Yummy Spiced Apples

Yummy Spiced Apples based on the recipe from Ransom Cakes.

We canned these last year and wanted to do them again this year with our free apples. Last year we used Gala apples because we had purchased a box and no one wanted to eat them.

This year we were blessed with some free apples. I won't be as stingy with the apples this winter as I was last winter. The entire family helped getting the apples ready and I really appreciate that.

Today's canning totals are: 9 quarts applesauce, 2 pints applesauce, 10 quarts spiced apples and 1 pint spiced apples.

Looking forward to making some quick yummy apple crisp when the fresh fruit isn't quite as fresh (and cheap).

Driscoll's Advisory Panel - worth the effort!

I've seen info about the Driscoll's Advisory Panel before, but this summer I got serious about it. I knew that I received a coupon with each survey, but hadn't paid too close of attention. The .50 coupon wasn't as enticing when my store didn't double coupons any more.

My local Kroger had raspberries on sale this summer...we love raspberries and haven't been successful in growing any. At .50 a package (after the coupon), I was excited for the treat. I've noticed this a couple of times this year at a dollar or $1.25 per package.

So I started completing the surveys with the product code on the back of the package. I advanced from .50 coupons to .75 coupons.

With enough surveys I am now a "Gold" member and for every survey I get a $1 off coupon. You can print each coupon twice.

This week at Kroger raspberries are on sale for $.99!

We will be Krogering for sure this week :) The berries freeze well. I won't say that we will enjoy them all winter because they just won't keep that long!

(My Kroger's coupon policy is to only use 5 of the same coupon per day. So we will have to make multiple trips this week.)

End of a good back to school day!

The annual CHESS back to school picnic finished off our evening! It was a fun back to school kind of day.

This morning I decided not to run which I typically do on Thursday, but I ran Tuesday's run on Wednesday and I have a few aches and pains.

Drove over to my friend's house to find her electric kettle for hot water for science experiments...forgot to go pick up drinks for lunch while I was out.

Around 9 the three year old and 7 month old arrived so mom could do something important. I didn't have my stuffed peppers dish made yet though it was in process at this point.

We attempt to get my food made while two little ones are around and get some schooling done. I don't know how those with small children do it!

11am the little kids are picked up. I print off some of the last things needed for co-op. Pick up friends and get the kids to Student Council meeting at co-op. Run some errands to get for co-op....(Two grocery stores did not have a non-carbonated option in 2 liter!)

12:45 Co-op begins! So fun to see all of the kids and families :)

Felt great to sit down for a few minutes between classes with some other moms.

Science Experiments went well :) Grapes float on top of corn syrup!

Kids to MEGSSS...actually talk with my husband face to face before he substitute teaches for MEGSSS.

Come home and finish my dish for the night. (Postpunkballads is my favorite station on Pandora!) Load up tables and water cooler.

Arrive at CHESS Picnic and visit. Go pick up my boys...husband off to volleyball. Back to picnic. Enjoy hanging out with different people. We help clean up and bring home a worn out bunch!

A good day indeed. I feel like school has really started now!

School is starting once again!

No school today! My little guy turns 11 today and his request was to NOT do school on his birthday...the good mom that I am has mostly agreed.

My older guy is being challenged to set up a blog this year as part of his school so we are working on that right now next to each other.

But our school year has officially begun! Sonlight Core W is the base curriculum that we are using. For math, both boys are enrolled in the new MEGSSS program being offered locally for the first time. They both have some goals in Khan Academy as well. They both chose to learn German this year through Duolingo. We have some other assorted subjects as well, but today is a play day :)

Used Book and Curriculum Fair

I helped host the local homeschool used book and curriculum fair earlier this month. I wanted to post a photo of what it looked like.

It was a fun day. I got rid of quite a bit of stuff, and found a book that I wanted for next year!

As an organizer I ended up with four boxes off of the "free" table that I sorted through - recycle, trash, donate.

Summer Reading List

We are working really really hard at finishing up our school year's worth of work this week. I did decide to assign some books for the summer and not just all be free reading.
 
1. Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
2. Cricket in Times Square by George Selden (We are doing a book study on this book.)
3. Rascal by Sterling North
4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
5. A book by Gary Paulsen. We have many in our house and the library has some too.


Mom's reading list is:
1. Cricket in Times Square since I'm leading the book study.
2. Exodus by Leon Uris
3. Mary Slessor of Calabar by W.P. Livingstone. We read a biography about her for school this year and I wanted to read some more about her.
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
5. The Scarlet Thread by Francine Rivers

If I make it through all of those, I want to read a book on the Monument's Men.

It's Spring!

Spring is making me so happy! We planted a lot of garden today. Yesterday we ate outside on the porch. Why don't we do that more often?

Tonight my boys sang at a choir concert. It was lovely to walk out of the concert to fresh breezy warm air!

I am enjoying the rebirth of everything and thankful that I will have a new life with Jesus that will be even more perfect than today was!

T-shirt yarn baskets

After the afghan, I had some t-shirt yarn left and I wasn't sure what to do. I found some patterns for crocheting baskets. They are pretty fast to do. I'm not an expert at crochet, but have had some fun with it and learning more about stiches. In the mean time, I've acquired a ton more t-shirts so I can do a bigger project maybe!

I made this oval basket for my mother-in-law for her birthday!

It was big enough to hold a Wii and accessories and a book! I think it was 6 xl t-shirt's worth of yarn (though the yellow may not have been xl shirts).

Now I'm brainstorming what to do with all of the tops from the shirts. Any ideas?

Quirkle

Over the holiday season, Quirkle by MindWare was added to our game collection.

As a family we are enjoying playing together! I feel it's like it's Scrabble meets Set.

You can find the details here.

What I like about it:

• thinking is required, but not too much
• there is some luck involved, but how you play is important
• the rules are not too complicated that you can't teach someone easily
• you can walk away from the game and come back without too much trouble
• games don't take that long to play
• big pieces that are easy to find

Cons:

• for new players it's not easy to win (at least in our family)
• you can "block" other people's play. Depending on who is playing, he/she could make it "not fun" - I'm not going to win anyway so I may as well ruin it for everyone else kind of attitude.
• there are a few "wholes" in the rules that we have had to decide on for ourselves. Our house rule is that all of your tiles that you play in a turn have to be touching each other.

The game box says ages six and up, but it's definitely fun for children and adults older than that. I was introduced to it by adults who were very much liking it! I've only ever played with 3 or 4 players so I don't know how good it is for two. If you are looking for a new game for young and old to enjoy, I recommend Quirkle!

T-shirt Yarn Blanket

I won't bore you with the how I got to the point of having a stack of t-shirts and looking for the right craft project, but that's where if found myself. I had in mind a casual afghan that held some memories.

The final snuggly project on top of a very cute boy!

First I made t-shirt yarn! After the first new t-shirts, a friend gave me a rotary cutter kit which made the project go faster. (There is an example of the how to - http://www.graciousrain.com/2010/09/28/t-shirt-yarn-tutorial/. There are lots of people who have posted about it, this is the basic process I followed.) I honestly liked strips that were .75 wide, but the rotary cutter mat I was graciously given didn't have that size marked out easily so I just went with 1 inch wide once I had the cutter.

I knitted in strips. Why strips? Because I didn't have circular needles that were big enough and I wanted bigger blocks of color. I also wanted it to be pretty portable.

Using size 18 needles, I cast on 23 stitches. (This made a strip about a foot wide.)
Row 1 - slide one stitch as to knit, knit two together, yarn over, knit two together, yarn over and continue until there are two stitches left. Yarn over, knit one, knit one.
Row 2 - same as row 1.
Continue until your strip is as long as you would like it.

When I ran out of one color, I used a square knot to tie the two ends together with about 1 inch ends. I left those hanging out randomly because I liked the whimsical look at it gave.

I kept going on a strip until it was from the floor to my chin - I'm about 5.5 feet tall. Then I cast off.

The size of the blocks vary based on the size of the t-shirts. A child medium is the smallest that I would be willing to cut up in the future. Even with a medium, you only get 4 or 5 rows.

I didn't count the number of rows that I made. When I was close with the second one, I just started sewing them together to figure out how many more rows that I needed. The yarn is stretchy and the size of the rows can vary based on how wide you cut your strips. This method worked best for me.

To put the rows together, I used t-shirt yarn and weaved a strand between the two strips using a crochet hook - really simple. (Maybe when I do another one I'll post pictures about that.) I started with the tail from one of the strips to start sewing the strips together and then tied on additional yarn in a square knot and kept going.

In all my blanket has 5 strips and 47 t-shirts in it! I will tell you that it is not a light blanket! Our personal stash made two rows and friends donated to finish... with enough to almost make another one too.

I'm happy to know that the t-shirt from 1991 that I couldn't bear to get rid of still has a place in my home, but not in my drawer.  Here are the first two strips.

The humble beginnings...