Posted in In the School Room
This morning I am feeling such a sense of pleasure. My children are still nestled in their beds. The house is quite. David is off at work. Standardized testing was completed on Wednesday. I even got to the post office yesterday to mail back our answer sheets. I started putting away books that I have finished with and rearranging the curriculum cupboard in the basement. All I have to finish doing is grading some math papers, and all of my record keeping will be complete as well. Then all I will have to do is write my reports that are required by the state. We are all ready to be done. The children are excited about the change in their daily routine. I am excited about being able to get outside early and not have to wait until school is finished. I think this is why we start school at the beginning of August. We have done so for 2 years, and both years have been very good years for us. I have a few more details to workout in my planning for next year's curriculum. Most of it has already been purchased. I decided to change Natalie's math curriculm from Rod and Staff to Christian Light Education. She has been working in Rod and Staff since 3rd grade and has just finished 6th grade, but she is just not doing well with the mastery learning approach. Although I am not an advocate of changing programs so late in the game, I believe it will be best for her if we do. So, that is another expense. The Lord will provide for our needs. Have a great Friday... |
Posted in In the Kitchen
I have long searched for a good rye bread. We love the soft loaves of rye bread that can be purchased at the grocery store, and I have really desired to immitate them at home. Well, it come to my attention that I really wanted a "sandwich" rye bread recipe. So, I searched the internet and found one. This comes from the blog "A Year in Bread". I made it myself a few weeks ago and was extremely pleased with the results. Finally a bread that was sandwich quality. No l did not have to turn this one into croutons. We ate it up in a day and a half.
Blessings, |
Posted in In the Kitchen
I am afraid that it is probably terminal. I have disliked this oven since the moment I first used it almost 3 years ago. It here when we moved in. I guess for some reason I never noticed that all of the temperature markings around the knobs were worn off. I suppose I could have looked for new plastic pieces to fit on the oven, but I didn't. The temperature markings were not on the knobs themselves, but on a plastic ring around the knob. I bought an oventhermometer instead. After some time the oven began keeping an irregular temperature. It would set it for what was 350, and it would sometimes go up as high as 425 at that setting. If I set it just a little lower, it might never get up to 350. I kept wondering why my bread would smell done 10 minutes before the timer was due to go off. Finally, this oven began leaking gas when it would first turn on. At first it was just for a minute or two, then it would begin to heat up and all would be well. Then it got to the point where it would take longer to heat and the gas would be in the air longer. Then last week it just stopped heating. The pilot light was not lighting when we turned on the oven. This oven has an electric ignition on it. I loved my old, old oven that I could light manually. I could use it even if the power was out. Now I am in a position to look for a new oven. I would really like one that could be started manually as we lose power quite regularly here. I understand that Kenmore might make some that are able to do this. So, if anyone has great oven recommendations, I would be open to any and all suggestions. I do not like not having an oven as I make all our bread and baked goods. Blessings, |
Posted in In the Garden
Raspberries fall in the category of brambles. They are almost weed-like. This is my first experience working with raspberries, so I have not fully grasped everything related to these plants. My understanding is that the cane is the plant prior to the leaves being grown. Most of mine already had some foliage growing. So, I guess you could say I planted a combination of plants and canes. The PVC pipe holds the mesh. Right now the mesh is large just to keep the deer away. My friend's mom told me to get coarse mesh from JoAnn's to keep the birds out in the summer. It isn't a fool-proof system, but it is better than nothing. We only had enough PVC pipe for one row. My friend's parents gave us what they had. We need to buy more PVC to make another row. Their rows were shorter than ours. I hope that helps clear some things up. Blessings, |
Posted in In the Garden
Saturday was a beautiful sunny day here in WNY. We finally got outside around 10 AM. I had laid down cardboard, newspaper, peat moss, soil, and dry leaves in the fall. This made the sod MUCH easier to turn. I thought I would be able to do this without the help of the Mantis, but I did need it. So, David came down with the tiller. He tilled. I raked and dug. Around 11:30, I took Jonathan and went off to get the raspberry plants. We were so very blessed to receive free plants from my friend's mom and dad. Jonathan and I dug the plants with the help of my friend, Kathy's mom. After a quick lunch we got to the business of planting. David took the tiller and tilled me a trench. Jonathan and Carolyn helped me plant the berry plants. Here are a couple of pictures of the berry patch.
Have a blessed day! |
Boy, time is moving right along. Natalie celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday. She is such a delightful girl and truly my right hand worker. Here are some fun facts about my girl. Favorite TV show: Good Eats with Alton Brown Natalie was quite a silly little girl. Here she is about 8 years ago.
Here she is today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE! |
I was born! Yes, my friend I have crossed over into a new decade of my life. I was born in Buffalo, NY to a woman who was kind and gracious enough to know that she was not old enough to care for me. She was 17 years old at the time. Facilitated by the OB/GYN, my birth mother placed me up for adoption to a couple in his practice who after trying for 6 long years were not able to sustain a pregnancy. It took 8 months of wrangling before my adoption was finalize. I was blessed to be raised by wonderful parents in a church-going home. I have actually already celebrated my birthday. My sweet husband took me to a local bed and breakfast on Saturday night. We stayed at the Asa Ransom House in Clarence, NY. The room we had was the Joseph Ellicott Room. It was so charming. I have never stayed at a B&B before. We had dinner their on Saturday night and breakfast on Sunday morning. After dinner we were a little full and decided to take a walk on the property. It was raining some so we took our umbrellas. While we were out walking the sky began to brighten and then we noticed a beautiful rainbow. As we walked closer to the street we could see it stretch from beginning to end. I was moved by the visible sign of God's presence with us. |
Several weeks ago it came to my attention that Oprah Winfrey was making available an on-line study of A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. This was a grave concern to me because of the far reaching influence that Oprah has on millions of women around the globe. It was a blessing to me to learn that Nancy Leigh DeMoss has addressed this issue on her radio program, Revive Our Hearts. She has begun a two day broadcast that addresses this deception. I would strongly encourage all to be aware of this. You can read the transcript or listen to the broadcast by following this link: Revive Our Hearts Listen to Discern Blessings, |
Brrr...it is cold here in Western NY for the last day of April. We are looking at a lovely 29 degree temperature right now. It shouldn't last long as today's high is supposed to be in the mid 50's. I just made my honey's lunch and sent him off to work. Since I overslept the shower is still calling to me. So far the cat has been fed and I have turned on the grow lights above my tomato and pepper plants. The pepper plants are ready to go into bigger pots as is the catnip I planted. So, hopefully I can find some time for potting plants today or at the latest tomorrow. Carolyn and Natalie have horseback riding lessons today. We are about 5 months into lessons for both girls. For the month of April, Natalie has been riding twice a week, but this was the last week of that. It is just too costly to keep that up. Hopefully the girls can ride outside today. The weather looks like it will cooperate. Tonight we are going to watch Ratatouille. I got it out of the library yesterday. That should be fun for the kids. I am going to read a little in my Bible and a litle more from Passionate Housewives Desperate for God. School should be starting around 9 AM. Blessings, |
Posted in In the Kitchen
Well, it took a while, but I managed to plan all 21 meals for the week. I was getting so tired of the children asking me, "What's for breakfast? What's for lunch?" Now, I can point to the manu planner for those meals as well. Here is the break down: Saturday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Sunday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Monday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Tuesday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Wednesday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Thursday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Friday Breakfast Lunch Dinner Having a plan gives me so much more peace. No plan for me equals stress. Blessings, |