Wow What a Busy Weekend...

Gosh so much has happened since my last post. We started off with THANKSGIVING traveling about 4 hours to the south to spend the holiday with family. We had a great time of eating, talking, hiking, eating, talking.... and did I mention all the food??? Grandma Morrow and Grandpa Russ live on a farm and the kids just loved all the exploring!! At one point they found the compost pile that recently had flour placed over it... needless to say they ended up with white on them as they played in the flour :-) The older they get, the more we find that it would be good to make this trip a bit more often as the kiddo's tend to like the farm better than a theme park!! After the big meal, we thought it would be best to take a walk to get rid of some calories... so off we went, well those of us that were going to skip the nap time anyway :-) It was a bit chilly, but a great day for walking the farm. Later on in the evening, we ate more (gotta eat dessert), had a visit from an old family friend Jim and his daughter Heather (gosh she seems to get taller each time we see her!!). Jim and his wife are proud grandparents to triplets!!! The pictures were passed around and stories all told. We ended the evening by going through the back 40 to travel back to our other Grandma's where we sleep, only to be plowed into by a large doe (that's a female dear :-). Praise God there was no damage, although it felt like she hit pretty hard into the side of our 15 passenger van.

Just before traveling back home the next day we got to visit for a short time with Uncle Galen and Aunt Dottie. We had a terrific trip and a great Thanksgiving Holiday 2008!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving... a time to reflect and Thank not only those in our lives for all the wonderful things they do for us and in our lives, but most of all a time to give THANKS to our heavenly Father above! If it weren't for God sending his one and only son many, many years ago... we would be lost and bound for hell. Thank you God for sending your son, and for each and every blessing, daily!!! Even if you are going through a rough time, be it health, family, or whatever... God is there to see you through it!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!!! Have a wonderful day!!!

Cyndi

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY TO BREKYN!!!!!

Our little princess turned 8 years old today!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREKYN!!

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake...

This week as I was working about in the kitchen preparing supper. The children were off doing their thing... some outside one the football field (actually the backyard) and some playing computer or other games. So as I went about on my own (very unusual to be by myself in the kitchen!!), I thought I would prepare some sort of dessert. I went through the cookbook I have created for our family and found the recipe for the 5 minute chocolate mug cake. This has come through my e-mail a few times and we have never given it a try. So I thought, I would get all the dry ingredients ready for each member of the family and then they could finish the preparations once we were all finished eating supper. As I gave out the mugs... the children thought they were having hot cocoa. Then I had them each add one egg... oh my they were not happy as now they "were not going to eat that". We added the oil and milk and until it was thoroughly mixed they were not thrilled with what I was having them make. It wasn't until we were actually cooking the cake and they saw the results of the first one that they were satisfied.

These cakes are very thick, almost brownie like in texture. They also are not sweet at all like a typical chocolate cake. We added frosting to take away the bland flavor. The cake does "grow", some almost 4 inches above the mug, but they never went over or made a mess. We made 7 of them... and we found we could have shared as even though a mug seems like one serving it was a lot of cake. The kiddo's ended up placing their's leftover cakes in baggies and enjoying them for lunch dessert the next day.






If you have 5 minutes and are craving chocolate... give it a try!!

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake
1 coffee mug
4 T flour
4 T sugar
2 T baking cocoa
1 egg
3 T milk
2 T oil
3 T chocolate chips (optional, we did use some)
some nuts (optional, we didn't use any)
small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed.
Allow to cool a little and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! This can serve 2 if you want to share. I opened a tub of frosting and spread it on. We also tried some hot fudge on a couple instead of frosting, yummy. Daddy did carmel...


After eating cake... the kiddo's finished a movie that one or two had started earlier in the evening on the little DVD player. Well, it turned into all the kiddo's gathered around the little 8" DVD screen, then daddy joined them :-) Logan needed a bit more math help, so we cuddled into the rocking chair and finished what he needed to for the day :-) It was a good evening!!

Field Trip to the Button Factory...

This week thanks to a wonderful homeschool mom, we attended a field trip to the Muscatine Button Factory... now museum. We were told how they made the pearl buttons from start (getting the clams out of the river) to the finish (placing the buttons on the little cards to be sold). This was a very infomative field trip for all the children and us adults :-) The children were all given a worksheet to find and fill in the information as they learned. There were lots of hands-on activities as the children went through the different areas.

Have I told you all about our BIRD STUDY :-)

Well, this past week in our Science class... as we continue to learn about birds, the children were to make their own bird nest. So after we were done with all our book learning, they eagerly went outside to begin to build a nest. They talked among each other about what they should use, one of the children ran back inside to get "something" when I inquired about their activities. I had to let them know that the birds couldn't fly into the house to collect items for their nest, so out they went. I thought their cup nest turned out very well, muddy hands and all :-)

The rains did mess it up a bit, the following day, but it is still in the tree and might hold up to be used this spring for some bird family, we are anxiously waiting to see.

This spring we will also set out some fun items like shredded paper, bottle caps, fabric in small shreds, and such to see if we can find out "household items" in a nest somewhere around the yard!

We are having so much fun with Apologia Zoology 1!!!

Making Cookies Just for Fun...

The other day while Corben was eating breakfast, Rice Crispie's, his favorite cereal... he noticed several recipes on the back of the box. This led to mom, can we make cookies?? Well, being the good mom that I am (hehehe), I said sure, we had nothing planned for that day, so school would continue after the cookie making session. So he recruited his sister and away they went. I checked in a couple times, but really my children have come to be great cooks :-) They may ask a question or two during their baking sessions, but they do so well. Once the batter was mixed and ready for the pan, Griffin stepped in to do the dipping. Then the cookies were left to themselves... IN THE OVEN. I really should have gotten a picture of the little black coasters that were to be yummy cookies, but I was too worried about getting them outside along with that yucky smell!!! So we had a talk about when we make cookies they need to be followed to the VERY END!! We did enjoy cookies for several days and the ones that made it through the oven were quite good :-) More memories...