Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

My mom used to make these cookies when I was a kid that we all loved, and they were super easy with only three ingredients. The only thing was the ingredients weren't exactly what you would call healthy :) 

The three ingredients were peanut butter, eggs, and splenda....now I'm not the kind of kid to contradict my mother, but since I'm fairly certain she doesn't read my blog..(if you do, I love you mama)....she thought they were healthy because she used splenda, while at the same time using sweetened peanut butter. Neither of which are exactly the best thing for you, so I decided to try to THM-ify them, and the results are delicioso! 

So, here's my Trim Healthy Mama version of these yummy, and super easy cookies!

Ingredients-

-1 cup of all natural sugar free peanut butter

-5 teaspoons of  Truvia (plus a little dash of nunaturals stevia if you want them extra sweet...I liked them with just the Truvia.)

-2 eggs

You can also add a splash of vanilla if you want, but that would make them no longer 3 ingredient cookies, and 4 ingredient cookies sounds so much more complicated :P

Mix all your ingredients up in a bowl...I used my electric mixer to make it go a little quicker. Spoon them out onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. I have a little cookie scoop that makes them just the right size, and easier to spoon out, but a couple of regular ole' spoons works great too. With a wet finger or a wet fork, or if you want a fork dipped in some truvia for a little extra sweetness, pat your cookies down. Bake in the oven at 350* for about 10-12 minutes, and voila...super easy, super tasty cookies! 

Blessings,

sara

Linking up with: 

The Shrinker Latte

So, I'm in love with the new Trim Healthy Mama drink, The Shrinker. I drink it at least once a day, so I decided to see what else I could do with this delicious chai like drink. And I made a frozen latte with it, and it is YUM! 

All the power of Oolong tea in a icy cold drink....starbucks...Move over!!!

Here's the recipe....

-Steep 2 tea bags of oolong tea in 8 oz of boiling water until it's a comfortable enough temperature to handle....about 20-30 minutes. 

-Put it in your blender and add about 2-3 shakes of cinnamon and 1-2 shakes of cayenne pepper, or more to your taste

-Add 8 oz of unsweetened almond milk, one scoop of whey protein powder, a dash of vanilla, a couple dashes of sea salt. 

-Add sweetener. I used 3 tsp of truvia and a couple dashes of nunaturals stevia. 

-Add one to one and a half trays of ice, and turn the blender on. 

-With the blender running, add 1/4 tsp of glucomannan. Run for about 30 seconds, turn off for about 30 seconds and then run again for another 30 seconds to a minute. 

-Pour into a big ole quart jar, top with some fat free Reddi Whip, and sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and enjoy the awesomeness!

This would be a FP, but alternately you could add cream if you wanted it as an S. 

Lifestyle Learning and Goals for my children and I

Ok, I think I've found it....what I'm wanting school to look like for us on a daily basis. I've been trying to define that very thing for months without success...I've tried something only to have that aching feeling that this is not what it's about for us. I allowed myself to get so caught up in what our homeschool *should* look like, that I hardly considered what I felt was right. 

A  year or so ago, I found the blog of mom who's been there, done that in the homeschooling world. She raised 4 wonderful and intellectual children and homeschooled them all the way through. There's so much wisdom to be gleaned from these moms who've scaled the mountain and seen the other side. Unfortunately shortly after I found her blog, and started taking in every bit of wisdom that she had to offer, she decided to close her blogs. I read what I could, and left it at that. But her style of education truly spoke to my heart, and I wanted to know more. But I put it away for a while, and went about my own thing, still feeling a bit unsettled in our day to day of home education. 

I was pleased as punch though to run across a sort of archive of her homeschooling posts, and I went through and gobbled them all up. And I found the missing link of what I was looking for. In one of her posts, she speaks of the three things that she requires of her children each day. They were reading, writing, and math. It was implied that they also did chores and Bible study, and spent less time in front of a screen and more time living life and learning, which is so important! 

She said for reading they could read whatever they wanted as long as it was good quality writing. She said, they read together and on their own, and all throughout their day. 

For writing, they could write whatever they wanted to write, so long as they wrote. Essays, poems, copywork, dictation, journals, letters, etc. She didn't worry about teaching writing style, so long as they wrote. If she saw recurring mistakes, she made it a point to help them fix it. 

And for math, they did math according to their own level of understanding. 

I love it! The simplicity, the common sense of it! 

I propose to find my own way within these guidelines for my own group of eager learners. 

So here are my own personal guidelines for our homeschooling experience. I will require six things from my children each day, and they are:

1. Time spent in God's Word-getting to know their Creator personally and in depth. Building godly character. Reading through their Bibles together as a family and on their own. 

2. Reading-As was said above, whatever so long as it's quality writing. I'm going to ask the older children to choose 5 different books when they go to the library each week- a biography, a science book, a historical book, a literature or poetry book, and a book of their choice. I won't make them read all of those, but I want them to have the variety to choose from. We will also read daily together as a family. I use meal times and bedtimes as anchors in our day, so we do a little reading during/after each meal and at bedtime. 

3. Writing-Again...they can write whatever, so long as they write each day! I will keep a list of ideas for them to choose from if they need them. 

4. Arithmetic-We will choose this together as to what will fit them best. 

5. Chores-A given. We're a large family, we work together to make our home an enjoyable place to live. 

6. Less screen time, more real life learning and living-Self explanatory. I've allowed my children to get far to friendly with gaming and screen time. They need to experience real life, and all the wonderful things it has to offer. I want them to observe nature, build things, create things, and just take it all in. You can't do that when you're staring at a screen all day. 

And lastly, a personal goal for myself. I want my children to see that learning never stops. It goes on and on all through adulthood. I want them to see me learning and living and creating, and not just surviving, or spending too much time online. I want to come up with a cottage business we can do together as a family, and that they can help me with, and I want us to grow our own food, and raise animals, and paint and fix up our home together. I want them to see that our lives are worth living, and getting to know God and His great creation should be our highest priority. 

Thanks for letting me share my heart and my goals for my children and I. Now it's time to stop talking about and get to it! Be blessed!

Unit Studies Made Easy Review

A few weeks ago, I made a feeble attempt at starting school with my kids.....and found after the first few days, that we were quickly floundering under the stress and disorganization of what I was trying to do. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong, but realized, I just wasn't quite ready to start school with a newborn in tow just yet, so we took a step back, and I realized that one of our biggest issues is our struggle with following and sticking with a good routine, and my kids (and mine in some things) lack of knowledge about properly keeping our home as we should. I didn't know what to do with that just yet, but just resigned myself to take it slow, and thought that maybe it would help if we planned a yard sale to get rid of some our clutter. We've spent the last couple of weeks going through and doing quite a bit of decluttering throughout the house, and will be having a big yard sale this coming Saturday. 

While working on decluttering, however, I started searching around the internet for some ideas and encouragement regarding homeschooling. I was considering trying another pre-planned unit study, something like KONOS, because I just didn't think I could pull together something myself in any sort of organized fashion....I was doing some research on these types of curriculum, and feeling discouraged, because our track record with these types of units have not gone over well with us in the past. I always feel too tied down, or get overwhelmed with all the projects and crafts. Well, a few nights ago, I stumbled upon a book I had heard of before, but for some reason dismissed. The book was Unit Studies Made Easy by Valerie Bendt....I looked through the previews, and thought, why not...what else do I have to lose. 

Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This large collection is full of so much great wisdom, and I repeatedly found myself physically nodding in agreement, and thinking, that's exactly what I've been wanting to do! She takes my whole thoughts on this method of homeschooling and puts it into a practical easy to do way! She covers so much information in this more than 300 page book! 

Some of the things I've found wonderful are:

-Practical tips for pulling together your own unit studies
-She references my two favorite homeschool authors often....Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason

-How to use your library for doing units, including how to find appropriate poetry, art, or music to go along with your unit

-Including Biblical principles in your unit

-The importance of copywork and dictation

-Lots of ideas for unit studies and things to include

-There is a section on teaching reading that I have gotten many ideas from as well

-She talks about the importance of routines, but with flexibility

As far as negatives...the only thing I felt was really missing was I wanted to read more about how she incorporated writing into her units. Though she does give many suggestions! 

I'm super excited about our upcoming unit that I've already started planning, and you'll see that it's a bit outside the box for a unit study, but one that I know our family will greatly benefit from! 

If you're looking for a way to put together your own homeschool curriculum so that you can do what you know is best for your family, and save money while doing it, this is a great book! It's the perfect book for a mom who is looking to homeschool her large (or small) family using a relaxed, family oriented, unit study! It's not going to be for moms who need the step by steps of homeschooling completely laid out for you, but there is still so much information to glean from it, that I think anyone can benefit from reading this book! 

Blessings, 

sara

Ten Reasons to Love Trim Healthy Mama

I've been trying to put into words to friends and family why it is that I love this new lifestyle change that I've made for my family and I. Trim Healthy Mama, as the books says, is not just a fad, it is a way of life! 

So here are my top ten reasons to love Trim Healthy Mama:

1. Chocolate

Never have I seen a diet (for lack of a better word) where you are allowed to eat chocolate in greater amounts than that of a chocolate kiss without being made to feel guilty. I get to enjoy things like skinny chocolate, chocolate nut slab, and (oh my word!) chocolate volcano mudslide muffin in a mug....all without a tinge of guilt!

2. Family friendly

I'm a mom of many, and the one thing I did not want was a diet that made me have to make my family and I separate meals every day. Creating twice the work making my family a delicious meal while I have to sit and eat rabbit food or cardboard is not my idea of enjoyable. And while I generally eat something different for breakfast, lunch, and snacks than my family, (because usually those meals are pretty quick and easy to fix for both of us), I'm able to make one simple meal for dinner, with just an extra side dish of homemade bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes for the ones who are not wanting or needing to lose weight. 

3. Homemade

This may not be a favorite of everyone, but one thing I love about this way of eating is it still feeds my need to make all things homemade. And yet if I really need to I can buy things ready made. But I can still make things like homemade dressings, bread, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. As well as delicious homemade meals for everyone. 

4. Tweak-ability

I have never used the word tweak more than when I started THM. You tweak things to the taste you want, and you can tweak meals to make them THM friendly. You can take a basic recipe such as the chocolate nut slab (pg 372), and add different ingredients for a different flavor, such as almonds and coconut for an almond joy treat, or peanut butter for a Reese's peanut butter treat, etc. While I've made several of the THM recipes in the book, I've managed to take many of our family favorite meals and adjust them in different ways to make them on plan. 

5. Chocolate

Oh, wait, I already mentioned this one :p It bears repeating though. How many of us have gone on diets, starving ourselves and feeling miserable, only to hit a certain time of the month or a stressful moment, and crash and burn....and what is the first thing we usually turn to...chocolate. With THM, that's not a problem. 

6. Results

I first learned about THM in the weeks just before I had my little one over 2 months ago. After having her, I purchased the book, and started just trying a few things out, while still mostly eating our regular diet, and I still saw amazing results in those 7 weeks. And since really getting on board a few weeks ago, it's even more amazing. It feels almost effortless! Another result is for my nursing baby, I have had an overabundance of good healthy milk for her! 

7. Energy

Since starting THM, I can truly say I have never had more energy. In fact I'm struggling with getting enough sleep, not because I have a 2 month old baby, but because I have so much excess energy! In the weeks since starting this plan, I have walked miles without tiring, ran with my kids, and my house has never looked cleaner.  (although I do have 5 children, and it regularly turns in to a disaster area) but I have the strength and energy to get up and deal with it, and see to it that I stay on top of the kids for keeping up with their chores. 

8. Ease of Use

I won't deny that there is a definite learning curve here. That's why it took me a good solid 7 weeks postpartum to decide to fully devote myself to this way of eating. You have to learn the lingo and all the particulars of the plan, and you have to find your own way with it. What works for one family may not work for yours. But once you find your way, it's extremely simple and doable. And this is coming from a woman who gets extremely overwhelmed when things get complicated. 

9. Community

I think one of the biggest helps in the adventure for me, has been the whole THM community. You can join the boards either at their forum or on facebook, and you can get answers, encouragement, and lots of tips and recipes, even from the authors themselves. You can go on there and share a struggle and within moments have a barrage of  encouraging words from women who know what you're going through! Not to mention all the great recipes that you can find on pinterest!

10. Did I mention chocolate?

So ya'll can see, I'm a fan. I'm loving this whole new way of life for myself and my family! I hope you can be encouraged to look into it if you are looking for some positive changes! 

Blessings, 

sara

Trim Healthy Mama-2 Weeks In

Well, I am now officially 2 weeks in to this trim healthy mama adventure, (see my getting started post here) and I gotta say, it's definitely getting easier. I have had my moments, a few cheats here and there, but nothing major. The big news is that I am down a total of 13 pounds in two weeks of doing this! I couldn't be happier! I feel great! I have more energy than I've ever had, and I'm getting so many compliments and comments on how noticeable my weight loss is! 

Some other milestones other than the 13 pound weight loss are:

-I am now in the 170's! I haven't seen that number since I was a junior in high school!

-I can now almost fit into a size 14. It's still a little snug, but it won't be long! 

-I can also comfortably wear a medium shirt now, down from an extra large!

-I ran with my kids without the usual horrible knee pain following today!

Here's a picture of me and my little lady taken before church the other day. 

Some things I'm noticing, good and bad, about my eating habits, are:

-I'm learning to listen to my body, and eat the right fuel at the right times. I can tell when I'm really needing an E meal, as I will suddenly have that "just hit a brick wall" feeling. 

-I've learned that I can not skip a meal, because I will end up crashing and eating whatever I can get to first, healthy or not. 

-I've also learned to keep easy snacks around, even if it's just veggies, cheese, or nuts. When hunger strikes, if I'm not able to make something right then, little things like that help hold me off until I get back to the kitchen. 

-I need to keep snacky things around at meal times also, because I've found that I tend to graze too much while I'm cooking. So having little bits of on plan foods sitting out while I'm fixing dinner, keeps me from going for the bad stuff. 

-And lastly I've learned, it is actually possible to use your blender more than 4 times a day :)

Here are some of my favorite THM meals, snacks, or drinks that I enjoyed this week:

Cookie dough greek yogurt

1 tbsp all natural peanut butter, Stevia to taste, 1 tbsp mini dark chocolate chips, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 single serving plain Greek Yogurt (about a cup)

Mix everything but the chocolate chips up. I found the blender did a better job at this than I could. Add the chocolate chips, (I did use sugar free chocolate chips from the store, until I can find or make a better THM alternative), and then put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes, and it's delicious! This was a pinterest recipe that did not have a link to share, but thank you to whoever created this yummy dish! 

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Mint Green Tea Latte'

From the THM files

Steep green tea or mint green tea in 8-10 oz of boiled water for 3 minutes. Cover the mug with a small plate to hold in the heat. 

1 Tbs coconut oil (extra virgin recommended)

1 Tbs butter (unsalted, grass fed recommended)

1-2 Tbs of cream

Stevia to taste

Dash of vanilla

3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil or 1/2 tsp peppermint extract if using plain green tea

Dash of salt (optional

8 oz hot green tea or mint green tea

3-4 oz unsweetened almond milk

Blend for 90 seconds. 

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Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Shake

Go over to Kristy's for this wonderful recipe and lots of others that she has come up with for THM. It really does taste like Reese's Peanut Butter Cup! Yum!

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Zucchini Pizza Sticks

These are super easy! All you have to do is slice your zucchinis in half , scoop out a little bit of the inside to make a little well for your toppings, top with sauce, cheese, and whatever else you like. We just did turkey pepperoni, and some seasonings. Throw it in the oven at 350* for about 40 minutes. It literally takes me like 10 minutes to put this together. This is another pinterest recipe that had no link, but it's super easy!

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Earth Milk

Pg 425 of THM

I don't have a picture of this, because to be honest it looks just plain gross. But I decided to brave it this week, and as I prepared myself for the worst, because even though I'm not a picky person, the combination of ingredients in this very different drink, I just could not imagine it being palatable. But, no joke, it's not that bad at all! The name earth milk definitely suits it. It has a very earthy taste, (never knew what "earthy" tasted like until I tried this recipe :) and the addition of the chocolate makes it taste pretty good. Either way, it's drinkable and worth a try for the extreme nutrients in this healthy drink. I keep mine in the fridge, and a few times a day get a good swig of it to help boost my green power, and give me energy. 

That's all for this THM update. Can't wait to share more with you in the coming weeks! I've even been working on tweaking a few of our family favorites to be THM friendly! 

Blessings, 

sara

Learning Notes-July 15-19, 2013

Here's a mapping out of first week of school. We're of course still trying to figure things out, but this is a good start for our first week. This week and the coming weeks, will include lots of review, and we'll be taking things slow to get started. This is just a rough outline of what I hope to cover, we will cover more or less depending on how each day goes. I'm so excited for a new year! 

*Family read alouds, poetry, unit study work, and activities:
     -Bible-daily Proverbs; Keys for Kids; Character Building for Families-Orderliness ; Family Bible study-Romans; Daily Psalms reading
     -Memory Work-Character building verses-Proverbs 20:11 ; Salvation verses-The Roman Road to Salvation; Speed drills; Poetry memorization-My Kingdom by Robert Louis Stevenson
     -Poetry-A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
     -Literature-Chronicles of Narnia-The Horse and His Boy
     -Littles Read alouds-Little House in the Big Woods, as well as lots of short books throughout the day.
     -Unit Study read alouds-Middle ages-The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England; The Kitchen Knight; Select sections of Oxford's The Middle Ages; Geography will be utilized as we go along and look up various locations we read about
     -Unit study activities-Stain glass art; Making a castle

*The Three R's: 
  -Nicholas-
     -Reading-Devotional reading-Boyhood and Beyond; Unit study reading-The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood; Free reading 
     -Writing-Daily copy work from selected passages taken directly from our reading; Dictation 2-3 times a week from copy work; Cursive practice at least once a week (He knows cursive, but needs continued practice); Typing practice-twice a week; Daily writing-He must write every single day. All but two days of writing will be his choice, with two days of focused writing working on specific composition skills. This week we'll be focusing in on the paragraph, specifically working on topic sentences. Grammar focus-The seven parts of speech and making sure he's remembering the basics of punctuation and capitalization.
     -Arithmetic-Khan academy review; 5-a-day reviews; Speed drills-three times a week; Maximum math activities; Life of Fred reading once a week
     -Other-Keepers of the Faith Badge work-Right now he's working on orienteering along with Bible memory work

  -Madelynn-
She is going to be working on doing exercises to help her with her cross dominance every day to help her with her cross dominance issues. I'll go further into this as we see some progress.
     -Reading-Devotional reading-Beautiful Girlhood; Unit study reading- Not One Damsel in Distress-Molly Whuppie; Free reading
     -Writing-Daily copy work from selected passages taken directly from our reading; Dictation 1-2 times a week from copy work; Cursive practice at least once a week (She also knows cursive, but needs continued practice); Typing practice-twice a week; Daily writing-She must write every single day. All but two days of writing will be her choice, with two days of focused writing working on specific composition skills. This week we'll be focusing in on the paragraph, specifically working on topic sentences. Grammar focus-The seven parts of speech and making sure she's remembering the basics of punctuation and capitalization.
     -Arithmetic- 5-a-day review; speed drills; Maximum math activities; Life of Fred reading once a week
     -Other-Keepers of the Faith Badge work-Sewing

  -Emily-
She has really struggled this past year with school work. We found out it was because she was not hearing most of what was being said. She's since had surgery to put tubes in her ears that has drastically improved her hearing, however she is very behind in her reading and math skills, so we are working this year to get her caught up. She does have excellent handwriting and can proficiently write all her letters, many in cursive already, she's still not fully reading them all yet though.
     -Reading and Writing-Learning Language Arts through Literature; Activities from The Three R's by Ruth Beechick. 
     -Arithmetic-We will be doing many hands on math activities using Math on the Level and Maximum Math. Focus for this week-reviewing comparisons, classifying and sorting, and patterns. We will also play lots of math games. 
     -Other-Keepers of the Faith Badge-coloring

-Jacob-
He's a preschooler. My only plans for him is to include him in any learning we are already doing. Making sure he's doing lots of coloring, playing with play dough, and reading to him as much as I can every day. He already knows through no teaching of mine, all of his letters and their sounds, and has even started sounding out words. I will be following his lead and teaching him as I feel like he's ready for it. He also is very good with numbers and adding and subtracting. He knows all his shapes, and is like a little sponge always soaking up information. 
     

Homeschool Planning for 2013-2014

I guess I'm a creature of habit. Or maybe it's because nothing else seems to measure up the way I think it should.

We seem to follow the same pattern every school year though...We start off strong doing our own thing, tossing (most) of the school-ish looking books, and just living more of a homeschool is lifeschool approach. But then sometime around March, April, or May, I start doubting my methods, and start looking for something better.

This year, Simply Charlotte Mason caught my attention again, and we started using many of the resources from there, most we already had on hand. We really enjoyed it, and while I took a lot away from it, and other books like Karen Andreola's "A Charlotte Mason Companion", it still lacked the enjoyment of what we were doing before. So, while I was on my babymoon over the last few weeks, I decided it was time to start getting back to the basics of what has worked for us, and what we have really enjoyed. 

Here we are  at the cusp of a new school year. We start every year about mid-July while the weather is still scorching, and we can't spend much time outside, reserving more breaks for the cooler fall and spring weather. Though we really don't focus on grade levels too much here, this year I will be blessed to have an 8th grader, a 6th grader, a 3rd grader, and a preschooler, along with a baby girl in tow.

Most of what I'll be putting down here may sound familiar if you've read my blog long. But it's always nice to sit down and get all your thoughts down about the upcoming year to give you a fresh outlook. 

Here are our plans for 2013-2014:

Basically what school for us boils down to are the three R's....Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic. All other subjects fall under those three things. 

One of my biggest resources for teaching my kids!

So let's start with Reading:

Bible reading and study is the most important subject we can cover every day. If nothing else gets done, my goal is to at the very least, have read our Bibles. Here are the ways we will do this:

-Every child who is a proficient reader will have a personal time of study each morning. My oldest son is going to be reading the book Boyhood and Beyond this year as part of his devotional time, and my oldest daughter will be reading through Beautiful Girlhood. They will also work on personal memorization goals. My non-readers will have a short devotional with mom every day where we can read and talk about the Bible together, so that they may understand it better.

-We will have a time of study together as a family. Every morning at the breakfast table, we will read through the chapter of Proverbs that corresponds with the day of the month, as well as a short devotional, probably something from Keys for Kids, or something else we have around. During our family learning time we will focus in on character study. After dinner we will have a time of reading through our Bibles and discussing various chapters together as I learned from the Maxwells cds. At bedtime, we read a chapter from Psalms. We will cover many memory verses, and my hope is to have at least one whole chapter memorized by the end of the year along with several other key verses. We'll also work daily on learning new hymns. 


In addition to Bible reading, we will cover history, science, etc using unit studies. We decided to try covering larger time periods to start off with over single events or people in history, such as our first unit on the Middle ages. We will alternate with a science unit throughout the year. For most of our units we will all work together, but I do plan to have my older two do at least a couple units on their own this year. My oldest specifically will cover a unit on our state history, and on civics. For civics, we plan on using the book Under God. It's an excellent study for kids as an introduction to our government system and giving students the understanding what our duties as citizens of this country are.  

Another huge resource! So much information to help teach your children.

-The way I usually handle our family unit studies is we have a spine of some sort on our topic of choice that I read aloud, while the older two read a book or more on their own time. My 3rd grader listens in and takes part in some of the activities, but her focus is mostly on becoming a proficient reader. I expect the olders to report back to me through oral or written narration, or any other creative way they want to show me about what they've read. 

-For individual units, the children will read 2-3 books on their unit, and as before report back to me in some way what they've learned. 

-Each of my children who are reading, or are still learning to read, have free time literature that they read on their own time. 

-We also have a family literature read aloud. Right now we're in the middle of reading through the Chronicles of Narnia together. 

-At bedtime, in addition to a chapter from Psalms, we will read a poem (or a few) from a selected poet or poetry book. 

-I have a separate read aloud to read with the younger group.

-For my kids learning to read, we us multiple resources including Learning Language Arts through Literature, Bob books, and whatever I find helpful. 

Writing is just an extension of our reading: 

My kids have learned one thing this last year.....they must write something every. single. day. That's not including copywork or dictation that we do to work on learning to write well. I do not care what they write (within reason, no hate letters to the media or opposing political parties....although....just kidding:) Here's some of the writing they do:

-First there's of course the copywork and dictation. This comes directly from something we're reading. It could be a memory verse, a poem, or a paragraph from a book we're reading. Sometimes we focus in on one copy work for the week to learn dictation from, but as they get older they will sometimes do 2-3, or sometimes only dictations. It just depends on their level. We pick out selected areas to focus in on grammar work that they need to learn through the week as well. This is assigned work daily, and as I said, not considered their daily writing, only their writing practice. 

-So in addition to that, they write daily. They start off just writing a sentence or two and move up to eventually writing whole pages daily, or sometimes they can be a bit more creative doing things like advertisements, plays, or speeches. They can also write letters, they can journal, or they can write something to go along with our unit. I will sometimes give them prompts. I love the book Story Starters by Karen Andreola.

-Typing is part of writing too. Especially in this digital age, it's important to have keyboarding skills. I don't allow them to do all their writing on the computer, but do let them do so occasionally. 

-Nature study doesn't necessarily fit under writing, but it's one way we put pencil to paper. Studying God's great outdoors is an amazing way for you and your kids to connect with God and learn so much. It teaches so much more than science. It teaches patience and teaches them to have a watchful eye. We try to get out at least once a week to do this. We keep lots of field guides around for whatever we may find. 

And then there's math:

Math has been my hardest subject to teach. We had found that Math Mammoth worked the best for us this past year, and if I had my choice we would continue with it. But we came to realize that it was costing us an arm and a leg to print. It wouldn't be so bad if we could print in gray scale, but when we did that, many of the necessary illustrations didn't show up. So we are going to be doing things a little different. Our primary curriculum for math will be Math on the Level. I really love MOTL. It's a great curriculum. It's just hard for me because it's so hands on, and takes a lot of daily preparation. One way I've found to help with that, is I'm going to be using Khan Academy to help teach the more difficult topics, and then review them using our MOTL "five a days". They will cover speed drills a few times a week as well. In addition to that we will do some math reading using books from the library, and Life of Fred. 

And that about covers our school year. I'll do some more posts later on, on how I've organized our school "stuff". I'm also going to be discussing some ways I'm working on healing my oldest daughter's dyslexia. And I'm hoping, though not promising, to do a weekly post on our Learning Journal covering things we're doing during the week.

Blessings, 
sara

My New Trim Healthy Adventure

It seems to be the big thing sweeping the internet. Have you heard of it? Trim Healthy Mama. I was doubtful when my friend shared it with me, but decided to look a little more in to it. I had to admit with all the glowing testimonies that I was seeing, it was hard not to want to give it a try. But I was just really grasping a hold of the whole Nourishing Traditions way of eating, so did I really want to switch things up already? 

But as I read, I found that eating the THM way was pretty closely related. I was reading things about fermenting foods, eating sourdough, and using stevia to sweeten things, things I was already starting to do....I wasn't so sure about eating things like fat free yogurt or no longer drinking whole milk, but I decided to dive in and give it a try, and bought the less expensive e-book version. 

Now to back up a little bit, I want to share a little bit about my weighty history. I was an average sized child, never had to deal with weight issues until I got into high school. I started high school weighing around 140. An average weight for someone my size and build. But after meeting my now husband, he quickly changed the way I ate. I would try to order just one soft taco, and he would tell me I needed to eat more and order me two. I joke with him that my weight is all his fault :) but truthfully I enjoyed eating more. Slowly, but surely, however, the weight started to pile on. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was up to almost 200 lbs. I got married in high school during my senior year, and like most brides tried to lose the weight for my wedding day, but I never seemed to succeed. 

Thus began my dieting ups and downs. With my first pregnancy, about a year after we were married, I found something unusual happen. Instead of further gaining weight, I lost weight to the point that I was 20-30 lbs lighter after having the baby than I was when I got pregnant. But soon after, the weight slowly crept back up again. And with each succeeding pregnancy, the same thing would happen. I would lose weight during pregnancy, and gain it all back afterwards. 

After my fourth baby, I started having health problems. I was always very tired. I was always eating and snacking, and I was quickly packing on the pounds with my weight topping out at around 240 lbs. I found out I had an enlarged thyroid, and went through some tests to find out why, but nothing turned up too serious. I did find out it would make weight loss nearly impossible, and settled into a depression over it all. 

This is me last year at my girl's birthday party. My son thought it was funny to drench me with water after the water game we had played :)

But then a wonderful thing happened, I got pregnant with baby number five last August/September. I was so happy! And the other great news, my thyroid was back to normal! And as in past pregnancies, I started to slowly lose weight during my pregnancy. By the end of my pregnancy I weighed in at 220 lbs. 

Here I am at 39 weeks pregnant with my fifth little one. 

It was then I was introduced to THM. I got the book a week or so after the baby was born, and started reading through it. I decided to play around with a few of the recipes, and give it a try...nothing serious, just as I had the time and energy. By the time I was 2 weeks postpartum, I was already at 200 lbs. I continued to try new recipes, and at 6 weeks postpartum, I weighed in at 190. That's 50 lbs less than what I weighed when I got pregnant ya'll! 

And here I am last week at the zoo with all my kiddos, 50 lbs lighter! 

So starting this last Sunday, I decided to fully devote myself to this new way of eating. I still am not sure what to think about all the fat free options, but I'm willing to give it a try. After all, I feel it's more important for me to get to a healthy weight, more than it is to worry so much about a few changes in the types of foods I'm eating. I'm still eating good, healthy whole foods, some are just with the extra fat removed. 

I struggled at first in how to eat this way and include my family, but I'm quickly finding my way through it, and feel the Lord is really blessing my efforts. I also found that having store bought pizza in my house is a recipe for disaster, and will fully admit, I had 2 cheats during this week during dinner time....lesson learned :) 

I'll be 33 in about 6 weeks, and my goal is to be at or around 170 lbs by then. I'm nursing a little one though and am not going to sacrifice my milk supply in an effort to drop the pounds too quickly, but it's nice to have a goal set, and I will be fully happy with whatever successes I have. 

What I'm hoping to do here is share with you as I go along each week my successes and my failures, as well as recipes that I've THM-ified to fit our family, along with some tips and helps that are working for me. I'm really looking forward to the changes that are in store! 

Blessings, 

Sara

A Long Overdue Update

Well, it's been a long time..... I've come to realize that I will never be a regular blogger....I can only do what I can do...(my mantra as of late). I have been wanting to blog, but always felt stuck like I had to post things a certain way on a certain topic on a certain day... no more of that though. I'm just going to blog when I feel like blogging. 

First things first in this update is about 5 weeks ago, we welcomed our newest blessing...Isabelle Violet. She's a precious little angel, who is very laid back and is already sleeping through the night on most nights. Praise the Lord! I might try to share her birth story one of these days. 

Other than having a baby, life has been busy adjusting to life with now five children to care for. I've found myself at sort of a crossroads lately....I've got two children, one who will enter teenager-dom in about 2 months, and one who is starting to hit those turbulent pre-teen years. And then two in the middle at 8 and 4, and now a baby. I'm being stretched in ways that I didn't know I would ever be. But I love every minute of it. 

Some of the things I'm working on (as always it seems), and I'm hoping to spend some time journaling here in the coming months are...my health and weight loss journey (down 46 pounds since before I got pregnant), homeschool decisions for the coming year, and things we're doing in an effort to keep up with this messy house of ours. Lord willing, I will post a bit more regularly, though not all that often, I'm sure. 

The Lord has been good to my family and I, and I am abundantly grateful. I hope you all are blessed in whatever you are seeking to do this summer!

Blessings, 

sara

Our New Schedule

I'm a wanna-be scheduler.....there I said it....I want to schedule my days, but my whole being fights against it when I do. But I'm finding that the more children I have and the older my children get....we really need some sort of schedule to be able to get to everything we need to do each day, and while I will never be a minute by minute schedule follower, a general outline of my day anchored by specific times to stick to for meals and sleep/wake/nap times is something I feel I can do.

A couple of months ago, I set out to make just such a schedule, and we began to implement it each day....We started off strong. We were getting up early, going to bed on time, getting stuff done, but after a little more than a week, I started to fizzle out...and finally I just couldn't keep up with it anymore. I thought I was a big failure, and couldn't figure out why we started off so well, but couldn't keep up with it.

Well, we've floundered the last couple months, not really following any schedule or routine, at least not like I had been wanting to, and we've been scraping by, barely getting the minimum done. So I asked myself what did I do wrong with my original schedule. And then I realized, I was not giving myself enough "rest time". I was exhausted. This whole pregnancy has been incredibly exhausting for me...there was no 2nd trimester energy burst like with my other children, though the extreme exhaustion of the first trimester did let up some, I was still so very tired.

So with that in mind, and with the home school curriculum changes we've made, I sat down and made a new schedule for us to follow making sure we have time for all the things we need to do. Here is our new daily schedule:

Before breakfast-starting at 6am-

Wake up, make bed & straighten bedroom, get dressed, fix hair/face & straighten bathroom, wake husband up (if he's not already awake), start kettle, fix his breakfast & pack his lunch, make tea, start laundry (if needed), drink tea, read Bible, pray, & journal, take dog out & do outdoor chores, start breakfast, wake kids, kids do bedroom and bathroom chores.

Breakfast time-

Eat, take supplements, Proverbs and devotional reading, memory work, table chores, food prep for the day

After breakfast-

Kids do extra bedroom cleaning chores on Friday only(dusting, vacuuming, etc), older three do their math, mom works on chores & helps as needed, the little guy(4) does a quiet activity (coloring, playdough, etc), after math is finished, music practice, typing on Tuesday and Thursday, Family learning (Bible, history, foreign language, science, artist/composer/hymn study, etc), Reading lesson with E, older two do copywork, dictation, written narrations, grammar*), read aloud with younger two.

Lunch time-starting at 11am-

Lunch prep and eat, table chores

After lunch-

Outside time, family read aloud

 Quiet/Nap time-

(Another anchor time in the day....I want us to be ready to have quiet/nap time by 1pm, and this is for everybody, including me. The youngest will probably take a nap, the older three can read or play quietly, so long as they aren't bothering anyone....mama gets a nap, or at least gets to lay down and rest for an hour)

After Quiet/Nap time-2pm-

Afternoon chore time-Depending on what day of the week it is will depend on what we're doing. I work on what I can throughout the morning in between doing school stuff, but this is a focused time to all work together to do the day's tasks. I have the kids do their Friday cleaning chores in the morning, so that if my little guy is taking a nap, he won't be disturbed. Around 3pm we will stop and have a quick tea/snack time (something I have been wanting to do for a long time!), and then finish up our afternoon chores, and do a quick pick up throughout the house before daddy gets home, a little after 4pm. If there are no chores for the kids to really do, or they finish early, they can work on handicrafts and other projects. When daddy gets home, we have a little free time, and this is when I'm hoping to start going for a walk every day, at least 15 minutes a day. After which, I will begin meal prep for dinner.

Dinner and devotions followed by table chores-6pm

Then family time-movies, games, handicrafts, etc. Around 8pm, kids will do quick pick up, and start getting ready for bed. Poetry and Psalm reading, and in bed by 9pm. I let them read for about an hour, and lights out by 10pm. I get ready for bed after they are in bed, and usually spend the rest of the time before bed reading or working on a project. I take the dog out one more time about 10pm, and then I go on to bed.

I used to go to bed at 10 and then read for an hour, but that's another one of those things I just really need to change for this season of my life....I NEED more sleep! :o) I'm so exhausted all the time, and I will have time for reading and such later on...right now, I just have to make sure I'm resting when I get the chance, so that when it is time for me to be up and awake, I can do so.

So this is our new schedule....I think it will work because I won't be having to check the clock every 5 minutes, but yet, we can still stick to certain times and make sure that we're getting what we need to do done during that time.

Blessings,
sara

10 Weeks Left & Goals-Week of March 10-16

We survived the first day of the time change this week, not as smooth of a transition as I'd have liked to have been, but we're none the worse for wear. Last week, however was difficult for me.....I started off strong on Monday, and got so much done, but beginning Monday night, all day Tuesday, and off and on throughout Wednesday I began having horrible contractions. They seemed to be little more than intense Braxton Hicks contractions, but they made it difficult for me to get anything done. By the time I got to Thursday, I was feeling quite overwhelmed with all I needed to do. I decided to make the most of what I could, and not stress over it. I did accomplish, or at least get started towards many of my goals this last week, and a few things that were not part of my plans got done that were a huge blessing as well. I'll share what all I got done this last week, and the goals for this week under each category....

One thing I realized I did last week, was I thought I still had 12 weeks left....wrong.....I had 11, and now that number is down to 10 weeks....eeek!

So much to do, so little time, but I can only do what I can do....so here it goes!

Spiritual-

My goal was to begin writing in my new Journible, and get at least a chapter done by week's end....I didn't....I did get started, and completed one page though, and I will continue to work on about a page a day this week. I also didn't spend near as much time in God's Word as I'd have liked to. So I will be working harder at that this week also. In addition to Bible reading, I'm also trying to read through Created to Be His Helpmeet....I've started this book so many times, and I never can finish it....I hope to read at least a few chapters by the end of the week. Another thing I want to do, that I was prompted by the Holy Spirit during yesterday's services was to reach out more, talk to more people about Christ, and what He's done for me, and invite more people to church. I want to try to make sure I invite at least 5 people to church this week. And lastly, no complaining....I let myself get into the habit of complaining about everything in my life, and I don't want to be that way. I want to see God's blessings in all I have to do each day.

Family-

My family goals were to be more intentional with my time....I did better, but again, not as good as I'd hoped. I made an effort to spend time with the kids outside every day this last week, I talked to them more, I tried to pay more attention to what they were doing and talk to them about it. I'm going to keep this one going....I want to do more...I'm tired of wasting my time on frivolous things that don't really matter.

School-

Homeschooling went great this week! It was the one thing we did really good with, and I'm so thankful! I just want to continue working on what we've been doing, and fine tuning our routines and what we're doing every day. I also need to take the time to do the neccessary pre-reading of books for my kids to read....not really because I'm worried there will be something bad in them, but I want to be able to discuss the books with them as they narrate to me and tell me what they read. I'm hoping to do a blog post on the changes we've made this week.

Home-

You can pretty much look at last week's goals for my home, and put them for this week....the only things I really accomplished were Monday's goals, and I got my errands ran for the week. I just need to keep working on putting these routines in place, and getting stuff done, and making the adjustments that I spoke about last week.

Health-

Like I said, I did spend a lot more time outside this week, and will continue to do that this week....my appetite this last week took a significant dive....I ate very little all week. I started drinking a protein shake each day to keep up some calories, but for whatever reason, I couldn't eat hardly at all. I will be working harder at incorporating some healthier foods into my diet this week even when I'm not very hungry.

Other-

Most of my other goals were hit or miss...I did take a load of stuff to church, and have another one ready to go. I did manage to get up earlier, but not sure how that will work out this week with the time change....I did not however manage to eat out less, as with my appetite all but gone, I could not make myself get up and cook like I wanted to. We didn't eat out all week, but I did end up going to the store and buying a lot of convenience foods for the week. No crafting got done, and I didn't take inventory of baby stuff. So we'll just continue with those goals for this week...

One thing we did get done that was an upcoming goal was we found a second hand bunk bed for my girl's room, and even found a second hand set of comforters and room decor, all for very cheap...It was EXACTLY what we needed! We got everything all set up in there room, though there is still a bit of organization that needs to be done.

So, yeah...this week is pretty much going to have to be a catch up and get through the week kind of week. I do have lots of goals in mind for the next 10 weeks, but I need to play catch up with what I haven't been able to do this last week. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

An adjustment

In an effort to "roll with the punches" I realized this week that I needed to make an adjustment to our weekly routines. I kept noticing that my husband kept asking me to go and do various errands on Wednesday instead of Thursday....Yesterday he asked me to go ahead and go get the tag for our van, last week, he wanted to go to the store for a few things on Wednesday instead of Thursday.....So we've moved our town day to Wednesday now, and it's worked out quite well this week.

And since I adjusted our town day, I had to follow suit with some of our other days....Sunday and Monday will stay the same....the Lord's day followed by laundry day....Tuesday will now be my desk day, where I prepare bills, do homeschool prep, etc. Wednesday will be town day. Thursday will now be kitchen day, which I think will actually work out better so I can have time to do extra prep work after going to the store on Wednesday, and the rest of the week will stay the same....Friday, cleaning day, and Saturday, family day.

It's easy for me to get set in my ways about how I do things, but I try to remember that God makes these changes neccessary for a good reason, and when we take the time to listen and adjust as He shows us....I know it will be a blessing.

Sara

Goals-week of March 3-9th

I guess I'm a very goal oriented person....though I don't really do well with New Year's resolutions....but I'm thinking...if I just take things a week at a time....now that's doable.

I'm coming down to 12 weeks left until my due date, and I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed with all I need/want to do. The last couple of weeks have been a bit hit or miss with getting things done...Some days I did above and beyond what I hoped to do, while other days, I fell flat, and got nothing done.

I worked a lot this last week on some homeschool changes that I've been wanting to make, and hope to blog about soon, so that took up a lot of my time, getting stuff organized and such....So now that I've got our homeschool stuff organized, I feel more balanced and I think I will be able to get some much needed stuff done in the coming weeks.

We are still working on making a habit of following our daily routines that I've discussed in past blog posts. I'm happy with our progress with that. But I'd like a bit more focused direction during each day in some of the bigger things I'd like to accomplish on each day. So with that said...here are some of my goals for the upcoming week.

Spiritual Goals-

I'm super excited about this, because I got something new to aide me in my study of God's Word.....a Journible! Have you seen these? It's basically copying down God's Word, word for word.  Of course you don't need the special journal to do so...a regular notebook would work just as well, but I was excited to get to indulge a little and get something nice to start off on this new adventure. I always get so much more out of what I'm reading if I physically write it down for myself, so I think this will be very helpful! My goal, in addition to making sure I'm spending time reading and studying my Bible daily, and spending time in prayer, and hopefully doing that multiple times daily, is to copy one whole chapter starting in the book of Galatians.

Family-

I want to make sure I'm being more intentional with my time around my family. When I started this new year, I said that 'intentional' was going to be my word for the year...and I started off strong, but haven't been doing very well. Ways I would like to do this include doing more with them and for them. I have a tendency to get into a funk, and have trouble doing little more than surviving the day to day. Some things I would like to do to are....call my kids in to help me more in the kitchen...I catch myself just trying to hurry up and get done in there and don't stop and include someone. I want to make sure we're spending more time outside...I took the children out for about a half an hour today, and just watched them play and ride their scooters up and down the sidewalk, and they had a blast. I want to do more projects-craft, science, etc-type projects, like teaching my girls crocheting, or help my son to do more hands on type activities like whittling on some wood or something. And for my husband, I want to make sure I'm doing more than just the things I feel I should do to be his help meet, as God says, I want to enjoy doing those things, and be thankful for the oppurtunity to help him as he works hard to take care of our family.

School-

This will be the first week putting into action some of the new things we will be doing. So my goal for this area is to make sure we're getting school done each day, and try to stick to a good routine for getting it done.

Home-

I plan on continuing work on following our weekly routines that I shared a couple weeks ago, and on each day, I'm hoping to make extra efforts in each area of my home, in addition to regular chores, as follows:

Monday-Laundry day-Continue to declutter in the laundry room. I'm actually hoping to get quite a bit cleared out of there, because there is a lot of stuff that just needs to be moved to another storage area like our outside storage building, and the weather is going to be nice this week, so I'll be able to do that easily. There are three doors in our laundry room, one that leads into the house, one that leads to the backyard, and one to the front yard....the door to the front yard is actually blocked, so I hope to get it cleared out, so we can use that door more often.

Tuesday-Kitchen day- I'm going to take a section of my kitchen, and I'm going to take all the stuff out of just one section, declutter what I don't need, clean all the surfaces, and organize the stuff that needs to go back. I'm *hoping* that my honey will also take the time this week to remove my no longer working dishwasher out, so that I can have that space for more storage.

Wednesday-Desk day-A couple weeks ago, I finally went through and sorted through all my paper clutter, and I organized it into three piles....trash, shred, and action. So now, I've got one large bag of trash gone, a big box of stuff needing to be shredded, and a few boxes of stuff that needs to be sorted and/or filed. Even if I only get one box sorted through, I'll be happy :o) My homeschool cabinets also really need to be organized, although I got all of our school stuff ready, I didn't take the time to organize the cabinets that holds all of our stuff, so I hope to work on that also.

Thursday-Errand day-Not much time for anything extra, but I think the weather will be nice and give me a chance for some intentional nature study/picnic/playtime with my kids while we're out.

Friday-Cleaning day-I'm going to work on one area that really needs some attention, or what's bothering me the most.....we have a pass through hallway, so basically you can make a full circle around our house, in other words, my kids have what they usually use for a race track :P But a while back I started piling some extra clutter in our hallway, and there is no longer a pass through because our hallway is pile high with stuff. I want to get that cleared out this week.

Saturday-Family day-The weather, as I said, will be nice, and I have a lot of work to do out in the garden to prepare it for the coming growing season. I've got seedlings started, and will be ready to plant in the next few weeks. My goal is to get the beds ready, and covered to keep the neighborhood cats out. I also need to get my tomato seeds started. And hopefully some 'intentional' time spent with my family playing some games and enjoying our time together.

Health-

Eat more spinach salad and spend more time outdoors. I just got some lab results and both my iron and vitamin d are very low...I'll be taking supplements to help, but any extra will be good too. Going to work on walking each afternoon for about 15-30 minutes as well.

Other Goals-

A few other miscellaneous goals that I can think of.....

-Take a load of stuff to the church for our upcoming camp fundraiser.

-Don't eat out this week...I've fallen back into a bad habit of eating out too much lately. It's not healthy, and it's just too expensive, even the little quick trips to Sonic for happy hour drinks....not good for us :o)

-Take inventory of baby stuff that I have, so I can answer everybody when they ask me what we need for our new little one.

-Finish the wool soaker that I'm nearly finished with, and get the one for my friend's baby started.

-Sew a few squares of N's quilt.

-This is a biggy...for me anyways....I want to get up earlier. I'm going to be shooting for 8am every morning....maybe 8:30 :o)

I know there were some other things, but that's all I can think of for now, and really it's plenty. I'll check in later this week or the first of next week to share how I did.

Blessings,
sara