I got a new book :)... and poison ivy :(

I will start with a warning, PLEASE always wear long pants, nylons, a long skirt, knee high socks, something that covers your legs fully whenever you go geocaching with your family! Poison ivy is no fun!!!
Now for the fun stuff, I bought a new book, it was very cheap being it was a "hurt" book from IGNATIUS Press, it is titled Designing your own Classical Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist. It looks very interesting. All of the children have subjects that they will be finishing mid-year, and I have been leaning towards a "classical" education, I figured as they finished subjects we would flow in to a curriculum I will make using this book as a guide. The way I figure it I will have this home school thing down by the time the have graduated. ;)

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Feast days and meal planning

I was just over at Catholic Cuisine, getting tons of ideas for my next month of meal planning, if you have not checked it out, go right now! it has super fun recipes. while I was doing this I was also texting a friend who was kind of shocked I plan a whole month at a time. She said she just wings it each day. I was amazed, "how do you know what to buy" "how do you know what to take out of the frezzer" "what if you want are making tacos and realize you have no cheese" these are the questions running through my mind. But I am  a planner, and I could not wing it, it would stress me out, and add to my spending. She has no problem winging it, and either goes without cheese or runs to pick it up. What kind of shopper/meal maker are you?

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Blessed Kateri

Today is the feast day of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, and over at Holy Heros they have a free coloring book download, and who doesn't like free!! Enjoy and have a truely blessed feast day, Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha pray for us

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

becuase I like to see what other people are eating...

Yesterday I went and raided our garden of everything that was ready, these two bowls are full of about 3 different kinds of radishes, some jalapeno peppers, and onions, not pictures was the cucumbers, turnips, spinach and green beans. We are trying to eat a much more natural diet, we have been slacking in our food choices lately. So I needed what to make with all of this so it didn't go to waste...

This is the veggie salad we had with dinner, it is radishes, cucumbers, onions, carrots and tomatoes (carrots and radishes are not from our garden)

These are the green/burgundy beans from our garden, I lightly steamed them and they turned out like this...

The kids thought it was pretty cool that they turn green when cooked, so did I ;)

Then I made mostacolli and put spinach in some, but really could have put it in more, because I had planned on only me wanting some, but my son wanted it and older daughter would have too if there had been enough.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

giving encouragemnet for the everyday

So I saw some cute little cards the other day with little sayings like, God is crazy about you... I just think you are crazy, and, God loves you for just being you... and so do I. they were the 99 cent small cards but when I saw them I instantly thought AHA!! What a great thing to stock up on and give to your kids when they least expect it, like slip a card in their pj drawer so when they go to get ready for bed they find it, or slip it in their math book if you know they have a hard time with the lesson. You get the point. I will have to take some pictures of the cards and the little gifts I plan to slip in some of them for an even extra special pick me up... when I get them, I saw them when the kiddos were with me. Giving your kids encouragement in the everyday is so important,
"you should praise a child 10 times more then you correct them"- Michelle Duggar

**edited for spell check, I was typing really fast and then hit post**



Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

food shopping, in the desert....

After reading what Melissa had to say here, I realized we live in a food desert, while I have the means to drive ands shop elsewhere, unlike the people Melissa talks about in her post, it is a pain to drive 30 minutes or more 1 way, then shop and drive back home. I would much prefer if I could even get most of my food closer to home and maybe only do a once a month "travel" shopping. SO.... I headed over to ALDI the other day, now I have shopped at ALDI before, but never with the mindset of can this be a replacment place to shop? More often I see fruit or veggies in the flyer on sale and run to grab just those things. But here is what I found,
1st our ALDI is SMALL, so the selection was not good and I did not find anything in the "pantry" or frezzer sections that I would buy.
2nd I was happily surprised on the amount of fruits and veggies they had and they were super cheap.
Bananas  $0.93 for 7
Strawberries $0.99 or a pound
Limes $0.99 for 7
Cantaloupe $0.99 each
Tomatoes $1.49 for 7
Green Peppers $0.99 for 3
I bought more, but you get the jist... Now I would still need do go some where else for most of the shopping that I would need to do, but I could run in to ALDI for fruit and veggies and it is only a few blocks away and it is a easy in out type of store.
On the other hand I stopped at HYVEE while my son had an appointment and boy howdy do they have an awesome "health" food section. I used to shop there when we lived in Iowa, and they just built on close to us, and by close I mean 1 hour away. My other option in Woodmans, they have an awesome selection of anything and are pretty cheap. but the are 40 minutes away, But if I was only going once a month, that would not be that bad. my other choices would be Wal-Mart, But I pretty much hate them, so I only go when I HAVE to. We also have a Target and a Jewel, both that I shop at but are not for everyday shopping if you are trying to be frugal :)

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

going into the desert...

after reading Melissa's post here, I realized I live in a food desert, although I can drive and in anywhere from 30-60 minutes be at a store that sells good, organic food that is a long drive round trip plus the time of shopping, cost of gas etc... plus the stores are pretty pricey. So we grow a garden to help somewhat and make do or buy whatever, even if it is not something I would normally buy, coupons don't help much because I got on a kick of buying whatever I got a good deal on, which equals crap food, with a son who has food intolerance's I really need to watch what we eat especially after a vacation at my moms where he ate whatever and now feels like junk!!! so I am off to ALDI to see what I can find, they are about 5 blocks from us, and then to the new HYVEE while my son has a therapy appointment, I am trying to combine trips and time as much as possible!!

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Sewing link

I just found the funnest sewing project link up here, they have already started and are about 1/2 way done, but I think I am going to start at the beginning and have my girls do it with me, which means it may take way longer then planned in the link up, but it looks like a blast.

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi 

Patron Saints/Names for your home school

This is a good post on the patron saints/names for your home school. We named our school Sacred Heart of Jesus Learning Center, mainly because I would like us all to keep Jesus as our main focus and I really like the pictures of His Sacred heart, which has lead us to have a special devotion to Jesus and His Sacred heart :) and we are a learning center NOT a school because I wanted to teach my children to learn, to love learning and to be able to learn on their own, now and for the rest of their lives, and so calling ourselves a learning center helps me to remember why I am doing this. We do not have a permanent patron saint, we rotate yearly, and we let the kids write a report on which saint they think we should have, the best report wins. We take in to account the child's age and skill level when writing, and supply them with books to get facts and dates from. this year we have, St. Maximilian Kolbe. We will be choosing a new saint next week. This lets us learn  in depth about new saints and celebrate them in a special way. What do you call your school? Who is your patron saint?

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi 

thinking out of the grade level box...

thinking outside of the grade level box
here is a link to a link, both are very good blogs, which is why I am linking to the the first one who linked to the second one, enjoy and good night!


Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi

Oh boy....

Ugh, after months of trying to make all of our stuff work in our little apartment I give up! It will not work, not at all. I have to much, plain and simple. I asked my husband to bring home boxes from work and I am packing up all things not needed in the next few months, (our lease is up in November and we will be doing a month to month lease while we look for a house to rent) we may need to live with out books, and most of the toys, fancy kitchen do-dads but the space will be worth it!!!

Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words. - St. Francis of Assisi