History

This year in History we are using a product called 'History Pockets' by Evan Moor. Basically the book is broken down into 8 small units and you use the printables and activities to make lapbooks for each unit. I bought 3 of these books and we're still using the first one - so I anticipate that they will last me another school year. And then I can decide on whether we want to order more topics for the following years. I wanted the girls to start by learning a lot about American history, before we went on to study world history.

The 3 books I bought were:
Life in Plymouth Colony
Native Americans
Colonial America

In the first book, these are the units we've done so far ... I bought the colored folders for about 2 cents a piece back when school supplies were super cheap - so I have a TON of them. So we just use a new one for each unit and each child gets one.
Each unit has a section of vocab words called "words to know" and they cut & paste the pics to match the words, then write out the description. And color if they wish ...

Then there are various activities that go along with each topic - some are coloring, some are cutting and pasting, some are acting something out ... you can make it as simple or as complex as you want ... here are a few of the things they've done ...

We keep all of our lapbooks and folders in one large bin. It's neat to go back and see what we've worked on over the last couple of years!

In our last unit which was called 'home sweet home', the girls learned all about what the pilgrims homes were like. Back around Thanksgiving time we had gone to visit an old village where they could see what a real home would have looked like - I think they are very grateful to live in this day and age with all our modern comforts! With this unit we made dioramas of the pilgrim houses ... we used an old box and they colored and decorated the pieces to go in the house. I thought it was very cute and creative that they decided on their own to make furniture out of cardboard! They made tables and beds to go in their houses ...

So that's about it. History has been a lot of fun. I am learning so much right along with the girls! I had also bought The Story of the World for history, after hearing so many good things about it from other homeschoolers - but after getting started with it last year I felt it was a bit much for my girls at the time. And again, I decided to start with American history .... so, I HAVE all the material for the Story of the World, and one day, when we're ready, we'll get going on that. I figure I still have about 2-3 yrs worth of history resources! Gotta love that!

Science

Above is pictured the science curriculum we are currently using. Last year we were blessed to be a part of a wonderful co-op for science class ... there the girls learned SO much more than I would have ever taught them on my own. This year it didn't work out for us to be a part of that group so we are 'going it alone'. But the problem with that is that I move through the topics at such a slow pace with the girls! We had planned to tackle one unit per month - but instead we've only just finished our second unit for the year! This is one area that I am trying to step it up a little. Science has NEVER been my thing - although it does fascinate me. But the girls absolutely LOVE it. And so I'm working on making it more of a priority. I will say though, that even though we've only tackled two units - the girls read tons of great books about all kinds of animals, insects, sea creatures, shells, etc ... We are blessed to have a large amount of resource books in our home and they love looking through them, writing up little reports, etc. I love that they do this without me even asking, to me that shows how much they love learning about the world around them and the things God has created!

So, anyway, this book is wonderful, it has enough information that we will probably use it for 2-3 years. We ordered the student book - which has worksheets that you are able to make copies of for multiple students - and the teacher's guide which gives the step by step directions for what to teach. Both books together cost me $30 - not too bad! It's done in a way that you can easily adapt it to many grade levels. The topics covered in the book are:
1. Creation
2. The Universe, Stars and Planets
3. The Earth
4. Non-living things: Rocks and Minerals
5. Weather
6. The Plant Kingdom
7. The Animal Kingdom
8. Animal Anatomy & Physiology
9. Man: Made in God's image

Some of these topics were covered last year in our co-op - but I'm sure we could go over them again and learn even more. So far this year we've covered insects and weather. Our insect study was actually found in another book of curriculum that a friend gave me for free! It's called 'Christian Kids Explore Biology' by Stephanie L. Redmond. In this book the following units are covered:
1. Biology Basics: Creation, cells, taxonomy, the biosphere, food webs
2. Plant's in God's world: photosynthesis, plant reproduction, fruits & veggies, trees
3. Birds of the earth: taxonomy, bird diets, bird structure
4. Mammals in the wild: monotremes & marsupials, canids, felines & bears, monkeys & apes, aquatic mammals
5. The Human Factor: the human body, our five senses, human reproduction
6. Reptiles all around: snakes & lizards, alligators & crocs, turtles, tortoises & terrapins
7. Insects high and low: butterflies & moths, bees & wasps
8. Water creatures: mollusks, sharks, crustaceans, freshwater life, amphibians

SO, between these two amazing books, we have a wealth of information that will last us a couple years. We usually tend to get a lot of books from the library as well when we're working on a unit. And since I'm a big fan of lapbooks, we put all our materials, worksheets, ideas, etc into a file folder or 'lapbook' for each unit.

Now, as I said - I don't do enough with the girls as far as science goes. I'm trying to be better about that. So in the last couple of weeks we've done a couple of 'hands on' projects. They were actually very fun and the girls loved them. I know I need to incorporate more of this kind of stuff into our teaching time.

Here we made windmills as we've been talking about weather and wind lately ...

Another day we experimented with creating water vapor and 'rain'. We started with some ice cubes in a pan - then heated them up ...

The more the ice melted, the more vapor was created ...

It's very hard to tell, but that is vapor rising ...

Then, by holding another pan above the vapor - the steam begins to collect just like it would when a cloud is formed ... after enough vapor has gathered on the pan above, it began to get heavy, and eventually fell back down like rain!

So that's about it for science. We haven't done much yet this year, but I'm working on doing more.

Green Mountain Coffee

For Christmas I got a Keurig coffee machine ... I'm seriously in love with it. I don't know what it is about it, but it makes the most amazing, hot, fresh coffee. I was not in love with the idea of buying those expensive k-cups though. {Although I figured it out and it's still only about 50 cents per cup - which is a LOT less than DD or SB}.

Anyhow, my friend who has had her Keurig for a while now told me she orders her k-cups online - right from Green Mountain coffee. So I went on and found their website and I'm so glad I did! Not only is it cheaper to order them this way, but I got free shipping, and when you sign up for their cafe express plan they will automatically mail you more when you need them. You can set it up for any amount or flavor of pods, plus make the shipment anywhere from every week to every 12 weeks!

Just as an example I order 104 pods and set it up so that I'll get my next shipment in 8 weeks. But if I decide I want a different flavor, or need them before 8 weeks, or am not even close to using them all by 8 weeks - I can go on my account and change all that.

Also, the delivery was FAST! It said they would arrive in 5-7 days and they arrived in TWO! I was literally jumping up and down with excitement when I saw the boxes on the porch! And for my first order they sent me a free travel cup!

My mother in law also LOVES Green Mtn Coffee - she uses the regular ground stuff though - but they have that too on their website! So with my next order she plans to order some too. Nothing quite like fresh, amazing coffee at a great deal!

My only problem now ... it's TOO good ... that machine beckons me at all hours of the day now. Which wouldn't be so bad except I love me some cream and sugar in my coffee and I'm TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT! hahahaha ... oh well, it's all about choices, right? There are just some things I'm not willing to give up ... :)

School Days Part 2

If you're reading this post and haven't already read my post on School days go back and read that one first.

SO this is the post where I tell you about exactly what we do. What we use for curriculum, what materials we use, etc.

One of the most valuable things I have is this HUGE teacher's plan book. There have been several times I've stopped using it simply out of laziness, but every time I begin to be thorough again and use it faithfully I LOVE it. It has LOTS of space to write down everything we're doing or plan to do. I use to just write things after we'd done them, but now I'm trying to plan in advance which days we will do which subjects. I find that having them written on the planner makes me more apt to stick with the schedule.


For our Bible time we are using Alpha Omega's LIFEPACS. You get 10 LIFEPACS for the year and we've just finished doing our first one. I know that may seem lazy but I know the girls get so much Bible time with Sunday school and AWANA that I don't stress too much about them getting a lot at home. Besides our whole life and home is infused with the Lord so it's more than just learning from a workbook. We chose the 2nd grade level books since I have one girl in 1st grade and one girl in 3rd. Second grade is right in the middle and allows us all to work on the same thing at the same time.
We do have some classroom rules. Most days none of these things are an issue. But having something written down and understood by the girls just makes things run smoother.

Sorry these photos are out of order ... this is a peak inside the huge planner ...

Although we do have a room designated as our 'school room' ... it's small and also serves as a home office, craft room, etc. So we mostly use that room to store all our things and we often do school work on the kitchen table where we can totally spread out. The only problem is that come meal time we have to clear the mess! So I decided to keep the books and workbooks we use the most in this large plastic bin and everything can be put away nice and neat and it can even be kept in the dining room - this still allows us to use our table to eat when we need it.

We also have a small bin for the tools we'll need each day. Pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, sharpeners, etc. We have a LARGE craft supply but we only keep this small amount of things on the table for every day use.

For language/phonics/spelling Joy is doing Abeka. She has 3 workbooks. One is spelling and poetry, one is language {which has grammar, creative writing and reading comprehension}, and one is letters and sounds which is about phonics. For spelling I have her write the list of words out {which helps practice handwriting}, then I give her a few days to study the words, then later in the week I test her on spelling the words. I let the girls take their spelling tests by writing the words out on the white board. I call out the word and they write it down. They love using the white board so it works well. For language and phonics she does one page from each book each day. Some days we miss one, some days I might let her skip just for a break. But most days she does both.

For math she also uses Abeka. She has a workbook and does one page per day.

Hope is using a program called Switched on Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega publications this year. It's our first year trying it out and so far she really likes it. All of her math and language are done on a program on the computer. No workbooks. She loves to use the computer and is very happy to have a break from workbooks this year. The program also gives her a grade at the end of each lesson and she loves to come and tell me 'hey Mom I got an A, 100 today!'

One area that we tend to slack on is handwriting. I see the value in it, I really do. It's just not something that I'm super worried about stressing about for now. I do ask the girls to write things as neatly as they can, and I will go back and ask them to re-do something if it's written poorly. But I'm very inconsistent as far as making handwriting a regular practice. Some days we do some handwriting sheets - but many days we do not. Some days I tell them that if they write their spelling list as neat as they can - then that can be their 'handwriting' also.

The next post will be about the extra stuff ... thanks for sticking with me as I write all of this out!

School Days

Ever since we started back to school after the holidays I had been feeling totally overwhelmed. See the beauty of homeschooling is that you have freedom. Freedom to choose your curriculum, freedom to take days off whenever you want. But that freedom is tough. See I'm a girl who likes to enjoy freedom, but struggles with feeling the need to 'follow the rules' too. And having this much freedom in our homeschool becomes overwhelming to me. I'm not sure if that makes ANY sense at all but it does in my mind.

I love having the freedom to take days off, sleep in, take an extended school break at Christmastime, etc ... But sometimes I also wish someone would just 'spell it all out' for me. I crave having someone tell me what to teach, when to teach and how to teach. Then again ... I don't really want all that pressure on me and I want to enjoy the freedom we have to make our own choices ... but I get worried and fearful and overwhelmed. I worry that I'm not doing enough, that I'm missing teaching the girls things that they need to know. I fear that if the Lord should ever call us to send them back into 'regular' school that they will be behind or overwhelmed.

So coming back from Christmas break I was feeling this intense sort of pressure. I felt like we'd never catch up on the things we were a little behind on. I felt we were not doing enough and were only covering the basics, which didn't seem to be enough in my mind. I actually entertained the thought of whether the girls should go back to school. I felt like maybe I'm just not cut out for this.

When Martin Luther King Day came and went it struck me that what was missing was the 'extra' stuff. I was making sure the girls covered the basics like reading, language/phonics and math {and a small amount of history and science} -- but I was neglecting the subjects that can be really interesting and fun - social studies, history, science, foreign language, celebrating of holidays and special events, etc ...

Another problem was the order of our day. I used to think we had to order our day much like the regular school kids do. Get up, eat breakfast, get dressed, start school by 9, etc ... But many days my girls would not even wake up until 8 or 8:30am and then I would be rushing them, yelling at them and trying to get them moving quickly so we could 'start school'. And because I'm home with them every day I was not making time for exercise for myself - so many days I would stay in PJ's or grubby clothes all day - hoping that later in the afternoon I could get some exercise done and THEN take my shower. But it made me feel yucky and grubby all day and many days I'd get busy doing other things and never take care of my own health. So I would rush the girls through their schoolwork just so I could get on with the rest of my day. Almost like doing school was a chore I needed to complete.

I knew this wasn't working well. And it wasn't what I wanted our homeschool experience to be. I still felt God calling us to continue this journey. I just knew that it was ME who needed to change. I began to seek the Lord for guidance on bringing order and organization to our days. And then I sought out the help and advice of some other teachers and homeschoolers I know. I felt overwhelmed {in a good way this time!} with their help and wealth of resources!

So, having said ALL that - and sorry this post is getting so long - we now have a NEW plan which has been working SO well!

First of all ... I've stopped thinking we need to order our days by a certain time schedule.

*I let the girls sleep until they are well rested - whatever time that may be. Today it was about 8:15. Most mornings I get up before them and have my coffee and quiet time while everyone is still asleep. Some days they wake up before me and then I just ask them to play or read quietly in their room until I'm done with quiet time.

*Then I eat a super quick breakfast like cereal or yogurt. Then I go downstairs to exercise for 20-30 min while the girls eat their breakfast and get themselves dressed. If they are done eating and getting ready they can play for a while.

*I take a shower and get myself dressed - at this point the girls are playing. In a weird way I have found that letting them play for awhile in the morning actually helps when it comes time to sit and pay attention to school work.

*When I'm all ready we start school. Some days it may be 10 or 11am at this point but hey, whatever works, right? Sometimes we have our snack at this time - I let them eat while they are working on school stuff.

*We do school work until we're done - stopping for a late lunch when we get hungry. Today we finished school work around 2, had a late lunch, then the girls did a 1/2 hour of quiet reading time on their beds. So by the time all that is done it was around 3pm.

*After school work they can play, make crafts, read, etc ... some days they can have privileges. Privileges are things like TV time, computer, wii or nintendo DS time. One daughter had a 1/2 hour of computer time today but the other one lost her privileges for today due to behavior. {More on the subject of privileges another time.}

*In the afternoon I ask them to help with some simple chores like putting away laundry, straightening up their room, feeding the dog, etc...

*Dinner is around 6 ... some days a little later when hubby gets home a little later than that. After dinner we try to do something together - wii, a board game, reading, etc ...

*Then showers on the days they need them, ready for bed, reading and bedtime.

OK, this is getting super long winded ... hope I haven't bored you all to tears! I think I'll continue this post as part two because I have lots more to share which deals more with what curriculum and such we use. Also I have pictures for the second post so stay tuned!!!

Easy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

Our family loves Mexican food ... chimichangas, tacos, burritos, you name it, we're there! Here is a simple and fast recipe for Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas. We had them last night and we all loved them!

1 can condensed cream of chix soup
1 cup salsa or picante sauce
1/2 cup sour cream - which we omitted b/c hubby doesn't like it and it still tasted fine w/out it.
2 tsp chili powder
2 cups cooked, chopped chicken
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese - we used mexican blend and increased it to ONE cup
6 flour tortillas
chopped tomato and sliced green onion optional {for garnish}

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl mix soup, salsa, sour cream and chili powder all together. Add chicken and stir. Add in shredded cheese and stir again. Divide chicken mixture among the 6 tortillas and roll them up so all sides are closed. Place them in a baking dish with seam side down. Cover with foil and bake for 40 min. You can also reserve a small amount of the sauce - before you've added the chicken and cheese - and pour a bit over the top before baking. Top with fresh chopped tomato and sliced green onion before serving.

Apple Pie Pita Pocket

We've been trying to plan our menu lately and have all the ingredients on hand. And I've also been trying some new recipes and loving several of them. Here is a relatively low fat dessert one that we've used this week - I'll be posting more in the coming weeks. PS. You could make this healthier with a whole wheat pita, less sugar and fat free cool whip.

Apple Pie Pita Pocket {say that 5x fast!}

1 apple - peeled, cored, sliced thin
1 pita pocket
spray butter
brown sugar
cinnamon
raisins / nuts - optional
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Slice your pita open on one side. Mix your apple, sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Add as much or as little brown sugar and cinnamon as you wish. I found that a TBSP of br. sugar and a small dash of cinnamon worked well. Add some raisins or nuts if you desire. Stuff the apple mixture into the pita pocket. Lightly spray both bottom and top of pita with spray butter. Wrap the whole thing up in some aluminum foil. Bake for about 20 min - depending on how soft you like your apples. I like mine very soft so I left it in about 30 min. Serve warm with cool whip or ice cream on top. Yum!

Diaper Cake

My friend just had her 4th baby and I wanted to bring over a little something for her new baby girl so I decided to try making this super cute baby diaper cake. It was SO fun and so easy! I know there are probably tutorials out there on the web and I know I could have followed one but I knew I could figure it out on my own if I just tried. So I assembled my tools and supplies and got to work ...

Start by cutting a large circle out of cardboard ... I used a large bowl to trace the size I wanted.
I stuck some pretty {girly} scrapbook paper on the front. Just cut the same circle shape from your scrapbook paper - well maybe just a teeny smidgeon bigger.

Start assembling your bottom layer. I could have rolled the diapers, but instead I just kept squeezing them together until they were in a large circle - then I very carefully tied a large ribbon around the whole bunch. This was rather tricky - it would help to have an extra pair of hands for this!!! I was trying to wrangle the diapers AND get the ribbon secured and it was quite comical!

Do the same for the next layer, except make it slightly smaller and use a different ribbon - I actually used this white ribbon and then changed my mind and switched it out to use it for the top layer.

I got these cute little bibs and onesies, which I used for the top layer. I rolled each up, then bunched them together and held them together with a ribbon just like I had done with the other layers.

This is how the 3 layers ended up looking ...

Then, in order to 'fancy up' my cake base - I used my circle punch to cut out lots of small circles for the outer edge ...

Flip your cake base over and tape or glue the circles around the edge so they are side by side.

When you flip it back over, this is how cute it will look!

Then, because I'm a perfectionist - I flipped it back over one more time and put another white sheet of paper to cover the circles - just wanted it to have a finished look and not messy. I know I'm crazy as this is the bottom and no one will ever see it - but it's the perfectionist in me what can I say??

Then I made a cute little card and attached it to a wooden pick - just cut out some cute circles and make it look like a flower - then add stickers to spell out the baby's name ... add a little ribbon to the bottom of the flower too ...

This is the finished product - I'm so happy with how cute it turned out!!

One last thing - you can add some cute words around the baby's name too if you want ...

And that's all! Cute, easy and inexpensive!

This morning

This morning I'm mourning over the fact that I've just finished my Yada Yada prayer journal - it has been a wonderful friend for the past 6 months and I'm sorry to see it end.

This morning I'm loving the bright, cheerful sunshine pouring through my windows - it may be winter, it may be cold - but God gave us the sun to warm our days!

This morning I am loving watching my girls curl up with book after book after book and begging me - Mom, can I please read just one more chapter? {now who could say no to that?!}

This morning I love my wii ea sports active workout. It makes me sweat, it makes my muscles burn, but it's fun and makes me feel great too.

This morning I am trying to re-think the order of our days and the way in which we homeschool ... many thoughts and ideas going through my head - which I hope to share more on soon.

This morning I am in love my my amazing husband. He takes care of so many of the little things like trash and oil changes and dog poop clean-up ... things that I would rather not tend to - and don't have to because he does it all faithfully week after week.

This morning I am thinking about which new book I will start. I finished my second novel of the new year last night and am loving reading more than ever.

This morning I am enjoying my Keurig coffee machine - too much I'm afraid - it makes it so easy to make a fresh cup of joe any time I want which makes me crave said cup of joe many, many times throughout the day!

This morning I need a shower ... so with that said I'll sign off for now. Have a great day friends!!

All About Me Wednesday

Bonnie is going through a book called All About Me and each Wednesday she will be asking us some key questions about ourselves. So today I'm sharing the answers to her questions with all of you. And if you'd like to play along and share your answers to you can either do so in the comments or on your own blog - just make sure you leave a comment here so we know to go check it out!

A color you like to wear

Brown

Regardless of size or circumstance, an animal you would like to own as a pet

Giraffe

A flower you would like to grow in your garden

Ranunculous

Your lucky number {don't really believe in luck, but this is my FAVE number}

3

A smell that makes you pause

Freesia

A taste that makes you melt

Warm cookies from the oven

A hobby that occupies your time

Scrapbooking

A sport your enjoy watching

Baseball on TV, my kids playing soccer in real life

A sport you enjoy playing

Baseball

A city you'd like to visit

Seattle

A country you would like to explore

Ireland

More Favorites Next Week!

Weather Window

Darcy at Life with my three Boybarians is asking ... what's the weather outside your window right now. Well, right now it's dark. It's also been dreary and rainy and cold for the past few days. We had some lovely snow, but sadly most of it just looks like a muddy pile of yuck at this point. There is more grass and muck than pretty white snow now.



But just the other day the girls and I spotted this little bit of loveliness way back in one of our highest trees. I am thankful for a great zoom lens which enabled us to see it close up!

And so, this is the view from my back window ... not now at this exact moment - but pretty close! And I agree with Darcy ... these long winter days are starting to wear on me. I've stayed in my home more days than I've been out of it and I need me some warm sunshine!!

OH, and bonus points to anyone who can identify this beauty - it may look small but it was actually huge and you can see part of it hanging way down behind the branch. My father in law thought it was some kind of hawk ...

Ham & Cheese Grandwiches

This is seriously my new favorite lunch! Oh yum! I tried to make it semi low fat - and for these I came up with 5.5 WW points per sandwich. I used mostly ingredients I already had at home, but next time might find a way to make it more low fat - because I could literally eat 3 of these things for lunch! haha!

Anyway - here's what you do:

Take grands biscuits and flatten them on a baking sheet. I used the smaller size ones, but would rather find the low fat {bigger sized} ones - they just didn't have them at the store I was at. The small ones didn't spread very far.

Place slices of ham on top, then shredded cheddar cheese. I'm sure if I found a low fat cheese I could reduce the points value.

Top with another grands biscuit, also spread out so it almost covers the whole top.

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 15 min. The grands package said 10 min so I tried that but they needed a little more time so just check them often and make sure the biscuit looks cooked but doesn't burn.

They came out so bubbly and yummy and delicious! I may never want a plain ol bread sandwich again!!

Pasta Fagioli Soup & other recipes

I have really been enjoying my crock pot lately. It makes my life so much easier and I also find that I'm making healthier meals with it.

I've been trying to plan my menu in advance, make sure to buy all the needed ingredients at the store, then make myself remember to take the meats out of the freezer in advance and prepare the veggies and stuff so I can just throw it all in the crock and be done with it.

Anyhow ... this week I tried a few new recipes and I really liked them all! The only thing I'm having trouble with is getting the timing just right with the crockpot because a couple of the items came out a little dry and overcooked. I suppose a lot of that is trial and error.

So without further ado ... the recipes ...

My homemade bread - not made in the crockpot, but went so well with hot pasta fagioli soup! Yum! I love homemade bread - just don't make it too often as I end up eating WAY too much of it. I did this in the bread machine so it didn't make much. Most times I let it mix and rise in the machine, then bake it in the oven since I end up with 2 full loaves instead of one when I do it that way. Anyway ... sorry for the bunny trail - back to the recipes!

Pasta Fagioli Soup

1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 lg red onion
1 cup chopped carrots
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 can kidney beans - drained and rinsed
1 can white beans - drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar pasta sauce
2 tsp oregano
1 TBSP tabasco
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta - I used a whole cup and honestly it could have used a little more, but I love pasta so that's just my 2 cents.

brown and drain meat. set aside.
chop all veggies and add to crock.
then add cans of beans, liquids, sauce.
add spices. add meat.

Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 -- add the pasta the last hour of cooking.
This recipe makes A LOT, use a 6 qt crock. You will definitely have leftovers! Or you could just halve the recipe. I love having leftovers for lunches and also to freeze some.


Pineapple Chicken

Chicken breasts or thighs
1/4 cup soy sauce
one full can of chunk pineapple / drained

Cook in crock on low for 4 hours. My chicken came out too dry -- next time I will check on it sooner and take it out sooner if needed.

Salsa Chicken

6 chicken thighs - you can remove skin if you want -I tend to cook with the skin on, then remove before eating.
1 can black beans - drained and rinsed
1 can corn - drained
1 jar salsa - whatever spiciness you choose - I always choose medium

Put chicken in crock, add other items over top, cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-9. This chicken came out SO juicy it was falling off the bone! So I actually pulled the chicken pieces out of the crock at the end, cut all the chicken off the bone and chopped it into small pieces - then put the pieces back in with the salsa/corn/bean mix and mixed it all up. It was sort of like a thick chicken/salsa soup. It came out so yummy!

Beef and Broccoli

1 lb thin beef rib eye
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 TBSP white wine {didn't have any so I skipped it}
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 TBSP brown sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves smashed/chopped garlic
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 bag froz broccoli - thawed

Add liquid to crock. Add garlic, stir in spices. Slice meat into thin strips. Add meat and toss all items in crock to coat meat with liquids/spices.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Add the broccoli the last hour. Stir. Serve over rice.

Again my meat came out too dry. I need to figure out the best cooking times and temps for some of these foods. I also bought extra lean meat - so maybe that was another reason for the dryness? Not sure. But nevertheless ... still a good recipe and one I will probably try again.

I hope to share more as I discover new recipes and things to try ... happy cooking friends!

PS. all of these recipes were found on A Year of Slow Cooking. Check it out - she used her crock every day for a whole year!

Play Room Dreamin'

These are the pics of our playroom -- sorry I can't get them moved lower in the post - it's SUCH a mess!!!!

Original post:

We recently went to a friend's house for the weekend. Actually the house belonged to my friend's in laws - but anyway, they had this very fun playroom for their grandkids. My girls had a BLAST playing in it all weekend. Was there anything super special about it? Not really. But it was full of fun toys and things that were new and different from what my girls have in their own home.

When we came home I kept asking my girls what was so fun and special about it. We have a huge finished basement that we use as a playroom - it's full of toys and stuff - but it seems like my girls rarely ever use the space or play with the toys. I will admit, this time of year it's mighty chilly down there ... but we have space heaters and I always try to encourage the girls to turn them on to warm the space so they can play down there.

Anyway, the girls shared that they would love to have a play kitchen, grocery cart, play food, etc ... I actually had to laugh because we USED to have all that and I got rid of most of it because they never played with it anymore!!! I thought that because they were beyond the toddler age it was useless to save that kind of stuff. Boy was I wrong!!

And so I find myself wondering what I can do to spruce up their playroom, make it more appealing, bring the fun back! Thankfully my youngest has a birthday coming up ... so my wheels are turning and I have lots of thoughts of things I can do to the playroom as a birthday gift to her.

The girls and I started looking at some photos online of playrooms we liked ... we ALL were drooling over this Pottery Barn kids one - wow! So adorable!

Our playroom already has one red wall ... so something in this color range would be great. But the price tag? Uh, no thank you! Way out of my price range! Besides, the kids in the photo are probably about 3 or 4 ... which means these items will be way too small for my 8 and almost 7 year olds.

So my plan is to either build, or ask a friend to build a kitchen that is taller and more suitable for my daughters. I also have some other really fun and cheap ideas of things I can do in the space. Honestly, it's fun to have a project to work on, and this one will be extra fun because it's all about playing!

The two things my daughters like to make believe most are 'home' and 'school' ... and I think I have some great ideas of how to make our space include both elements!

I do have a before photo - it's pretty ugly though! The current playroom is such a disaster right now! But when I get a chance I will upload it here - you will be shocked at the mess!

I'm also open for ideas ... you are some very creative people - and I just know you are brimming with awesome ideas. So please share, email me or post pics of your playroom to your blog and let me know about it. I'm definitely looking for more inspiration! Thanks friends!!!!