Birthday Cake Practice Cakes

Do you remember when I posted about cake pan substitutions and the plans for the birthday cake for Miss Pear?

Well progress is being made.

The first trial cake was on the dry side with not enough icing, and Miss Pear adores icing.

Yesterday I made trial cake number 2, again, just using a box mix that I got on sale...with a coupon.

I once again lined my half sheet pan with wax paper and cooking spray over and under it. I put it in for 22 minutes and when I checked it, it was cooked perfectly!

Plus, I doubled the icing, and while that is a bit on the lots side, it will be perfect for the birthday girl!

So now, all I have to do is decide on an actual cake recipe!

We are slowly moving forward!

Names of Jesus Garland

I was so happy when we found the perfect Easter craft at Monica's! We made it, it turned out great, and it accomplished the purpose I had for it - to both decorate and help little ones learn the story of Easter.

Well, Easter is over, so it was time to take it down, but I really loved it! So I made another one using the I AM statements in John with the names on the front, the verses on the back (a couple have two verses, and the I am at the beginning has the Exodus verse), and the name of Jesus in the middle!


What I also love about this is that is keeps scripture in front of me all day. In the days before children time in the Bible of a couple hours was not unheard of. Obviously that does not happen anymore, but I subscribe to the theory that children are not a distraction they are the sermon! So now I get creative with how I feed myself scripture, and this is working great!

So not only is it a wonderful reminder of our Lord, and an excellent way to teach scripture memory to all of us, but it also fills the awkward spot about our fireplace! Really, what more could a lady want?

Homeschoolers? Why do you ask?

This is the menagerie on our kitchen counter right now.

In the background you can see two sweet potatoes sprouting to hopefully retry our gardening fiasco. Miss Pear thinks this is great.

In the front in the green cup we have the obligatory avocado seed set to sprout which was started when Baby started eating avocados and Miss Pear asked what the pit is, what it does, etc.

And in the jar is the experiment we started this morning...growing salt crystals.

Yes, we are just a bunch of science geeks around here....

Homeschooling Week 7: G and 6

We are reading lots of Little Jewel Books* because Miss Pear calls them the books about the girls.

Bible Reading Time (at the breakfast table):

• God's Wisdom for Little Girls: Virtues and Fun from Proverbs 31 (we love this book so much, it is based on Proverbs 31 and is affectionately known as Rubies to Miss Pear. If you have a sweet little girl in your life I cannot recommend this highly enough!)
  
• The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes Gift Edition
  
• A chapter a day so that we finish Matthew and begin Mark
  

Scripture Memory:

• Read Story for G in Teach Them to Your Children: An Alphabet of Biblical Poems, Verses, and Stories
• Memorize John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
  
• Review A, B, C, D, E and F verse throughout the day
• Review Lord's Prayer as we almost have it
  

Read Aloud:

• Little House in the Big Woods Book and Charm (Charming Classics)
  

Everyday Activities:

• Alpha-Phonics: A Primer For Beginning Readers (Using the letter recognition in the back, and we love it)
• Number recognition - a little chart I made up based on Alpha-phonics.
• About 3 Workbook** (we should finish it this week).
• Bigger Steps ** (this is the next book in the preschool series)
  

Baking to work in: Granola bars, Great fudge, possibly gingerbread cookies
Meals to work in: Garden Supper Casserole, Granola Oatmeal

Monday:

• Read "My 'G' Book"
• Read ABC of Canada
  
• Read David and Goliath (Samuel 17)
  
• G is for Goliath Coloring Page and Tracing Page
• G is for Grasshopper Tracing Page (Alphabet Buddies)
  

Tuesday:

• Read God Loves His Precious Children: Safe in the Arms of the Good Shepherd (George, Elizabeth (Insp))
• Read God Knows My Name
  
• Read Bible Count*
• Read "My Six Book"
• Six Tracing Page (number buddies tracing page)
• Six Number Buddy Coloring Page
  
• Fuzzy #6 (construction paper, glue, cotton balls)
• Game: Number Start: Fun Games for Learning About Numbers (it starts out teaching patterns, which a excellent math teacher maintains is essential to helping children understand math easier, this was a gift/hand me down from friends with older children)
  

Wednesday

• Read "My 'G' Book"
• Read Helping Mother**
• Read Happy Helpers**
  
• Read Hannah is a Helper
  
• G is for Girl tracing page
• Make Paper Girls (paper doll chains)
  

Thursday

• Read Elsie Waits Patiently*
• Read Baking Day*
  
• Read Learning My Numbers*
• Read "My Six Book"
• 6 Tracing Page (number buddies tracing page)
• Number in a Jar #6 - put 6 stickers in jar, do tracing, color
  
• Color and decorate #6 (Use large template)
• Game: Learning To Sequence 4-Scene Set, 48 Picture Cards, PreK-3 (Yet another fun thing we already had around the house).
• Craft: Ice Cream Cone Scoop Craft for Numbers scoop #6 (in the evening, this is the Daddy craft and the ice cream cone is growing up my kitchen wall)

Friday

• Read "My 'G' Book
• A Little Girl After God's Own Heart: Learning God's Ways in My Early Days
  
• Baby Giraffe (San Diego Zoo Animal Library)
  
• G is for Grasshopper Tracing Page (Alphabet Buddies)
  
• Giraffe Coloring Page
• Giraffe Craft (if the day is rushed we will hold this until the weekend)
  

* From Rod and Staff
**Rod and Staff online is not the same company as the Rod and Staff catalog, even though they carry the same stuff as the catalog plus others. Often the best pricing and regular discounts on items published by Rod and Staff Catalog comes from the catalog, available upon request at 1-606-522-4348.

An Almost 4 Year Old's Birthday List

1. Red Wagon
2. Sparkle Glue (glitter writers or glitter glue)
   
3. Telescopio ("Daddy, telescopio is Spanish for telescope") "for looking at the stars and moon" (Someone in our family has one they don't use and has promised to ship it to us).
   
4. Map (of North America) She is always asking where things are.
   
5. Books

Wild Week

You may have noticed from yesterday's post that we are having a bit of a week. (Kind of like "having a bit of a day" ... bonus points if you can tell me what show that is no longer making new episodes that comes from).

And while I had my suspicions, I was not really sure.

But now I know the cause.

Guess who finally got her first tooth...

...I anticipate a follower shortly.

(Also, this same little 7 month old sweetie is officially in 12 month clothing, and even some of that is small...)

Rinse and Repeat

Sometimes being a mom is a lot like the directions on a shampoo bottle...the one that says rinse and repeat.

It seems as though laundry is never done because as soon as you wash everything in the wash pile it is time for bed and the pile starts again, or someone spits up, or spills.

As soon as one meal is done you are preparing the next or doing baking.

As soon as you rotate through your cleaning schedule it is time to start again.

As soon as you get the littlest one down for a nap the neighbor's gardener comes, pulls into your drive way, grinds the gears, pulls out and parks in front of your neighbors and makes a racket doing their work and wakes up your baby. (okay, maybe that one is just me).

And then, just for fun, you throw in teething....

Being a mom is not easy. It is not all kisses, cuddles, and stories.

But I have said it before, and I will say it again. The toughest day at home is still better than best day at work...

Plus I have 2 happy sleeping girls, lots of picture books read, and 6 banana loaves to show for my morning's work!

Apples for Baby

The pears that had me searching for steaming instructions on Monday were a great success. Baby practically inhaled them yesterday for lunch! The fun thing is that I steamed them in my fuzzy logic rice cooker! I love a multitasking kitchen tool!

So now we move on to the next baby food preparation.

I have a dozen gorgeous Jonagold apples to make into applesauce for Baby Pear. Normally I would bake these for the best flavor, but we are having record breaking heat here, so I am looking for plan B. So I searched and discovered this site with great apple ideas! So I had to share because from the comments it was clear that we are not the only ones going through this right now.

And I have heard to say numerous times that, "We moms have to help eachother out!"

So what baby foods are huge hits around your house?

Making Baby Food

For a lot of reasons we have chosen to make our own baby food. When we asked our pediatrician about it when Miss Pear was born (after getting lots of flack about wanting to do that from other moms) he said that the only thing better than making our own baby food with fruits and veggies bought from the store would be to first grow them ourselves in the backyard. Baby's pediatrician is on board too. (Yes, we did talk to them about it because making what is in season means deviating from the suggested schedule of foods...not that it would bother us, but we try not to deliberately antagonize the doctors we love plus we wanted to see what advice they might have...besides a thumbs up!)

My method is extremely complicated. Prep veggies or fruit. Steam them. Puree them (adding a bit of the steaming water if needed for consistency). Freeze them.

Yup, like I said, you might want to take notes!

Any ways, sometimes things come up that I am not sure about. Such as how long do you steam pears for?

I didn't know.

So I searched on swagbucks. (surely you are using swagbucks so that you too can get free book money?)

And found this gem of a site on making homemade baby food! While I have only followed their time for steaming pears, there are some great ideas on there I would like to try!

Homeschooling week...umm...6.5?

We are taking a week off. Just because.

We started homeschooling at this age (almost 4) for 2 key reasons.
1. We really feel like this is God's plan for our family and we wanted to start before we had to so that we had time to figure this out!
2. Miss Pear kept asking to learn to read (and knit). Nope, not kidding.

But we are taking a break because Miss Pear had a mental developmental leap, she is suddenly doing things she could not before that no one really taught her, just new stuff happening in that really sweet smart brain. So we are taking a week off to let her get stuff assimilated as we know from past experience that when this happens it is best to just let it happen and not try to teach new stuff.

So our plan for this week is:

Bible Reading Time (at the breakfast table):

• God's Wisdom for Little Girls: Virtues and Fun from Proverbs 31 (we love this book so much, it is based on Proverbs 31 and is affectionately known as Rubies to Miss Pear. If you have a sweet little girl in your life I cannot recommend this highly enough!)
  
• The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes Gift Edition
  
• A Chapter in Matthew
  

Scripture Memory:

• Review
• Maybe start learning the Lord's Prayer as she is already very familiar with it (we say it in church every Sunday and Miss Pear LOVES it when she knows stuff like that...hence her favorite church song is the Doxology!)
  

Read Aloud:

• Charlotte's Web
• Little House in the Big Woods Book and Charm (Charming Classics)
• And lots and lots of picture books

Other:

• Bake banana bread (a favorite of hers)
• Bake cinnamon buns (honestly, she keeps asking me to teach her to make them so that she can make them all on her own)
• Color lots
• Maybe make hand lilies
• If Miss Pear asks to trace, which she often does, pull out review pages (I always print a couple extra) and just let her have fun.
  
• Just go with it....explore what interests her. This is a key to our homeschooling. Whatever she is interested in we go with and we go as far as we can for her, stopping when we reach her outer limits.
  

Baby Update

When Baby completed her harness treatment a week and a half ago we were told that in a couple weeks we could expect her to have a physical developmental growth spurt as she learns that she can move her legs more, and learns how to move them. It would not happen while she was in the harness for 12 hours and out for 12 hours because her body was still trained to keep her knees up even during the free time.

So we were prepared to wait a couple weeks before we saw much.

She rolled over on Wednesday. (Back to front, turning to her left)

When you put her on her activity mat she wiggles back and forth and travels down...and in circles.

In her crib she turns.

When you hold her up she tries braces her feet and tries to jump, and she thinks it is great fun.

So much for waiting a couple weeks, we barely waited a week to see this in full force. It makes me wonder what the next couple weeks will hold!

Oh, and the most active leg is the one with the hip that required treatment!

Doughnut Day

Two weeks ago tomorrow we had "D is for Doughnut" Day, and it was great!

We read a new favorite book from Rod and Staff called Doughnut Day!

I love that in this book it is a mother and daughter making doughnuts together, and that the focus is on sharing the doughnuts, not how yummy and how many we can eat!

So we made our doughnuts using this recipe, and they were delicious!

When we went to share them with 3 neighbor families, only one family was home! Miss Pear was very disappointed! But the one family who was home was very surprised and enthusiastic!

So when we came home I called some friends who live about 10 minutes away to arrange a bedtime snack! They brought their two daughters over in their pajamas and had a snack while the adults had the same snack...except we had tea and coffee instead of chocolate milk.

It was an extra special treat for a little girl who was very generous with her doughnuts, all 2 and a half dozen of them!

And the best part?

The next day when I asked her what her favorite part was? She said having her friends over for a snack and sharing her doughnuts.

Cake Pan Substitutions

It is time to start auditioning cakes for Miss Pear's birthday.

My plan is to make 2 half sheet pans of cake, cut them in half, and have 4 layers.

The cake must be chocolate.

The filling must be raspberry.

The icing must be purple (her favorite color).

But I could not find a cake recipe that called for half sheet pans, so I started to think if I could make a substitution for pan size, and I can!

All the substitution wonder is found here, every cake pan substitution you could want including baking time changes!

Springtime Bliss

There is one thing you can say about Canadians, besides the fact we tend to be funny (it is all that winter, we have to amuse ourselves while we hibernate!), and that is that we love our hockey. And the epitome of the hockey season is about to begin!

My husband and I cheer for different teams. We can agree on deep theological things, we cannot agree on hockey teams. But both our teams made it to the playoffs. For which we are thankful. My husband forbids me to cheer for his team, when I do they have a statistically higher shot of losing...honestly...I was a statistics geek and I can prove it...the losing thing, not the geek thing. Anyhow, our teams will only play against each other if both make it to the finals, and history tells us that one of them is bound to mess up long before that.

And if you are all wondering about the hockey fans acting weird suddenly, there is a great explanation on nhl.com here! If you know a hockey fan, you will enjoy it.

Why to I post this here? After all, this is mostly a blog about being a wife, mom and homemaker.

Well, in Canada it is a parent's patriotic duty to provide good hockey instruction, our kids learn to skate shortly after they can walk steadily, as in usually in the first winter after they turn 2, with lots of help, knee pads and a helmet. And if a date takes you to a hockey game, that is a very nice date.

Also, women in Canada usually love hockey as much as the men and host a lot of watch parties for the playoffs, and that means pulling out our best recipes, and matching them to the teams and team colors as much as possible! (No, really, I am not kidding).

Plus, if your family cheers for different teams it can get very competitive, in a fun way, to see whose team makes it the furthest. (And you will be eating proverbial dirt if your team is out first!)

So around here we are gearing up! And if one of our teams make it to the finals you better believe I will be planning special meals for each night they play as we all glue ourselves to watch! (And making cake with color coordinated icing....ooh, I think I even have sprinkles to match Mr. Pear's team colors!)

(image from NHL.com)

Laying aside my rights

There is nothing like a little indignation about something else to highlight something in your own life that needs some fixing. Really. It is enough to make me want to hide under the covers.

In our neighborhood there is a Christian school. In our region parents often put their kids in private Christian schools for the moral stuff and high standards, not because they are Christian families. The parents of this school are instructed to follow the drop off and pick up procedures, and many do. But then there are those who don't. Because of that we have a parking ban during pick up and drop off hours. But that does not stop parents from parking any ways, and then acting indignant when they get a ticket. It does not stop parents from slowly circling the block and then stopping in the middle of no where (as in not near the curb) to pick up their kids, and acting indignant when the car behind them would honk to get through or they get a ticket. It does not stop the parents from pulling in and out of our drive ways to turn around, and there have been near accidents about this. And the way the parents have been seen double parking to talk and walking their children down the middle of the street (and not moving for cars) I fear that there will one day be an serious accident! But when you honk they look at you with a look of "how dare you".

It hurts my heart when I hear non-Christian neighbors talking about "those Christians" at the school and how rude and terrible they are. It hurts because for some of these neighbors that is the clearest example of Christian behavior they see, even if many of these parents may not even be Christians. And it makes my heart hurt.

I cannot fix every wrong in the world, I know that.

But I want to know how to fix the wrong in my neighborhood.

But I realize that my example is not always great, it stinks sometimes too. I get frustrated and annoyed and worldly and behave just as badly sometimes.

And at the root of the problem is the human insistence to insist on my rights, on my convenience, on my desires.

And I have to give that up.

I have to give that up because what my rights are, what my convenience is, what my desire is must always rank well after what the Lord wants.

And that means that I may be the only counter example that some of my neighbors see.

And that is a very scary responsibility.

But I pray that the Lord will help me to love my family, my friends, and my neighbors as He wills, that He will love them through me.