Monday Musing

How many individuals, who blog, actually write a blog everyday? I really don't know that I could come up with enough original or interesting idea to write about each day. Maybe I'm missing something unique, different. I'm sure if I watched my kids more closely or listened more closely, I'd see or hear something worth repeating, maybe not.

Just a thought; something to think about and ponder.

P.S. just an a side. Just happened to look at the number of posts for September (8) and number for the year (86). So as of today, I've matched the quantity of posts as last September and for the the year 2008. I could stop blogging now and be equal to last year. Probably won't happen though, there's bound to be something funny, amusing, or interesting to write about in the coming days, weeks, or months.

Betty Crocker . . .

I am not. Made a second guitar cake today. This time chocolate. When it came out of the oven, the top was all bumpy, not the smooth (and possibly cracked) like most cakes are when they come out. Just flipped it out of the pan and the head stock (where the knobs are to tune the strings) stayed in the pan.

The cake tastes great, but looks horrible. Will have to bake, yet another cake, tonight after home group. Good thing I had a nap earlier today.


My headless cake. Kevin said I could pass it off as a Steinburger. These guitars and basses have no heads. I looked at it as another opportunity to make a cake and have one at home.








So, we sampled the little bit that didn't come out correctly. The cake may have looked ugly, but it sure tasted good.

Advantage #2 of Homeschooling

This is the week of "Advantages of Homeschooling". I might as well wrap up the week with a post on the same topic.

Woke up this morning tired, exhausted, and generally wiped out. A feeling that even the strongest caffeine in the world couldn't shake. Chalk it up to doing a lot yesterday and not having fully recovered from surgery last week. By mid day I was really missing my nap. This morning decided to go back to bed by around 9 or so and didn't get back up until 11:00 or so.

We haven't gotten dressed or started school. Hoping to get at least some accomplished today, but might just spread it over the weekend as I'm still dragging.

Off to finally get ready for the day, open up the house, and possibly feel better.

Have a great day folks.

Cub Scouting

It's official - we have two Cub Scouts this year. Thing One is a Webelo 1 and Thing Two is a Tiger. We finally got to the point with Thing Two that "he will try scouting for one year" because he wanted to try it one day and not the next. This cycle went on to long that we decided to use parental prerogative. He seemed to enjoy himself last night, although it was a little overwhelming and he thought it would be to hard.

Here are our boys before the meeting:

Advantage of Homeschooling

The Thing's and I went to Wal-mart today. Really thought that it would have been less crowded with public school back in session. WRONG!!! It wasn't even busy with Moms without kids. It was just busy. We got things exchanged, purchased, and headed over to Great Harvest Bread. They make some really good bread and I wanted French Toast for dinner one night soon. At about $5.50 a loaf, it doesn't seem so bad for a meal.

Anyway, back to why I'm blogging today. Thing one asked for Kids Cuisine for lunch; when he asks, it usually means a home made variety. It's actually easy enough to do if you have compartmented plastic plates, just fill each section with something different. I decided to take pictures today, because I thought it was a neat idea. So, without further delay, here are some pictures:



Thing One's choice usually has easy mac, chicken nuggets, and something else. Today I added pretzels and sliced apples.











Thing Two didn't know what he wanted for lunch, so I gave him Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, pretzels, and apples. Didn't hear any complaints so it must have been good.








So how is this an advantage of homeschooling? Being able to make your kids a hot lunch (or room temperature in Thing Twos case), at lunch time, and knowing what is going into it.

The Week Ahead

I'm going to start off with a side note in the form of a question: Am I getting in a rut or starting a series with the title "The Week Ahead"?

We're off to another school week, tomorrow. Today was our first holiday of the school year. It was my desire, for this school year, to incorporate some days off that my husband has from work. In all honesty, it's not to difficult when most of the office holidays are days like: Thanksgiving (and the day after), Christmas, New Years, Spring Holiday (which always falls on Good Friday), and Memorial Day (we're usually finished with school by then). This school year though, I wanted to add Labor Day and Presidents day. It's made for a few short weeks in school, but I've quickly learned how to plan around that.

It will be an interesting week, in that it's our first with me still recuperating from surgery. The boys have been good about helping out. So, in theory, school should go well. Hubby has been very helpful and even decided what we're having for dinner tomorrow, so that I don't need to worry about it. Thankfully, a friend wanted to bring us another meal and I may be ready for it as I'm worn out.

The week ahead will still be busy. We'll be starting our co-op later this week, a doctor's appointment for me, and Scouts begins as well. Yikes, haven't even begun working on Thing One's new Webe shirt or brag vest. Got a lot of sewing to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it done in time.

I'll update the side bar, in a bit, with the books for the coming weeks. I'm finding it helpful because Thing Two, especially, likes having a picture of the book, for the cover of his lap book. Off to round up books, take a few photo's, and upload them.

Have a great homeschooling week (or regular school as the case may be) friends.

Something to be thankful for!

Today is Kevin's birthday. It's been a fun day for us. We started with chocolate croissants from Trader Joe's. These are the ones that got us started making our own after we tried them last Thanksgiving. Here's a few shots of what Trader Joe's look like:

Here's what they look like out of the package. You really need to read the the directions before going to bed, because it says to let rise over night.

This was the next morning; they rise an incredible amount.












Once cooked to a nice brown, they're light, flaky and good.













My yard sale find today. A guitar cake pan. For a dollar, I couldn't pass it up, especially for hubby on his birthday.















A home made yellow cake. Boy oh boy, does it smell good. Can't wait to try it!!!

Kevin ended up frosting the cake. I was beat this afternoon and napped for a bit.







Another thing to be thankful for today, we got the van back from the auto body shop today. Yeah!! It's more comfortable to ride in my van with having a few stitches.

End of the week

It's been a long week here. We had our usual school to attend to, laundry, dishes, shopping, etc. In addition to the "normal" stuff we also had my van scheduled to be repainted. Cars and cart corals do get along to well when you make a short turn into an empty spot near the coral. That was scheduled for this week because I was scheduled to have my gall bladder removed on Wednesday (that did happen, I have for incisions on my belly to show it). Kevin and I figured having only one car available would be alright this week.

On a sadder side, a friend's, from the Five in a Row boards, 2 year old died this past evening as a result of a car accident. One of those situations where a toddler gets a way all to quickly and wasn't seen by the driver. It's a tragedy that just grips your heart, especially if you have had young children, you know how quickly they can wander away when you believe they are safe.

Today, we wrapped up Gullywashers with a science lesson on reflection and Who Owns the Sun with a science lesson on simple levers. The boys had a lot of fun, going around the house figuring out both, with their dad. Here a few pictures of the fun.

Thing Two demonstrating how golf can have simple levers in the game.

Thing One demonstrating reflection with a mirror
(second photo is of him being silly).