Our Green Acres

Hanukkah Activities for Kids

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

School Days!

Hanukkah Focused School Days

With so many Christian homeschoolers looking to bring Christ to the coal point of school during the Christmas season, we often forget are Jewish homeschool friends who also celebrate an amazing and inspirational holiday at this time of year, Hanukkah! You may know that I was raised Christian, meaning we went to church and celebrated the big Christian holidays. However you probably don’t know that my mother was raised in a Jewish family. This meant that half of our extended family celebrated Jewish holidays. My mother was raised celebrating both Hanukkah AND Christmas, although they were not Christians. Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights. It is has a historical basis that lends itself to great homeschooling lessons for everyone! Not only is this a wonderful subject to study for a FUN focus that allows students more relaxed activities, but it isn’t just for our Jewish friends to celebrate. As Christians it is integral that we study our Jewish heritage.

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Simple and Frugal Meals

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Simply Frugal

Keep Meals Simple & Frugal

Starting in mid-November, life can begin to spin out of control. Even when you are keeping things simple, right? Sure! Instead of a quiet evening at home, you may fill your evenings with simple and frugal activities that you don’t have available at other times of the year such as snowman building, light display sightseeing, local Christmas parades, etc. Wouldn’t ya know that these simple and wonderful activities always fall time wise in the dinner hour? We love doing the activities, but it can be difficult to make meals at home that are ready at a heartbeat, whether you eat before or after the activity. My favorite way to combat these odd timed seasonal activities is to make soups and stews. The fact is that these meals are so simple and frugal that they can be eaten at a variety of times and leftovers are so easily used for lunch the next day; offering yet one more simple & frugal meal! But how can we get away from they typical chicken noodle or cream style soup & stew? It does get boring, huh? Try something different!

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A Simple Gift

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

I Can’t Live Simply Until…

Give the Gift of Simplicity

It doesn’t take long and you don’t need to incorporate many of the ideas I set forth here each week to learn that simple living is within the reach of everyone; no matter where they are in life right now. You know from using these techniques how much impact they can have, even though they are tiny steps. Have a person on your gift list that is hard to buy for? How about those people on your list who seem to have everything? Do you have a friend who is often frazzled? Give a gift this year that will bring meaning to their life.

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Organize Your Gift Giving

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Keep It Together Girl!

Organize Your Shopping for Giving

Every year millions of people donate food items of all types to food banks to help supply delicious and abundant boxes of food for the holidays for those in need. This is a crucial and wonderful charity. We have done it ourselves. We have even organized our teen group to work at a food bank to help prepare the boxes and distribute food. This time of year things are extra chaotic for food banks. It is easy for even those on the tightest of budgets to help others in need by shopping wisely by using savvy shopping methods, tracking sales, and using a price book. All you need to do is purchase one or two extra of those non-perishable items that you find at rock bottom prices. This is the one time of year that I actually splurge and pick up some convenient non-perishable items such as biscuit mix, cake & brownie mixes, stuffing, potatoes, & other yummy items that I would not normally purchase for my family. I keep these stored in a box designated for donations. This is also a great way to help your kids organize their charitable giving. Even a small child can afford to purchase canned and convenience products when they are only 25-50 cents per can! But there is something even more important you should know about organizing your charitable food donations.

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Delicious Christmas Ham Recipe

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Can I Have Some More, Please?

Christmas Ham with Pizazz

Ham is served as the main course meat for many a Christmas dinner. If your family enjoys ham for Christmas dinner or you simply enjoy ham during the cold months when the price is very low. It is a good time of the year to stock up on meat to begin with; turkey and ham are cheaper than almost any other time of the year. Not only that, but both of these meats are an excellent choice when prices are rock bottom because of the ability for them to be stretched. Ham can often be stretched even further than turkey due to its strong flavor. Here is my one of my favorite recipes for ham and it is sure to add pizzaz to your meal!

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Maybe He knows what He's talking about

13 Days till Christmas!!

Whew! Less than two weeks till the big day!

I did some online shopping last night. Was so pleased to find some gifts at very good prices!! I need to get some gifts in the mail...SOON!!!

Honey brought home a new jacket and a Christmas ham with him last night. They were gifts from Home Depot. How cool is that?! This Sunday is his work Christmas dinner. Should be a fun evening!

The rain has finally stopped here. Folks just north of us got snow yesterday...and up to 3 inches of the beautiful white stuff. Us? Nope..just rain. We did wake to a light dusting of white...but not enough to do anything with..bummer! I'd LOVE a white Christmas again!!!!

Today is another craft day for us. We're making our annual gingerbread houses...except they'll be made out of graham crackers. One year, Rebecca and I would like to do a true, fancy gingerbread house. But, for now, these are fun! Rebecca made gingerbread cookies yesterday. That girl can bake!! We share a love of kitchen stuff....just as I share with my Mom. It's a wonderful tradition.

Mary joined us this morning. I love that we still have a babe who wants to snuggle with us!! I relish it cause I know the time is far too fleeting and it will end soon enough. My baby is going to be 6 next month. SIX?!

The cows were out this morning. When I woke Thomas, I looked out of his end window (the window that Daddy had said would be good for Thomas to have to be able to see the cows...smart Daddy!!!), I saw cows...not where they were supposed to be. Rebecca and Thomas got up and we went out to find them in the pole barn munching away on hay. Toby knew they needed hay last night, but it was raining..and had been for two days. It was a sloppy mess. With the rain and the cold, we thought it best not to go out in it. No biggie this morning, Thomas the wonder boy started the tractor and took them a roll of hay. Rebecca and I cleaned up their mess and moved some hay to them out of the pole barn. Once Thomas had the hay out, we moved them into the field with it. We shut the gate so Toby and Thomas can take a roll up top tonight when he gets home.

The shorter nights make it tough to get alot done after work. But, thankfully, Toby gets off at 2 and is home by 2:45 or so. We put off supper till he's done what needs doing and eat a bit later than usual.

Tonight is pizza night!!! We all love this night!!! We have a movie to watch and will turn on the wall heater in the living room and cozy up to enjoy our movie and pizza. I think this is the most looked forward to night of the whole week in our home!

I must scoot now...time to pay a couple of bills and then get started on those houses!

Christmas break!

We are officially on Christmas break now!!!! Yippee!! I remember when they were smaller (well, Rebecca and Thomas)...we used to take off for the entire end of the year holiday season...the Monday before Thanksgiving until the Monday after New Year's. Ahhh...those were the days....  Now, we have so much more school work that it's not really feasible to take that much time off..course..it's also hard to stay focused on school work during the holidays... for me, not so much for them!

We have much to do before Christmas arrives. But, we're pretty much on target for getting it all done. Course, I've been there before and the best laid plans don't always pan out.

Today is shopping day! We're headed for milk...then drop it off here at home. Then we are going to my hair salon. Rebecca and Thomas need some hair attention. Next, we are headed to that great shopping mecca..Wal Mart! The children each have some cash (thanks to Granny..and Daddy!) to spend. This year, we've done something different. They've chosen a name, so instead of each of them buying for each other, they'll buy for one special person, plus Daddy and Mama. I plan to take one child with me through WM to pick out their gifts for their special someone and Daddy. The rest will stay with Rebecca. We'll repeat this process till everyone is done. Could be a long day, eh?!

The next two days will be craft days. I can't tell you how excited Natalie and Mary are for this! They are my craft bugs. Anything involving creating is right up their alley!

Thomas hung the outside lights yesterday. It looks all festive out there now! I believe we done with the decorating...course...there's always a little more we can do, right?!

I put all of our school books away yesterday. Oh my...do we ever need shelves for school books!!! I stacked them three different ways before I found a method that mean the books would not fall over! But, this way, you also can't pull out a book from the middle...you know..should anyone want to look at a school book before say, January 5th. Oops..not sure we'll start that day..yes, it's the Monday after New Year's...but it's also our 18th wedding anniversary. It doesn't seem right to start back on that wonderful day, now does it?!

My folks will be here soon...and not soon enough! We miss them dearly!!! And Auntie Nina will be here the following week!!! YEAH!!! We love having company!!!

I want to get some gifts wrapped before I wake my children...I think now is a good time...

Have an abundantly blessed day!!!

Christ Focused School Days II

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

School Days!

Christ Focused School Days II

One of the best subjects for Christ focused Christmas schooling is the Nativity. Narration is the BEST method for assuring that your child has achieved the objectives that you want to teach. Put both of these together and you have school days that are Christ focused FUN, and offering a variety of concepts for students of all ages. Try these FUN and CREATIVE ways of re-telling the Nativity story with your kids!

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Classy Homemade Christmas Gifts

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Simply Frugal

Classy Gifts on a Shoestring

Brick and mortar stores have simple gifts CHEAP. When I say cheap, I mean that they have learned that gift baskets or sets are used in abundance. However they have put together either the cheapest products at what may seem like a reasonable price or have put a few choice pieces together at a premium price; neither of which are personal or make for a classy gift. Here is a list of easy to put together handmade gifts which have a minimal investment, but have a classy and personal touch for all the people on your Christmas list.

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