suppers ready

My Mom's Spanish rice is in the oven
2 cups water to 1 cup rice bring to a boil turn off stove then let set 10 minuets covered on the burner.
I made 4 cups rice which is enough to fill grandmas baking bowl and have a little white rice left over to use later. Fry 1 # venison burger add spices I use parsley, garlic powder,taco seasoning, salt pepper and worcheshire sauce. 1 quart home canned tomatoes. Mix in bowl bake at 350 for 30 minuets.

Happy Birthday Aimee

Love you and have a very happy birthday!

The seasons change--Fall

Today we are working on a fall unit study. Most of the materials I printed from ABC teach.Yesterday they colored leaves and we will make mobiles with them. I am also using ABC teaches fire safety materials for a mini unit study this week. We will review our family fire plan this week.

It's a Boy-Grandson!

My daughter Aimee just had her first ultrasound and she and her husband are expecting a boy! The bun in the oven is half-baked (4 1/2 months) now. He has a name too.  It's Alijah Lee Breece. The Lee was my Dad's middle name too. We are so excited. The littles can't believe they are expecting a nephew. It is so cute. Mother and baby are doing well so far except for the morning sickness.

Fall apple study II

I found this recipe here and just had to try it. The browned butter makes it smell like caramel. MMMMMmmm! I used the left over apples from our apple tasting last Sunday.

 

 

 

 

Browned Butter Fruit Crisp

Filling

4 cups fruit

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 Tonka Bean/1 tsp cinnamon

Topping

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 cup rolled oats

1. Chop the fruit into 1/2 inch chunks. Peeling is optional. Gently toss with flour, brown sugar, and spice. Pour into an 8 by 8 baking dish.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

3. In a small, stainless steel pot on medium low heat melt the butter. Then let it cook , swirling the pot every now and then, until it turns brown. As the colour starts to come to it, watch it closely. It can burn quickly.

4. Once the butter is browned nicely, pour it into your mixing bowl and let cool a few minutes. Admire the colour and dream of lobster. Then add in the brown sugar and stir. Once combined add the flour and oats.

5. Crumble on top of your prepared fruit, trying not to snitch too much along the way.

6. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the topping is crisp and more than golden and filling is bubbling.

Posted by Cheryl Arkison at Monday, October 04, 2010

Rites of passage

Camryn shot her first Deer hunting in Early Doe season. Hunting is pretty important in our family. Everyone is raised to respect guns before they can even hold one. With the adoption and having small kids in the house it has been weird not having guns in the house. Last year the littles each got a bb gun to begin their training. It is important to know how to feed your family and put food on the table. Meat does not magically appear in plastic containers in grocery stores. i can't wait till they kids are all old enough to hunt will Aaron.

Adoption aniversary

September 11th (2009) is a happy day for us it marks the end of foster care and our last adoption was finalized. We try to mark it like and anniversary and make it a happy day. I didn't say anything to the kids this year. It is just special to me, like a secret I hold in my heart. I don't want to emphasize the being adopted thing to the kids. I still want to make it a happy day for all of us. Both Pity-pat and Tippy-toe enjoyed making the applesauce with me. Little man was so happy washing the apples. I love my family.

home canning

Totals after today:
10 pints unsweetened applesauce
13 half pints unsweetened applesauce
6 quarts apple pie filling
5 half pints apple pie filling
6 quarts tomatoes
2 pints apple butter and 3 half pints
and some spaghetti sauce in the fridge to eat fresh
David Helman gave me some tomatoes to do up for him tomorrow (which turned out to be 7 quarts)
Why the  half pints? Well, Aaron brought them home from Wal-mart when I sent him there for canning jars. So use what you have. Baby Breece will enjoy the small cans of unsweetened sauce when he/she comes to visit grandam in Michigan.

home living skills

Spent today canning tomatoes and making some fresh tomato sauce. Now I am peeling and cooking apples in the crock pot for "baby sauce" as the older kids used to call it. My secret you ask? Well the best "baby sauce" I ever made was pear not apple...I was given alot of pears and the kids didn't like them so my mother and I made apple sauce out of them... which the kids couldn't get enough of it. I didn't tell Aimee until today. I couldn't see all those pears going to waste just because they didn't like pears. I love my pretty red jars of tomatoes and can't wait until the beige-brown apple sauce, and dark brown apple butter soon join them on my pantry shelf tomorrow. Pity-pat washed all the tomatoes, Cam peeled them, I scalded and cooked them and then processed them. I miss my mom today. Cam talked about how she remembered canning tomatoes with Grandma.

What do we do all day?

Pitty-pat worked on math on the computer but she needed posickle sticks to count and add with as well. Then she worked on spelling words too. We examined a beech tree seed pod and the seeds inside at our nature table.
Tippy-toe got computer time on PBS Kids. We are all reading focused right now with him.
Little-man got play dough and a magnet discovery bottle today. He loves to draw with his etch-a-sketch too.

This weeks learning focus is Manners. We will be reading the book Manners by Aliki.

What do we do all day?

Today we talked about nouns verses adjectives and they both got the lesson so fast. They were playing an old game the minister's cat is a ______cat. They must have seen it on TV or something. But they were killing me because they weren't using adjectives. So I explained them to them the difference between an adjective and a noun. Then they annoyed me less as they played the game for another hour!  They did use adjectives at least to describe the cat. It was a teachable moment and the lesson stuck. Pitty-pat got computer time on starfall.com it is really helping with her reading comprehension. Tippy-toe and I read a book about anatomy and the human body.

Labor Day Learning

The laborer is worthy of his wages. Luke 10:7

Labor Day is celebrated the first Monday in September. On September 5, 1882 workers marched to get "Eight hours for  work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for recreation" . Today Labor Day marks the end of summer for most people.

I printed out cards with different jobs on them to talk about the different jobs people do.
I also printed coloring pages of different jobs for the kids to color.

Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God...Exodus 20:9,10a

summer fun

I build this waterboard for the kids and they loved it. I found the idea on the internet but can remember where to give credit but will post a link as soon as I find it again.They had races to see who could fill their buckets fastest. Don't tell them measuring volume is math. They think this was all a play activity ok.

Labor Day weekend picnic

We had so much fun BBQ at David and Colleen's. Such a wonderful friend filled day. Aaron grilled ribs.Yummy!