Month: March 2012

gluten-free pot pie…

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october.  2011

Oh, this gluten-free pot pie was delish!  I think pot pie should have more crust to it though.  There’s never enough it seems.

Even though we don’t have to eat gluten-free any more, and having gone through that for quite some time, it has made me appreciate how easy meals are to make, now.  The gluten-free flour we used was delicious, and the transition wasn’t too hard.  I think the hardest part was that it was always tricky at group functions and parties.

But we learn and grow from the difficult things we go through in life, at least I hope I did from this one.  We definitely ate more healthy when we had to be gluten-free and milk-free.  Now I think about all the things we eat through-out the day, and there’s gluten in almost everything.  So I’ve told my kids that snacks are now fruits or veggies.  We aren’t always perfect with that, but we try and get those in a lot more.

Hmm, not sure what she’s saying with that pointy finger…but I’m sure it’s really important!

learning the art of writing and publishing…

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sept.  2011

Casey Black, a woman in our ward, was gracious enough to come over and teach our group of children about writing, editing(always many times, which is great for the kids to hear, as we ask them to do additional drafts in school), publishing, and blogging.

Casey has been studying publishing, and even got to go to New York and study there.  We are very grateful, thank you!

alex and papa…

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sept.  2011

Are we old enough to almost have a teenager?  It’s amazing how everything shifts as your kids get older.  You have to let control go, still guiding and giving boundaries of course, but letting them learn their own natural consequences, instead of as a parent, protecting them like we do when they are children.  It’s harder than any other parenting I’ve done.  It’s even harder to not argue with a teenager.  I am learning so much from Love and Logic, and if you have a teenager, I would say this is a MUST!  We don’t want to rule with an iron fist, or be a helicopter parent.  There is so much valuable information to help us learn what to say and do as our children become more independent, and learn the consequences of their choices, whether they be good or bad.

Here is an excellent article out of the Ensign…it goes right along with Love and Logic.

Helping without Hovering – Ensign Mar. 2012
http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/03/helping-without-hovering?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

smithgall woods and cabbage patch babies…

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fall 2011

Smithgall Woods-wow, what a beautiful place.  We had a lot of fun learning all sorts of things about nature and outdoor habitats.

After Smithgall Woods, we had heard the cabbage patch hospital was on our way home.  Boy, I remember being younger and loving those cabbage patch babies.  Now, I think they are some of the ugliest toys out there.  And not only ugly, but pricey!  Almost three hundred dollars for some of those cloth babies.  But we had a fun time with friends, and stopped by a chocolate shop on the way home, which of course, made the whole day better.

how to make research, writing, and speaking fun…

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When we first moved to Atlanta in March of 2010, we were the only family homeschooling in our church.  In September, five other families started homeschooling.   This past fall, we started something new to kind-of liven things up a bit.  Friday’s became our “Presentation” day.  Each person would take a turn picking a subject for a Friday, and everyone would research the same subject, and then practice speaking and presenting in front of other people.  They could also use pictures and video to add to their presentations.   So it made our Friday’s so much more fun, not to mention we would all bring food to share and visit after the kids were done presenting.

Some topics covered were:

Volcano’s
Piranhas
Koala’s
Sucker’s
Chocolate
Wombat’s
Penguin’s
Pearl Harbor
Balloon’s
Peter Pan-James M. Barrie
Licorice
Jellyfish
Shark’s
Giraffe’s
Monkey’s

Sometimes one of us would put in some extra effort making and trying what we researched…such as trying all different flavors of licorice(a mom drove an hour round trip to go get them!).  Or homemade sucker’s(that I’m sure took some time).  We of course tried different kinds of chocolate.  And just to be clear if any animal lover’s are out there, we did not try any animals that we researched.  So don’t worry, no animal testing was done!