Pillsbury Bakeoff Kind of Day

We had a Pillsbury Bake-off kind of day today. The girls and I experimented with making corn dogs. They turned out so-so - they weren't really impressed. We cut hot dogs into 1 inch pieces and put cornbread mix into mini muffin pans, put the hot dog pieces in and covered it with a little bit more cornbread mix. We miss that Cotton-Pickin Cornbread they sell in North Carolina - they don't sell it here. It's the sweetest cornbread ever. The girls are both really into making homemade bread lately.
Next, we made spinach quiches in muffin tins. Are you impressed? We made a bunch of snacks for the rest of the week, mini muffins to have on hand for quick breakfasts, vanilla pudding, and then we started working on tomorrow's supper, a cool concoction with one of those 15 bean soup mixes you find in the raw bean section.
This is my new favorite thing - it makes a ton, so I don't cook for days, it is super cheap, and it is the only bean thing my kids actually like. I cook the 15 bean soup in the crock pot all day (after soaking 24 hrs before) and pour in cooked brown rice, 1 lb of gr. beef, 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes, a little bit of picante, some chilli powder, salt and pepper. I have a pretty big crock pot and I had to move some of it to another pot cause it was too much. We eat it plain like soup, or over chips. Byron calls the bean thing pottage from the story of Elisha and the noxious pottage in 2Kings4:38-41. It is a great story and he often feels the need to claim the promise of this scripture when I cook. It reminds our family when we pray for our food - we are not just blessing the food -but we are actually praying that the food would be healed. LOL
I bought a whole loaf of bread to make pinch and seal PB&J uncrustables out of the whole loaf - I think we'll tackle that project next - just as soon as we clean up the mess from everything else we have cooked today!
Love,
Tara

Abby and Gracie

We got ready for supper and we found Gracie and Abby asleep in the schoolroom this evening. They were both sacked out.

Gracie

I felt bad because I didn't represent Gracie very well in all those photos of the weekend (below). She is still not feeling well. She went to the doctor on Friday - not strep or flu, the doctor said a virus has been going around that is very "flu-like" but only lasts a few days. She and Mom stayed home from church and read books and took naps. She is feeling kind of better, but much less fever today. This is actually the 1st fever she has run in 3 years! She is normally so healthy!

Some Weekend Pictures

Abby is getting so big!

We have taught Abby to let herself out to go potty! She is such a smart dog.

Daniel and Abby wrestling

Ally catching

Practicing with Dad, Abby's the ump

Field Trip

We took Abby to the vet today and had a field trip with a behind the scenes tour. We got to see the surgery area, X-ray, and see some dogs and learn about their treatment. Everyone asked lots of great questions -I don't think the vet had had to explain that much before -Gracie had a list. They were most curious about how and why animals are put to sleep. It was a great field trip and we learned alot.
Ally has her first softball game tomorrow and she is going to be playing catcher. It is a tough position - a lot of pressure to stop those runs at home, and the ball will coming at her at around 45-50mph. The pitcher for the team also has a lot of crazy drop balls, screw balls and things like that for Ally to get used to catching. She is really looking forward to the Disciple Now weekend that is coming up soon at church just for 5th and 6th graders.
Gracie woke up sick with a fever this morning, not sure what is going on with her. She is taking the day off of school and taking it easy. She got to go to Samuel Circle at church Wednesday, a special time for 1-4th graders to meet and pray for our church, country, and missionaries around the world. It was really neat.
Daniel is being a mess today - not wanting to do his school work! He and the dog are getting really tight and they enjoy their rowdy time together. He is loving coach pitch and found out last night his time will be the Tigers. His games will start on April 23rd.
Love to All,
T

Free Diapers - (I don't need them, thankfully)

http://www.engineeradebtfreelife.com/2009/03/get-free-diapers-and-get-paid-10.html

This is a link to a neat site someone told me about. I have a friend who has done this several times - they send you 20 free diapers (or pullups) and you answer some questions about them and they send you $10. I just thought it sounded like a good deal.

Weekend Fun

After practice slushies.

A walk in the arboretum - a beautiful Saturday - perfect weather.

No, North Carolina people, this is not what Texas looks like.

Coach Pitch superstar.

Physics Circus and Children's Museum

We have had a busy week! We had company all week - friends over and Elana stayed with for a few days. Practices and non-stop adventures in the woods behind our house have kept us all busy. Tonight we will go to Friday night fun at Gracie's gymnastics place and mom and dad will have a date.

We had a lot of fun all the Physics Circus and the Mayborne Museum on Tuesday. We haven't done much school this week - only math and reading - it was our partial Spring Break, after-all.

Next week will be full of adventure, too. We are going to go see A&M play Baylor in softball and we have a field trip to the vet on Friday.

Bird Barfologists

We had a great school day today! Gracie is starting There's an Owl in the Shower, one of my favorite books by Jean Craighead George. The book talks a lot about the conflict between environmentalists and loggers (in a really good way -in my opinion)- but it is mainly about owls. So, we went to a great website at www.kidwings.com and talked about what owls eat and their cough pellets. It is very interesting, since they swallow their food whole, you can dissect their cough pellets, put the skeleton together and figure out what they ate. A great thing to do online instead of in person. The website shows pictures and lets you actually dissect several pellets online, then assemble the skeleton. The kids had a lot of fun and it led to question after question -altogether a very educational -investigative day. When Gracie completed her activities on the website, which included calculating the total number of mice eaten by an average owl family for a year, she got a printable certificate naming her a certified bird barfologist.
I've about decided that part of every day for Daniel should be to build something and to destroy something. In either process, you can just see wheels turning in a way that conventional education can't match. Today he created an elaborate car city about 40x60 feet total with ramps, bridges, you name it. He's made such progress with his regular schoolwork, I'm going to have to go buy some new stuff to keep him busy.
Ally served as a very helpful facilitator of all learning today, all the while finishing her own work, reading the latest American Girl mystery, making homemade bread all by herself, and helping me with the rather odd soup ?thing we're gonna call supper later. She has already completed several of her subjects for the year - so she is helping even more.
All in all, a very educational -fun day today! And the dog slept all night last night without waking us up - maybe all these creative juices are just the benefit of an un-interrupted night's sleep.

Spring Break?

We are having a spread out -crazy half-Spring Break days over the next few months. Waco has it's Spring Break this week, so there are lots of fun things going on around here. Cousins have their Spring Breaks next week, so we are wanting to go camping with them, and then we are planning to go camping and hiking in April - so we are just having random half-days of reading and math only here and there. We are getting to the point that we are finishing a lot of our subjects for school, so we will be having lots of fun learning and lots of fun reading for the end of the year.
I am amazed at how well Daniel is reading! He picked out a book in the library and read it to me today and did a super job! Ally's softball is going to be a serious challenge to say the least! She is in a league of older girls and it is like being on a serious travel team. She is eager to learn alot from the experience, though. Gracie is getting great at all her gymnastics moves and has developed some really great friendships with some neat kids. So many of the families we are with regularly have 6 and even 7 kids - there is generally a friend for all of them.
We had a fun weekend when Shannon and Eddie and two of their kids (Byron's sister)came and spent the weekend with us. We visited the Texas Ranger Museum with them Saturday.
The dog is doing really well! She is smart and she hasn't peed in the house for a good long while. She still gets us up at least twice a night to go outside, but we're adjusting.
Love,
T

Texas Boy