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!