Blog Archives

Stove Top Stew

2/12/2015

I normally make stew in a crock pot or in a dutch oven.

Today I decided to make a throw it together stew in a fry pan. :) It's a fairly deep one and I only needed enough for myself, and enough for hubby. I knew son of mine wouldn't be keen to eat any so giving him a small portion would work. :)

Ingredients:
Veggies I favour: peas, corn, green beans, carrots
Potatoes (one large roasting potato)
Meat: small beef steak cut up (cheaper than stewing beef).

Gravy: 1/2 can mushroom soup + one can chicken gravy + one beef bouillon

The meat I spiced with Montreal Steak Spice.

Directions
Cut up steak into bite sized pieces, Trim fat if desired.
Brown in the beef bouillon (I have a gel type bouillon that I use).

Add veggies.
Add chicken gravy and mushroom soup. Mix well.
Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat so it's still cooking but won't burn.

Do something else for about and hour, come back into the house and MMMM.. smells good and "HUN! What you cooking, it smells good!"

Sit down and enjoy a hearty bowl of stew.... even the lad liked it though he would have rather I not put the peas and corn into it.

Wordless Wednesday... as the universe expands

2/11/2015

learning how the universe keeps expanding until.....

Learning to do a caricature

2/10/2015

Today was one of those days when we started out homeschooling late so everything was running behind and I had a boy just wanting to do ANYTHING other than schooling that wasn't "fun". Two of our new to use computer programs were glitching out on us and frustration was happening everywhere, so I pulled out an art book and said "let's do something different buddy". And so we learned about Claude Monet and his art of doing caricatures. Hopefully you can see these attempts by the lad and I. He drew me with a huge pair of glasses, and I drew dad with a big nose in front of the TV where he often does his work. :) They made us smile.

So as I was looking for more examples of Claude Monet's caricatrues, I came upon a website filled with them. How cool is that eh? :) Check them out here.

click image to go to source: Claude Monet

When doing a caricature of a person you try to make their head big and then exaggerate a part of their body. Their eyes, head nose or something and then add something from their life into the picture.   So when I did a picture of my boy I added a cat to the picture but he asked me NOT to put in on the blog. :)

"Monet was making extra money at age 15 drawings caricatures which he signed O. Monet. He sold these at a local store for 10-20 francs a piece. They were often depictions of his teachers and his fellow students would purchase them."   (source)

He was born in November 1840 in Paris. The second son of a grocer.   Started school when he was five. Eventually joined the army, got sick with typhoid, was pulled out to go to art school. Married Camille, had children. She died of tuberculosis. He became an impressionist. He liked to paint pictures of controlled nature (gardens and the like). He remarried. He got cataracts at one point which affected his art work. He died of lung cancer at age 86. You can find his complete biography here.

I have recently be apprised of an Artsy Site concerning Claude Monet. You should go check it out, it's a neat site. :)

Review and Giveaway: Rasmus and the Vagabond

2/10/2015

Astrid Lindgren, the creator of Pippi Longstocking, Emil, and dozens of other world-famous characters, has thrilled three generations of children with her storytelling. She is the author of this children's book "Rasmus and the vagabond".

I have to tell you, it's a nice book for children. I look forward to reading it with my son. The lad Rasmus, is nine years old, living in an orphanage and just wanting folk to call his own. After folks came by and left with the standard curly haired girl, Rasmus decides to take his parenting hunting into his own hands. After-all SOMEONE has to want a straight-haired boy. The characters are well-developed and interesting to read about, not so stereotypical with good hearts and a willingness to help each other.

Illustrations litter the text that help tell the story. They really helped me to visual this tattered man and the young boy walking down the road together. It is the right length and interest level for nine year old boys as well. :)   In this book children will join Rasmus as he heads off searching for folk, only to meet a Vagabond and enter into an adventure with him. It really is a fun read with short chapters, excellent cliff hangers, and easy reading for children.     Ms. Lindgren has created a good work of fiction which also introduces children to the reality of life for children in orphanages in days gone by.

Product Details.
Official Website: Rasmus and the Vagabond.
Author: Astrid Lindgren
Illustrator: Eric Palmquist
Pages: 180
Publisher:Plough Publishing House

Did you know that YOU can enter to win a copy of Rasmus for your own?   YES!   It's an read that your children will enjoy.

To enter.. Leave a comment.   If you tweet or pin or share it, leave a comment with a link.    Open to Canada and the USA.   Contest open til February 17th.
My link on my facebook page should you wish to share is right here.

Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. Or if you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

Special Needs Teaching

2/8/2015

Did you know I used to work with special needs folk?
You didn't? For shame. (not really) I don't talk about my past alot.

Anyways, I worked in the social services field for about 15 years. it was hard work. I worked mostly by myself, with one person or at the most with one other person.

This week the Crew Round-up is called Teaching Speical Learners. So I thought it was time for me to add my two cents worth of what I learned working with special needs folk.

What did I learn?

1. Patience.   It's huge. It's what you need. One small step working toward a bigger step. It's helped me in the raising of my boy. :)

2. SMALL STEPS are big steps.   Susan made it out the door without having to go back and check her bed and go back and check her bed Five times in a row. Cause for celebration and let's go get a donut. :)   Martin to hold his mouth open so you can brush his teeth hand over hand.   It's a good thing that!

3. Regression is a part of learning.   Sometimes we forget what we already know. You know this from your own life right? So it's no big deal so RELAX.

4. There will always be the doubters. ALWAYS.   Learn to be polite or learn to be quiet.   Both will serve you well in the long run. Yelling, getting angry .. it just doesn't.

5. Taking time away is a GREAT thing to do at times.   That is you are working on something with a person and it just isn't working. Just backing off and doing something else for an extended period of time is not a bad thing, and when you come back to it, it can go much better.

I learned many other things, but those five seemed to be the most important. :)

For parents with special learners... Love your kids. Help your kids. Be patient and loving and kind and directive when needed. And just teach them. :)   They'll always surprise you in the end. :)

Join the crew on February 11 in the crew round up.

Five on the Fifth

2/6/2015

I have to admit, it's been a rough month. So I don't know that I'll have five posts...and they certainly won't be spread out over the month.

Life's just been hard lately but I'm starting to catch my second wind. A couple more good nights sleep with no bad dreams will do wonders for me I think. :)

Anyways, today we went skating with our home school group and folks asked how we were doing after the loss of my dad and of course asked how we've been doing with our schooling. I've been feeling a bit stretched in that regard lately. Somewhat understandable, but still a reality for me. So this post resonated with me. Confessions of a homeschool mom... burnout. I have to admit, I don't think I could manage the "unschooling" approach in schooling, but sometimes it's tempting to think of it. To leave the learning to my son's discretion. I'm too fearful though that he would spend his time just playing minecraft all day long. :)

Since listening to audio books is something that we enjoy in this household, particularly when we are on the road, finding new books to enjoy is something I keep a watch for.   We've listened to Morris and his Educated Rodents, The Harry Potter series, Tiffany Aichen books, as well as various others. When I saw this post I thought hmmm... wonder if they will list any that my boy would like as well? I have to admit, that some on the list look intriguing. I already have plans to do the Narnia series.

This post on encouraging a love of reading just made me smile.   This is something that my heart so desires for my boy.   He LOVES my reading to him and has a solid interest in a variety of books. So encouraging a love of reading is something I am keen to do. :)

And seriously that's all I have this month. I am so pleased that Marcy puts this blogging event together.   I haven't been participating as faithfully as I want to, but hopefully over this coming month I'll pick out more posts and we'll do this more frequently again. :)

Five Minute Friday: Keep

2/6/2015

The rules are simple for these Five Minute Friday gatherings. Take fivce minutes on a Friday. Write on the same topic .. this week it is Keep. Don't worry about fancying it up, just write from the heart for five minutes. Then go ahead, link up. THEN most importantly. Take a couple of minutes to encourage the person who wrote before you. Who knows...you might meet a new blogger that you just adore. :)

go. 731.
Keep.   I read that word and immediately what came to mind is the phrase "keeper of my soul".   Jesus is the keeper of my soul.

Draws me back to a conversation that I had with my son over a book we've been reading. A character dies.   Where will he go mom?   He was a good cat who was murdered in a bad place. Where will he go now?

I have to admit, with the paradigm that the book is, I couldn't answer him.   He was bothered by that, and so am I.

I know that as a believer that when I die I shall go to the one that is the keeper of my soul.   I wish more folks knew him, that they wouldn't need to fear death.

It's one thing I don't really fear you know. Living can be so hard to manage some days with all the busyness and questions and events that need to occur as one keeps a house, manages a family, raises critters and just tends to the events of living.

I fear being disabled and being a burden. I would find that a great deal harder to cope with and so this year, with the help of my sweetheart and the knowledge that God wants more from me I am working to make myself healthier so that I hopefully won't be more of a burden that I need to be when I get older. :) Smart move eh?   :)
and stop 736.

Review: Two Renegade Realms

2/6/2015

I have to admit, I enjoyed book one so much that when book 2 came out I leapt at the chance to review it as well. I enjoy the writings of Donita K. Paul.   The first book in the Realm Walkers series, entitled One Realm Beyond was a wonderful book the characters captured my immediate interest.

I have to admit, that though the characters continued to be well-developed, I kept having this feeling of deja vu.   Like I had either read this book before OR I've read a similar story line... I couldn't quite figure out which.

This this particular book the main story centers around the need for Cantor, Bixby, and Dukmee must band together to find the storied realm walker Chomountain. The other main problem was how to survive the bumping together of the planes from Lymee Major and Minor... this event would have a devastating effect on their own plane.   The story was new but I just couldn't really get into it as it just seemed so predictable and familiar to me.   I have to admit.. it would have been cool to see the real-life depiction of the contraption they found under the mountain and I delved over that description for a while.

That said, I am looking forward to reading book three to see if Chomountain is able to be of assistance to them in the beating of the corrupt realm walkers guild.   Can the bad guys be defeated once and for all? Is there more to the story of Tegan? Stay tuned to discover...... :)

Author is Donita K. Paul. She is a retired from teaching and who then took up the mantle of grandma. She loves her new career as author of stories her grandchildren devour. Winner of multiple awards, she lives in Colorado, enjoying friends and family, pets and beautiful scenery. Her favorite part of writing is the readers.

Book details:
416 pages, published by Zondervan, written by Donita K. Paul.
Part of the series called Realm Walkers.

I reviewed this book on behalf of BookLook Bloggers.   I received a free book in exchange for my fair and honest review.

Visual Learning Systems fun

2/5/2015

First you sweet talk the cat... does HE know where the camouflaged animal is???

When the cat walks off in disgust, one starts to search.

l the prey is spotted and ......

one goes in for the kill/capture.

Animal adaptations..... Visual Learning Systems. Learning about camouflage. Review coming soon!

Today's Efforts in Learning

2/4/2015

Wednesday's are different days for us.

We start our day usually rushing madly out the door to get to the Foodbank. Somedays we manage to have breakfast before we leave and other times we kinda scrounge for things at the Foodbank (which they are totally cool with).

This morning was one of those mornings of Granola bars, fruit and a juice box. :)

We had a good day at the Foodbank. We had numerous folks show up for assistance and they all left happy. We might have a back up person to help distribute food on Wednesday mornings. WOOT WOOT. We also had time to start organizing food by expiration date. My goodness.. we had lots of tuna that will be good until 2019! And the salmon until 2018. We had about 20 cans that man.. I wish the canning companies would put readable expiration dates on them!!!! It's hard to know what to do with those cans so I generally put them where they will be used up first.

When we got ack from the Foodbank it was time for a quick lunch.   We like to listen to Classics for Kids while we eat.   Today we learned about Benjamin Britten.   My lad didn't seem to be particularly interested in Britten's music but i thought it a run listen. :)

After Classics for Kids we turned our attention to GPA Learn and Standard Deviants for Science. GPA is a new math program that we are reviewing that my son was quite excited to try out.   So far he likes it, he particularly likes the reward aspect of it. Mom.. Will I get those all the time?   I responded with "I don't know, you know as much as I do at this point.".    :)   He does get frustrated when I don't have all the answers. :)     Standard Deviants is the program we used last year to learn earth sciences. My lad enjoyed it. The nutrition class that he's doing right now he is not as keen on.   It uses a lot of big words that are quite similar so he's having a hard time keeping it all straight.

For his one helpful task of the day, he chose to make my bed (as I neglected to do so this morning). He didn't know what to do with the top sheet so he simply took it off. :)   Made me laugh and he chortled with glee. :)

Since he didn't do his 20 minutes of reading yesterday he needed to do 40 minutes today.      he struggled with what to read and finally said "mom, do you have a minecraft book on the tablet I can read?" This led him to learn how to find the kindle app and to learn how to scroll through the books to find what he wanted.   He was quite pleased with his end selection. WOOT WOOT for free books for the kindle!!!!    :)

So we didn't do all our dailies.... but if we do so on Wednesday we aren't done our schooling until about 4 o'clock and that puts everything way behind. This way the lad is happy as he doesn't need to do his dailies, I'm happy since I can do other stuff and the lad is free to earn additional time for playing Minecraft.   No complaints and a smoother running household. :)

How did your homeschooling go today?