Horseback Ridding

As my mom said, "There is nothing cuter than a 4 year old ridding a miniature horse!" And I have to say, I can't agree more! This is Peanut during her latest ridding lesson, the horse is named Mini Me. Sorry the quality isn't the greatest, but I just had to share it :o)

Blessings,

Glennda

Menu Plan for August 17th

Well, our menu plan kinda went out the window last week because my parents decided to take my kids camping! So some of this weeks meals are hold overs from last week :o)

Monday - Swedish meat pies (these are already made and in the freezer!)

Tuesday - Fried rice

Wednesday - Chicken broccoli divan

Thursday - Corn chowder

Friday - Leftovers

Saturday - Burritos with beans and rice

Sunday - Potato Bar

For more menu plan ideas, visit Organizing Junkie.

Blessings,

Glennda

Potluck Recipe

Well, the dish I took to the potluck last night was a huge hit. I think pretty much everyone asked for the recipe :o) The best part? I didn't have to bring home leftovers!! Anyway, I thought I'd share the recipe here as well. It's a recipe I found in the cookbook "Fix It and Forget It".

German Potato Salad:

6 slices bacon
3/4 cup chopped onions
1 can cream of chicken soup (I substitute a homemade white sauce flavored with chicken bullion)
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. sugar
pepper to taste
4 cups parboiled, cubed potatoes
parsley (I didn't remember the parsley, lol)

1. Brown bacon in skillet and then crumble. Reserve 2 Tbsp. bacon drippings. Saute onions in drippings.
2. Blend together soup, water vinegar, sugar and pepper. Add bacon and onions. Mix well.
3. Add potatoes and parsley. Mix well. Pour into slow cooker.
4. Cover. Cook on Low 4 hours.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Personally, I think it's better warm.)


Homemade White Sauce:
(FYI: this recipe will make approx. 2 cups of white sauce which is about a 1/2 cup more than a can of soup.)

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk (or 2 cups water and 2/3 cup milk powder, mixed)

Melt butter in a sauce pan on med/low heat. Whisk in flour to make a paste (make sure there are no lumps). Slowly add milk. Bring the mixture up to a boil while whisking (it's important to keep whisking or it will burn!). The sauce will thicken as it boils. When it reaches the desired consistency, reduce heat and add whatever flavorings you want.
For a cream-of-chicken substitute add 1 tsp. chicken bullion per cup of milk.
For a cheese sauce add shredded cheese (sharp works best!) to taste.
For an Alfredo sauce add Parmesan cheese to taste.
For cream-of-mushroom add a can of mushrooms.
The possibilities are really endless, just use your imagination!

Blessings,

Glennda

Menu Plan for August 10th

Yeah, I got my menu plan done this week! Here is what we will be having:

Monday: Chicken Enchiladas

Tuesday: Tater-tot casserole

Wednesday: Chicken Broccoli Divan

Thursday: Potato Bar

Friday: Sub Sandwiches

Saturday: Corn Chowder

Sunday: Potluck at a friends - German Potato Salad (in the crock-pot) and Apple Crisp

For more menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie.

Blessings,

Glennda

Funny Face

It's "Crazy, Silly, funny Face" at iHeartFaces this week. This will be my first time participating, but I thought this picture was perfect. I took this a couple weeks ago while the kids were cooling off in Mom & Dad's pool. Little P is my little ham when it comes to getting his picture taken!

Blessings,

Glennda

Blog Hop - Curriculum

Life With My 3 Boybarians is hosting a blog hop this month on "not back to school". This weeks topic is curriculum. And since I haven't gotten around to posting about this year yet, I figured I'd participate :o)

Munchkin will be a 3rd grader (yikes!) this year. Our spine will be My Fathers World and we will be using Exploring Countries and Cultures which is the first year in their 5 year cycle.

This is what the MFW website says about ECC: "Take a trip around the world and explore diverse countries while learning geography and being challenged by true stories of missionaries." There are also several other families in our homeschool group who will be using this program so we will get to do activies with them. We are very excited about this year!

MFW covers Bible, History, Geography, Science, Art and Music. So for the other subjects:

Language Arts: We will be continuing with Queen Homeschool's Language Lessons for the Very Young Volume 1.

Spelling: We will be switching to Spell to Read and Write. I still have to do some planning for this, so I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to incorporate it.

Math: We will be continuing with Math U See going into the Beta program.

We still don't have a foreign language yet, but I've been meaning to look into Latina Christiana. If anyone uses/has used this, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Peanut is still a preschooler :o) She really wants to learn to read, but I'm not sure she's really ready for anything formal. I have the MFW preschool package, so we'll be using that. I'll probably throw in some tot books and maybe a unit or two from Before Five in a Row. And I will probably spend some time working on reading with her and see how that goes. Other than that, nothing real formal with her this year!

Little P is at the difficult toddler stage, lol. With him, I will mostly be focusing on keeping him occupied so I can work with his sisters. I'm not 100% sure how I will accomplish this, but I'm working on it. I will probably set aside a few toys that are for "school time only" and I'll probably get him is own set of color crayons and paper so he has his own "supplies". I'm also going to look into making one of those "indoor sandboxes" that I've seen various places on the internet. If anyone has idea's they'd like to share on how to keep an active toddler boy happy during school time, I'm all ears (or eyes as the case may be, lol).

I also am hoping to have our routine firmly in place before the new baby makes his or her arival in January. I have a longer than normal recovery period, so I'm hoping if we are already going smoothly, then things can continue without too much stress on me :o) Otherwise, we may need to school over the summer!

Blessings,

Glennda

Giveaway at iHeartFaces!

WooHoo!!! iHeartFaces is giving away a Tamaron 18-270mm VC 15X Zoom Lens!! I would so love to win this lens!! Head on over to their site and leave a comment for your chance to win!!!

Blessings,

Glennda