Blog Archives

My Oatmeal Pancakes

1/17/2014

I can't say I have an exact recipe for making these pancakes, but everyone who has them likes them. I've made them for years. :)

Take some leftover oatmeal (from when you make hot oatmeal for breakfast). Normally about 1-1.5 cups.
Add one egg, enough milk to make it quite liquidy when you blend it together. Add some fruit as well (I often use a banana but have used blueberries, peaches, applesauce or diced apples as well)
Add about 1 1/3 cup flour. A 1/2 tsp of baking powder, some protein powder if desired.
If I use bananas I add a sprinkle of cinnamon as well.

Mix well.
Add more milk if you need to make it fluid for pancakes.
Then cook.

MIND... they do tend to cook quickly so watch 'em carefully and turn them when they just start to bubble.

My son enjoys these pancakes and ate about 10 of them for breakfast. :) We tend to eat them with butter and cinnamon sugar.

Linking up with Try a new Recipe Tuesday. :)

Adventures in Wonderland

1/17/2014

So this past Monday KICK had a group event at Adventures in Wonderland.

It was hard to get good pictures as my lad was in constant motion. Running, jumping, playing tag and just having fun.

Adventures on Wonderland has changed it's set up a bit.. the ball pit is gone, and was replaced with more slides and ropes and foam things.

that grin on his face says it all. :) Playing tag is fun when you have so many places you can zip around in. :)

We didn't stay as long as the lad would have liked, but it was hubby's day off and he wanted to get going. The lad played a rousing game of laser tag before we left though and that made the early departure good. :)

Linking this post up on Field Trip Fridays at Chestnut Grove.

Chestnut Grove Academy Field Trip Friday Blog Hop

Five Minute Friday: Encouragement

1/17/2014

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on:::

Encouragement…

Encouragement
Three
Two
One
Go

When I look at this flower I see encouragement, the encouragement to go out there and bloom, even if I'm not the greatest flower out there, not the prettiest and the best formed or the best whatever ...................

ah!!! I've been interrupted by a pesky squirrel.

click image to go to page source. It's about time.

We live in the snow belt...which means we get alot of snow, so to be kind to the birds we put out bird-feeders and well... our white squirrels that we have running around the backyard are rather dumb and take the droppings the birds give them...our two recent black squirrel invaders are somewhat less than dumb and being encouraged by free food they've taken to stealing our bird feeders and wrecking them. Does this serve them well in the long run? um... NO. But that doesn't seem to discourage them.. they are just more encouraged to figure out where we've hidden the free food.

So encouragement for me today is much more basic than what I was pondering all morning, my encouragement given to me today is ... how do I foil the squirrels without spending $45 for a squirrel proof feeder? So the encouragement the squirrels have for free easy food has become a motivator for me in how do I foil the dastardly beasts???

But that's how it goes right?
What encourages one being can motivate another being eh? :)

So what can YOU do today to motivate someone else?
And what has someone (or something) done to motivate you lately?

STOP
When you have written your own piece, go link up here and then comment on the blogs ahead of you. Come on join us....you'll be glad you did. :)

Homeschooling Essentials Coming Up

1/16/2014

Come on in, stop on by as members of the crew talk about various homeschooling essentials.
You'll find us talking about such things as:

Curriculum
Supplies
Attitudes
Space
Outside help
Co-ops
Certain subjects
Certain methods
Planning tools
Schedules

What will I talk about? I haven't the foggiest notion as of yet. But I'll probably include things such as field trips, nature walks, basic schedules, reading times and whatever else. It will most likely be a bit of a hodge podge. But it will be fun I think.. anyways, stop on by. It's on all of next week Jan 20-24. :)

Moms and Olympics

1/16/2014

Heart touching video from P&G. If you want to find a bunch of resources on the Olympics, check out what the folks at TOS Crew have put together. :) I missed getting on this one for a whole bunch of reasons, but there's no reason I can't share with you what they've done.

GO HERE.

Hong Kong's Cage Dogs

1/16/2014

I tend not to comment a whole lot on news articles, but someone sent me this article the other day telling me how horrible this was. It's an article on how some people in Hong Kong have to live. It's entitled Cage Dogs of Hong Kong. NOTE: it is NOT about dogs, it's about how some people in Hong Kong live.    I don't much like the name of the article...it's denigrating to the people involved but I think that's the articles point.

The point of the article was to point out how absolutely horrible is was that people needed to live like this.

My thought when I read the article was oh... what an innovative way to house the homeless.   Give them their OWN space that they can decorate and make their own.   Make the homes in such a way they can lock it if need be to protect their stuff.

Is it great living?
No.. but it's better than a cardboard box out in the elements.

It gives people a place to stash their stuff.
It gives people an address for resumes and work related issues.
It gives people shelter from the elements.
It is easy to put up and down.
It is easy to clean.
It's a defined area with places to hang out to visit with one's neighbours.

If I was at my wits end and didn't know where to live, would I want to live like this?   NO, absolutely not... but if I had no other real options, you bet your boots I would.

Is it nice to share a communal bathroom? No. (better than doing your business on the street or using restaurant bathrooms all the time)
Is it nice to be relegated to sleeping quarters of 2.5 x 4 x 6?   Not really (but that is about the size of a good cardboard box).
Is it as good as having your own apartment?   Not on your life. Is it better than having rain drip on your head, or wind chill freezing you?   You bet your life.
Is there potential for abuse and bad things? Yeah, but you get that anywhere you live or walk or do anything.

If you have no place else to go other than living on the streets?   Isn't it good to have this option?   I just don't know if it would fly here.   But I've seen pictures of shelters where folks get a bed and that's it. No place to really call their own. Just a bed.   This has to be better than that don't you think?

Classical Composers: Fine Arts

1/15/2014

Homeschool Giveaways is doing a freebie on the above product from Classical composers.

Classical composers does an excellent job at introducing people to various composers and artists. You really should check them out. :)

Windows Open in my Browser

1/15/2014

On Pinterest:
Homeschool Freebies.
Math Ideas for Kids.
Winter Experiments.
Exploring with Ice.
Ice/Salt experiment.

Blogs
Great resources for free.
Carnival of Christian Homeschooling.
Virtual Curriculum Fair.
Ice Egg Experiments.
Freebie Friday.

Other Stuff
Dollar Days at Scholastic.
You Need A Story.
A cookie Recipe I keep thinking I want to try.
Beautiful Feet books.
Images of Illuminations.
Learning about Illuminations.
An introduction to Illuminations.
Free Math Printables.

Reviews Coming Up
Science4Us.

Blogging through the Alphabet: O is For Opportunities

1/14/2014

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the opportunities it brings. Opportunities to spend time as a family, opportunities to learn, opportunities to have fun, just opportunities for so many things.

For instance today we went for a walk.

This led us to an opportunity to enjoy the lovely sunny day we had. It was GORGEOUS out. Just a totally lovely day.

The opportunity to spontaneously talk about seasonal changes and the overwintering habits of Water Striders. We learned that they hibernate over the winter, the cold temperatures slow them down and can delay the hatching of eggs and the emerging of new adults. The opportunity to search for snow fleas and make guesses about where the mice where making their tracks for the winter.

We had the opportunity to see that moss stays green in the winter.

We had the opportunity to talk about safety issues... from the throwing of huge snowballs at people, to meeting new dogs, to potentially sliding down slippery hills if one didn't pay attention to one's footing.

We talked about conducting an experiment of building a snowman to see if having a white object standing out from the path would encourage dogs to use it as a scent marker would be affective but the lad nixed the idea since he didn't want to have to walk all the way back to see if they did or not. So instead we thought we'd have fun with big snowballs. :) We did two things.
1. throw snowballs in the water of difference sizes and see how long they last as we walk with them. they lasted until they got caught by a tree sticking out in the water.
2. On our walk we have this lovely bridge that crosses the river. Which gave us the idea of dropping snowballs into the water and seeing what happens..... :)

We started with three snowballs to see what might happen. One very condensed small ball, one loose small ball, and one condensed big ball. What happens if we let them drop?

Just so you know.... the loose ball disappeared in the water, the big ball broke apart into small chunks and the small condensed ball floated down the river out of side.

Let's do that again was the cry... so we did TWO big balls. And here's the result of that. As they dropped in they made this most incredible splash... so fun to watch and see and then run over to the other side of the bridge... so there was our opportunity to run an impromptu science experiment.

Small floating pieces....how disappointing. So mom, why didn't they last like the ones we put in the water off the bank up there? Height we dropped them from I think... did you notice the splash wasn't as big?

On the way home we had the opportunity to do some math as I quickly shoved the lad out of my way as I took a tumble. MOM! Why did you push me? Well would you rather me fall on you or push you out of the way. How much do you weigh mom? Well.. I weigh _____. How much do I weigh. You weigh _____. So tell me lad, how much more do I weigh then you? (I broke into down so it was smaller numbers). You weigh ___ times more than me mom! I'm glad you shoved me out of the way!

We had opportunity to lay in the snow. :) and be silly....

And then on the way home the lad had the opportunity to learn that his boots were NOT waterproof and that listening to mom saying stay out of the water was a good idea. :) Mom... I should have listened. Did you know my boots weren't waterproof? I said, well..they have laces... boots with laces usually aren't waterproof so I just assumed they weren't. Are your feet wet? Yes.. SOAKED on the one foot mom.

It was indeed a lovely walk for both of us... filled with so many opportunities. I'm sure there would have been more if we had looked for them... :)

Do join us over at Marcy's again this week. :) We continue to blog through the alphabet, this week being O. Come on its fun, and people always have different ideas to share. :)