Reading, Reading, and Audiobooks

For almost a year now, the boys and I have been working through a lot of classic books.   Most have been audiobooks, some actually read.  Not including "The Hardy Boys" we just finished up our 13th book.  I am currently ripping "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" for our listening pleasure.

I have come to a major realization.  That is, if we want to get through a fair number of the classics, we will need to spend more than just the time in the car, one day a week, to enjoy these books.  It is my hope to start making time, in the morning, listening to a half hour to hour, Monday through Friday.  They can have their time with Legos or thinking puddy while I can clean or knit.

Anyway, here is a link to another list of books a friend posted on Facebook.  There are a few more books I want to add to the boys reading list!

In the mean time, tell me what some of your favorite classics are?  Share this post and have your friends comment!  Would love to see what we might be missing!

Thanks!

Home made chocolate sauce = yummy!

Pinterest can be a very lovely thing! I have found a few homemade recipes, for various things, that have been winners and I RAVE about them.

Probably the best is the chocolate sauce I've been making for awhile.  Here is the link to the original sight that I got it from (by the way, REALLY like this sight, spend some time there!)  What I have done, to make it my own, is figure out how much I need to make to fill a quart mason jar.  It is 1 and 1/2 of the recipe.  Here's the quantities I follow:

Combine the following 3 items directly in pan:
2 1/4 cup  coco powder
1 cup + 2 T  sugar
1/8 t to 1/4 t salt (a dash plus a pinch)

Add 1 + 1/2 cup water and mix well

Heat to a boil, stirring occassionally. 
Once at a boil reduce heat to maintain a slow boil, stirring constinently for a minute.
Remove from heat
Add 1 1/2 t vanilla
Stir again and transfer to quart mason jar

I let this cool most of the way on the counter top, with lid off.  When mostly cool, I'll put lid on and keep in fridge.  Honestly no idea how long this will keep for, we use it to often to go bad.  Hope you'll give this a try, it really is good!

 

First rounds of changes

on my blog have been to some of the various pages.  I've spent the most time on "Home School Thought" trying to express why we've chosen to home school our boys.  I will probably take another look at it, in a few days as it is kind of like writing a paper.  The more you look at it, read it, mistakes just get over looked and your brain automatically fills in the gaps.  Anyway, the choice to home educate is such a personal choice and to put it our there, in black and white, is a bit scary.  Not looking for debates on why one school enviroment is better than another.  Each has it's own merit and short comings.

Other pages I've tweaked is my reading page, the boys reading page, and 1,000 Gifts (I've added more ~ I am grateful for things, I just don't always write it down).  May end up deleting the acronyms page, unless I hear it is helpful, and my bucket list page.

At some point will try to work out a why statement, for this blog, and will work on tweaking all those tags ~ way to many of them.
 

Wind is blowing

and change is coming!  Which leads me to think of the scene from "Mary Poppins" where they are talking about the wind changing and in flies Mary!  Love that show!

   ~ but I digress (which could lead into another movie "Elmo in Grouchland"!  How many of you have seen that movie?)

Again, back to my point ~ changes.  The Webster's 1828 Dictionary defines changes as follows:

CHANGE, v.t. 1. To cause to turn or pass from one state to another; to alter, or make different; to vary in external form, or in essence; as, to change the color or shape of a thing; to change the countenance; to change the heart or life

 that is is what needs to happen here.  Been feeling that I blog about way to many things and that it is not organized or well laid out!  I'll be taking some time to figure out what it is I want the focus to be here and then begin to format the blog as such.

Off the top of my head though, key elements will be:

1. homemade things - cooking, baking, and possibly things I create as I enjoy crafting and on occasion building things.  The more I make from scratch (with regards to baking and cookie), the more I find I stay out of the center of the store, for the most part.  There are still "good" things there ~ the single ingredient items ~ but am trying to move toward more homemade.
2. school - funny that I mention this as I created the blog about 6 years ago to gather data for a math assignment for our oldest
3. occasional randomness - yes, randomness!  There may be a time something comes up, that doesn't tie into homemade or school that is blog worthy

If you have read this blog for awhile or stumbled upon it, what have been your favorite type posts?  Do you use the tags, along the right side, to find something you want to read about?  Have you search something and come across this blog?