Ramblings...

I've been so busy with holiday prep and now General Disarray's birthday that this poor blog has been neglected. So here, have some holiday cheer! See I still love you too!

I do most of my cooking at home, which requires a large amount of recipes to keep things from getting boring. While I have a rather large, and constantly increasing, collection of cookbooks I don’t use all the recipes in them. I have a select few from each that I frequent, as well as recipes I’ve found online, which makes for a LOT of recipes. The ones from online I usually write down or print to use later, and the ones from the cookbooks just get looked at when I need them-which means I have to remember revisions for each one or write them in the book (something I don’t always want to do because I may need to get rid of the book one day)-.

Having a cookbook out isn’t always practical depending on the amount of counter space I have at the moment or the amount of mess I’m making. The paper copies are too flimsy to stand on their own as well as the paperback books and the hardcover books are just too darn bulky. I’m sure many of you understand exactly what I’m saying. Sometimes just getting the recipe in a place where you can properly read it can be a major pain in the butt and hinder your cooking.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I need a better, more organized way of handling my recipes, but what? I wasn’t sure until I was clicking around on Shutterfly the other evening. There in the photo books section were two very cool books you can make, and they were recipe books! One is just the simple book with recipes and pictures, the other is a more glamorous version (which is what I intend to go for, because I want what I’m reading in the kitchen to put me in the mood to cook up something good!).
Not sure how I’ll do up my recipe book(s), I’m leaning towards combining it with my meal planning so each book would feature a month’s worth of meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks(at least two of those a day)). I can do up at least two to four books (yes I have that many recipes!) and alternate between the weeks in each one so I have some variety for us each month. It’s something to mull over while I pull together all the recipes I have.

I’ll share a peek at the final product when I get it. How do you keep all your recipes organized?

And this is why we call him Professor Chaos.




I think it might be time for mommy to go back to only using the computer in the evenings once the little ones have gone off to bed. Unless I want to spend some more time getting glitter out of well…everywhere!

A Friday Flashback to get you ready for Trick-or-Treating! Have fun and be safe this weekend!

According to our schedule we are in the fourth week of our second quarter, I divide the year up into four quarters schooling year round with short breaks throughout the year. Ideally, I would evaluate after each quarter, but I couldn’t with all of our traveling. Now, though, is the perfect time for a reevaluation and revamp!

So far our Math and Language Arts lessons are moving along fairly well, General Disarray usually sits down to do those subjects on his own and we go over anything that may be new or cause him problems. Generally, though, he can read and learn on his own. Professor Chaos has done pretty well with his Teach A Child To Read lessons, though they are very repetitive to the point that they bore him, so we have changed up the lessons to fit our needs.

While Math and Language Arts are doing well, we still have History and Science to contend with, and that is where a lot of the revamping is taking place. We are lacking a level of structure in History and Science, we do a lot of reading, but I want to bring all of that full circle with other activities to ensure the knowledge is retained. To help with this I’m utilizing Lesson Pathways, Spectrum Science workbooks that I found while stateside, a larger reading list, and Story of the World on audio disc. I, personally, had no desire to purchase the Story of the World books, but I found the audio for book two at our library and the kids really enjoy it. It will play during our hands on activities, after I’ve given directions, to help reiterate what we have been doing.

These few add-ons should help make the learning experience more enjoyable. I want to lean heavily on hands-on activities while T.B.M. are young, since that will not only allow for them to learn the material, but to have tons of fun while doing it. I have also changed our schedule so Science lessons on Thursdays are strictly for experiments. Instead of moving on to another lesson, we will focus on experiments and activities that further support the lesson(s) learned on Tuesday.

Other than that change, our schedule will stay the same. We are easing back into our routine and should be back to “normal” by mid-November. We will only be taking the weekend of Thanksgiving off, November 24th-27th, and then working until the week before Christmas.

Oh my goodness, it’s almost Christmas time already! I swear the older these kids get the faster the year seems to go.

With the end of the year quickly approaching, what changes, if any, have you made to your homeschooling curriculum/schedule?

The other night The Spouse and I were clicking around Youtube when we came across the video below by Jefferson Lab. About twenty minutes into checking out their channel I had marked them on our favorites and we were wondering about all the other cool things we could do with liquid nitrogen. Their videos don’t just focus on liquid nitrogen, although those are hands down probably the coolest ones, they also have videos on thunder & lighting, lunar eclipses, and butterflies! Jefferson Lab puts together short,informative, and most importantly FUN videos that would be a great addition to any science lesson(we’ve added them to our list of favorite science videos on Youtube!).

Well I have to get back into blogging mode! So to help get me going I'll start with a fun Friday Flashback!

I think I'll even watch some Back 2 the Future while I work through some blogging ideas. Forgive me if I get lost in Michael J. Fox's dreamy eyes though...the 80's were soooo good! Don't you agree?