4 Sweet Sisters

Warning~ There are a lot of pictures in this post. Look at your own risk. This year we splurged and went to the Florida Parent Educator Association's Homeschooling Convention. We haven't been in about 5 years. Reasons:1) We needed to put more of our money to curriculum use in years past. 2) We didn't have a vehicle that we felt could make it there and back. 3) It was no longer being held at our favorite hotel. 4)I knew what curriculum I liked and have stuck with. This still holds true and I felt a bit guilty going for nothing? Not so. So here's what we did to stay at the 5 star luxury Gaylord Palms Hotel. We saved moo la every month for a number of months. We saved money out for gas, dinners, and brought everything else from home. Breakfast , lunch, and snacks. I printed out all my curriculum needs and wants with Internet prices for comparison. We also reminded the girls frequently to save their pennies for the trip. Lots of fun goodies for children to buy. It was so ni...

I joined the link up party over at Smockity Frocks . Unfortunately I don't know how to put up her gardening button. Please go over and take a look. They have been handling a situation in their home amazingly well. Our Spring 2011 garden is coming to a close and I still need to draw a map of what I planted from the past fall in to spring. Our pepper plants seem to be in full bloom so we will continue to let them grow. I always think fresh eggs in a basket look so pretty and country. I found this basket a couple of years ago at a thrift store. Great for collecting eggs. These are actually tomatoes from the plants we planted last fall. Lots of vines with very little fruit. We will be adding lime into the ground come late June or July. We got just over 2lbs of green beans before our plants looked like they had rust all over them. We have some beans left but nothing to speak of. We planted fresh mint and mulched it with straw. I'm hoping it will fill the whole flower bed. We ma...

I can't believe it, then again I can. I remember when Superman and I would sit on the couch trying hard to imagine the day when I our two year old would be this old. Starting the end of her official schooling in our home and moving into the next step that the Lord has for her. Pray for her if you know her. She has many wonderful choices and options to consider . She'll be helping me teach our youngest two anatomy next year and helping out in many different churches with VBS programs this summer. School Girl and I wanted to surprise her with a themed "cake" this year. It's actually cereal treats. Here is our first try at making chocolate modeling clay. I'll post a recipe soon. We used white and colored it. Molding the cereal treats into body parts. See the person with it's legs sticking up? Here's a half a person. Actually a replica of school girl. Here's the finished product. It's supposed to be Urban Girl and Superman on a Kayak trip....

Last week we had the opportunity to go to our local hydro farm. This past fall we had taken a field trip Co-op there and really enjoyed ourselves. They let each child pick a basket of strawberries as gift. They were delicious. Now they were opening there farm to everyone in our community for one last day of picking and it was free. What a way to be a blessing to so many! Here is some of what we picked. Hot peppers (before) Here is a bunch of chili peppers. Some purple, red and green bell peppers and jalapenos. After the hot peppers were done dehydrating I popped them in my blender. Pretty huh? Mid grind. I should have done three batches because I had to take off the top a couple of times to jostle them around. Needles to say I had burning lips and nose by the end. The end result. A sweet, very spicy, smokey flavor. I decided to mix the habenaros and the chilies.I can't wait to cook! Urban Girl will be turning seventeen this week and we will be having stuffed jalapenos to celebra...

As promised an update to our Bug Jars. The girlies found these cute stickers in the school room and decided to go that route. So easy and no mess. Can you see the difference in personalities? These stickers on the sides are to make the bugs happy.... As they drift off into dream land. Hopefully we'll have some neat bug boards by the end of summer. I'm pretty sure I'll be making new jars at some point. Note to self. No getting upset when/if these break. Get some plastic jars. Have a terrific weekend! Julie

Have you ever made a Bug Jar? It's been -- something years since I made one. What, you really didn't think I was going to share how long ago it was did you? Actually it's been since Grade School and then again in Junior High. Do they even have Junior High anymore? Anyway back to the project at hand. My younger girlies are really interested in nature right now and would like to make specimen boards. Okay they didn't even know what those were until I told them about having to make them in school. They thought that was a really cool idea. (I told them about this months ago and am now just getting around to it. Just in case you thought I was all organized and on top of things.) So here we go. You'll need: - 1 jar glass or plastic per etymologist -plaster a Paris -water -nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol Clean jars. I would have used plastic had I had them. I don't recommend this brand, but it was given to me free from someone who didn't need it anymore....