Glory Quilts

4th of July Treats

Lots of yummy sounding and festive looking treats at The Crafty Crow today!  Now I'm wondering if I can't sneak in another trip to the grocery store for just a few more things .

Hope your 4th of July is filled with fun and family!  I plan to find a nice cool spot to sit and read for a while, enjoy some fun food with the kiddos,...perhaps I'll take the new neighbors across the road up on their offer of a boat ride...or I'll just let everyone else go and I'll stay home and enjoy a bit of "quietude" .

Biggest Kitchen Table Simple Home Audit

Starting on Friday, I'll be participating in the Biggest Kitchen Table Simple Home Audit at down---to---earth.  Any one else want to join in?  Stop by the down---to---earth blog and add your name to the list! 

This is an excellent time for a home audit as we go into the 2nd half of 2009.  It is good to see where we're at, and how far we've come in the simple living journey...and if we need to "begin again" in some areas.

I Love The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner

Getting ready to plan for the upcoming home-learning year?  Need to create a home-management binder for yourself?  Need a place for hubby to record the vehicle maintenance and home repair projects? 

The 2009 Schoolhouse Planner is an awesome resource!  Click on the image below to see all of the things it contains.  There are so many calendars, planning forms, checklists, copywork, household forms, articles, recipes, and more- really, something for everyone. 

I love the fact that almost any type of homeschool or household form I could want is right there in the planner.  No more taking "just a minute" to locate a form on online and then getting "lost in cyberspace" trying to find the perfect one .  Many homeschooling moments have been sidetracked in that way.  Now I can just open up my planner, print out a form in a snap, and get back to what I was doing. 

For days that you need some inspiration in the kitchen, there are even 24 recipes included in the planner.

There are also monthly modules that you can purchase to go along with your planner, and if you order between June 11 and July 12 you will get the 2008 modules FREE!

I am very pleased with all I have seen thus far.   I will soon be putting my printer to work, and creating my brand new set of home-learning and home-keeping binders!

Check it out today . 

Free Historical Literature Online Library

Interested in the history of agriculture?  Check out this online library- The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture by Cornell University. 

There is also another site by the same group- HEARTH with titles related to Home Economics.  While the introductory statement on the home page is _______ (I'll let you fill in the blank with the adjective of your choosing ), and written by a woman who equates a home economist's life to a "female ghetto", though an "important one"; and who also states that home economists had a major role in the development of the "welfare state"...the site itself does have lots of historical books that might be of interest to you.

This one caught my eye, as making things is a favorite activity of persons in our household:

Box Furniture: how to make a hundred useful items for the home 

And the Good Housekeeping magazines from 1885-1950:

Good Housekeeping

Have fun!

Catherine....thankful to be living and thriving in the "female ghetto" today  

Independence Day Chicken and More

I think I'll make this Independence Day Chicken tonight.  I have chicken breasts that won't wait for the 4th, and this sounds pretty tasty.  Not sure what our entire menu will be for the 4th of July...but, it will certainly have lots of red, white, and blue treats! 

I definitely plan to make a version of this Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips.  I think I'll skip the butter spray and just brush my tortillas with melted real butter, use honey instead of sugar; and I may vary the fruits a bit...you know how I love to tweak recipes .

Now I must go water the tomatoes, so I'll have lots of beautiful reds for the turkey burgers and the salad bowl this weekend!  Have a great Monday .

Popsicles...Lots and Lots of Popsicles!

Tipnut has links to 55 Homemade Popsicle Recipes today!  Now to choose just 2 or 3 from all those choices...

I miss my trusty Tupperware popsicle molds.  Those $ Store cheapos just don't do the trick; but $19.50 for Tupperware's Mickey Ice Tups is just a tad bit much for my budget.   For now, I guess we'll make do with plastic cups and popsicle sticks (toothpicks make me nervous).

Have fun! 

Watermelon Dreams

Still thinking about hot weather foods... Honestly I'm trying not to think about the heat, but that's pretty much impossible! 

Yesterday we went to the spray park, a popular destination these days.  I just wish they'd put up a nice mister in the gazebo where all of the adults sit and watch the children play. 

I wanted to take a snack along for my family and our friends, and thought watermelon would have been a great idea.  Since we didn't have watermelon, or time to stop and buy one, I had to put that idea on the list for next time.   

Anyway, I put WATERMELON at the top of my shopping list since the ones in the garden are not even close to being ripe yet; and I'll drop by the Farmer's Market this weekend to pick one up. 

I saw this handy little list of Nine Ways to Tell if Your Watermelon Is Ripe in the Old Farmers' Almanac newsletter today.  I guess I'm not the only one thinking about watermelon!  There are some pretty tasty sounding recipes in the newsletter, too- Strawberry-Watermelon Pops (let's just forget about that tipsy part) and Watermelon Soup sound good to me.  I made a Watermelon Ice that was very similiar to the watermelon soup recipe last year.  I just didn't add any water and  put it in the freezer after I blended it up.  I stirred it around as it froze, and then set it out a few minutes before serving to soften a bit. I was tempted to sprinkle a few chocolate chip "seeds" into the serving dishes ...I think I will when I make it next time!   It was a hit with my girls, and my youngest has already asked me when I'm going to make that "watermelon stuff" again. 

I love watermelon, and now I'm dreaming of all the ways I can eat it...sliced on a plate and sprinkled with salt, in the recipes above, in a fruit salad, on skewers with other fruits, blended with other fruits into a smoothie.....I really wish I had a great big watermelon right now!

What's your favorite way to eat watermelon?

Do you have any tasty watermelon recipes? 

Homemade Field Guide

I love this idea for creating a life-sized field guide .  I want to make one; and just as soon as it is cool enough to venture out and collect some plant materials, I will!  I hope to make a field-guide to all of my herbs and the wild herbs growing in the area.  One for trees and another for wildflowers would be fun, too.  Oh, the possibilities!

Nature Study anyone?