Homeschooling .....

As many of my regular readers know we have begun homeschooling our daughters. (Mia is in the 8th grade this year and Amaris is in the 6th.) Although we have discussed homeschooling for several years, it was not until recently that we decided it was the right time to begin.

Now, for a bit about us...We are a family of 6 and we have 1 pet, Ripely, our Min. Schnauzer. We have just this year purchased a new to us home and put it on our land. (You can read more about it here.) Now, that we are a bit settled, we are beginning our homeschool journey. Our oldest son, Travis, is a sophomore this year and decided he wanted to just finish high school in the county's public school system. Mia and Amaris decided during the school year last year that they wanted to come home and be homeschooled. And Jed, our youngest at 2 years old, will be homeschooled exclusively.

Since we are in our first month of homeschooling I am still doing lots of research. We are looking at how to homeschool without purchasing many materials (for our small budget) and the internet is a wonderful source of lots of information... just sorting it all out is taking many more hours than I first anticipated....LOL!

I opted not to join the local homeschool group after learning that most of the parents had much younger students than my girls. I feared they might not enjoy being the oldest of the group (esp. since we are new at this). However, our children are very active in our Youth Program and the Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes program at our congregation, and I don't fear any "social skills" difficulty.

I have had some great encouragement from my best friend Denita and from a wonderful friend from church that homeschooled her daughters. I feel as if I can call or e-mail either of these wonderful ladies and pour out my distress and anxiety over this new beginning. I also hope that I may learn from reading others blogs and posts.

Wednesday's Word ~ The Good Shepherd

John 10:11-16 (ESV) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.


What a wonderful image Jesus gives us of His love and devotion to us. He is not just someone contracted to do what needs to be done.... He is vested in us... He is ours and we are His. And look, He also says He has others that are not of the fold.... but He is caring for them as well, so that when the time comes they will listen to His voice.... to be joined to His flock. How blessed are we to be looked after by the Good Shepherd.

Apple Paloozzzzaaaa! Part 2

Okay, as promised....

Here is Amaris peeling ..... thanks to David & Heather for letting us borrow the peeler.... it made the job so much faster! She has a bowl that she puts the peeled apples in with a mixture of lemon and water....


Mia is slicing and coring the apples. Then we placed the slices in another mixture of lemon and water to keep them from turning brown.


We used the church's kitchen... I used the larger stockpot and could cook up the freezer apples that much faster (did a double batch).


Here is the second bunch of canned apples.... after we took a short afternoon break.

I also dehydrated a good quart size bag (after they were dry) of apples too.

The jelly I made never set.... the jars sealed but the jelly is like syrup... so I have grape and strawberry syrup... I'm sure I'll find something to do with it!

Apple Paloozzzzaaaa!

Just a quick note to let all of ya'll know that I was a very busy gal today.....

17 quarts of canned apple pie filling
8 quarts of freezer apple pie filling
10 jars of jelly (new recipe I was trying out.... not sure if its gonna set...)
a double batch of homemade Ranch Dressing Mix (dry)
and now I am dehydrating more apples

I have pictures and will tell more tomorrow... forgot my camera at the church building where I was doing all of it tonight after we cleaned up.... I'm one tired little pup.

I'll post a nice long post on our day tomorrow! With pics!

An Award......

My dear, sweet, wonderful, on the other side of the ocean friend.... Tina over at Red wellies, Ranbows and Cinnamon Whirls nominated me for a blog award! Thank you so very much Tina!

Now I have the joy of passing this award on to others!

Here are the rules:
- Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award.
- 4 of them followers of your blog.
- One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
- You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

Here are my pics.....

Denita over at Plain & Simple

April over at Clay in the Hands of the Potter

Michelle over at Michelle's Tidbits

Judy over at My life, after

and
Mari over at my house by the river


Mari, even though you live in the US..... you know that with you living in the North and me living in the South..... its like you live in another part of the world...LOL!

Wednesday's Word

Eph 1:3-6 (ESV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.


How wonderful God's love is. Look at verse 6 ... In love He predestined us for adoption .....it is God's wonderous love for us, His creation, that He has chosen us out from the sinful world ..... from the beginning of even time...... to be His sons and daughters through the gift of Jesus' sacrifice. But, some will still ask why God would do that for us..... this verse tells us ...... according to the purpose of His will ..... we should not have to look any further for the reasonings of our salvation. God has a purpose to His actions toward His creation (us) and we should not muddy the waters of His glorious blessings through Christ so that we may pick apart the causes of our salvation. In the previous verses God clearly tells us that He chose us before the foundation of the world .... that He had it all worked out from the begining of all time..... before He even spoke the world into existance. How can we question His devotion to us, His children, when He continually blesses us through Christ.

Anniversary Dinner....

I invited my mother over for dinner tonight.... its always good to visit with her. I made fried apples (I left the peel on most of the apples.... they were so small I was afraid they would turn into mush) ..... I like to add a handful of quick oats in the last few minutes of cooking my apples... it gives such a great texture.


Squash fritters (they are so easy to make) ...... Travis loves these..... if there are any left I will be very surprised!

Squash Fritters:

Grate 2 medium summer squash
Add 1 cup self rising flour , and 1/3 cup self rising cornmeal
a dash of salt and about 2 tbsp sugar and 2 beaten eggs... mix all together to form a wet dough.

Then fry in a pan of oil (I use veg. oil) until each side is golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve.




I did a few bacon wrapped chicken fillets and then breaded the remainder of the strips.


We also had scalloped potatoes and for dessert... Mandarin Orange cake....



****UpDate****

Due to the fast response of my good friend Denita ..... here is the recipe for the Mandarin Orange Cake...

Mandarin Orange Cake:

1 (18 1/2 ounce) package yellow cake mix

4 large eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 (11 ounce) cans mandarin oranges

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (Cool Whip or store brand)

1 (3 1/2 ounce) box instant vanilla pudding

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 Pyrex dish. In a large bowl mix the cake mix, oil and eggs along with 1 of the cans of mandarin oranges with the juice. Mix until smooth and you see small bits of the oranges. Pour into pan. Bake for about half an hour or until cake is golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Let cake cool completely.

Mix the whipped topping, the other cans of Mandarin Oranges (with the juice) and the pudding mix together until smooth. Spread over cooled cake. Serve. Store remaining cake in the fridge.

Yummy!

Not a bad Anniversary dinner if I do say so myself.