Vision Forum

I wanted to take this chance to tell you about Vision Forum. They have a great selection of trustworthy Christian Books to choose from. I like that they offer excellent resources to go with your homeschool curriculum. Or just to read for fun. I know my husband would really love their history collections.
I like they way they categorize things for boys/girls/family/homeschool so it's easy to find. I can't wait till my girls are older and we can read some of their books together!!!

Proverbs Study Guide

Bryan and I believe that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge like it says in the bible. One of the things we like to do is read Proverbs to the girls during Family worship. A radio host of a pro-homeshcool conservative Christian program we listen to is having a give away of his Proverbs study guide. You should check it out.
You can find Kevin Swanson at generationswithvision.com
and you can find the giveaway at http://raisingolives.com/2011/10/family-bible-study-guide-for-proverbs-giveaway/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RaisingOlives+%28Raising+Olives%29#comment-79271

I hope you enter to win!

Bonnets and Prairies

As many of you know we are into Little House on the Prairie right now and Hadley has to be Laura or Mary all the time. This had made for some fun sewing on my part. We are going as a prairie family for Halloween and today I made a bonnet at nap time. What do you think?



I used a tutorial that you can find here: http://howtodresslikeapioneer.blogspot.com/2010/01/bonnet-tutorial.html
Being that this was my first bonnet I think I did a pretty good job. However, I started out making myself a pink bonnet and messed up so bad I couldn't salvage the fabric..so I guess this is my second attempt. In any case, it was fast and easy and I'll be making 2 smaller ones for the girls tonight when they go to bed. Then we'll be all ready for Halloween!!

Apple Butter

Apple Butter is the opposite of me losing weight. But it is SOOOO good. And I decided to take a crack at making it myself this year. We went to an apple orchard over the weekend and stocked up on Cortland apples. We got 1/2 a bushel to be exact. Hadley and I spent yesterday peeling, but to be honest Hadley did most of the work. We used a counter top peeler and she got to crank it and watch the skin peel off in a long snake! I did not get any pictures of that. Then I put all my apples in the crock pot turned it on and went to bed. When I got up in the morning I woke to the smell of awesomeness! I made a fresh batch of biscuits and we had biscuits and applebutter for breakfast. (We did NOT overstuff ourselves on them, and I did NOT turn around and eat the leftovers for lunch)
Then to preserve all my hard work I bought some cute little half pint mason jars and I canned all that applebutter. It should last us a while and maybe I can give some as gifts. Next on the list is applesauce. I have quart jars for those and hopefully it will turn out as successfully as the applebutter did. YUM and Happy Fall :)

Large Family Logistics

http://raisingolives.com/2011/07/large-family-logistics-four-moms-giveaway/#comment-61864
I saw a book called "Large Family Logistics" at the homeschool convention this year and I've been interested in reading it every since. Go to the Raising Olives blog and you can enter to win a copy!

Croutons

We had some bread that turned out hard and not so great to eat. Instead of throwing it away, I decided to make some homemade croutons for our salads. I waited around a long time, procrastinating because I thought it would be a lot of work. But it wasn't! It was quite easy, they are very tasty, and I feel very good that I didn't throw away that loaf of bread I worked so hard to make!

I cut up our bread into slices, and then cut little 1/2 inch square cubes out of the slices.

I put all the cubes in a bowl and then added the oil. I tossed to coat them.

Then I also added some onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and parmesan cheese to taste.

I baked them at 350 for around 30 minutes (I used my convection setting to get them nice and crispy). Stirring them often so they baked evenly.

And then I enjoyed my fresh croutons on my salad! Yum. Hadley ate a ton as well....without the salad. I hope you try to make croutons and enjoy them too!

Lydia can walk!

Lydia has been making it her goal to meet and exceed every developmental milestone! Sitting up at 5 months, crawling at around 7 months, and now walking at 11 months! She's such a big girl already :)

Playing Outside!

We got the wagon out for the first time this year. I pulled the girls around the block and then Hadley pulled Lydia up and down our sidewalk for a good long time! It was the first non rainy day we've had in a while, and we took advantage!

Hadley picked out her outfit today :)

There they go!

Big Girls

This is Lydia learning to wave!!

And just because she's so cute!

Learning about Patterns

Hadley and I have table time every day while Lydia takes a nap. We do different pre-school types of activities. Sometimes we work on holding our pencil the right way, and sometimes we work on following directions. This past week we worked on patterns. In the past it's been a difficult concept but this time she really got it! I'm so proud and I feel like it was our first home school moment!

Rainy Day

Hadley got an umbrella for Easter and we've had plenty of opportunity to use it this week!

Easter Time

Here are a few pictures of our Easter activities. We went to an Easter Egg hunt on a pig farm where Lydia got painted up like a bunny. We also decorated eggs at the Drennan's house. And the girls got their picture taken on our fireplace with their Easter gift!

Homemaker by Choice

I like to read several blogs on a variety of topics. Some on sewing, some on homeschooling and large families, some just to keep up with my friends. This is one of them: http://www.homemaker-by-choice.com/ She is having a give away of some awesome DVDs! I've seen several of them before when I borrowed them from the library, but I'd love to have them in my own collection. In the Homestead Blessings videos I've learned several new recipes, and put them into practice. I've started making most of our bread, and we were inspired to start making our own butter. There's one about canning one about gardening that I think would be very useful! Anyway, pop on over and read all about it!

Eating a Cookie

Hadley ate a home made chocolate chip cookie.
What a mess!!!!

I think she liked it.

Beads

My friend Ryann gave us the idea to string beads on pipe cleaners. We gave it a go and it was a huge hit! Look at all the pretty colors!

She seemed to really enjoy it. She was really good at stringing them on.
We made some pretty bracelets.

I like to push the stool around the kitchen

Hello, my name is Lydia and I like to drive this stool around the kitchen!

I'm very cute!

I can drive it over here by the fridge!

Sometimes I like to stop and bang it with a spoon!!

Comin atcha!

A Trip to the Dentist

Hadley and Mandy getting ready to go into the dentist's office.

Mandy had to sit in the chair first. She rode up and down and they looked at her teeth!

Hadley didn't want to sit in the chair by herself, so we all did!

Then she got to brush the teeth of Jeffry the Giraffe.

"Check out my new toothbrush!"

"Hmmm, what prize should I pick?"


Yeah for clean teeth!

Peas in a Pod

We got peas in our fresh produce delivery last week. I'm excited about cooking them! Hadley and I spent some time learning about peas by opening them, smelling them, tasting them, and separating the peas from the pod! We will be having them with dinner tomorrow night!

Homemade Goodness

Homemade Bread and Butter!!

This year is the year of homemade at the Jamison house. I have already made my own laundry detergent as well as my own shampoo. And I have often made my own bread. Today I took another step towards self sufficiency by making my own butter. It was surprisingly easy, although I did need my big strong husband to help!
First, I bought some heavy whipping cream at the grocery store. When you're ready to make your butter, you let the cream come up to room temperature and then pour it in a see through container with a lid. Like an old mayonnaise jar. In my case, I used a mason jar. I would suggest only filling it half way or it is too full to shake very well. Then you shake! Hadley liked watching and even participated in the shaking! It will start to clump up and form butter that is floating in the buttermilk. Pour the buttermilk in a separate container and then put your butter in a bowl. You then squish you butter around in the bowl getting out all the excess buttermilk that's still in it. Pour that off into your buttermilk container. It might take a few minutes to get all the buttermilk out of it. Then you have homemade butter! It was that easy! And you have buttermilk on hand to bake biscuits or to make homemade ranch dressing. I am super happy I decided to do this. I just happened to have some fresh baked bread on hand to try my butter out with and it was delicious and creamy!!
Some other things I'd like to make at home this year are mayonnaise and ketchup!
I love homemade goodness!

Memory Verse

The wicked man flees though no one pursues but the righteous are as bold as a lion....proverbs 28:1




Our next memory verse will be Colossions 3:12. But we just started it, so it will be a while before she has it down. I'm learning just as much as she is with our memory verses. I'd also like to work on our books of the bible. We're looking for a song to sing our bible books but I haven't found one I really like yet. Any suggestions would be welcome if you know of a good bible song CD.

Chores

We are trying to teach Hadley to be a good helper and to do things around the house. I don't think we're actually going to call them chores because that makes them sound like they are something bad. I've heard of people calling them duties, or jurisdictions, or other things. I'm sure we'll come up with a word eventually. But, she is going to have certain things she's in charge of on a daily basis. Right now she's excited about helping with everything. (see previous post about mommy's helper). I'm planning on making a master chore list and giving her special jobs of her own. Right now she brings her dishes to the kitchen after a meal. Then she wipes down the table and her chair and her booster seat. She also takes the dirty napkins to the washing machine. Then she pushes in her chair. If I sweep the floor after that meal, then she helps do that too. Her other job is to put away the silverware every time we unload the dishwasher.
She's very helpful in lots of aspects. She likes to help put away laundry as well. I find that if I sit around most of the day and don't do much, we have a whiny day. But if I get up and do a lot of work, I have a helper to do it all, and she stays busy with me all day. Win-win. Get stuff done and keep Hadley busy! I'll be sure to post our chore charts when I get them done!

Baby Led Weaning

We are well into our new adventure with Baby Let Weaning (BLW). I have decided, once again, to do something that isn't mainstream. We aren't giving our baby baby food. What? You think I'm crazy? Well, here's what we are doing!
I am loosely following a book called "Baby Led Weaning" by Tracey Murkett and Gill Rapley. You can visit their website here: http://www.baby-led.com/
I like their no fuss approach to feeding your baby. With Hadley I decided I wasn't going to give her processed baby food bought from a store. I decided to make her baby food myself. Which I am still glad I did. I knew exactly what was going into it, and it saved a bunch of money. But, it was a lot of work! And let's face it, I'm lazy.
Breastfeeding provides everything a baby needs from birth through the first year. I firmly believe that if my baby ate nothing else for the first year of her life she would be just as healthy as the baby whose mother spent hours spooning liquid goo into her mouth. However, food is a social event and babies like to be involved in this time of family gathering. Plus, they use food to explore new tastes and textures. It not only allows them to participate at meal times, the begin learning how to chew, manipulate food with their mouth, and swallow. They learn to pick things up that are slippery. They experiment with different combinations of crunchy, mushy, sour, soft, and slimy. It's really fun to watch a baby chase a peach around their plate or high chair tray. And they have fun doing it.
So, that is what we are doing at our house. And when people as what my baby has eaten so far I can tell them: asparagus, broccoli, carrots, lettuce, tomato, peaches, pears, grapes, plums, pineapple, apple, banana, blackberries, meatloaf, turkey sandwich, soup, chili, chicken fingers, and much more. She's eating a wider variety of foods than Hadley does and I believe it will have nothing but a positive affect on her food choices later in life.

Just Like Mommy

Hadley has several items that help her be just like mommy. She loves to help clean, or care for her babies, or play on her computer whenever I'm doing those things. It's really just about the cutest thing ever.
Now, I've noticed around the house where she is storing her like items. So, here's a tour of all the things she has like mommy and where they live:

Our brooms in the utility closet

Our vacuums together in the coat closet

My hotsling to wear baby sister, And her little baby doll wearer

And, (what I think is the cutest) her pink computer right next to mommy's pink computer. She even 'gets on facebook' and 'checks her email' on it!!

I need to take a picture of us at the grocery store because she has her own grocery cart, baby in the cart, list, and wallet that we have to take every week so she can shop too!

Oh, and then she also does like to be just like Daddy sometimes: