Mom's Soup Pot

I have been in a dinner rut. I have had no ideas for dinner and have not been to the store, because I did not know what to buy. Everything that I could think of to cook made me think of winter food. I like lighter food in the summer.

I had finally decided on two meals to cook and had plans to go to the store yesterday. Then my oldest came down with a stomach bug. I did not make it to the store. My husband stopped on his way home and bought some essentials and stuff to make quesadillas. That did not sound good to me either, but everyone else like them and they were happy.

Finally today I went to the store. I have been craving an all vegetable dinner. I also saw a recipe on the Crock Pot lady's website for Cowboy beans. And then Pioneer Woman had the best looking potatoes and steak and stuffed tomato on her site today.

Last night when I could not figure out what to cook, I put as my status on facebook that I did not know what was for dinner. I am friends on facebook with a couple of my friends that I grew up withs parents. One of them sent me an email telling me how she used to freeze all of her leftover vegetables and then make a soup out of them.

That reminded me of how my mom talked about her grandmother's soup pot. She said that she kept a big bowl in the refrigerator and put all of the leftovers in it. Then once a week she made soup out of it. I think that was a pretty common practice. Those women of the Great Depression knew how to not let anything go to waste. They made sure everything they bought for food got eaten. How different is that now? We through food away and do not think a thing about it. It bothers me that I am throwing away food that we paid for, but not enough to do anything about it. I try to make my family eat leftovers, but it does not happen very often. Right now there is a almost whole chicken spaghetti sitting in my refrigerator. It was a new recipe and no one liked it. It tried to eat it, but who wants a whole chicken spaghetti? I think if it is still good, I am going to freeze it and then try and use it this winter for a soup.

Tonight for dinner we are going to have butter beans, sauteed squash, corn pudding, fried okra, and fresh tomatoes. We will probably have leftovers tomorrow night and then whatever is left I am going to put in a gallon Ziploc bag and use for soup this winter. My family may get tired of soup!

What I Have Been Doing

For the past week I have been cleaning out bedrooms. I started in my daughter's room. I have been wanting to paint her room, but it was so messy that you could not walk through it. We spent one day cleaning out and organizing all of her stuff. That night when I was giving kisses and hugs, my son asked if we were going to do his room the next day. I think he was a little jealous. He usually has the cleaner room of the two.

So, the next day we spent on his room. I thought his room would be easier, but it was actually harder. He had a bunch of little things that were very hard to classify. When it was done, he was glad.

After I had finished their rooms, my room was the messiest in the house. I tried all week to work on mine, but I had one big problem. The baby. His crib is in our room. I work the best while he is asleep. Finally on Saturday the kids had a birthday party to go to. I put Seth done for his nap in the pack and play in the living room and my wonderful husband took the other two kids to the birthday party and I had uninterrupted cleaning time. I was really embarrassed by how much dog hair was on my carpet and my comforter. I had taken my comforter off of my bed to take to the dry cleaners, but my dogs had decided that it made a good bed. One of our dogs is a Chow/Golden retriever mix and she sheds so bad in the summer. After all of my cleaning I finally took my comforter to the dry cleaners today.

In other news. I finally got all of my curriculum ordered. Today Grant's reading books came in and I am really excited about them. I have switched him to Sonlight for reading, but had to order them off of ebay. It took a lot of patience for me to wait until I found all of the books together and at a price I could afford, but I think this reading will be better for him. Last year we did Abeka reading. I love Abeka, but I think he was bored with it. When I started checking books out of the library for him to read, he started reading better. I think he will do better with reading real books instead of readers.

So, my plan for curriculum this year is ABeka for phonics, language, math, and spelling. Getty Dubay for handwriting. Math- U- See for Katie Beth's math. 100 Easy Lessons for Katie Beth's reading. Sonlight reading 2 for Grant's reading. Sonlight Core K for history. Some lapbooks and experiments in a bag for science.

I am still working on putting together our Bible. Last year I used a devotion book that Grant had and their memory verses from Awanas. This year I bought a book called Polite Moments. It is more of a character training book. I think I am going to focus on a "trait" a week and find verses to go with that "trait". I will write about how this goes when I start putting it together more.

In other other news. Our upstairs air conditioner is out again. This is the third time this summer. I am trying to be thankful in all things. I am trying to look to the positive. I put Seth to bed in his pack and play and I am going to go upstairs and clean bathrooms. I usually put this off for fear of waking him. Since he is not asleep up there, I know I will not wake him.

Off to clean bathrooms!

Science Swap

I am terrible about planning science experiments. When I do get around to planning them, I then realize that I do not have all the supplies, then I forget to put the supplies on my grocery list and I never buy them. So I was really excited when one of the mom's in our homeschool group put together a science swap this summer. At the homeschool conference I went to, I bought several science experiments in a bag from a company called Holy Cow Science, but if I participated in this I could get even more science experiments already planned.

To participate in the Science Swap, you had to plan a science experiment in a bag. You were to put all the supplies you would need to perform the experiment in a gallon Ziploc bag with the directions for the experiment and make enough for everyone in the swap to have one.

Eight families participated, so we made up eight bags of an experiment called bobbing raisins. We all met at a park and the mom that coordinated the swap had eight bags setting out and we put one of our experiments in each bag.

My kids were pretty excited to have some experiments to do and I was really excited to have experiments that I did not have to plan or gather the supplies for.

Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma

I have had a hard time teaching my children to say Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma, Yes Sir, No Sir. I have corrected them and corrected them and they still do not seem to get it. I was really getting tired of correcting them and not seeing them get it.

Then one day I was reading one of my favorite blogs, http://www.smockityfrocks.com/. She had a post about using a jar of marbles to give your kids an incentive to do things. I pulled out a jar and a bag of marbles and we started.

Every time they said Yes Ma'ma, No Ma'ma, Yes Sir, No Sir they got to put a marble in the jar. When the jar was full they got to go to Marble Slab for Ice Cream. They filled that jar up pretty quick.

So, the second time around, I made it harder. This time I could take marbles out. I told them if they talked ugly to each other, if they did not obey all the way, right away, or any other thing that I thought was ugly, they would lose a marble. It took them longer to fill it up this time, but it sure is a good motivator.

Yesterday they filled it up and we let them choose their treat. They choose Snow Cones. So last night we loaded up in the car for a trip to the Snow Cone stand. They really enjoyed their snow cones. I just wish I had taken a picture of them with the snow cone juice all over their faces.

This morning I emptied the jar to start over and they already have 4 marbles.

Seth's First Haircut

I put off getting Seth's hair cut as long as I could. His head was getting so sweaty and we were spending so much time at the baseball fields that I just couldn't postpone it anymore.

We were going to my husband's family reunion and one of his uncles used to be a barber. He always bring his tools because someone always wants a haircut. So Chris (my husband) decided that this would be the best time for a haircut. So after he pried Seth from my arms and I quit kicking and screaming saying, "I do not want my baby to look like a big boy," (Not quite that dramatic, but that was how I felt) Chris and his Uncle Bub got to work and cut off all of my baby's curls.

He looked really cute, but it was hard for me to get use to his new look. I knew it had to be done. I did not have this hard of a time when the other two got haircuts. I do not know what it was about this one, but it was really hard.

I WON!!

I am so excited. I won a $25 gift certificate to the EcoStore. Now I can not decide what I am going to buy. I would really like to try the pure oxygen whitener, but also some shampoo, but also some soap. I think I will have to study their website more to decide. I will let you know what I try and how I like it.