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I have moved my blog.  I hope you will come visit me at my new location!  You can now find me at http://wendy-homeschoolingblessings.blogspot.com.  My new blog is called Homeschooling Blessings:  Musings, News, & Reviews from Our Homeschool.  I would love for you to follow me at my new blog or even grab my button to share on your blog.  I hope you like it!

Wendy

One of my friends posted something on her blog a few months ago about her kitchen and how much she enjoys being in it.  In fact, you might enjoy visiting her blog.  It’s called The Legacy of Home.  That made me start thinking about my kitchen, and I decided to post some pictures and tell you a little bit about it.

First of all, I am very blessed to have my wonderful house!  We built it and moved in a little over two years ago.  My husband and I waited over 16 years to be able to build this house, and I am thankful for it every single day.  It’s not huge, and it’s not fancy, but it is perfect anyway. 

In my house, the kitchen and dining area and living room are all one big room.  When we built our house, I wanted it to look open and spacious.  I chose to make the kitchen, dining area, and living room all one room in spite of the fact that the kitchen is visible to everyone who enters my home.  Besides, that gives me incentive to keep the kitchen clean.     I knew that, since I homeschool my children, it would be very convenient to have the children working at the table (or the island in the kitchen) while I cook and clean.  I am very glad that we built it just as we did too.  I feel like I spend so much time in the kitchen, and this way I can still be with my family while I’m in it. 

My son usually joins me in the kitchen when he wants a snack or something to drink.  He doesn’t often want to help me cook, but has been known to do so on rare occasions.  My older daughter doesn’t enjoy helping me cook either, but she is happy to eat once I have cooked!  My younger daughter does enjoy helping me cook fairly often.  Since she is 7 years old, she is occasionally "too busy" playing to help, but normally she loves the chance to help me in the kitchen. 

We love to listen to the radio or a CD sometimes while we work together.  Other times, we just chat about the day or something that is going on in our lives or even homeschool goings-on.  I’ve been known to compare my daugher, Mary Grace, to Anne of Green Gables because they are both lively and cute and both love to talk and be dramatic.  It is lots of fun to talk with her while we are in the kitchen together. 

Of course you know that when a 7-year-old is "helping" in the kitchen whatever you do takes twice as long and makes twice the mess (or more!), but I wouldn’t trade these times for anything.  It won’t be long before she can handle the cooking without me, but I hope we will still be working together in the kitchen even then just so we can enjoy each other’s company. 

In fact, as much as I love my kitchen, I think it’s really more the chatting and visiting and being together that I enjoy the most.  Even when I’m working in the kitchen alone, the children and my husband (when it’s not during work hours) are usually close by.  They run through to grab a snack, to ask me a question, or just for a hug or a kiss.  That’s fine with me too. 

The pictures of my kitchen are the way it looks at a clean moment.  I made everyone stay out of the kitchen until I had taken the pictures so it would be presentable enough to photograph.  Ten minutes later there were lunch crumbs, spilled Kool-Aid, and fingerprints all over the island.  I suppose you could say that is what my kitchen really looks like!

So yes, I do love my kitchen.  Yes, I do love my children and my husband.  Yes, I am very blessed! 

I would love to hear about your kitchen too if you would like to tell me about it. 

Art is one of those subjects that I never "got around to" teaching.  My older two children just weren’t interested in doing arts or crafts kinds of things, so I guess I just never thought of doing it with my youngest child either.  Yes, I have occasionally looked at art programs that were on display at homeschool conventions, but I never looked very closely and certainly never seriously considered buying one. 

When I found out that the Crew members would soon be reviewing ARTistic Pursuits, I was cautiously optimistic.  I chose to review Book One of the K-3 level books since my daughter is in second grade.  The company offers books all the way from preschool through senior high level. 

My daughter has absolutely loved this art program!  This is one that we will definitely continue using for the rest of the school year, and we plan to do the other books in the K-3 level next year as well.  She enjoys every lesson and usually asks to do more than one each day. 

One of my favorite things about this art program is that pictures of the different art projects that the child will be doing for that lesson are included in the book, and they are done by other young children just like my daughter.  There are examples of each type of art done by a master artist with information included to discuss with the child.  After that, though, is an example done by another child in the K-3rd level.  My daughter really loves that because it gives her a realistic example to live up to.  When she sees "perfect" examples done by adults, she is disappointed when her artwork doesn’t look like that done by the adult. 

Another thing we particularly like is that there are all sorts of projects to do from drawing to water color pencils (something we had never used before) to sculpting with clay.  My daughter is enjoying being introduced to new art materials and projects that she has never experienced before.                                

I like that there is a short art "lesson" included before each project.  The lesson tells a little about the type of work (whether it is pencil drawing or oil pastels or something else) that will be done that day and shows a picture of that type of work by a master artist.  It includes questions to discuss while looking at the picture.  My daughter has actually enjoyed this part much more than I thought she would.  I figured she would just want to skip to the project part, but she actually seems interested in doing the lesson part as well.

When it is time for the art project, she is always thrilled.  The book encourages her to do her best but not to worry if her finished product isn’t perfect.  It has mentioned this several times, and I am always so glad when it does.  (For some reason, it seems to be more believable to her that it’s really ok if her work isn’t perfect if the book says so.  I guess she thinks that moms just "have" to tell their kids that because we love them!) 

It was also very easy to order the art supplies that we needed to have available for doing the projects.  The ARTistic pursuits website includes links to several art supply companies where the materials for each book and each level have already been "bundled" for you.  If you already have one or more of the supplies at home, you simply remove that item from your cart.  That way you don’t have to search for each item that you will need and add each one to your cart.  It saved me lots of time, and I even got a good deal on my supplies! 

If you want to take a look at the ARTistic Pursuits website, you can see what they have to offer.  Each book in each level costs $42.95.  Then there is the added cost of art supplies.  I know that it is hard for many families to afford anything that might be considered "extra" right now, but I think this art program is truly worth the cost.  The books are non-consumable, too, so you can use them with all of your children without having to buy one for each child.  Even the supplies can be shared in many cases.  You can see what other Crew members have to say about ARTistic Pursuits here.

I received this art book free for the purpose of using it and writing this review.  I received no other compensation.  The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Have you ever felt (like I often do) that as a homeschooling mom you spend just as much time feeding your children as you do educating them?  Some days I feel like I stay in the kitchen from the moment I wake up until bedtime!  I suppose most kids wake up hungry–at least mine certainly do.  Most of the time I don’t actually cook for breakfast.  We do sometimes have grits or eggs, so those do have to be cooked, but it’s not a lot of trouble and there’s not a lot of cleaning involved afterward.  Other times we just have cereal or granola bars.  Once in a while (more often in the summer) I make fruit smoothies.  That does require using and cleaning the blender, but it’s still not too time-consuming or a lot of mess.

I thought I would share our favorite smoothie recipe with you.  It’s easy and so yummy! 

Mary Grace’s Favorite Fruit Smoothie

1 small container yogurt (we like strawberry or strawberry/banana)

2 frozen bananas

1 (or 2) cups of frozen unsweetened strawberries

1/2 to 1 cup milk (depending on how thick you like your smoothies)

1/2 to 1 cup apple, orange, or grape juice

1/4 cup sugar (if needed–taste it first)

We just put all of the ingredients in the blender making sure to add the liquids and yogurt first to keep from shorting out the blender.  Then we blend it until the ingredients are smooth.  We like ours pretty thick and sometimes eat it with a spoon.  If you want yours thinner, just add more milk or juice.

Lunch is a bit more complicated.  I would rather just skip lunch most of the time rather than interrupt the day and make a big mess in the kitchen.  My children, however, don’t usually agree with me.  Thankfully they aren’t too terribly hard to please when it comes to lunch, though.  Many times we just have sandwiches.  Sometimes we have carrots and broccoli with ranch dressing as dip.  Occasionally we just have red grapes and pieces of cheese with whole wheat crackers.  Once in a while I will make a pizza or corned beef soup since that’s quick and easy to make.  It’s actually one of the few things that my older daughter, who has autism, will eat that the rest of the family enjoys too.  It may sound questionable, but we all love it.  Here is our recipe:

Corned Beef Soup

1 box (16 oz.) uncooked elbow macaroni (We use Tinkyada brand brown rice pasta that we order from the health food store because it’s gluten free.  You can use regular macaroni noodles or whole wheat or brown rice like we do.  The brown rice noodles taste just like "regular" noodles and don’t get so soft and mushy.) 

1 container of corned beef (found in my grocery store where the canned chicken and other canned meats are found)

2 cans of diced tomatoes–(we like petite diced since the chunks of tomato are smaller)

2 cans of tomato sauce–regular size, not the little ones

salt to taste

Cook the noodles as directed.  (I boil mine for 2 minutes, turn the burner off, cover the pot, and let the noodles sit for 20 minutes.  Then I drain and rinse them and return them to the pot.)  Then add both cans of diced tomatoes and both cans of tomato sauce.  Chip up the corned beef and add it to the pot too.  Carefully stir it all together so you don’t cause the noodles to break apart.  Add salt if needed.  You may not need to add salt since the tomatoes and sauce have salt in them, so be sure to taste it first. 

For dinner in the evenings, I have been using my cast iron cookware more often lately.  I don’t know why I haven’t always used it, but I guess I just never got in the habit.  I will try to remember to share some of my cast iron cooking recipes another day.  I will tell you that green beans cooked in my cast iron skillet are very  yummy!  I just melt the butter in the skillet first.  Then I add the green beans.  We used canned green beans, so we don’t have to add water.  If you use frozen, I suppose you would need to add some water too.  Then I add salt and cook on low heat for at least 15 or 20 minutes or sometimes longer if I have time.  You won’t believe the difference that cooking the green beans in cast iron makes to the taste! 

Now I would love for some of you folks who don’t normally leave comments (or some of you who do occasionally leave one) to share a quick and easy recipe with me!  Just think about one that you don’t even need a recipe for because it’s so easy you can make it from memory.  I know I’m always looking for quick and easy recipes and snack ideas too.  I would love it if you would share yours with me!

Homeschool Library Builder is a business dedicated to providing good quality literature for good prices.  The business is run by two Christian homeschooling moms.   HSLB offers books that go along with some popular and respected homeschool curriculums as well as unit studies.  Of course they love providing books for other homeschool families, but students in other educational settings will enjoy their books as well. 

Their books may be new or used, hardcover or softcover.  Many of them are publisher’s remainders or overstocks.  The books are priced according to their condition, but most of them are in very good condition.  Also, you can check to see if they have a particular book you need or you can request that they try to find it if they don’t have it in stock. 

If you would like to become a member of Homeschool Library Builder (membership is free), then you can be a part of their Membership Rewards Program.  This means that, for every dollar you spend, you get 1 point added to your account.  When you accumulate  15 points, you earn $1 toward your next book purchase.  You may also earn extra Book Points by telling your friends about HSLB.   For every  first-time purchaser who becomes a member and uses your name as their referral, you get 15 points added to your account for free.

You may want to sign up to receive occasional emails telling about sales.  I just signed up so I haven’t yet started receiving their emails.  I have some Crew friends who signed up last year, though, who have promised me that HSLB will not fill up my inbox with lots of emails.  They also said that the customer service they received from HSLB was great! 

If you are like me and LOVE books, this may be something you would like to check into.  Books can be so expensive, so I am always happy to learn about new places to buy good books at discounted prices.  I am going to give HSLB a try.  If you decide to try them out as well, I would love to hear about it.  Happy reading!

NOTE:  This review was written for the TOS Homeschool Crew.  I did not receive any compensation for writing this review.  The opinions expressed here are my own.