why Helicopter Moms Need To Stop Hovering.”  How can they when these magazines keep scaring them unnecessarily about EVERYTHING!

So sorry, Parents magazine, but I have outgrown you.  I don’t like the way you are “educating” the current generation of moms, through scare tactics based on iffy expert info.  Or the way you come up with demeaning and stupid names for certain types of moms (“helicopter” moms?  Really?)  Shame on you!

Cats On Tuesday

 

It’s not that easy to see in the pic, but I have kitty “book ends” on my bed lol.  Smokey on the left pillow and Katy on the right, enjoying a nap on a cloudy day.

A different angle.  My cats aren’t spoiled at all, are they?  :)  For more kitty fun head over to Gattina’s for more Cats On Tuesday.

Muffin Tin Monday: Dips and Sauces

 

It’s pretty basic, but still a sound meal. :)  We have chicken nuggets and ketchup, baby carrots and a honey mustard dip and apples and some homemade caramel sauce.

Here is my cutie ready to partake.  He is actually having the meal as a late dinner after a late nap, that’s why it’s dark and he looks sleepy lol.  When he wakes after a late nap he is soooo grumpy but he perked right up when I suggested having his muffin tin meal for dinner. :)  Somehow it turns a simple dinner into something special for him.

Thanks to Michelle at Her Cup Overfloweth for hosting this fun meme.  Head over to her site to see some really creative moms put together some really cute meals.

I Went, I Saw, I’m Sleepy

Yeah, that’s the best I could do, what with about 3 and 1/2 hours sleep lol.  Ds2 and I went to the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie and survived!  And I didn’t even fall asleep!  We agreed that it’s a great movie, but definitely a change from the usual HP movies.  Ds3 (my 8yo) had wanted to go and I’m glad he didn’t…I don’t even know if he will like the movie when it comes out on dvd.  There were a lot of kids there in that age range, but mostly girls who probably enjoyed all the cute love scenes.

This movie was shot so differently than the others, there is a more thrilling, more up close, more scary element to it.  There is also however a great deal of humor and lightheartedness in this one, so it’s a nice balance.  There are scenes where you will be scared out of your seat, and scenes where you will laugh out loud…not sure I’ve ever done that while watching a HP movie before.

The movie adhered to the book fairly well…just fairly.  While I don’t mind them leaving out parts of the book (done before and managed nicely in both #4 and #5) I do and did mind when whole scenes were added in!  I found myself leaning over to ds and whispering, “This isn’t in the book!” several times.  And the thing is, they could have put in good parts from the book that they left out in place of the extra scenes, imo.  Also they pretty drastically changed some scenes from the book, but it worked out okay.  Basically they inserted Luna in most of the parts Tonks had…so we missed out on the whole Tonks/Remus falling in love storyline.  That’s okay, it probably plays out better in a book anyway. :)

So let’s say you aren’t a Harry Potter fan…haven’t read the books or seen any movies.  Will you enjoy The Half Blood Prince?  Yep.  Will you “get” most of it?  Most, but not all.  If you are a fan of the book will you like this movie?  Yes, but you will also miss some parts.  Go see the movie…AND FOR GOODNESS SAKES READ THE BOOK!  Doing so will GREATLY enhance the experience. :)  Is it nap time yet?

Itch To Pitch: Master Bath

I am tardy to the party with this week’s Itch To Pitch, hosted by The Happy Housewife.  Today is ds2’s 14th bday!  On top of that we have been running errands getting ready for his entry into high school, getting pets vaccinated, dr. and dentist appt’s…it’s been a little crazy.  I am out of my element when I have to be out of the house all day lol.  But I had a few minutes to spare and really wanted to tackle my master bath cabinets so I bit the bullet and just did it.

I am so glad I did!  It took all of 15 minutes, folks.  I couldn’t believe it myself.  Every day when I opened those cabinets and drawers and saw the mess I always imagined having to take half a day to deal with it all. 

I mean, just look!  What a disaster.  But 5 minutes, a trash bag, and a re-purposed basket from the living room later…

And we have this. :)  The plastic bin holds all my pedicure/manicure needs, the basket holds extra tp and the cases hold dh’s hair cutting tools.

The cabinet took so little time I decided to tackle the drawers as well.

Yikes!

Yikes squared. :)

I had just finished reading a great book I checked out from the library from Good Housekeeping about organizing your home.  I remember the section on drawers saying to try and keep each drawer serving one purpose.  So I made the top drawer for hair and deo accessories and the second one for tooth matters.

So much better!  The little baggie holds all our travel sized beauty needs…now when dh gets called away on business he can just grab the little bag and go.  No more hunting around a messy drawer for it all.  Now, why didn’t I do that before? LOL 

This weekly carnival has been great for me.  I am slowly getting my house in order!  It isn’t perfect, but I don’t want it to be.  6 people live here and this home is always going to be cramped and at times messy.  But now at least it’s an organized mess lol. :)  Since this challenge began I have tackled my hall closet, the school closet, my laundry room, my bedside table and now my bathroom cabinets.  Every time I walk by each of these places I smile because they look good and have surprisingly been staying clean!  Here’s to hoping it lasts a bit longer. :)

FINALLY

It’s almost here!  I have waited sooo long and now it is so close.

Oh yeah!  What am I holding there?  Oh, just two tickets to the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie!!  Move out of my way young people, forty something mom coming through lol.  And I am dragging ds2 out with me to save face.  He’s a teenager, any excuse to stay up past midnight and he’s there.  I may just fall asleep in the middle of it, but I will be able to say I WAS THERE.  Still, $17 bucks is a bit much to shell out for a nap.  Now is the time I wish I drank coffee. :)

Itch To Pitch: Bedside Table

I’m a little late with this week’s Itch To Pitch project, what with the holiday and the boys’ evals… I’ve been a wee bit preoccupied.  However today turned out to be a great day for an organizational/cleaning type project as it is a sleepy rainy kinda day.  I’m glad, we need the rain!

I’ve done most of my closets (except my bedroom…that’s a major project lol) and I decided to concentrate on some of the drawers around the house.  I haven’t cleaned out the drawer in my bedside table in years, folks, years!

There are no words to describe this.

Here is the whole table.  Oh my.

You wouldn’t believe what I found in that drawer.  So I wrote it all down!

• 2 Chuck E. Cheese tickets
• Original application for insurance for our first family car, 1993
• A prescription cream from 2004
• Owners manuals for a roaster, blood pressure machine and dvd player
• Toothbrush
• Several Fastpasses from Disney trips
• The little hospital bracelet from when I gave birth to ds3 2000
• A positive pregnancy test
• Several individual alcohol swabs
• My AA degree from 1987
• A 10x11 flashcard
• 14 penny coin tubes
• An ultrasound pic from 2004
• An Orlando Sentinel from March 2003…war with Iraq was immanent.
• A telephone cord (ds2 corrected me on this one…it’s an Ethernet cable.)
• 2 batteries
• 1 plastic safety plug for the wall outlet

Wow.  I think that just about sums it up.

The after shots.  Much better, huh?  Now just my little sewing kit, a small notepad and pencil and some pressed coins from Disney reside in the drawer.  My Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Dvd collection and my hand weights are all that remain on the shelf underneath, and my current reads are on top.  Life is good.

Thanks to The Happy Housewife for hosting Itch To Pitch, it’s been great motivation for me.  Oh and believe it or not, I only had 1 small bag of trash to pitch.  :)