Our Week In Review - October 14th

Six weeks done and behind us ... other than my medical issues things have been smooth sailing. On Sunday, Devin and Lexi helped lead worship in our church by singing with the Amen Choir. Just love hearing the kids sing in church. This week the kids and I studied New Amsterdam and we learned how the Dutch people brought cows over to America. We did a fun experiment and made butter from whipping cream.

{After about 15 minutes of shaking ... delicious homemade butter.}

Ava Mae finished memorization of her October poem "If I Knew" by Maud Wyman and she loves it when we record or video her ...

Lexi has lots of dancing to do this December. She was cast as Cindy Loo in her ballet school's performance of "How the Grinch Found Christmas". Along with her extra practices each week for her solo {yesterday it was 2 1/2 hours} she is learning five new dances she will perform with her classes. She is exhausted many days during the week but, loving every minute of her rehearsals and dance classes.

Devin has been my helper this year in homeschooling ... he loves tutoring the girls in math, a subject God has gifted him in. Devin also enjoys making lunch for all of us - he has opened his own sandwich shop in our kitchen and is getting pretty good at using the cooktop. On the medical front, my endoscopy went well and revealed the cause of the horrendous stomach pain - ulcers. Lots of them ... ugghh! Yesterday I found out that the main cause is an infection in my stomach lining - more than likely exacerbated by the raw foods and healthy smoothies I was doing for about two months. Glad to have a diagnosis ... not looking forward to the two week treatment - I will be pretty sick for those two weeks because of the drugs I have to take. Then a long road back to getting my digestive system healthy again.

So that was our week ... hard to believe our first six weeks are done. In another six weeks we will be at Thanksgiving.

TOS Crew Review: Always Ice Cream

My daughter, Ava Mae, could not wait to help out with reviewing Always IceCream. A great website for girls ages 7 - 12 years old to play educational games {math, geography, bible, language arts, science and more}, interact with each other in a virtual community {with parent's approval}, watch educational videos, and much more.

So, how does Always IceCream work ...

"Always Icecream serves "virtual ice cream," or $coops, to girls in exchange for practicing basic math, advanced math, geography, language arts, science, typing, and more. Girls use $coops to play fun games, decorate their homes on Mini World, and feed their virtual pets on Pet World."

Here are just a few screen shots from the Always IceCream website:

Geography

Typing

Pet World

My 7 year old daughter really enjoyed playing the fun games on the site and the colors and cute graphics drew her in. The only draw back for our family was that most of the educational games were above her level {She did enjoy doing the math on her own as it did not require any help from us}. We solved the problem by having an older sibling or myself sit with her on the educational game part so that she could have help reading and earn scoops then to play the fun games by herself. We also chose not to allow our daughter to use the social side of this website, mainly because of her young age but, had we used this website for my 9 year old daughter we would have had no problem letting her interact with friends on the site.

I did really like the educational environment on this website. I also liked that parents can decide what content they allow their daughter to participate in and I can pull a report which shows me how she is doing on the educational games.

I think Always IceCream is perfect for an older girl or one who is reading. Why not give it a try for your family ... Always IceCream is offering a free trial. After your free trial is over the rates are very reasonable. Monthly memberships are $4.99, Annual memberships $29.99, and Lifetime memberships $99.99.

Would you like to read what my fellow crew mates thought of Always IceCream? Then head on over to the TOS Crew Blog.

Disclaimer: I am reviewing this product on behalf of the TOS Crew. I received no compensation, other than a free membership, for the writing of this review. The contents of this review express my personal opinion of the website.

Fall Rubberstamping Projects

Pictured above are a few of the projects we made recently in the class I teach at Timothy. {From the left: A test tube holder with fall colored pretzel m&m's; a fall themed card; and a sour cream container we made from fall themed scrapbook paper - filled with caramel Hershey Kisses}

This is such a fun class to teach! I have some more fun projects planned in the coming weeks that I will be sure to share.

Fall is here ...

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year ... cool mornings, warm afternoons, beautiful colors, pumpkins, apples, baking - I love it all! And, while I look ahead to our crazy busy December, I am enjoying the slower pace of October and November.

Just a few pictures from around our home ...

Molasses Cookies and a GIVEAWAY!

Fall is here which in our house means lots of baking ... and if your family loves molasses cookies like we do, but could do without the preparation and mess - Betty Crocker to the rescue! This fall, Betty Crocker is introducing a molasses cookie mix, making this year-round favorite easy to bake in less than 20 minutes.

Ava Mae and I whipped up a batch yesterday afternoon and they were a huge hit! They had a soft chewy texture and the perfect blend of cinnamon and spices.

And the good news, I get to giveaway a Betty Crock Molasses Cookie Prize Pack - including everything in the picture below {Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie Mix, Betty Crocker apron, non-stick baking pan, and mixing spoon}.

All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment below telling me your favorite occasion for baking spice cookies.

This giveaway will run through October 11, 2011 at 11:59 PM. Winner will be drawn via Random.org on or about October 12, 2011. Winner will be notified via email and will have 48 hours to provide shipping information. Giveaway is limited to US residents only who are 18 and older. If winner fails to respond within the 48 hour time frame, I will choose a different winner. Be sure to leave your email in the comment or ensure that it's available in your public profile. If you win, I need to be able to reach you!

Edited to add ... Congratulations to Amanda Y for winning the giveaway! Your prize pack will be on its way soon ... enjoy!

Disclosure: The product, information and prize pack has been provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark.

Easy Pumpkin Muffins {Recipe}

I found this super simple recipe on Pinterest for Pumpkin Muffins. It was a Weight Watcher's Recipe and I will say I was skeptical but, these muffins turned out super yummy. There are just three ingredients -

1 Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix
1 15 ounce can of Pumpkin
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

All you do is place all three ingredients in a bowl and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Then bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I did decide to frost them with a light cream cheese frosting for the benefit of my family but, they did not need that at all. They were super yummy without the icing and I will skip it next time.

And That's What Healthy Eating Gets You ...

This summer I watched a few documentaries on the whole foods trend. I saw studies of people who had amazing dieting results by cutting out all processed foods and eating more raw vegetables and juicing. I was having pretty good results on Weight Watchers but, I thought it would not hurt to eat even more healthy with the possible bonus of speeding up the weight loss. So I decided to give it a try ...

On Tuesday I ended up in the ER for a good portion of the day ... I had awoken at 3AM with horrendous stomach pain - nothing I had ever experienced before. I took 12 tums in the period of just 3 hours with no relief. Thankfully, we were seen quickly and within a few hours had a diagnosis - Gastritis. Apparently, all this healthy eating had eroded the lining of my stomach - the acid receptors were working overtime to digest all the veggies and nuts plus, the acidity of the spinach drinks were causing even more pain. What no one in any of these documentaries seemed to clue me in to was that apparently it is not good for your body to just jump into this way of eating. Of course, you would not think eating veggies, nuts, and drinking spinach drinks would hurt your body but, as my doctor and son reminded me, too much of a good thing is not always good.

So, for the next month, I am on a very bland diet - jello, bread with butter, potatoes, applesauce, bananas, water ... plus, a few medications that are supposed to help heal my stomach lining. I have a follow up with a specialist on Monday and hope to have a more definitive answer to how long this process will take. Right now, it hurts when I don't eat, it hurts when I do eat ... I am starving all the time but, can eat only small portions of approved foods. For now, no vegetables, no acidic fruits, very little protein and bread that is not whole grain. Crazy right???

So ironic, by eating healthy I end up in the ER. I am sure I will look back at this experience one day and laugh ... some day.