apple dip

apple dip

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

beat all ingredients together with an electric mixer until smooth.

B's apple dip with macintosh apples. yummo!

everyday gift: lickin' the beaters

how to make an apple pie...

and see the world!

one of our very favorite Five in a Row books over the years has been How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. we read it every september when you can smell fall in the air and the apples are ready to pick. this year was extra special since we were picking our own apples. it was so much fun to revisit this unit study that takes you on a wild cross-continental chase looking for all the ingredients for your pie!

some of the resources we are using for our unit study include The Picture Atlas of the World, From Sea to Shining Sea: Vermont, and An Apple a Day by melvin berger. we are learning about johnny appleseed with Folks Call Me Appleseed John by andrew glass and John Chapman: The Man Who Was Johnny Appleseed by carol greene.

of course we made an apple pie!

B made flags for all the countries that were visited in the story and we mapped the journey with red string.

this is a memory game putting the countries and ingredients in order.

we went to the market for vanilla ice cream to top our apple pie...and thankfully it was open! ;o)

everyday gift: apple pie

dad's apple trees

apples are such a wonderful sign of september, like warm sunny days giving way to evenings that have you reaching for a jacket. i have such fond memories of picking apples as a kid with my family. and i have tried to make it a tradition with our family as well. this year we are picking our own apples!

when we first bought our country property, before the barn was even built, my dad bought us some fruit trees: 2 apple trees, macintosh and red delicious, and 1 cherry tree. what a thoughtful gift! it was hard to know where to plant them then. we didn't have everything mapped out quite yet. but we ended up putting them on the back hill. the only problem is, it was just far enough away from the house to put them out of sight and out of mind, as the saying goes. but the little trees held their own against the tall grass that surrounded them and despite the neglect, they kept on growing.


after a few years we got a few apples. then we had a late spring frost when the apples trees were blossoming and so missed another year of apples. i am ashamed to say that we have not paid much attention to them.

but this year we have a wonderful harvest of apples! look at this bushel of macintosh apples! they are beautiful. the other night mark and B when out to pick, if only i had known, you know i would have been ready with my camera! but that's okay. i do love it that mark will spontaneously take one of the kids and have a special time with them.

i was so surprised when they came in with several large buckets full of apples! B was beaming! and i felt as though i had just received the gift all over again from my dad.

But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

He will be like a tree planted by water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.

Jeremiah 17:7-8

***

everyday gift: september apples from dad

ahem...are your chores done?

eta: i posted this picture because i thought it was really cute, especially with that intent look on her face and those toes! but i am adding a comment because i am struck by the miracle of reading. B's furrowed brow and eyes running down the path of the story, anxious to see what happens around the corner. so much information and meaning jump from symbols on a page to the eye bringing understanding to the mind in a blink. and i can't tell you how it happens. i am in awe of the mind that God has created in each of us, that far surpass our understanding and our computers.

everyday gift: being lost in a book

recipe for a sweater ~ part 3

step three: scour the wool

gather your supplies.



today i am scouring jericho's fleece. he is a shetland with beautiful charcoal colored wool.

shetland wool has a very soft fiber, ideal for sweaters.

after sorting out the unusable portions of the fleece, i place the wool in laundry bags. this makes it easier to manage as it is moved from wash tub to wash tub.

the wool is submerged in piping hot water with dissolved soap, either orvus livestock soap, or original dawn dish washing detergent (other brands do not effectively cut through the wool's lanolin). the temperature of the water should allow you to put your hands in it, but hot enough that you won't leave them there for long. the wool should be submerged gently, without any agitation, and soaked for 10 minutes or so. it is then moved into a fresh tub of soapy water for another soaking. next it goes through several tubs of rinse, soaking about 10 minutes with each step. the water in each tub should be the same temperature. agitation and a quick change in temperature can cause felting.

after you drain and gently squeeze as much as water out of the wool as you can, put the wool, still in the laundry bag into the washing machine and turn it on the spin cycle. you really should do two at a time so you can balance it. then the final drying time on the rack is very short, especially if you have a warm dry day. i bought this nice big drying rack at a yard sale. mark bought the screens i am using at another yard sale after he caught me taking our screens out of our windows to use on my drying rack. he loves to help me out like that! :o)

first day

C and S, accompanied by B heading in to school on the first day, backpacks laden with new notebooks and folders, fresh pencils, rulers, and markers.

a smile from S in his first classroom... (that was not also his living room! )

i wanted to post something eloquent and inspiring about the new school year here, but at the moment, i have too many conflicting emotions. i am praying that the situation that caused so much aggravation last year for C will have subsided. i am praying that we made the right decision for S, who was thriving at home and reluctant about being at school. i am proud of his courage and poise in the face of an uncertain situation. and i will miss both of them this school year. so we face a new year of changes and challenges. and i am thankful that God goes with us each step.

everyday gift: rising to the challenges of the new year

welcome to third grade

with the school year upon us, i thought i would share some of my plans for B's third grade. it will be very different this year with both of the boys away at school. but i am looking forward to having the one-on-one time with B and giving her my undivided attention for a change. in addition to regular school work, i would like to teach her to sew and knit, and i will have her spend more time helping me in the kitchen baking and cooking.



one of the wonderful things about homeschooling is the freedom to pursue a child's special talents and interests. i want our school to include an element of delight driven learning, so i asked B what she wanted to learn about this year. without hesitation, she answered, "HORSES!" i suspected this would be the case, that is why i picked up beautiful feet's literature study on the history of horses.

here are some of the books that are used with our horse study. B has been watching our stack grow as they have been delivered from amazon and ebay over the last few weeks. and as the stack has grown, so has her excitement for school to begin!

i came across a child's geography at the end of last school year and bought it, intending to begin this fall. but when it came in the mail and i read through some of the lessons, i could. not. wait. we dug right in! i love how each lesson gives a spiritual aspect to our world, to the people who live here, and to the Creator. the reader is motivated to action; making this world a better place by loving those around us and taking up our God-given responsibility to tend this earth. this book is a gem!

we have really loved this series of elementary science books put out by apologia! and this year we will be working on zoology 3: land animals of the sixth day.

B started out in latin last year with prima latina, so we will be moving up to latina christiana I this year. now, before you think i am task master, i must say that B requested latin last year...yes, she is a much different student than her brothers! ;o)

we will be using The Phonetic Zoo for our spelling program from the institute for excellence in writing. we will also be using the writing program.

we will continue on with our little house unit studies alternating this with our horse study and beyond five in row unit studies. we will start each day with our veritas press Bible cards and prayer time. don't worry, we will try to find time for math, handwriting, and grammar, too!

i know, i know. this is a lot of curriculum, there is so much good stuff out there! but as much as i love all these great books, our favorite kind of learning is still a nature walk, reading a classic aloud, working side by side on the farm, baking muffins together in the kitchen and sharing them with tea, classical music and a poetry reading. oh, how blessed i am to be a homeschool mom!

everyday gift: learning at home