A Tasty Snack

So, I haven't blogged for a long time. I got bogged down with traveling and the holidays. What can I say?

I thought I'd offer a treat to anyone who may still be reading.

I guess you would call them Wonton Wrapper Chips. These were shared with me by my friend Lisa and I was craving them today so I thought I'd share. Disclaimer: they can be quite addictive! Disclaimer 2: I'm no Pioneer Woman with the camera so please excuse my photos!

They start with a package of wonton wrappers. In my grocery store, they are located near the fancy cheeses, hummus, etc.

Line a cookie sheet (or baking pan with a rim) with parchment paper.

Pour some oil into a bowl. I use olive oil. (Like the Sesame Street bowl? It's been around since Turned Loose was a little guy.)

This is how the wrappers look out of the package.

I use my handy dandy Pampered Chef pizza cutter to cut them into fourths.

Lay them out on the baking sheet. Brush them lightly with the oil with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop them in a 350 degree oven. These take just a hair under4 minutes in my oven but my oven isn't reliable. It might take an extra minute or two in a working oven.

They come out looking like this. Slightly golden around the edges.

And then you have a plate of yumminess with endless possibilities!



Use them for a variety of dips-hummus, mango salsa, onion dip....use your imagination. You can also change them up according to your mood or needs by sprinkling different spices on top instead of the salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

College...here we come!

I have been blessed to homeschool my kids since Turned Loose was in second grade. It's been challenging, it's been fun, it's been overwhelming.

My cute little 7 year old second grader is now and almost17 year old (in two weeks) eleventh grader and college is right around the corner. College preparation can be scary for a simple homeschooling mom! My job has gone from teaching him (Who am I kidding? I haven't taught this kid anything academic since he was about 8!) to being a full time guidance counselor. Problem? I have no clue how to do this part of the job!

So, I've been researching. Turned Loose is a scientist at heart and he is interested in very intense and very competitive schools. I'm the opposite of a scientist and cry in fear at the thought of stepping foot on the campus of the likes of CalTech, MIT, or Harvey Mudd-all schools that my son would love to attend!

I'm learning and growing and attempting to equip myself to make application to one of these schools within reach for my high schooler. I thought maybe someone out there might be interested in some of what I've learned so I'll begin sharing my thoughts and discoveries as I press on through this junior and senior year.

I will also have a ninth grader next school year and will start my preparations for her much earlier now that I know better.

I hope that some of what I've learned will be a benefit to someone else out there. I wish I would have had my hand held starting a few years ago but I really didn't even know where to look at that time. If I can help hold the hand of another mom who is a little intimidated by the prospect of college I'll be thankful!

If there's anything that anyone would like to see me address specifically, I'd be happy to do that, too. I hope to post at least once a week with my ideas about college prep planning.

Here's a hug for all of my fellow homeschoolers navigating these waters!

Preschool Fun

I haven't been as regular as On the Loose would like with preschool these days, but we still manage to have some fun.

He is still greatly enjoying his bags we collected as part of our preschool bag swap with our Five in a Row friends!

This one uses foam shapes to organize by color and by shape:

This is one of his very favorites! You "fish" for the letter fish with a magnetic pole and place the letters on the card one at a time.

This is the one he and I made for the swap. It's another magnetic fishing pole. There are 10 magnetic items and 10 non-magnetic items. The goal is to classify them by what sticks and what doesn't.

Here's some play-doh fun with his brother. He's made a "circle shaped pizza with tomato sauce and cheese on top. ":-)

We've also read a wide variety of library books, played blocks, experimented with numbers, etc. I think we've been successful in spite of our not being regular. We'll see what next week holds!

Five Years

Can it really be five years? Some days it feels like it was yesterday. Some days it feels like a lifetime ago. Some days it feels like it was just a nightmare and that it never really happened.

Five years ago today, September 17, 2004, our family welcomed our beautiful Katherine into our lives. We went into that day thinking we were going to meet a perfectly healthy baby and that she would soon be home with us and fit into our fun. However, our world was turned upside down a few short hours after her birth. I will never forget my husband turning to me and saying, "We have a problem. It's her heart." Our world changed in that moment.

Our perfect little girl was broken on the inside and we had no power to fix things. A simple kiss from Mommy couldn't make things better. All of the skinned knees, bruises, etc. that I had spent nearly 12 years kissing away did not prepare me to be able to fix it this time. We had to completely and totally turn her over to the One who had knit her together.

And turn her over we did. We cried and begged and prayed for God to heal her broken little heart. I sat by her bedside and whispered into her ear all of the plans I had for her. I looked for God's goodness in her life every day.

In the end, He chose to take her home to be with Him. She lived exactly six weeks. In that time, my faith grew and I developed a new sense of what it is to hope in God. He has proven Himself over and over again over the past five years as He has held us and comforted us.

This day is always hard for me as I can imagine celebrating with her. I can imagine the cake and the ice-cream. The dolls. Her smile as we sing Happy Birthday. Instead of those things, the Lord has replaced them with hope. Hope in seeing her again someday as we feast with Him and sing His praises forever.

Happy Birthday Dear On the Loose...

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear On the Loose
Happy Birthday to you!!

Our little guy turned 4 years old today! I can't believe that I was holding a sweet smelling little newborn 4 years ago tonight. He's growing into such a funny little fellow. We are blessed by him for sure!

One of his new fascinations is music. His instrument of choice is....the drums. Don't laugh! I know you're laughing and saying, "Better her than me!" At any rate, I took him to Toys R Us today to buy him a bike. I also found this fun electronic drum set. Apparently, drumming is dangerous business.




Last Mother's Day we went to lunch at an outdoor shopping mall. This giant ferris wheel is a focal point. On that day, he wanted to ride the wheel but, well, I'm afraid of heights and did not want to ride an overgrown ferris wheel on my special day. So, he asked (on Mother's Day) if he could ride it on his birthday. Four months later, his birthday finally arrived and we made good on our promise.






He was very excited! :-)



When we got to the top (yes, I swallowed my fear and rode the darned thing!), he said, "Look, Mommy! You can see everything from up here!"



After riding the ferris wheel, we had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. He always orders a "circle shaped pizza with tomato sauce and cheese on top!" He got that from an episode of Blue's Clues. But, I don't like dealing with tomato sauce with a little guy, so when he places his order and the server just looks at him, I say, "He'll have the honey chicken pizza please." :-) When they ask if he'd like tomato sauce on it, I just inconspicuously shake my head. On the Loose doesn't even notice.



Nice and full, we headed for the carousel. He enjoyed his ride. On the way out the exit, a nice, big red button was just at his level. He couldn't resist and he pushed it before I could grab his hand. It instantly turned off all of the lights on the carousel and it was plenty dark outside. Red faced, I profusely apologized to the carousel operator and she said, "It's OK. It happens all the time." I'm not sure if that's true or if she was just trying to make me feel better. He still lives up to his moniker of Mr. Naughty Pants!



To top off a fun birthday celebration, we headed to a cupcake shop! Yum! Here you can decorate your own cupcake and they'll give you a candle and some matches to make your experience complete!



He chose blue frosting, M & M's and gummy bears.



We sang Happy Birthday and just enjoyed the moment.




I think he had a fun and fabulous day! :-)

A Legacy of Faith

How can one begin to document the influence that a loved one has had on her life? How do I recount the love, laughter, care and tenderness that one woman has bestowed upon me over the past 40 years?

As I spent these last days with my grandma, so many emotions flood my heart. My memories are so fond. Her closet full of high heels and square dancing costumes were at the constant disposal of my cousins and I as we twirled around and around and around in those full skirts. Her laughter as we played “shoe store” with our grandpa (he was always such a good sport!) was contagious. She lovingly tucked us into the “antique bed” more times than I can count. She gave me my first taste of coffee. Well, it was actually a mug of cream and sugar with a drop of coffee in it. She also tricked me into tasting buttermilk straight from a glass.

There was always room for me in her home and I availed myself of the opportunities so often! I would have rather been at my grandma’s house than at any other place on the earth, including Disneyland. I spent my spring breaks and part of my summer breaks with her. We went to the pool. We went to the beach. We played UNO for hours.



She’s always given to me. She’s always cared for me.

During the past ten years, I have had the blessing of being able to care for her by helping her with certain tasks. I have done her grocery shopping, taken her to the doctor, done her bookkeeping, etc. Yes, I’ve given to her. But…the blessing of what I have received far surpasses anything I have given!

Over those same ten years, my grandma passed on a legacy. She lived her faith every day. She donated her time to helping pack Braille Bibles every Tuesday morning for 26 years. She loved her neighbors, her friends and her family. She was content in everything.

My family and I shared her last moments with her and the peace that surrounded her was amazing. She was so ready to meet her Savior! True to form she was a bit impatient about it but oh was she ready.



Over the past two months her kidneys failed her. Her body became weak but her soul became that much stronger! She longed to see the Lord face to face and she spent hours praying for that meeting and for the family she was leaving behind.

At the age of 87, my grandma passed away just two weeks ago with us at her side. I miss her more than I can possibly express. But, I embrace the legacy she left for me; the legacy of her faith. Not only that but I look forward with joy to the day I will reunite with her on those streets of gold!

I can only pray that my own legacy will be as rich!

Wordless Wednesday

Buried under a pile of curriculum

We officially began our 11th year of homeschooling today. Turned Loose is a new 11th grader. Footloose has begun 8th grade. And, On the Loose is enjoying pre-kindergarten.

I must admit that, due to the events of the summer, I have had no motivation to plan the new year. The older kids take classes through The Potter's School (see the left side bar for a link) and those classes do not start until September 14th. So, I only have to plan the lessons for the classes I facilitate for them. Even so, my motivation is non-existent.

Maybe this is part of the reason why. This pile is just history books:



I had to dig into the box where all of this was stored in order to find the logic book and Bible curricula that Footloose will be using this year. I also need to find some pre-k stuff.

I really must figure out a better, more efficient storage system then just throwing it all into a big rubbermaid bin!

When I dig myself out, I will post about how I plan high school: how I store records, what I keep, what forms I create, etc. That way, maybe I can remember my system when it's time to plan again! :-)

I'm still here...

With good reason, it's been over a month since I wrote anything here.

Just a few days after my last post, my grandma became ill and I've spent the last five weeks caring for her. After a week in the hospital and two and a half weeks in skilled nursing, I had her admitted to hospice care and took her back to her own home. She is resting comfortably there with wonderful care givers around the clock.

Although it has been somewhat stressful managing her care, it has been a blessing to meet her needs and spend extended time with her.

The last two weeks have also been busy on the homefront. Turned Loose spent a week at Point Loma University at Worldview Academy. He had an amazing time and can't wait to return next summer. His sister spent the week bemoaning the fact that she missed her brother and that she wished she could have gone with him. They are both registered for next year. :-)

Last week, they both spent long days at the Concordia Debate Institute honing their debate and research skills. They made lots of new friends and, generally, had a blast! Two weeks from now, they will attend speech and debate camp with our own club.

This week, I really must plan our next school year! We are due to start a week from today and I've done virtually nothing in preparation!

With that-I'm off to start the day!

Living in a small space...

OK, I know. I haven't blogged in forever. I'm lazy and I've had nothing to say. :-)

But, I was reading a thread on Five in a Row today about large families living in small spaces. Well, I don't claim to have a large family (although, some people think that two adults living with three kids is large) but we do have a space challenge here. Four of us are adult sized 6'5", 5'11", 6'2", and 5'9" respectively from oldest to youngest. On the Loose isn't quite 4 feet yet.

Our house is 1482 sq. feet. I have found that an important sanity saver of living in a small home is to make use of as much vertical space as possible! It helps keep clutter out of the way so that we're not tripping on it as we stumble to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It makes room for guests. It makes me happy!

Both bedrooms occupied by kids make use of the vertical space in the closets.

Here is the space shared by Footloose and On the Loose. The drawers in the middle serve as On the Loose's dresser. Footloose has a "captain's bed" with drawers underneath that she uses. The rods are all adjustable so we can just move them around as their needs change.

Here is the closet in Turned Loose's room. Same idea as the other bedroom but he needed more shelf space. Again, the drawers serve as his dresser. Note some strange science experiment in jars taking place on the top shelf.

I have also recently had my entry way closet redone and posted about that here. You can also take a peek at how I repurposed a book case to make use of some vertical space for toys here.

Eventually, I hope to have the two closets in the master bedroom redone as well. I continue to try to be creative at making use of our vertical space. Of course, most likely, the best solution would be to just get rid of some of our stuff! I mean, how much stuff do five people need?

I'd also love to hear your ideas for living in a smallish space!

A Week of Preschool

This week we looked at the book Yellow Ball by Molly Bang from Before Five in a Row. We didn't do as many book related items as we did the previous two weeks but we did have lots of fun.

We talked about perspectives and located the ball on each page discussing why it looked bigger or smaller or lighter or darker. We experimented with balls and balloons to see which would fall faster, which would float, etc. We even bought a new ball to play with outside!

Our art work explored a couple of different mediums as we re-created the cover of our book. The one in his right hand was created with crayons and the other was created with Do-A-Dots.




Today, the big kids babysat for a couple of hours while I went to a chiropractic appointment and then a staff meeting at our office. Upon my return, I found a Playdough extravaganza! Turned Loose had assembled a tasty looking meal of pizza, a sandwich and a cup of lemonade. (By the way, Footloose insists that I tell you all that the lemonade as her idea and she made the cup.) Turned Loose is quite precise in his methods so the circles you see were actually created with a compass.




Oh, and, come to find out, he used my cheese grater to make the "cheese." Why must he be so realistic?



Yummy Sandwich! Wanna bite?

It was another fun and successful week of preschool, indeed!

Wordless Wednesday

Sedona, Arizona

An organized entry colset....Finally!

I've previously expressed (maybe complained about)  my challenge of managing 5 people and all of their stuff in my smallish (under 1500 square feet) house.  I really am thankful for my house and know that there are many larger families who live with less space. In my attempt to remain content in my smallish environment, I try to make efficient use of all vertical space.

A few days ago, I finally got what I've been dreaming about for a long time. Something to help with organizing some of our things.  Something to solve my problem of an avalanche of stuff falling out at me everytime I open the door. A closet system for my entry way closet!

Here's a view of the closet with the door closed. It's in my entryway. You see it immediately to the right when you walk in the front door.

Here's what it looked like before it was saved from despair! Oh my goodness! It was so horrible. A jumbled mess of toys (see the box of Legos on the top shelf and the big box of wooden blocks balanced near the bottom?), baseball caps, tote bags, the cameras, etc. It was scary, I tell you!




Here it is all emptied out. A blank canvas ready for someone to come and create organizational magic!




And, here it is all built out! I thought about kissing the guy who built it. But, I thought it might freak him out. 





And here it is with lots of the stuff put back in. See, now, the tote bags neatly tucked away on the bottom shelf. The wooden blocks on a nice flat surface no longer threatening to topple out and break a toe. One shelf for printer paper, ink, and the like where I can easily access it whenever my printer is beeping that it's out of paper because someone forgot to refill it! Preschool items neatly sorted in see through bins so I can grab and go! 

Since we live in such a warm climate, I only had a small rod designed into the closet. We had no need for a rod all the way across as seen in the before photos. We rarely need a jacket and, even when we do, all we have are light weight ones which easily fit on a smaller rod in this closet.

It's a beautiful thing--an organized closet! By the way, the shelves are all adjustable so, as time goes by, I can rearrange them to suit my changing needs. It doesn't take that much to excite me, does it?

A happy, contented sigh...

His Grace

I have a tendency to focus on my own negative character traits. At times, I teeter on actually allowing them to define me in my own head. The things I've left undone. The verses I haven't memorized with the kids. The angry outbursts. Not cooking enough homemade meals. I could just let it all swallow me up.

This morning I was encouraged by Ann's devotion at Holy Experience and I wanted to share it with you.

God's grace is sufficient to use my character flaws and mold me into what He wants me to be--one who serves others because He serves me.

Be encouraged, my friends, and enjoy His grace!

A Week of Preschool

This week, we explored Corduroy. On the Loose is quite fascinated with this story. He asks lots of questions about the details when we read it.

We created button patterns from a printout at Homeschool Share:

We colored parts of the story and pasted them into a story sequencing rhyme (also from Homeschool Share):



We colored an "F" with two bear friends to focus on Corduroy's friendship (from? Yes, you guessed it--Homeschool Share):


On the Loose cuts scraps of paper and he glued them to a sheet of construction paper to make a quilt "like Lisa's bed":


Footloose and On the Loose sorted buttons by color:




This is not Corduroy related but he really enjoyed working with his colored links and activity cards:

It was a very productive preschool week. Truly, the kid has an insatiable desire to do preschool! He never tires of it and really keeps me on my toes to think of new and interesting things to do with him. I'm so incredibly thankful for all of the moms who blog about their activities with this age group! I don't know what I'd do without them!

A Week of Preschool

This week was fun! On the Loose and I centered our week around The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It's one of his very favorite books! I found some fun craft ideas online and, I think, we did at least one each day. Here's a sampling:

This was actullay a picture I tore out of one of his "Do a Dot" books.

This was a worksheet I found online  here.

He loved coloring the foods and tracing the letters. It was a great activity for teaching him the days of the week.

Here's a caterpillar we made. The idea came from this link.

We also made Carisa's Tot Book. He wasn't quite as into it as last week's book but still enjoyed it. 

Aside from our caterpillar specifics, we did lots of other things: worked on memorizing a Bible verse, math with funtastic frogs and teddy grahams, playing outside, etc. It was a fun week of preschool to be sure.

For fun, here's a video of him reading the book. Footloose got it recorded for me so it's her voice you hear in the background.

We're looking forward to next week. We'll be having fun with Cordoroy!