Where I've been.....

You may have noticed my posts have been a bit sparse.  Life has been busy, and well, I have a few things that have been taking up my time.  We have some health stuff going on with one of our kiddos which is really taking up time and energy.  Also, in trying to keep up with this life of mine, I have been giving myself permission to relax and take a break so that I don't self implode.  Which is something I don't normally do.

One thing I have been working on, is my daily time with God.  Giving it a top priority.  Setting the alarm for an early wake up so I can have quiet time before the chaos (which is my children) awakens.  I get up, get dressed, start breakfast, get my coffee ready and then sit down with my Bible, a couple prayer books and get real with God.  Now, I am comfortable with reading my Bible.  I grew up with it.  I can bless my food.  I can send up a prayer to God.  But sitting down and doing a heart to heart and really digging deep is a little harder for me.

My mom gave me a book for Christmas and I am excited to use it as I work towards a closer commune with God.  It is an old book (updated) by E. M. Bounds called The Classic Collection of Prayer.  Bounds is kinda interesting.  Rough childhood, gold panner, civil war vet.  He had a really interesting life.  He also was a prayer warrior.  The kind that prayed without ceasing and got results.  This book is a collection of letters he wrote on prayer and faith.  Deep stuff.  A bit above my thought level (I have mommy brain which consists of well, mommy duty), but I am trusting God to use this to "grow" me.

Today I read this great story that Bounds used to introduce his letter on faith and prayer... and I wanted to share it with you...

Guests at a certain hotel were being rendered uncomfortable by the repeated strumming on a piano, done by a little girl who no knowledge of music.  They complained to the proprietor with a view to having the annoyance stopped.  "I am sorry you are annoyed," he said, "but the girl is the child of one of my very best guests.  I can scarcely ask her not to touch the piano.  But her father, who is away for a day or so, will return tomorrow.  You can then approach him and have the matter set right."  When the father retuned, he found his daughter in the reception room and, as usual, thumping on the piano.  He walked up behind the child and, putting his arms over her shoulder, took her hands in his, and produced some most beautiful music.  Thus it may be with us, and thus it will be, some coming day.  Just now we can produce little but clamor and disharmony, but one day the Lord Jesus will take hold of our hands of faith and prayer and use them to bring forth the music of the skies.  (author unknown)

Merry CHRIST* mas to YOU!

It has been a LONG week.  My dearest has been working something like 12-16 hour days.  He hasn't had a day off in over a 12 days.  My brother and sister-in-love were in town from Michigan to celebrate Christmas with us.  We celebrated with my side of the family Wednesday.  I have been cleaning, shopping, baking, being a parent, working at my part time job, hockey mom etc. etc....and oh, did I mention, SICK!  I have had some pleasant virus I have nicknamed "THE PLAGUE."  My honey said this is the sickest he has ever seen me.  (please note if you don't speak sarcasm, that would be the language I was using above...)  My point is, I have so desperately wanted to make this Christmas one to remember.  One where we did great crafts, bake oodles of yummy baked goodies, read stories about Jesus, watched great holiday movies... I had PLANS.  Well, a few things did happen.  We watched a couple movies, made two kinds of cookies, read a few books, but it was nowhere in the grandeur of my vision.

Today, I as I am lamenting my lack of completion of my vision, I thought of Mary.  She knew she was having a baby.  (Don't we all dream of a perfect delivery and birth with our first child?)  Not only was she have a baby, but it was GOD!  I think she was probably looking forward to a GREAT birth full of all kinds of perfection.  What she got was a long difficult journey and dirty manager full of animals.  Plus the esteemed visitors were dirty, lowly shepherds.  But the end result was the same.  She had a beautiful baby and it was the LORD JESUS.  She even called herself most blessed among women.  So as I go through my day today, I am no longer gonna say "I didn't get...(fill in the blank)"  BUT I am gonna say, "I GOT THE LORD JESUS!  Blessed am I!"  And truly, isn't that really what it is about today and tomorrow?  We got our LORD JESUS!  We are blessed.

Luke 2:1-20

New International Version (NIV)

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

 ¹ In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

 ⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

 ⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 ¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
   and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 ¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 ¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Are you Kidding me?

I recently read a friend's blog post about her sweet little girl being bullied at school.  And I am not talking about the mean stuff girls do to each other... name calling and the like.  I am talking bruises and scratches and bloody noses. She is in first grade people, first grade!!!!

It seems that almost daily we hear about bullying in the news.

People seem to think home schoolers are immune to bullying.

Not true.

Another friend of mine who home schools, had her child bullied by a "buddy" during outings.

I personally have had two of the three boys bullied.  Today was a real winner.  My little 7 year old goes to speech class once a week for a half hour.  Half an hour, once a week.  There is another little boy who has speech class with him.  Well, today that little boy decided to offer my guy a cup of water.  What a sweet guesture?  Right?  No, wrong.  My little guy, being thirsty, guzzled it down.  He set the glass down and announced to the teacher that it tasted funny.  She quickly realized hand soap had been added to the water.  The nurse called me and I went in to check out the list of ingredients.  The nurse called poison control and they said at worst it will give him a tummy ache.  Now, I read the list of ingredients (yuck!).  It also contained a few of his food allergies.  To top it off the boy refused to apologize.  Twice.  He was given the chance to apologize twice and he refused.

All I got to say, it that it is lucky my guy doesn't have anaphlaxic shock to the allergens. But I can guarantee he will have stomach issues all day.

I don't get this bully stuff and purposeful meanness.  I mean I know kids do crazy stuff to each other, I remember a few pranks in  my days, but it seems to have gotten so mean and bodily harmful.  Why?

Allergen Free Cooking: Bake Sale!

Allergen Free Cooking: Bake Sale!

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 400 (NOT 350) temperature is important.  Too low and the bread collapses.

I do not grease my pans, I use stoneware.  I do however dust with cinnamon.  You may want to use Coconut oil or Palm Shortening to grease other types of pans.  I almost always do mini loaves.  Make sure your pans are ready before you mix your batter.  You don't want the batter to start to rise while you grease the pans.  You want it to rise as right as you put it in/while in the pans.

As the oven preheats (again, important it is at 400 when putting bread in oven) mix up the following ingredients.

1 cup turbinado sugar

1 1/2 tsp gargum **

1 stick butter (we use Earth Balance Soy Free)

2 eggs or use egg replacer (I like Ener G Egg Replacer~ follow directions on box)

1 1/3 cup flour***

pinch of sea salt (I don't use table salt at all~ most have additives and/or wheat)

1 tsp. baking soda (I use Bob's Red Mill Aluminum Free Baking Soda)

1 tsp. baking powder (I use Hain Pure Food Baking Powder~gluten and and corn free)

3 very ripe bananas

 First combine butter and sugar.  Do not overbeat.  Add in banana until most pieces are mushed.  Add the rest of the ingredients.  For this recipe add the baking powder and soda last.  That way it doesn't start to react and rise before I can get it in the pan.  Gluten free cooking is a little trickier with the rise.

Cook for 55 minutes for a loaf and about 40 minutes for 4 minature loaves.

Notes: 

**We don't use Xanthum Gum because it is grown in corn and we are really allergic to corn

*** I prefer Bette Hagman's Four Flour Bean Mix for this, but I have also used her basic Gluten-Free mix and Featherlight Rice Mix, it does change the taste a bit.  We can't use Jules flour mixes because of some of the ingredients they use, but I assume those would work as well.  Bette Hagman has awesome cookbooks and hers were some of the first I ever used on this journey.  I highly recommend the books and her flour mix recipes.

**** As I noted before, I use only Trader Joe's spices or McCormick because they are "clean."  Always double check, as ingredients do change.

Preparing for a Different Kind of Christmas

With best intentions I bookmarked a few ideas for this coming Christmas.  This was the year I would make Christmas spectacular, making fabulous memories for my children.  I bookmarked a few good movies like Nativity.  I looked up information on Advent.  I bookmarked an activity called the Jesse Tree Advent Celebration.  I have a few (ahem dusty) books off my shelves, such as Stories behind the Great Traditions of Christmas by Ace Collins and Stories Behind the Best Loved Songs of Christmas also by Ace Collins.  I had visions of truly getting into the REASON for the SEASON.  

I thought about this before Thanksgiving.  Knowing I needed to prepare both materials and my heart.  Having done this in years past, I vowed "THIS is the year I will get it all ready and actually do it!"  Once again, I fell short.  I realized today we should have lit the Advent candle yesterday.  Opps.  I meant to find sheet music and recordings to listen to and try to play that go with Ace Collin's book.  Opps.  I meant to have all the Jesse Tree material cut, pasted, assembled and ready to go.  Opps.  I meant to have meaningful activities about each tradition Ace Collin's book talks about.  Opps.

But you know what?  I forged ahead anyways with what little I did have.  We read the story about how Advent came about.  We read about the first song on the list and listen to a hastily googled song.  But you know what?  It was something.  It was more then last year.  And my kids told dad all about the advent wreath, even though we didn't light anything or make anything.  Tomorrow will probably be another "wing it" since today is done and I am so done.  So, I will forge ahead, do what I can do.  And try to focus on the meaning of the season.  Love.  Love for Jesus Christ.  Love for my husband.  Love for my kids.  AND love for myself even when I fall short.  =)  After all, Christ's message is all about Grace.

 Luke 2:8-14 “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas ya'll.  What are you doing to bring a bit of the real meaning into your school room or family's life?

Learning about Skeletons

We are doing a unit on the skeleton.  I am LOVING it!  We made play-do bodies with and without tooth picks to emphasize the importance of bones for our bodies ability to be able to stand upright.  Simple, yet fun.  It was a great way to include the youngest in a more difficult lesson.  The older two, of course, had to give a bit more verbal detail and such, but everyone got to participate. 

Please note:  I do have boys, so of course the bodies had to be super heroes of some sort, complete with swords in hand.  Gotta love those boys.

We are also making a paper skeleton to add organs and muscles to as we continue our body study.  Awesome!