Elias
Mmmmmm Souffle!
Sunday, April 4th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Elias’ amazing new interest in cooking strikes again, yeah for us!
Resurrection Morning!
Sunday, April 4th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Luke 24
1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words.
9When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
The kids checked the ‘tomb’ this morning and got a surprise as well!
The Last Supper…
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Luke 22
17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
We had a great time tonight as a family reading through the final supper of Christ with his disciples and his crucifixion. We talked about what it means to be guilty and have to pay a price for your guilt, and what it means to have someone who isn’t guilty choose to volunteer to pay that price for you. Now that is love!
The kids will be checking inside the canister (aka tomb) in the morning where there are currently broken pieces of bread and some juice that they put inside. Stay tuned for what happens next!
Chicken Kiev!
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Elias made his second culinary masterpiece tonight- Chicken Kiev! He flattened the chicken breast, made the herbed butter to spread inside when he rolled the chicken around the chunk of jack cheese, then rolled the whole thing in bread crumbs with herbs and parmesan cheese and baked it. It was served with spears of asparagus encrusted with grated jack cheese and drizzled with olive oil and garlic and a side of brown rice. There are no leftovers!
Check out the new bedroom!
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
You know how when you get a great idea, and that great idea grows with more great ideas and then you find yourself stumped on exactly how to make that great idea a reality? I’ve been stumped for a while now. My kids bedroom began with great ideas but after the first several steps, cool though they were, I was at a stand still. The things I envisioned for the rest of the room either didn’t exist or I needed more man-power and time than I had. This past weekend it finally all came together!
Picture 1 is the view from the door looking in, there are glow in the dark stars on the ceiling. I have a cloud/raindrop window treatment planned but its not made yet. To the left of that picture is the kids closet which has another castle curtain and to the right is the kids chest of drawers (small as most of their clothing is in the ikea baskets and shelving in the closet).
Picture 2 is from standing in the corner with my back to the chest of drawers. You can see a glimpse of the castle closet but from this view you can’t see how the top tabs of the curtain are made to make it look like the top of a castle wall. The tree here is from the pet dept at IKEA and is meant for cats to climb on. It has a series of small shelves which the kids are using to put all their stuffed birds, monkeys and other appropriate animals in.
Picture 3 is my oldest son’s lower bunk. He has his magnetic wall to the right and his flickering castle lights at the head of the bed. I still need to make him a kingly sign for over the head of his bed
Picture 4 is the top bunk where my daughter sleeps with her fairy land in the ‘clouds/forest canopy’
Picture 5 is down below my youngest’s loft bed which is the ‘forest floor’ where the guinea pigs reside and I plan to add some lights under here and change the bean bag chair/stuffed animal storage to allow for more room in their nook under here.
Picture 6 is a closer picture of my youngest son’s bed here just under the tree tops. He LOVES the color green and chose this perfect tree/leaf printed bedding from IKEA. I found this 5′ circular green netting canopy in the outdoor decor section at IKEA and I just used some green thread to tack it up and billow it to be the tree top.
The Chef
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Elias woke up and saw that daddy was working from home Friday, excitedly he asked if daddy was making pancakes (common weekend occurrence). Eddie said he wasn’t but that he could do it if he wanted. Elias pondered that suggestion and then went to the kitchen, found the recipe book (Joy of Cooking), read the recipe and made the pancake batter (with only a few questions of us), cooked them up and little bro Bayus set the table for us all to eat together!
Elias then the found a Sunset cookbook (more pictures) and brought it to me to tell me he want to make a souffle next, its a tie between that and chicken kiev. We had a discussion on the differences between stirring, whisking and folding ingredients together as well as what a roux paste is and how many more things he can make once he learns how to make a roux. Ahhh, the Joy of Home Schooling ala the Joy of Cooking!
Next on the menu:
Chicken Kiev for tonight (with garlic roasted asparagus and brown rice) and he wants to make the souffle for Easter Sunday breakfast!
Sometimes my husband throws ideas and assignments out to the kids that are far more than I think they can handle….and often they surprise me with their capabilities. I’m so glad that between my husband and I we can balance one another and each bring our own strengths into the raising of our children, I’m blessed!
The ‘Wall of Love’
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sometimes I get these ‘ideas’, sometimes they go as planned and often they don’t. The other day I was at the grocery store in the office supply aisle (its an addiction) and I saw one of those items that immediately causes me to think ‘I love this so much I need to think of a purpose for it!’- heart shaped post-it notes! Right up there with new colored pencils and the perfect journal is my affinity for notepads, and if they are colored, shaped, and patterned well then its LOVE. I brought them home with the plan of having them available to my budding writers to jot down things they love and add them to the sliding glass door (aka dry erase board/command central) whenever they felt the whim. I figured over the course of weeks we’d have this lovely wall of positivity. The positivity is there but it didn’t take weeks, my kids took the idea and ran with it….for about 4 hours in one sitting! Note after note, giggle after giggle and only occasional requests for spelling help (would have been a good idea if they had asked a time or two more) and now we have this lovely ‘wall of love’ right next to where we eat our meals and do our daily school work. I often find myself standing there letting my eye meander about from note to note and smiling at the sweet hand writing, phonetic spelling, and heartfelt thoughts. This is one of those projects that didn’t go as I planned- it went better!
(click the pictures if you want to see them bigger and read some of the notes)
We’ll miss you Great Grandma Lucie!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Great Grandma Lucie Ingeborg Boecker, long time Ridgecrest CA resident, passed away on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010. She was 83.
Lucie was born Dec. 18, 1926, in Berlin, Germany, and moved to California in 1961. She spent many years volunteering in the community as a Pink Lady at Ridgecrest Regional Hospital. She was also involved with the Eastern Star and White Shrine Organizations in Ridgecrest.
Kid Powered Toys!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Something I truly love is an afternoon listening to the kids play games from their own imagination, especially when their imagination is bursting with ideas from our recent field trips, books and learning together. Back in August of 2008 I was inspired by some ‘habitat boxes’ that were at an exhibit at our local zoo. I took detailed pictures and vowed to make this for our family- which ended up being 7 boxes so I could gift them to the other families in my home school group as well. That box combined with a good set of play silks are about the best kinds of toys available for children of all ages (habitat box has some items that would need to be held out until a child is past the age of eating the contents). Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks of how my kids have used these ‘toys’ plus their own ideas!
- mini marshmallows with wood skewers and a tiny battery operated tealight provided many giggles and fun for 3 and 4 yr old friends ‘roasting marshmallows’ over their campfire (and the older kids wanted in on the fun too!)
- Yellow play silks worked as a sandy desert and blue silks were used to make the Mediterranean sea and the Nile River to go with their Egypt Playmobil. Some of the yellow play silks were on occassion waved over the whole scene to create sand storms as well as used to cover some artifacts for the archeologist playmobil men to find.
- The kids used the piano bench to be the pier in Seattle and their legos to build the Seattle Aquarium. Pieces of the habitat box were used in combination with play silks and some under the sea Playmobil to create the underwater scenes (under the pier). Kelp forest silks are hanging under the pier, yellow silks for sand bottom habitats and rocks form rocky bottom habitats…all kinds of fun!
So far 2010 has been rich with FIELD TRIPS!!!
Monday, February 22nd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
