Reunion Cake

Yesterday, we attended a family reunion that brought together my father-in-laws side of the family.  My husband helped coordinate and organize the reunion with the help of lots of family members.
My father-in-law is one of 12 children! There were 3 girls and 9 boys in the family.  Currently, 5 out of the 12 children are still living.  So those that attended were my husband's immediate family, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, third cousins... :) This was the first reunion like this in over 25 years and it was so nice to gather with so many generations under one roof.  Usually we see some of these family members only at sad occasions like funerals so it was a blessing to see everyone during happier times.  There were about 80 family members that gathered.

Each family brought food to share and there were alot of delicious dishes! I brought the homemade white cake with homemade cream cheese icing that I made for my daughter's soccer birthday party and my other daughter's horse cake.  I decorated the top of the cake with the monogram of an "S" which stands for the Smith family.  It was a great time and I hope we can meet with everyone again soon!


Pantry Organization
Since I have been shopping this past week like crazy at Harris Teeter finding all the good deals for Super Double Coupon week, my pantry has looked a bit messy as I fill the shelves with all my good finds:
I had a helper today....


And we got to work today reorganizing the shelves which was quite helpful since I now know what NOT to buy with coupons during the next several weeks. Here's the organized pantry:

"Blog-cation" for Homeschool Planning

This will be my last post until the end of the week sometime since I will be using my "blog-cation", or break from updating my blog posts, to start planning my homeschool lessons for this upcoming school year.  I have ordered most of my books and I have to still go through the 6 boxes of new curriculum that I ordered and then plan out a schedule of how I want to use the resources and when.  So I thought leaving blog land for a bit to concentrate on lesson planning will help me stay better focused on the overwhelming yet exciting task of trying to plan out what will be best for my children. 


I will have the July No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) post up by Friday, July 1st so be on the lookout for the new July NOBH post with new buttons and friends to meet!

Speaking of homeschooling, I encourage you to go over and visit Hip Homeschool Moms today and read a great post by Jenny Butler, a public school teacher, NOT a homeschooler.  She explains why homeschooling is the best for a family that chooses this route.  I thought it was an interesting post coming from a different point of view.  I hope you enjoy reading it, whether you homeschool or not. 



Join the crew at  No Ordinary Blog Hop (NOBH) !

OK so tonight I tackled a project I have been putting off for a loooooong time because of lack of time and motivation...cleaning the inside of my fridge and freezer!  My hubby kept gently reminding me that a clean fridge will do my body some good (and I always kept thinking that he could do his body some good by cleaning it out for me! Hee! Hee! )  But, I finally told myself that one way to motivate myself to start the clean out was to take a before photo of my fridge.  Here it is:




Of course, it's difficult to tell from these photos the transformation, but believe me all the spills, crumbs, and old food is out of the fridge and it looks oh so lovely :)

So are you like me?  Do you put off fridge cleaning or are you a monthly cleaner that gets the job done on a more consistent schedule?

I am blessed to be able to go shopping for food and fill up my clean fridge now!  Happy cleaning!

When my husband and I got married 13 years ago, my mom gave us a wonderful wedding gift that I will treasure always!  She collected favorite recipes from family and friends and bound them all in a recipe book for us.  Here is the cover of our one-of-a-kind recipe book, definitely a labor of love:

I hope you can read the ingredients and instructions from the above photo because I don't want to type it on this post if I don't need to.   If you can't see this clearly,  let me know and I'll type it up for you and email it to you.
Note:  I have cut up already cooked rotisserie chicken that I get at Sam's/Costco and put this in the pot pie to replace the chicken breast.  Sometimes, I  put a pie crust on the bottom of the baking dish, filled the crust with the mixed ingredients and then put another crust on top.  Oh so yummy (and lots of carbs too, which is yummy, but not very healthy!) 

So here is my chicken pot pie when I got it out of the oven:
Enjoy!

 Cupcake #1 (Grade 5)

• Handwriting & Daily Oral Language (D.O.L): Seton's Handwriting 5 for Young Catholics & Daily Grams for Grade 5
• Math: Saxon 6/5
• Spelling: Catholic Heritage Curricula My Catholic Speller, Level E
• Reading: Pathway Readers and workbook for Grade 5 (Living Together)
• Writing Tales, Level 2
• Religion: Faith & Life, "Credo: I Believe" text combined with an online curriculum that goes with the Faith & Life text.  The online curriculum is at My Catholic Faith Delivered.  I also review The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism, No. 1 with my child.
• History (I do this subject with all 3 of my older children together) :  Famous Men of Rome from Memoria Press ( I do Ancient Roman History Monday through Wednesday and then US History, States & Capitals Thursdays and Fridays)
• Science:  Apologia Zoology 2, Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day with Zoology 2 Notebooking Journal (together)
• Latin: Latina Christiana, Book 1 (together)
• Spanish: I have a friend who comes to my home to teach my children Spanish about every other week
• Map Skills:  Maps, Charts, and Graphs, Level E (Seton)
• Piano:  My 3 older children take lessons each week from a friend of mine
• Art: weekly homeschool art classes with an art teacher
• Physical Education:  weekly soccer practice and games with a league

 Cupcake #2 (Grade 3)

•  Handwriting/D.O.L.: Introducing Prints and Handwriting (cursive) Book 1 by Marie Picard and Cursive Writing Skills for Left-Handed Students by Diana Hanbury King/Oral Language for Daily Use by Frank Schaffer Publications, Grade 3
• Math:  Right Start Mathematics, Level C
• Reading:  Little Angel Readers, Level D 
• Shirley English Grammar/Composition, Level 2
• Spelling:  All About Spelling ( My son loves this spelling program!  Since he is still not reading fluently, I thought AAS would be a great program for him since it's very phonics based and hands on as he learns to spell words with magnetic letter tiles vs. just memorizing a weekly list.  We are starting on the most basic level, Level 1, which he is breezing through, but I wanted to lay a good foundation with the program before getting into Level 2).
• Religion:  Faith & Life, "Our Life with Jesus"
• History: with siblings
• Science: with siblings
• Latin: with siblings
• Spanish: with siblings
• Map Skills: Maps, Charts, and Graphs, Level C (Seton)
• Piano: weekly lessons
• Art: weekly classes
  
• Physical Education:  weekly soccer practice and games in a league

Cupcake #3 (Grade 1) 

• Handwriting/D.O.L:  Catholic Heritage Handwriting Series, Level 1: Moving Onward/Oral Language for Daily Use by Frank Schaffer Publications, Grade1
• Reading/Writing/Spelling:  Sing, Spell, Read, & Write
• Math:  worksheets from a Grade 1 Math resource book and Math U See, Alpha level
• Religion:  Faith & Life. "Our Heavenly Father" with workbook
• History: with siblings
  
• Science: with siblings
  
• Latin: with siblings
• Spanish: with siblings
• Map Skills:   Maps, Charts, and Graphs, Level A (Seton)
• Piano:  weekly lessons
• Art: weekly classes
  
• Physical Education:  weekly soccer practice and games in a league

Cupcake #4 (almost 3 years old)

• Math:  counting how many times she makes it to the potty with no accidents (she's doing great potty training which she initiated one day recently by changing from her diaper to panties (she has to keep up with her older siblings, you know)
• Social Studies:  learning how to be social one on one with a sibling while mom works with her other siblings
• History/Science/Latin:  learning how to take good naps in the afternoon so Mommy can finish up with school time in these subject areas with her 3 older siblings.
• Signing Times:  She LOVES these sign language videos and my whole family does too!  Post coming soon on how we saw the creator of Signing Times in concert recently!  Awesome!
• Piano: learning how to have clean hands when approaching piano and to not bang on the keys while her siblings are practicing
• Art: draws on everything, including paper :)
• Physical Education:  she runs away from Mommy and Daddy and into our arms for hugs and kisses

Many of our curriculum books can be found under the links that I have on the left sidebar titled "Homeschool Resources We Use".   If you homeschool, what curriculum do you love to use with your children? If you have a post up about your curriculum choices for this 2010-2011 school year, put the link in my comments section. I'm always interested in what works/does not work for others when it comes to curriculum choices!

So we started our homeschool year at Sacred Heart Academy this past Monday on Aug. 16th.

Even though I have been homeschooling since 2005, I ALWAYS feel anxious, overwhelmed, and wonder how in the world am I going to fill my children's hearts, minds, and souls with more of Christ's love and book knowledge AND keep up with housework AND keep my sanity through it all???????????  For me, every time I begin another homeschool year it's like it's my first year.
 But why is that?  I think it's because each year our family dynamics have changed as our kids grow older, there is new curriculum to get used to, a new routine, new challenges with discipline to overcome, and new triumphs to embrace.

To be honest with you, by the end of last year, I was in tears ALOT along with my children and I didn't know if I could do this homeschool stuff anymore :(  It's times like these when I start to think that no other homeschool mom is feeling as frustrated and down in the dumps as I am.  I was wondering what I was doing "wrong" because our homeschool days were not peaceful like all those "other" homeschools I visit through blogs.

Something had to change and I realized that one thing that needed to change (besides me having a more consistent prayer time) was more organization and clearer expectations for my children.
So last year, a local friend first introduced me to Sue Partrick's Workbox System which is a way to break up your child's work assignments by placing one lesson/assignment/activity into separate boxes.  Usually these boxes are plastic Sterilite shoe boxes or crates, but most homeschoolers find any type of container that works best for them.  The child works through the boxes throughout the day and when they are through with all their work in each container then the child has a feeling of accomplishment after completing all their work in an organized and systematic way.

So I have used ideas from Sue Patrick's book and have visited many blogs to create a system that is working for us so far ( it worked for Week #1 at least).  I call it the Workbaskets + Workboxes = Works for 4 (children) organization system.  Here are some pictures and explanations:

I already had 4 cloth baskets that I have used for several years, but they were always in a disorganized mess with my children's books thrown in there and papers flying everywhere.  So my husband built this white shelf to hold the workbaskets with 3 cubbies underneath.  Each child gets their own workbasket, but the green basket on the far right is where I store all the teacher manuals that I use for each of my children's subjects.  Having my teaching manuals all in one place makes it easy for me to pull out the next book I need to teach from.   My 2 year does not have her own workbasket yet.



Here is a close up of Cupcake #1's workbasket. Her name is typed out on bright pink paper (Cupcake #2 is blue paper and Cupcake #3 is purple paper) and slipped into the front pocket of the workbasket. (refer to first photo). I printed out all her subjects in the same pink color. I then used clear packaging tape to tape each subject to a piece of Elmer's sturdy white foam board that I bought from Wal-Mart, but any craft supply store should have foam boards.  Behind each board is where I store their books for each subject.  Then on brown wood paneling I have numbers taped to each wood piece.  The numbers correspond to the workboxes that are in the form of a 10 drawer rolling cart that I bought on Amazon. Right now the price of the cart is $31.13, but I paid $53.00 for mine when I purchased it in the summer!  Here is the rolling cart I use for my workboxes:
There are many blogs and Yahoo groups that have number templates already prepared to label workboxes, but the numbers I use came from a bulletin board set that I bought at the Dollar Tree Store a few years back.  I just cut up the numbers, laminated them, and taped them to each drawer.  Cupcake 1 has drawers #1-3, Cupcake 2 has drawers #4-6, Cupcake 3 has drawers #7-9, and our two year old has drawer #10 .

So when each child sees their box # on their assignment sheets they go to the corresponding drawer and pull out the activity.  As my children complete their book lessons and their workboxes, they just put their textbooks behind each foam board divider, turn the foam board / numbered brown boards over to show that they have completed that assignment.  When all the boards are flipped they know they are done with their schoolwork for that day.  Then in the evening I flip the boards over to the subject/numbered sides and refill their workboxes in the rolling cart.

Here is a picture from Cupcake #1 and Cupcake #2 workbaskets of some of the boards flipped (subjects/numbered workboxes completed) and boards still showing subjects/numbers (subjects/numbered workboxes that still need to be completed.)



I must say our first week of school was actually peaceful for the most part and my children enjoyed working through their Workbaskets + Workboxes = work for 4 (children) organization system.  Of course, this is only the first week of school so the "newness" may wear off, but I'm hoping that this organization system and setting clear expectations for my children will = (equal) a much more enjoyable homeschool year compared to the one we had at the end of last year.

In a near future post, I will talk about what type of activities I put in each of the numbered workbox drawers so this will have to be continued so check back here soon!  Like I said, this is only our first week with this organization system, but I'm hoping in another month or so I can give a positive update and tell you that it's still working.  Only time will tell...

Well, I'm getting my homeschool room in order to get ready for our first day on Monday, Aug. 16!  I am still working on organizing and planning (2 things that never end as a homeschool mom).

Earlier in the summer I organized my file cabinet that I picked up at the goodwill store for $6.99.  It's a little beat up, but my children decorated the blah tan cabinet with lots of colorful stickers!  I was an elementary ed teacher for a short time BK (Before Kids) and my mother-in-law taught 1st grade for 30 years so I have accumulated resources that I hope to use more often this year with my new organization system.  Lots of the resources came in the form of worksheets that I organized in file folders.

In the top drawer I am keeping all file folders that have Math and Reading/Writing resources.  The middle drawer has Science folders, and the bottom drawer has folders filled with Activities by Month and Miscellaneous.  I used to organize the file folders in ABC order, but it was difficult to find things so I decided to organize the drawers by topic.  I typed out each topic on the computer, glued them to bright paper and laminated them.  I then taped them to a big flower shaped magnet to put on the outside of each drawer.  Here are a few pictures:


Tomorrow I should be done with my Workbaskets + Workboxes = Works for 4 (children) organization system that I have been working on and I hope to post pictures of how I plan to organize my day and curriculum.  So check back to see my ideas!  I know it will be a work in progress and I will have to make adjustments, but this will be a start for our school year.

I just found out tonight that I am the winner of the new APOLOGIA Anatomy science kit!  To enter the contest I had to become a Facebook fan of Creation Sensation Apologia Science Kits and leave a comment on why I would like to win the kit in the Discussion part of their Facebook page.   WOW, am I excited!  Thank you Creation Sensation for this awesome kit to use in my Sacred Heart Academy Homeschool!
I used APOLOGIA Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day text last year with my cupcakes and we did a full year of lapbooks designed by Knowledge Box Central with this text.

See photos below of sections of our completed lapbooks for Zoology 1:
 
APOLOGIA science is a great science curriculum with lots of wonderful information in each text!  Our cupcakes really enjoyed learning all about bats, birds, birds, beetles, butterflies, ants, dinosaurs, and so much more with Zoology 1!  We are looking forward to diving into the Exploring Creation APOLOGIA Anatomy text, especially with our new kit to go along with our studies!


So my (Organization) System Saturday tip is to check out Creation Sensation APOLOGIA science kits Facebook fan page and join in on a discussion as there are more giveaways and chances to win other awesome products in August!

I picked up this great book shelf at a yard sale awhile ago and as soon as I saw it I snatched it up knowing that it was going to be a useful bookcase whether I homeschooled my cupcakes or not!  This was one of those finds where I was happily surprised to find such a treasure only because I was not specifically looking for it.  But, have you ever tried to find something specific in stores or yard sales and could never find exactly what you were looking for?  So aggravating and so my story!
Anyway, one way I use this book case is to store "Books We Made" on the top shelf.  These are lapbooks, journals, stories, etc. that my cupcakes have made in the past and they enjoy pulling them out to look at them again and again.
Then on the bottom 2 shelves I have reserved for library books and my cupcakes know to always (when they remember) store their library books on these rows to make sure we do not lose any.  I wrote the "Library Books" and  "due on" phrases before I laminated the orange sign. (in the market for a laminator?  Be sure to click here to see the great laminator I use at a really great price and a $20 rebate until 7/31/10)  After lamination, I write with a wet-erase/Vis-a-Vis pen  the date the books will be due.  That way we will know when our books' due date is coming up so I can be sure to renew them or turn them in on time.  I do have an account set up at my local library that sends me an email reminder the day before the books are due, but sometimes that does not give me enough time to plan a trip to the library.  With this system I have set up I can always see when the due date is approaching and plan accordingly.  When we get a new stack of books, I can wipe off the old due date and write in the new date.  So far this has helped me not pay overdue library fines so my money can go toward buying more homeschool books/curriculum/resources!  Do you have a system in your home to make sure library books don't sneak under couches, chairs, beds, rugs, or get tucked away in a bookshelf never to be found again?  If so, leave a comment.  I would love to hear your tip!

I have been busy these last several weeks reorganizing our classroom to prepare for our upcoming homeschool year. It's quite a task and sometimes overwhelming for me to decide what I will keep and what I can get rid of as far as academic resources go. We are recycling tons of old papers, magazines, and used workbooks and this morning I had a yard sale to get rid of some things. I sold some educational material, but mostly I had baby girl clothes for sale that my youngest cupcake has grown out of. It was a hot day, but I am happy to say that I got rid of ALL my baby clothes and shoes thanks to a sweet young mother who came to the sale. She has relatives and friends who live in Mexico and she teared up when she was telling me that there is so much poverty in Mexico so she has decided to collect children's clothing and she is personally delivering the collection to those families who need so much. She drove away with 3 garbage bags of clothes as I told her to take all that was left to help with her ministry to help those in need. Win-win situation for everyone! Besides decluttering, I am also reorganizing our classroom and I'm always looking for ways to store math manipulatives better. I love collecting empty containers and storing them until I find the right "stuff" to fill them. Since my youngest cupcake was a baby, I have held on to those cute Gerber plastic baby food containers thinking they are just too durable to throw away. They remind me of "mini" Rubbermaid/Sterilite boxes like those used in Sue Patrick's Workbox System and since baby food can be expensive, I was determined to find another use for the boxes besides filling up the trash can with them. So I have decided to store all my real coins in the boxes to make them easy to get to when we do money lessons in our homeschool day. I have several paper punch out coins from my days of teaching elementary school so I taped the "head" of each paper coin on top of the lid and the "tail" side on the front for the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. From the pictures below you can see that I have also reused the plastic seasoning containers to store all the paper punch out coins. I used to store them in ziplock bags, but packing and unpacking ziplock bags does not make for quick cleanup or easy storage sometimes in my house and everything ended up on the floor. Cleaning up coins after an activity is easy now and makes for a great sorting lesson when my cupcakes place each type of coin in the right place. So are there other "Gerber geeks" out there who like and reuse these baby food containers in some way to store things? If so, I would love to hear what you put in them!

Our Helping Hands I typed out each kitchen chore and pasted them on yellow envelopes that I made into pockets. The chores that I have on the labels are:

• Set Table-Cups
• Set Table-Silverware/Napkins
• Set Table-Dishes
• Dishwasher Duty (this child takes out the clean silverware and cups from the dishwasher and when they are done they put their hand in the back of the envelope so the next child's name is showing)
• Clean Kitchen Table
• Vacuum Kitchen (we have hardwood floors)
• Clean Small Table (besides our family kitchen table we also have a child-sized wooden picnic table in the kitchen)

So each week one of my 3 cupcakes is assigned to a couple of these duties for a full week then we switch the hands by placing the hand in front of each envelope to the back to show the next child's name. (except the dishwasher duty assignment is rotated as often as I run the dishwasher which is alot during the week). I used die-cut handprints that I got from a local teacher supply store and wrote each cupcake's name on the hands as you can see from the photos. This has been a great way to keep track of who is in charge of what chore in our kitchen. Sometimes little hands (ie: cupcake #4) decides to take the helping hands out of their envelopes, however, and my older cupcakes start arguing trying to remember who had what chore. But, for the most part this system is working for us for now. I hope to find/create other effective organization systems that work for our family for other areas in our life. So stay tuned as I hope to keep you posted! Please share your ideas on some ways you stay organized by posting a comment! I love to meet others and learn from them! Thanks!