Homeschooling

I mentioned a while back that there was some news from our family. You might have guessed it from the title: we have decided to try homeschooling our older daughter for the coming year. If it goes well, we will continue. If it doesn't, we gave it our best shot and hopefully helped her out a bit. Our younger daughter is going to be attending a special STEM school, which we are thrilled about, so she is not going to be homeschooled at this time.

I have been preparing by researching curriculum online, talking to friends who currently homeschool and finding out what has worked for them, and gathering some great resources on my Pinterest board, "Schooling at Home". Since our reasons for homeschooling are not religious, it is a little hard to filter through the multitude of religious homeschooling sites which initially look promising. However, I feel like I'm getting a little more comfortable with putting together lessons and such, and we will start full-on homeschooling when Sister goes back to school in a few weeks! There are some really helpful internet resources out there.

We are already doing a few lessons and getting caught up on math. For this I used (at Eryn's amazing recommendation! Thanks, Eryn!) Singapore Math's placement tests to find Miss S' actual math level. I ordered books off of Amazon (some were used and very cheap, so we got a great deal!) and we started in right away. I really like the way Singapore Math goes about teaching concepts. It seems to keep Miss S interested for a longer period of time than the math lessons she would bring home from school.

I also found some great apps, one of which sparked an entire unit we are going to do that is based around an Edgar Allan Poe poem! It encompasses (so far): art, reading, writing, public speaking/recitation, history, math, Spanish, and cooking/life skills. I'll share more info about this soon, as I'm still working through making the unit cohesive instead of just stuff I'm jotting down every time an idea hits me.

Although it's sort of daunting, I'm really looking forward to this challenge. Any advice would be much appreciated from those of you who are currently homeschooling a middle-schooler (or who have in the past).

Bawk Bawk, Chicken Lovers!

Well here is the big backyard surprise I mentioned in my last post...we got chickens! Three of them, actually: Gertrude, Francis Pistachio, and Muffin the Cheep Cheep. They are cute little weirdos and we rescued them from a place that was not keeping their animals very well. They have a much better life now, but we are having to treat them for some problems. =( People can really be awful.

Check out Muffin, cheeping for me to pick her up:

We think she looks like a giant little peep with feathers. ^_^

I hope everyone is enjoying their outdoor spaces, be it your backyard, a park, or balcony.

Oh! And don't forget to follow me over on Instagram! I've been selling a few things over there, plus you'll get to see snapshots of our family's life and you even might get some more chicken videos. Later!

Shop News from Annaliese's Emporium and Life Stuff from Annaliese!

Hey there!

I have a bunch of fun stuff going on with my shop right now! I have been adding new items, one of which are bow tie pasta hair bows, which are buy three get the fourth one free. You pick the color and I'll make 'em for you!

These are great for party favors! I'm actually going to be making some for Miss G's birthday party, which is coming up in the next couple of weeks!

How are my kids getting so old?? Eek! 

Here is a sneak peek at the new dolls that will be in my shop soon! If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen these:

I love their cute little faces!

They will be in the shop very sooooonnnn!!!

I've been making a few fun Etsy treasuries you might check out, too.

And our family has been really working hard on our yards and garden, and spending as much time outside as possible in this nice spring weather. We have lots of little green sprouts coming up in our starter trays and containers inside and they should be ready to plant outside soon! We're also building a hugelkultur garden and we planted two apple trees! I'm hoping for a mini food forest at our house someday. ^_^

Not a burial mound. A hugel!

Even though we are in the middle of a city, I'm trying to make our backyard a bit of a lush oasis. The privacy fence helps. :) We should soon have some exciting news about our outdoor adventures! 

Lots of fun stuff going on around here. I hope everyone is getting some warmer weather, too!

Our Leprechaun Trap Cake

The kids and I had a great time making this Leprechaun Trap Cake from Not Martha!

Our cake! <3

Our measured quantities of colored dough in sandwich baggies for easy piping into the pan.

When we cut off the top of the cake (which ends up being the bottom), we saw that the purple and white didn't "make the cut" (heh...little joke there), as well as some of the blue. At this point I was sort of wondering how the inside would look and if we had totally messed up the rainbow.

Mmmmm rainbows...

I made my mom's easy icing for the crumb coat and an almost-as-easy cream cheese frosting with stuff we had on hand (cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar...and lots of green food coloring of course).

I used Wilton tip 233 to make the "grass". Boy were my hands tired.

Adding the grass over the crumb coat.

Our trap door over the hole.

Sign by Miss S.

The finished product, complete with pretzel ladder and gold coin bait.

While their dad and I were making dinner and they were playing in their room, a leprechaun apparently snuck into the kitchen, stole the gold coin, and narrowly escaped before we saw him; his little golden shoe was stuck between two of the sticks on the trap door! We also found footprints in the frosting!

The girls had a good time searching all over the kitchen for evidence of the leprechaun, and Miss S said she was going to take the little shoe to her crime lab.

One of the best parts for me was when we cut the cake and WOOHOO the rainbow was there!! We were all very excited. 

Not a great photo, but yayayay do you see that rainbow??

What a fun cake to make! Thanks to Not Martha for a super awesome idea. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

First Day of Spring (Break) + How to Make Bird Feeders Out of Magnolia Pods

Wow, yesterday was so busy and fun! I'm really enjoying being with the kids, as this is the first spring break I can remember that I have been able to stay home with them! So exciting and wonderful. ^_^

Yesterday was in the 70's outside, so we played and worked outside almost the entire day. We planted some plants, did some raking, picked up sticks, and cleaned up our yard a bit. But as for Miss G's very favorite of the things we did yesterday, we made gazillions and gazillions (or it seemed like it) of bird feeders and also created a "Birdland" in our backyard (and a mini one in our front yard).  We had soooo much fun. 

We found a "wormy" while planting our new blueberry plant!

Colorful yarn we put out for the birds to make nests

Getting ready to start seeds to grow food!

Our new Himalayan plant for our outdoor table

Fancy bird food - hangers and a cake to welcome spring

For the first batch of bird feeders, we used two cookie cutters, a fancy schmancy jello mold, and this recipe: Darling Little Birdseed Cakes. The recipe uses unflavored gelatin, boiling water (thanks, electric kettle), and bird food, mixed until it is a good consistency. We filled the cookie cutters up half way, tied a piece of twine together, and placed the twine loop inside of the bird food with the knot inside. Then, while one of us held the twine in place, we filled it up the rest of the way. These sat out on the counter for the rest of the day and had set by the evening. We are going to put these out today!

For the hanging bird feeders that we made a bunch of, I improvised. I know a lot of people cover pine cones in peanut butter and then roll them in bird seed. Well we don't have any pine cones, but we do have a ton of magnolia pods all over the ground under our big magnolia tree. They are pine cone-ish, so why not. We tied twine and yarn to one, covered it in peanut butter, and then rolled it in bird seed. It worked! So we made, as I mentioned, "a gazillion" of them. 

Magnolia pods lined up to get string, peanut butter, and bird seed.

"Birds like bright colors, Mom, so mine are going to have this yarn." - Miss G

Rolling in the birdseed

Voila!

Then Miss G, who was extremely, EXTREMELY excited about feeding the birds, had the idea that we make a bird sanctuary in our backyard. By this time we had already hung a bunch of these feeders in the trees in our front yard and on our porch, but the backyard was really going to be the big spot for birds. So we strung a line in a corner of our yard and hung a bunch of the feeders on it. Let me tell you; the squirrels love it. ;)

Yes, we need to continue raking our yard.

"Birdland" with makeshift birdbath

Our bird home decorating basket

The girls made signs telling the birds that there is bird food for eating and water for their baths and drinking, and placed them in Birdland. We are going to check everything we did and see if anything has been eaten.

We ended the day with this amazing recipe for dinner (Tex Mex Spaghetti Squash with Black Bean Guacamole), which Eryn recommended, and I can't thank her enough! Sooooo good.

Later on, Husband and I were sitting on the porch swing enjoying a beer and the nice weather, and a crazed rabbit came bounding through our yard, stopped in front of us and snorted loudly (sneezed?), and took off down the way. Unreal!

All in all, a wonderful day! ^_^

Signs of spring!

Home Improvements are Fun

...And I don't mean that sarcastically! I love old houses. I think they have a lot of character and a great feel. We purchased our first home two years ago; a sweet bungalow built in 1917. No, not everything was perfect, but we saw the kitchen, high ceilings, and cat door to the basement, and knew that it was right for our family. Also there was a pot rack hanging above the bar where the big stove was in the kitchen. I think that was the kicker for Husband.

Just off of the kitchen is a sweet little dining nook. It had...potential. As you can see from this picture taken shortly after we moved in (notice the boxes), Husband is quite excited to be cooking breakfast on our new stove. But what I'm actually trying to show you is the dining nook behind him. That wallpaper! Wow. It's like...you know...you're sitting in a garden...

Well it wasn't quite our style. 

Happy Husband

Miss G practicing cello in "the garden"

We could only do so much at once, so a few other repairs came first. Meanwhile I even tried to cover it with maps and such. It wasn't much of a map room.

One weekend Husband was out of town and the kids and I decided to go for it. It was time to tear down all of the wallpaper. Yikes. Well we did it. 

Little helpers

I found that a wet sponge and plastic scraper worked better than anything else we tried, and it actually went fairly smoothly!

The end result is pretty nice, I think. 

Getting ready to eat bo ssam on my birthday

We would eventually like to put in a wooden built-in booth, but this will do just fine until then!

Do you do your own home improvements? I think they can be really fun! 

2013, A Very Good Year

What a year, huh? I don't know about you, but this year seemed to really fly by for our family. We keep saying "time flies when you're having fun", but holy crap.

Well anyway...HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I think this is going to be a great one, too. Last night I spent some time taking Becky's advice in her blog post, "Retreat", and doing a bit of introspection. I journaled about the past year and listed some things that I would like to do and changes I would like to make for this new year. This shiny, brand new year. =)

We have a family resolution to be mostly vegetarian in 2014, which I am really excited about. Last night I listed about eight things for personal resolutions, but I sort of always have an ongoing list. Have you heard of "101 Things in 1001 Days" lists? I've kept one for years, since the girls were really tiny. I am a list lover, I must admit.  

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We were in New Orleans for the last week and had a great time with Oma (Miss S and Miss G's grandma). I've included a few pictures of our trip (ok, the first picture is from the sweet swap party; these are the Christmas trees Miss G and I made). 

Holiday trees for the sweet swap

Carrot, trying to steal my water!

Carousel at Audubon Zoo 

My carousel ride

Gettin' all fancy at the Royal Sonesta

In the "snow" at Miracle on Fulton Street

In the exact spot where we were married 

Celebration in the Oaks in City Park...best huge outdoor holiday party ever!

Vegetarian pho at Lily's Cafe (omg)

Eating some delicious, delicious oysters

Our surrey adventure in City Park

Happy New Year, from our family to you and yours! ^_^

Happy New Year!!

We had some snow fall overnight and awoke to sparkly, soft, snowfall this morning too. 

We are spending our New Years Day cozied up inside watching the snow accumulate. Later we will venture outside to shovel and play. Followed by hot cocoa and writing some goals for this new year. 

I hope your day is filled with warmth and love (and a little snow too)!

How's It Going?

Holiday preparations underway? Pretty busy? I hear ya. Yesterday I finished up Miss S and Miss G's Christmas presents (finally!) and I'm still working on a few more presents. Not to mention, the day after tomorrow we are having another feast - our annual Sweet Swap (Now with Bonus Potluck-Style Feast)! People bring enough of a homemade treat to share and at the end of the night everyone goes home with an array of sweets. You might have guessed we were having another feast if you've been following along at All Tomorrow's (Dinner) Parties!

In the last week we had Husband's graduation from university (that means a big party), kids' holiday and end of semester school events, holiday preparation, and we all had fun making and decorating cookies. If you haven't seen this, it's worth a look...we had a bunch of fun doing this to our cookies! So gorgeous and fun. Awesome Cookie Decorating Method from The Kitchn. Yes, it's as excellent as it looks.

We used my mom's simple icing recipe for the base and then colored icing for the embellishments.

Annaliese's Mom's Icing Recipe (Ready? It's Complicated)

1. Pour some powdered sugar in a bowl.
2. Add some drops of vanilla extract.
3. Add a little milk.
4. Mix until it's icing.
    4a. Too runny? Add a little more powdered sugar until it's right.
    4b. Too dry? Add a little more milk til it's right.
    4c. Too un-vanilla-y? Add a few more drops of vanilla.
5. Voila! Add food coloring, if you so choose.

I learned this recipe when I was, oh I don't know, three years old maybe. It's actually really good, and the factor of ease makes it quite delightful. I like the way it hardens on the cookie and everything looks smooth and beautiful.

The girls' main presents are a fox doll and a cat doll. They both have been asking for these for months and it's been difficult to keep it a surprise, but there's only less than a week to go now! Yay! Here are (Yet Unnamed) the Cat and Carrot the Fox, with masks, jackets, bows, and purses:

What do you think? Husband thinks the kids are going to flip out when they see them. I can't wait! ^_^