December 1st is here which means Jesus' birthday will be here soon and it means another new month for No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH), the blog hop that I co-host with 7 other bloggers.  Click HERE to link up and our monthly theme is "How do you share your gifts with others?"  If you have a post on the monthly theme link it up under the "Monthly Theme" button on the right sidebar at NOBH.

We countdown to Christmas Day in our house with these special Advent calendars:
This is a magnetic calendar with 24 doors.  Each door has a magnet in it to add to the nativity scene with Day 24 holding the Baby Jesus.  My cupcake #1 is placing the first piece which is a yellow star over the stable.  This was given to one of my children several years ago by one of their Godparents.  They love peeking into each door to find the next piece each day!

I received this cloth Advent calendar from my parents when I was pregnant with Cupcake #1, so we have been using it for the past 11 years!  The first piece, the moon, is velcroed into place.  This calendar will also make a Nativity scene, filled with angels, animals, wisemen, and the Holy Family.

Melissa at The Joys of Home Educating also posted today about her Advent Calendars.  You can read her post HERE.  My children would love the LEGO Star Wars one she has...maybe one day we'll be able to add that one to our collection too! :) 

How does your family countdown to Christmas?

May you have a blessed 24 days anticipating the celebration of Jesus' birth!

 

We've begun our Astronomy lessons using the Apologia text and Notebooking Journal and last week we made the planets out of balloons and hung them from our ceiling.  This suggested activity was done after we read the first chapter in the book.  I think my children had more fun blowing up the balloons and releasing them to watch them fly all over the room during the lesson, however!   But, we now know the relative size of each planet compared to other planets and the order of the planets from the sun.

Here are the balloon planets lined up in order from the sun.The sun is the big white balloon in the left corner then there is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.  We will read in Lesson 12 about the controversy over whether or not Pluto is really a planet.  

My children labeled each planet and this is the "sun" though it's hard to read the word because of the glare.  We read today that 1 million earths would fit inside the sun.  I knew the sun was big, but I had no idea that it was that big!  And did you know that Earth is 92,935,700 miles away from the sun?  Another fact that we learned today was that the sun is usually about 10,000 degrees on the outside and millions of degrees on the inside!  My kids and I found this information fascinating!  It is fun learning all these interesting facts with my children during our homeschool days!

Some of the balloon planets look deflated and very small, but it was very difficult to blow up a balloon and make it 1 inch around like the planet Mercury!  But, at least we have a visual reminder of the relative size of each planet compared to the others. My children and I are gaining a deeper appreciation for just how perfect God made the solar system.  It is truly amazing how the universe was made and we look forward to learning more about our Creator and his wonders as we continue our Astronomy lessons! 
Hallelujah!

So I usually shop at Harris Teeter each week because they double coupons everyday up to 99 cents, but sometimes I catch news through Delly's Deals blog and Delly's Deals Facebook page about other area grocery stores that have good sales and if I have coupons for the products that's even better :)

So this week I went to Lowes Foods where all the  items in the photo were on sale, I had coupons for all of them, and the coupons doubled because Lowes Foods also doubles coupons each day.

As pictured I bought: 1 Planters Peanut Butter, 2 KC Masterpiece BBQ Sauce, 2 Heinz Ketchup, and 1 jar of Smuckers Grape Jelly.

Can you guess how much I spent on all these items???????????????????????????????????????

Would you believe I paid (drumroll please)............ a whopping $1.77 !  Yep, that's one dollar and 77 cents!  I saved $13.68 and spent $1.77!  I was very excited!  And I wonder why I'm addicted to this coupon stuff ??? :)  Thanks Delly for the tip to check out other grocery store sales!


 A new month means a new opportunity to link up your posts to No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) that I co-host with 6 other bloggers.  Please join us as NOBH remembers that tragic and life-changing day 10 years ago on September 11, 2001.  For more information and to link up click one of the buttons below.

Below is a list of all that I hope to accomplish this 2011-2012 homeschool year with my 4 Cupcakes! I have included links in each subject area in case anyone is interested in finding out more about each resource.  Just click on the text link to get further information.  For a peek at our homeschool classroom you can visit this post HERE from last year as my classroom setting will be the same for this year.

If you would like to see what other Catholic Homeschoolers are teaching this year you can go  HERE at  Catholic Mothers Online to see other link ups!

I have alot of material to cover, but I hope to enjoy the adventure with the following curriculum:

Family Morning Devotion:  I call this time "Couch Catechism" because the children and I plan to start each day around 8:30 AM (that's my start time goal anyway) on our family room couch to say prayer intentions, say the Morning Offering Prayer, read a devotion from Jesus Calling while my children look up the scripture to go with each devotion (thanks Melissa for my Jesus Calling book win last year, we are enjoying this book!), read the saint for each day from Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Vol. I and Vol. II, read a Friendly Defenders Catholic Card, and read a little out of Child's Bible History.


Curriculum for Cupcake #1, 6th grade daughter

Handwriting: finish Handwriting 5 for Young Catholics

Daily Oral Language/Grammar:  Language of God, Level E


Religion: My Catholic Faith Delivered (Following Christ, Grade 6, Online Course) , The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism, No. 2 and HERE is a review of the Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechisms from Cathy Duffy Reviews

Math: Teaching Textbooks 6

Spelling:  My Catholic Speller, Level F

Reading: Literature Guides from Memoria Press, Grade 6, (Anne of Green Gables, Treasure Island, The Bronze Bow, The Hobbit)

Writing:  WriteShop I

History:  Tuesday and Thursday with siblings, Ancient Greece with Famous Men of Greece and The Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Greece as my spine and supplementing with several books, including D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and Evan-Moor History Pockets, Ancient Greece

Science:  Apologia Astronomy with siblings. I bought the science kit from Creation Sensation where all the materials for each of the science experiments in Apologia Astronomy are boxed up and mailed to your door.  I also purchased an Astronomy Notebooking Journal for my children to use and fill out.

Latin:  Latina Christina I with siblings.

Spanish: will be taught by a friend of mine who is fluent in Spanish

Map Skills: Maps, Charts, Graphs, Level F 


Art:  Each Friday afternoon with siblings.  I hope to continue with the Mark Kistler online art classes that my children enjoy alot and then every other Friday do the Meet the Masters art program that is also online.

Typing:  Typing Instructor for Kids

PE:  recreation soccer in the Fall and Spring

Music:  weekly piano lessons with a friend of ours who teaches piano

Curriculum for Cupcake #2, 4th grade son

Handwriting: Cursive Writing Skills for Left-Handed Students

Daily Oral Language/Grammar:  Language of God, Level C 

Religion:  Faith and Life (Jesus Our Guide), The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism, No.1,  work on earning the Religious Emblem for Boy Scouts

Math: continue with Right Start Math, Level C

Spelling:  continue with All About Spelling, Level 3/ My Catholic Speller, Level C

Reading: continue with Pathway Readers

Writing: Writing Tales Level One

History: see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Science: see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Latin:  see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Spanish: see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Map Skills: Maps, Charts, Graphs, Level D

Art:  see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

PE:  recreation soccer team in the Fall and Spring

Music:  weekly piano lessons with a friend of ours who teaches piano

Our son will continue to be involved in his local Boy Scout Pack.

Curriculum for Cupcake #3, 2nd grade daughter


Handwriting: Catholic Heritage Handwriting Series, Level 2: Finding the Way

Daily Oral Language/Grammar:  Rod and Staff, Preparing to Build, English 2


Religion:  Faith and Life (Jesus Our Life),  First Communion Catechism, other First Reconciliation and First Communion lessons and resources to prepare for these sacraments in the Spring.  I plan to do a First Communion scrapbook with my daughter like I did with my older 2 children before they received First Communion.

Math: continue with Math U See, Alpha and then Beta

Spelling:  My Catholic Speller, Level A

Reading:  Pathway Readers

Writing:  WriteShop Primary

History: see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Science: see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Latin:  see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Spanish: see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

Map Skills:  Maps, Charts, Graphs, Level B

Art:  see Cupcake #1 Curriculum

PE:  recreation soccer team in the Fall and Spring

Music:  weekly piano lessons with a friend of ours who teaches piano

For Cupcake #4, Pre-K, age 3 1/2 daughter

In my "spare" time, (Ha!Ha!), I might get around to teaching my 3 year old a free program I found on the computer called Brightly Beaming Steps to Reading Program, Preparatory Curriculum

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So do you ever have a pot that looks like this at the bottom where the food sticks to it and a soapy sponge or rag just want clean it well enough and you find you have to dig your nails into the rag to try to scrap it clean?

Have you ever used a dryer sheet (any brand will do) to clean dirty pots?  Yep, a dryer sheet!  I don't know where or when I picked up this tip, but it works.  Now I know dryer sheets can be expensive and I don't use one each time I clean dishes, but since I get my dyer sheets on sale and with coupons, I will pull one out to clean a dirty pot that just won't get clean with a rag or sponge.


So I just put warm water in the pot and scrub the bottom with the dryer sheet and it's amazing how quickly the food comes off the bottom!


Here is the pot nice and clean with little effort from me since the dryer sheet seems to easily lift off any stubborn food left at the bottom.  Note: I did rinse the pot with dish detergent and water after using the dryer sheet.  :)

So have you heard of this cleaning tip before?  If not, give it a try and see what happens and let me know if it worked for you.  Happy Cleaning!

Do you know a special little girl who loves dolls, especially American Girl dolls?  If so, I wanted to give a shout out for a friend of mine who makes beautiful clothes for these dolls.  The designer, Jane Fulton, has a beautiful collection to dress any American Girl doll, 18 inch doll, and even Bitty Baby dolls no matter the season or occasion!

Since my hubby and I met on the beach we had a beach themed wedding cake complete with realistic-looking and delicious candy seashells cascading down the cake. Nancy Hearn made the cake so beautiful! She also made the shells so realistic that some of our wedding guests would not bite into them because they thought they were real seashells!

One tradition that we have done each year on our anniversary since our first anniversary is watch our video from our wedding. Now we did get married before the digital age so the color quality is...90ish, but the memories of our day continue to be with us each time we play our video. We did copy it onto a DVD to help make it last longer. It is a joy to now watch the video with our cupcakes as they ask why they weren't there to celebrate with us ;-) Each year we are not only reminded of our holy vows we took in front of our Lord, family, and friends, but we also get to see friends and loved ones that are no longer with us here on earth. You know I still get "butterflies" and filled with excitement just before I watch the part of the video where I'm about to meet my true love at the altar and begin our lives as husband and wife!

 

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