4 Sweet Sisters

Today I tried my hand at blanching. We received over a case of cauliflower in our kitchen basket this morning. Amazing! My chickadees love it cooked or raw. Myself, I can't stand the smell of it and if it smells that bad why would one want to eat it? Yuck! Anyway, the girls really enjoy it. So I pulled out a big pot with strainer. Added a good amount of salt and fresh water. Brought it to a boil and popped in the cauliflower. I let them boil for 3 minutes, then ran them under cold water and popped them into freezer bags. Hopefully it will taste great! (I will not be taste testing) I had enough to create 8 meals, keep 3 fresh heads in fridge and give 7 away! It just seemed to multiply. What's your favorite Cauliflower recipe? I need ideas. Give blanching a try. It super quick and easy! julie

Life has been a whirl wind. I keep stating that each time I have a chance to break away and blog. I would like to be on here a lot more, but time is precious when you're raising a family of any size. Am I right? I did want to update on my exercise habits. Since I last posted a lot has happened. First off, the Lord has been so good in graciously giving me the toys I wanted. I got a pair of water gloves for half price at Target and I was so excited. I used them for all my arm work outs for about a month. Then I laid off for a couple of days. Some how on my break I over extended one of my shoulders. I tried swimming through it thinking it would heal. It did not. So about two weeks ago I changed my workout and got rid of all arms. I'm not sure what I looked like coming down the lane, but I can assure you it was silly! That leads me to the next gift. This time another swimmer. She wanted me to have her old fins because she bought new ones. What a blessing. She's such a great la...

Today the chickadees and I were given the privilege of meeting P. Buckley Moss. What a beautiful woman. She was so gracious to open her home and gallery to our co-op group this morning. The girls and I felt as if we had spent some precious time with our own Bocia. She had so many fascinating stories to share and her artwork is beautiful. You'll see no pictures here today. I felt it just wasn't right to be snapping away in this lovely women's home. If your interested in taking a peek at her work go here . She really gave encouragement to my eldest daughters. She, like them has dealt with learning disabilities but hasn't let that stop her. Finding what she loved to do at an early age and doing it. In no way expecting or even wanting to become famous, she has become world renown. A gracious, keep you own your toes kind of lady. She has so much to share with her family and the world. Thank you Ms. Buckley. julie

Ahhhhhhhh can you smell it? I can taste it and it is delicious. Ahhhhhhhhh . Fall has started off with a bang here a 4 Sweet Sisters. School Girl has be in charge of advertising the chickadees business. She's gotten orders for 250 loaves of our mouthwatering pumpkin bread. Amazing! This is the biggest year we have had so far. Besides baking we have been apart of an enormous garage sale at our friend's farm (yes we have more than beaches and Mickey here). A tremendous amount of business went on and we now have the funds to purchase a new stand up freezer. I am so excited! I'm deal hunting at this very moment :) We also sold another 24 loaves of our tasty bread there and lots of chocolate chip cookies. It was a great weekend, we bartered, dickered, swapped recipes and chatted about life. So much more is happening. I hope to post later about our fall gardens and test garden, Superman's new business and much, much more! julie

Or should I say has one of your chickens ever laid one like this? I keeping thinking "Vermont Volleyball" ( Bing Crosby, White Christmas) but that really has nothing to do with this or does it (poor Danny Kaye). We seem to have girl that lays like this occasionally. No extra squawking, but it sure looks like it's got to be painful! You can't tell from the picture but this egg is larger than a Extra Large Fancy eggs from the grocery. It's just like any other egg once you crack it open, but it does look unappetizing. Have you ever "laid a egg"? I'm sure we all have. In fact there are days where it's just best if I keep my mouth shut! Today could be one of those days. Lots of extra squawking and pain for everyone in ear shot. I'm relying on my Father to get me through and keep my beak shut! Have a great day! julie

It's Monday... One of those kind of days where...need I say more? It's not super bad (because I gave my day over to the Lord), but it does have it's twists and turns. (Here comes my excuse, get ready, wait for it, wait for it.) I have been craving meat and chocolate all weekend. I could eat roast beef and/or chicken for every meal with a piece of some kind of chocolate to clear the palate. Ahh ... I said it. I need meat and chocolate! I see it everywhere I go. I have recipes swirling through my brain. I cracked. Here's what I did: 2 1/2 cup of 60% cocoa chocolate chips 2 HUGE glugs of vanilla to wash it down (just kidding) 1 can of sweeten condensed milk (John Wayne saved the life of a new born baby with this stuff over the weekend in the 3 Godfathers.) Melt on medium heat. pour into parchment lined dish, get every bit out of the hot pot (don't burn your tongue), let fudge cool in fridge. Eat a piece every 15 minutes, I mean test for coolness every 15 minutes or so...

I thought you might like to see some pretty shots of two of the chickadees. My girlfriend is a wonderful woman of God, wife, mom and photographer. Angela you're awesome. Loving Legacy Photgraphy So take a peek!

I've been away for awhile. I'm finding that school and our schedule are a bit more rigorous and I don't have much time to think. Which is was I need if I want to blog! Yep. I'm not a writer and I have to use a lot of brain power at times. So I've been on Face Book quite a bit (no brain power required). Today we took a break and cleaned the house. Yippee ! Did it need it. I think it's the dirtiest it has ever been. We started earlier this week with Farm Girl doing baseboard, trash cans etc. Today we hit all the rooms and pantry. Did gross ceiling fans, wiped down cabinets, vacuumed behind furniture, window sills, you name it. I also got a couple of shots of our School Room. I never showed how it turned out. We've been living with it for about 3 months and it's working out much better for us. Here are some of before. 11x10 room. Scary! Books! Lots of School Resources and lets not forget the TRASH! I like the paint color and my curtains. I had to steal t...

Some like it hot, some like it cold... I'm the cold variety and I don't mean pea soup! Look at the temp on our front porch yesterday and today is more of the same. Can you believe that? It's not broken. Now you know why we Floridian's are freezing and having fires when the weather hits 60 degrees. I hear there's a cold front coming this weekend. We might be able to pull out the woolies! julie

While I was doing my workout today I started thinking about all the money spent on gym memberships, equipment and all the other paraphernalia that we "need" to exercise. Now I'm not here to criticize or critic anyone. It just got me thinking about myself. Where do I fall into this category? Maybe you'll think about where you fall also, maybe not. Trying to be frugal, careful, spend thrifty with the family finances has made me take a deeper look at this. I'm not a person who "not intentional" when it comes to exercise. I have many wonderful girlfriends that are. My definition of this is a person who doesn't have to think about getting some exercise. They are always involved in something that gives them this and their bodies crave it if it is not available to them about 12 hours after their last "session". "Intentional" people on the other hand may enjoy being in the great out doors, but they are sitting on the back porch or on a qu...

We are now in week 8 of Tapestry of Grace. I really like the program. You can do as little or as much as you want. If your using it your 1st year of homeschooling, DON'T TRY AND DO EVERYTHING! I'm shocked at the number of people who are getting themselves all twisted up over this. I think it's a perfection thing. How do I know....I started falling into it and I've been homeschooling to long not to know when I'm headed for overload! Here's what we've been up to: Map work of ancient countries, studying Babylonia, Sumeria, Egypt, Israelites and their journey, plus the beginning of creation. Crafting and cooking our way through the countries. We our in the midst of 40 years in the desert with the Israelites. We've been taking an in depth look at the Wilderness Tabernacle and put together a replica. We also tried taking a wonderful field trip to the Holy Land exhibit in Orlando. Perfect timing (we thought). Grammy and I loaded up the chickadees in the van an...

The Little Chef helping Superman This has been quite a week in our home. I'm sure everyone on the planet has had such a week. This morning topped it off. I actually thought maybe I should cancel school and hide in my room for the rest of the week. I broke the water pipe that leads to the water main. Then I couldn't figure out where it turned off. I keep digging and digging with avail. Urban Girl came out and tried. A man walking down the the street wanted to know first, if it was our home.--- I am dressed in jean shorts, purple shirt, black (cute) apron, crocs and hair flying everywhere. Children running down the front steps yelling Mom and he wants to know if I own the place! Water gushing all over the back yard and chickens making rafts to save themselves (okay not that bad). So he had no clue how to shut it off. I go around back thinking there must be another way! Water still spewing everywhere. I then hear car brakes. A...

Last night after dinner we did a little decorating. I've really pared down my fall decorations. I like it so much better with just little hints of it. Like I said yesterday, it's 91 degrees again today. The house feels so much cooler for some reason. I can't believe having a couple of decorations could change my attitude so much. This doesn't mean I'll be decorating for Christmas in July, but it is something to think about. Last night I even watched a couple of British shows with a blanket on. I'm pretty sure Superman thinks of lost it (how often do I say that?)! So here are a couple pictures of what has brightened our day. Superman and Angela( Dancing with my Father ) don't look! You'll be aghast at my photography skills. I got a lot of these pumpkins in different hues at the Dollar Store last year. What a deal. I will change them out for a cute collection of Pilgrims and Indians (also $ store finds from a couple of years ago) when November rolls aroun...

Well it's going to be a blistering 91 degrees this afternoon and I'm not feeling "fallish". Yesterday I promised the chickadees we would decorate, make a fall dessert, and have cider. Yes, I even -preplanned by buying cider. (Didn't have time to make my own-hehehe.) We've been on a downhill slide all morning. Since I'm the co-captain in charge, I need to save this sinking ship. (don't ask) First we'll make Pumpkin Spice Cookies. Then head out to garden at 4-H. Home for baked chicken, veggies, salad and biscuits. Then our yummy cookies ( you know they'll be good) and cider. Clean up the kitchen, let the chickens out and do a bit of decorating! These are pumpkin cookie. Sorry for the blurriness (one of the girls took a quick pic for me-not that it matters). They were good ,but not at all like a cookie. The tasted like muffun tops and we were wanting cookies. We use 2 apples, 2 cups of cider, and lots of ice to make our cider slushes. The chickade...

I really enjoy blogging but often I ponder the reasons I do it. Today is one of those times. I haven't shared much of our families history because much of it is painful and we are all still dealing and healing with different issues. One issue has been a visual disability that my oldest two chickadee's and I share. For some reason words and numbers do not bounce correctly from our optic nerves to our brains. I'll leave out all the technical jargon today but in severe cases (which one of my beauties has ) it makes life very difficult. Especially when your a very articulate and intelligent young woman. She reads and understands a myriad of things, loves history, science and writing. But can't memorize digits, words, etc. We've been through every phonics program , math memorization program and medical visual therapy. To be left with huge gaps. Some have filled in, while others have not. Leaving the chickadees frustrated. Enough said. Difficult especially when your ...

Ahhhh dinner. I can't wait! I've had some really good work outs this week. I think I'm finely finding my groove and getting a routine down. A true athlete (he he). I even lost a couple more pounds. So I need to guard against unwanted head talk. "Go ahead, it's okay you lost weight." or "A little more won't hurt". Yeah, right. As I was saying yesterday we received a bunch of peppers in our kitchen basket. (I wish I could grow organic peppers this size...) Urban Girl has been requesting stuffed peppers. Eeck, yuck! Superman and the chickadees we grossed out. So I asked a couple of question and came to find out that no one liked the tomato sauce that goes on top. Superman being the only one who has actually eaten them. I think I may have had them at my Auntie's house when I was a child. I vaguely remember the tomato sauce. Anyway, I really wanted to give these a try. Now maybe I should have used a recipe (I thought as I was popping them into the...

Today is a quickie. We had produce co-op and I got so many yummy looking green and red peppers. Just last week I was craving roasted red peppers and garlic. So today was the day! Directions for Roasted Red Peppers (works with all peppers): Wash peppers Place on a cookie Set oven to broil (I broil on high) Place peppers under broiler Let peppers char on every side (rotating as needed) including the tops and bottoms Place hot peppers in paper bag and let cool 20 to 40 minutes Peel black skins off and slice pepper as wanted Directions for Roasted Garlic: I use a glass pie plate Peel outer skins off garlic Slice just the tops off Drizzle or pour olive oil over garlic Sprinkle with a bit of salt Bake at 385 ( just a random temp) for about 45 minutes Take out and cool while peeling the peppers. So easy and doesn't take much time. I then mash the yummy garlic and a pinch of salt to tatse. I then layer roasted peppers and roasted garlic. I was doing a bit of tasting at this point! The garl...

Just a update and a way for me to see my progress. Started water aerobics the end of June. (2 times a week) July continued water aerobics, but added in another day (3 times). Gained 6 pounds but feeling great! I can feel the muscle. Mid July added in swimming laps 40 to 50 laps in 1 1/2 hours (1 to 2 times per week and water aerobics 1to2 times per week- total of 4 days) August buy swim pass. Goal: laps 4 times a week. ( 2 weeks of water aerobics, twice a week). I feel that I really need to step it up. Feeling really good. NO weight loss. Losing some inches. By mid August shaving off time down to an hour for 50 laps (1000 yards). Swimming only laps 5 days a week. Gained 2 more pounds (freaking out!) Feeling really good . Seeing muscle definition. Feeling a new strength in my body. Mid August start eating only when I'm hungry and stopping when satisfied. A few bumps in the road, but doing well. No more dieting. Praying and asking for direction. Start really upping the pace of my lap...

It's been a long time since I've done a Works For Me Wednesday post. It's not that I don't have anything to offer up. It's that I can't remember when it comes time to post it. So without further ado let me show you! Thank you to my very brave husband, Superman. We don't call him a superhero for nothing. He also believes in this concept a lot! Ye old Nette . Has anyone ever used a nette pot? I tried and hated it. It felt like I was diving into the deep end of the pool and depositing most of the water in my sinuses. It would hurt like the dickens ( what exactly is a dickens?). Superman informed that I had the wrong technique. So I tried again with no success. So a year has gone by and I've been sneezing like crazy for a couple of months. Rarely do I ever sneeze. I decided to give the pot another go. Superman was right! My technique was all wrong. Here is Superman's Technique: use sea salt warm water shower (easiest place w/no clean up) tip your hea...

Does anyone recall me explaining the Sumo Diet? Go here and find out more. Unknown to me, I was following this lovely large plan. Ugh, yikes, I could scream were a couple of my thoughts and emotions. After I got over the initial shock and horror. I became terrified. Yay , I over did it. I was a afraid to sit down for fear of being sedentary. Don't worry, it didn't last long. I REALLY did not want to low carb diet anymore. Especially when we eat really healthy, preservative free and organic. Calorie counting at this point in my life would take an enormous amount of thought and time (although I'm still holding on to the idea- it's falling further back in my mind) So I've prayed and swam and swam while I prayed, yelled, screamed and shed a few tears. (You can do all that under water without people noticing - I think) Finally after having my rant I knew what I was supposed to do. The hardest of all weight control solutions out there! Eat when I'm really hungry...

Before studying creation we are jumping ahead to Egypt so when we go back to Creation we will hopefully see a bigger picture. Errrr , I think. Anyway, I have majorly balked at teaching the Ancient World because (excuse coming) other than Biblical spots ( i know, I know it's all wrapped together) I really have no desire. But the children must still learn! Even if I never learned any of it, maybe that's another reason (excuse). Note to self- maybe you're feeling out of your comfort zone- ouch! Did I just write that? The good thing is my Chickadees are totally wanting this! They are gobbling it up and know more than I'll ever know about Egypt (yes I'm studying with them- but they read even further than I do). We are doing this unit study style so there are plenty of projects. Last week we made cookie maps and drew pictures of pyramids and sphinxes. This week we made crowns that stand for a United Egypt (that would Upper and Lower Egypt after a Pharaoh Narmer conquered...

This a true confession, but I think I may have already confessed it before. During the school day I can sometimes get a bit crabby or my expectation may be a bit high (or right on) and it comes out in exasperation with my chickadees. Starting ToG has added a bit more. Although I think we're getting the swing of things. Well when theses times arise I usually step away from the school table and over to the counter. I then throw myself into something relatively creative. Usually cooking, planning projects for the holidays, or dare I say deep cleaning the kitchen. Today was just that sort of day! Farm Girl was getting tense and I was WAY past tense. So before exploding or imploding I decided we needed a fresh batch of cookies. We are usually a plain Jane chocolate chip kind of family, but today I needed more. Chunks of chocolate, raisins, cranberries, white chocolate, or nuts galore! So I pulled out a bag of BOGO Dove dark chocolate and pecans. My next thought was homemade vanilla (t...

The girls are begging me to post. I've got nothing, nada , zip, zilch... We have been hitting the new school year hard and I feel that's all I know how to talk about. I could talk about my reasons for liking a mixture of text books and unit studies. If you don't homeschool you may be bored out of your gourd! On that subject (not gourds), learning is changing in our home. We (they) are digging deeper to learn and having to find a lot more on their own this year. I want as much of it to stick as possible and have a bit of fun while doing it. We are working out the kinks of Tapestry and really enjoying Spelling Power/English from the Roots/English. Okay, I'm really enjoying them. And you know the old saying, "If momma ain't happy ain't no body happy". The weather (oh how boring) is cooling off a bit (low 80's) for evening. We've been outside with the chickens and breaking down the old garden. We hope to move it for an October planting in the nex...

Do ever feel like you haven't a thing to say? Yes, your world is whirling around you at great speed but you're in slow motion? I feel like that. We have a hefty week of club meetings and just plain old school. We've got hormones and a bit of frustration flying. I'm happy to report there has been no blood shed (just kidding). I can see everything coming together in most areas. My planning this whole summer was not for nothing. The Little Chef said this morning, " Let start school. Let's rock this!" (Not sure were she picked up that lingo.) The older girls are enjoying their intro to Greek and Latin. (I think they will need more in depth next year.) And the tape recorder was a big hit. I've been told I'm so awesome more times than I can count (can't let that go to my head). The Little Chef asked how the lady on the machine knew her and her sister's name. Very funny! So other things have fallen to the wayside. Garden, I need to plant my brocco...

Well I tried up loading our daily schedule for the world to see, but it said it was corrupt and/ or unreadable. I pray we have more ease in following it! Highlights in learning this year: Little Chef - 100 easy lessons, Saxon 1st grade (half year w/ Urban Girl), Tapestry of Grace y1, science readers (on tape) and Moody science videos Farm Girl - Spelling Power, English from the Roots Up, R&S English, Saxon 3, Tapestry of Grace y1, oral reading w/ Urban Girl, La Clase Devertida w/ School Girl, Johnathan Park Aquarium and Zoo series and Moody Science videos School Girl - Spelling Power, English from the Roots Up, R&S English, Saxon 6th grade w/ Dive, Tapestry of Grace y1, Observing God's World (science), La Clase Devertida (Spanish) Urban Girl - Beyond Phonics, English from the Roots Up, Notgrass' World History- Literature, Writing and Bible, Apologia Chemistry (yikes!), Math -U- See Review all Algebra and go from there..., Health (AO), Driver's Ed, and help with...