Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real ~ Embracing My Kitchen

For almost 11 years, I have struggled with my kitchen.  It has had very few upgrades since 1931 (except appliances).  There is a serious flow problem and a lack of counter space and space in general.  It is oddly shaped, with strange angles and lots of doors. The cabinets go to the ceiling (which is great), but my kids and husband can not reach anything without a ladder (I'm tall and so is Tim).  My kitchen has a tiny nook which I would love to know how the original owners used.  I think it was supposed to be a breakfast nook, but it must have been a tiny eating area.  It has been many things for us over the years.  Most memorable was when it was a giant playpen for my three little ones under three.  I blocked it off with baby gates and put lots of toys in it.  That really worked well for a time.  Most recently, I have turned it into a closet area (since we have no coat closet in the house).

Now it is 2012.  My husband and I want to get out of debt this year and make some real headway on creating a savings.  That means I need to squeeze every dollar until it squeals.  So how to make the kitchen work better?  I spend hours in the kitchen these days preparing everything from scratch for my son's organic, grain-free diet.  I also have a burgeoning supply of appliances to make all of these things from scratch.  My Mother had the idea of moving from the basement a dresser she had given us and turning it into an "appliance garage" in the nook.  Its nine drawers would also provide more storage, too.  I jumped at the idea.

PRETTY ~

The little drawer has been carried off by a child.  I will explain why at the end of the post.

This improved my space so well that I had room for my tea pot collection to be displayed without other things all over the shelves above the stove.

Also, in the vein of using what you have ... I wanted my Brillo pads and dishwasher detergent to look better on the counter.  I used my crystal and it looks so much better.

HAPPY ~
Then I moved on to reorganizing the dishes.  We have a cabinet that the cranky door refuses to work properly on.  My husband took it off and I moved the dishes down low so that the kids would stop breaking them when they are trying to reach up high to get them.  I am happy that this one change has decreased the breakage of dishes by about half in the last few weeks!

Our jackets and shoes are right across from the appliance garage. This system has worked well for us for a year or so.

FUNNY ~
Remember that missing drawer?  Most people keep toys in their kitchen drawers, right?  The Playmobil fits perfectly in this drawer and a child can carry it off to play on the floor.

REAL ~
I really need to re-paint parts of this room.  Some of the surfaces are such a pain to keep clean.  I hate tile!  Thankfully, last year I got a new kitchen counter.  I know the wall is gross in the next picture.  I am going to start working on that soon.  We had a left over drawer system from our bathroom project.  I do not have a counter for it yet, so we just use the top drawer as a bread drawer.

It fits perfectly next to the fridge.  The fridge is tucked into

another strange space that used to be a fireplace.

This is a working kitchen, folks.  My patient husband was waiting at 6:45 am this morning for me to finish taking pictures, so he could plug in the portable dishwasher (which slides across the room) and make his coffee.

Check out other great PFHR's at Like Mother, Like Daughter.

Blessings,
Dawn

Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ Home

In My Life

We are home from Disney World and I am busy setting up our routine for the next few weeks. We arrived home Friday and hit the ground running with a fencing tournament for the oldest on Saturday and tennis lessons for the three youngest on Sunday afternoon.


I want to make sure there is time this summer to knock out some home projects. We are hoping to organize the basement, paint the kitchen cabinets, paint some trimwork and numerous other small projects. This week I did get my husband's raised-relief map framed and it will be up on the wall by tomorrow. That is a project that has been waiting for almost a year.

In Our Summer Homeschool

We are going to have lots of sports this summer. The kids are signed up for two weeks of free swimming lessons that start next week. I plan to sign them up for two more weeks in July. Also, the kids started tennis lessons that our city provides at a considerably reduced price. The kids had their first lesson this past Sunday and they all loved it. The instructors made a big fuss about Tom Sawyer's natural talent. They could not believe this was his first time holding a racket! We shall see where this leads.

My Favorite Thing This Week

My favorite thing this week is finding some new grain-free recipes that Tom Sawyer can eat. Even better is that all of the family likes the recipes, and we are finding some new foods to replace all the foods we have lost in recent months.

(Grain-Free Ginger Snaps)

(Grain-Free Banana Muffins)

A Photo to Share

What Little Red Ridinghood wanted most from Disney World is a Rapunzel wig. We could not find one there, so we bought this wig from Ebay. Our little brunette loves it.

Boomer (on the left) is now 8 months old and 60 pounds!! He is doing so well with training. However, he is still having accidents in the house and needs more work on walking on a loose leash. Overall, he is a great dog, and we are so happy to have him. His almost 12 year old "sister", Lady, on the right thinks he can stop growing anytime now. HaHa!

Blessings,
Dawn

Weekly Wrap Up ~ Night at the Museum ...

From the Heart ~

I am thinking about fun ....  Can you have too much fun in your life?  What about too much joy or opportunities and events?  More than once, I have been told by some professional in the mental health field that our family is too fun. We have too much fun and do too many fun things.  They never have any other problems with our family.  They like our chore charts, our consistency, our devotion, our strong marriage, our child training techniques and family values -- but we are TOO MUCH FUN. One must remember that these are the same naysayers who predicted that our Goldilocks would never recover from severe RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder) well enough to live in a family.  Now, they consider her to be pretty well attached to our family and the majority of difficulties she gives us can be blamed on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I am grateful for my fun family and all of the fun events we cram into our lives.  Frankly, we are an intense family with intense special issues.  We need a lot of comic relief to carry us through our days.  So, I seek out wholesome fun and try to fill our days with love and joy. I hope this is the right thing to do.

I am not speaking about material things here. I certainly do not think that all of the stuff that dribbles into our house is great.  I am still working on how to keep the tap closed more on that one.  But, that is a thought for another day.

On the Homefront ~

Wow, the month of September passed me by in a jiffy.  After weeks of unique schedules and travel, it is nice to be home. This last week was the first week that we got the feel for our Fall school schedule.  What it looks like on paper is sometimes different than how it feels in real life.  I am relieved that after getting through this week, it feels manageable.   I am even 90% unpacked from our travels.  I love October and am looking forward to a month with a more normal schedule.  We have two family birthdays and the joy of watching the changing of the leaves.  It should be a good month.

Learning Time ~

We just completed our 8th week of school.  I did a little review to see where we are and how the kids are retaining their subjects.  The good news is that they are doing great in retaining math, reading, literature, art, music, science, Latin, sign language and geography.  However, they are lost and confused when it comes to history. They gave me unimportant info about a topic, mixed up famous people and generally showed me that our history studies are not sticking in their minds. I have been concerned with SOTW (Story of the World) for a little while now.  I love it, but it is getting more and more complicated. There are so many details, and it just seems way above their heads at the moment.  Often in the past weeks, I have felt like I am filling a vessel instead of igniting a flame. So, for now, I am putting SOTW away and moving through history with picture books and hands-on activities. We are just finishing the Rennaisance, and I will be starting a unit study on Native American Indians before moving into American history, starting with Jamestown.  My priority is for my children to have a love of learning, not to be able to state every little detail about an event.  I think I lost my priorities a bit in the last few months.

Our pop up Globe theater has added loads of fun to our Shakespeare study of Macbeth.

Reinforcing blends through a phonics game in a doctor's waiting room

"Double, double, toil and trouble..." This is our witches brew to go with Macbeth.

Family Time ~

We went to the new exhibit at our hands-on science museum.  It was the Blue Man Group exhibit.  For those who don't know who the Blue Man group is, such as my Mom, they are comic, musical entertainers who paint themselves in shiny blue and use everyday materials to create music.  They perform in large venues such as at Las Vegas, but this was not a live show -- it was an exhibit exploring sound and light with lots of videos of the Blue Man Group.  The kids loved it and dh really got into it, too.  We went on members-only opening night and were delighted with the spread of food they provided.  Yummy ...

Considering how messy the crowd is supposed to get at the Blue Man performances, this movie is probably close enough for us.

Getting down with the Blue Man Group

Today, we spent time in our very first corn maze. It went better than I expected.  No one is terribly itchy but dh did have a huge allergy attack. The children also loved swinging on the rope swing and falling into the piles of hay. We picked a pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch and ate homemade ice cream, too.

Please join Canadagirl for more weekly wrap ups.

Blessings,

Dawn

Weekly Wrap Up ... Blessings!

This wrap up is really more about the past 10 days instead of the last week.  Please join Canadagirl to see more wrap ups.

From The Heart ~

Our Tom Sawyer had surgery on Wednesday to remove a growth in his mouth. The doctor had to carve away bone to help the adult tooth erupt since it has been being blocked by the growth.  The surgeon feels that it is of no concern but it was sent off for a biopsy anyway. We should hear the results next week.  I am so proud of Tom Sawyer!  He was a real trooper and did not need to be anesthesized until he got into the operating room. All around us were children being anesthesized early because they were in hysteria. Tom Sawyer charmed everyone and asked a million questions about how they were going to remove the growth, etc.  He even went as far as to tell the nurse this was the coolest day of his life, because he got magic spray so the IV would not hurt and that having his first IV (that he can remember) was so cool.  Boys are really strange!!  Several nurses and the surgeon told me afterward that he was an "exceptional child" and "extremely well adjusted".  It is really nice to hear.  Sometimes, when I am in the trenches all day with him, I get caught up in all that we need to work on to help with his disabilities and forget what an awesome kid he is....Blush!   Since he has been home, his mouth is really hurting; and he has been on constant Motrin and ice packs.  He is feeling somewhat better today, and I hope we are turning the corner.

The hospital gave a great tour the day before Tom Sawyer's surgery. Here is Little Red Ridinghood dressed up in the loot they gave the kids.

On The Homefront ~

I am working on September's calendar. It is bulging at the seams and gasping for breath.  In the next 5 weeks, we will be on vacation for one week to visit my Dad and Stepmother, going to Tomatis therapy for two weeks, Duke University for half a week, and all of our out-of-the-home classes get underway.  In addition, we have 7 doctor/therapy appointments besides 8 days of Tomatis....  I guess I should be happy that I am only double booked twice!

In The Way Of Learning ~

This week we took it easy and did lots of videos, hands-on projects and chapter books.  We made paper with Grandma one day to go along with our study of the Gutenberg press.

It dried a light shade of purple.

Another day we enjoyed the park.  We did a subject at the picnic table and then the kids slid down a super cool slide 10 times.  They went back and forth like that for about 4 subjects.

They sat on wax paper so they went extra fast down the slide.

One day Tom Sawyer really needed some sensory input so we played with shaving cream.  This was a real hit.

We also finished Pippi Longstocking this week and can't wait for the movie to come in the mail from Blockbusters Online.

In The Kitchen ~

Thanks to my little helper, Goldilocks, we got a whole lot of baking/cooking done in just three hours today. We made apple sauce, two zuccini breads, two banana breads, 24 cupcakes, cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, and froze several bags of celery for soups.  Goldilocks also divided potato chips into 24 bags, so we will have snack food for all of our on-the-road appointments in the next week or so.

 

 

We are blessed beyond measure to have plenty of food and healthy children.

Blessings,

Dawn

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Baby Love

From the Heart ~ We had fun taking care of my friend's sweet baby (8 months)  for the week while she and her husband went away to celebrate their wedding anniversary. It was easier to fit her into our lives than I thought it would be, especially since she slept through the night! The girls really enjoyed having a sweet baby to love on. One of them even suggested that we give our credit card to my friend so that we could adopt sweet baby. Oh, if adoption was only so easy and painless! (She is currently a foster baby so may not be for keeps even for my friend. However, it looks like she will get to adopt her.)

Summer Fun ~ We are almost done with our "summer". This coming week is our last week of break from school. This week we went to the nature center to see the butterfly exhibit, and we went back to Splashville at our local city park. Wow, talk about baby love! With all the pictures I took this week, hardly any of them are of my kiddos. They are mostly sweet baby and I can't show lots of them because they reveal too much of her identity.

Flat Stanley is doing the rounds so he will be ready to visit those of you who volunteered to host him. Get me your addresses. If you are interested and missed that post, let me know.

Sweet baby had no fears of the water. She learned quickly that she could put her hand in the water and splash the many girls who were fawning all over her.

Learning Time ~ Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood passed a major milestone this week. Both of them learned to ride a bike without training wheels. Little Red Riding Hood is about 60% there (she has trouble getting going and moving around obstacles) and Goldilocks is 100% there!! Now we just have to teach Tom Sawyer!

Living Frugally ~ I am really finding it pretty easy to keep our groceries under $100 a week thanks to our scratch and dent organic grocery store. Here are this week's purchases for $95. I still need a bag of ice, plus vinegar and mayo so it may come to a little over.

Menu ideas ~

Dinner - Spaghetti with ground turkey spaghetti sauce, mashed potatoes with cabbage and turkey bacon mixed in (an Irish dish), omelets, homemade salsa with nachos, chicken with rice dish, potato soup with rye bread, grilled cheese sandwiches and BLT's (with veggies from garden).

Lunch - Tuna fish sandwiches, mac and cheese, leftovers, biscuits with nitrite-free lunch meat, and tomato sandwiches.

Breakfast - Biscuits, cereal, fruit and hard-boiled eggs.

While the boys were in Tomatis the last two weeks, the girls and I hit all the consignment and thrift shops in that area. We only shopped from the clearance racks. I decided that we are going to try to only spend $2.50 or less for each item of clothing. I found some really great buys and really did well with the "stuff a bag for $10" corner. This is what I got for $17.89. Some of the clothes still have their tags on!

Most of these clothes will be saved for future years, and if they are out of style, my homeschooled children won't even know it. LOL

Blessings, Dawn

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Happy 4th of July

From the Heart ~

We are gearing up for our last 3 weeks of summer break. They are going to be busy weeks. This coming week, the boys will be in their Tomatis loop (8 days of auditory therapy to help with sensory issues). The week after that, we will also be caring for my friend's baby, 24/7 for 5 days. The final week before school starts is filled with doctor appointments and, hopefully, more free swimming lessons. I am excited about starting our next adventurous year. I just have one more order to place for the last of our school supplies. The kids are starting to crave a more stable routine, as well.

On the Homefront  ~

I am busy, busy, busy organizing everything in sight. The book shelves, art shelves, my closet and kitchen are done. I am also trying to do a little bit of baby proofing for my friend's sweet baby. She is just about to start  crawling so should not be too much of a handful. LOL!

Learning Time ~

The kids are getting restless without school projects, so I started adding in some science this week. The favorite project was waking up the dinosaur plant. This prehistoric plant can lay dormant for up to 50 years without water. All you do is lay it on some lava rocks and add water. It turns from looking dead to fully alive and growing in just 3 hours. We have had this plant for 10 years, and we wake it up every 3 or 4 years.

Also, the children are making real progress with Little Red Riding Hood's bird. She was not hand-raised, so we have had our work cut out for us when it comes to socializing her. She is now much easier to handle and is biting less often during her flight time.

Living Frugally ~

This week's groceries came up to $98. Not shown in the photos are a package of nitrate-free hot dogs, ranch dressing, earth-friendly charcoal, organic soda (six pack), organic corn chips and 1 pound organic ground beef.

 

Menu ideas ~

Dinners - Turkey sausage with noodles and veggies, chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, ground chicken meat balls with rice/bean dish, chicken salad, and chef salad (with chicken and eggs crumbled on top)

Lunches - Peanut butter sandwiches, salads, organic mac and cheese, leftovers, and corn chips with homemade salsa

Breakfast - Oatmeal or gluten-free cereal, raisin toast, watermelon, fruit, apple slices spread with peanut butter, hard-boiled eggs

Snacks - Organic fruit rollups, watermelon, pretzels, banana bread and homemade popsicles

4th of July - Hamburger cookout with chips and watermelon. For the downtown fireworks, we will take organic soda, mini M&M's, and cold hot dogs. That should save us loads at the food stands.

Summer Fun ~

We will be going to the fireworks downtown tonight. They have a nice display of fireworks and free moon bounces for the kids' entertainment. Also, just getting to stay up that late for our kiddos is a real treat and a bit of a trial. We have found that taking protein to the event helps them make it through those long extra hours. Our kids go to bed at 7:30 most nights so 10:00 pm fireworks and then walking back to the car is pushing it. The kids wanted to camp again, so we set up the tents in the back yard to fall into when we get home. LOL

Tom Sawyer wanted to make his own t-shirt for the 4th. Didn't it come out great?!

Blessings, Dawn

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Special Blessings

From the Heart ~

My 38th birthday was this past Friday, but more importantly, it was also the 6th anniversary of the adoption of our children. They do not know the date of their adoption (we celebrate their "gotcha day" instead). They had already lived with us for 2 years and did not experience much difference between their time with us as foster children and then as our adopted children. However, for my husband and me, it was a very memorable day. I remember walking to the mailbox and pulling out the mail. I returned to the yard and began opening it while pushing Tom Sawyer in his swing. When I realized that the official document in my hand was my children's adoption decree and that it had been signed on my birthday, I was awestruck. We were finally FREE! We did not have to ask social workers if we could do this or that for our children anymore. The first thing I did was march up to my dd's Headstart preschool and pull her out. She had been in daycare because DSS required it. From that day forward, she would be homeschooled and home with our family where she belonged. What a relief to be able to make our own choices for our children and get them the care we felt they needed without constantly asking for permission!

On the Homefront ~

Our sweet 11 year old dog did very well in her surgery this week. It started out as a typical dental cleaning but other procedures were added. They needed to remove two teeth and biopsy a lump on her chest. It appears to be benign. What a blessing she is doing well! They kept saying she was an "old girl". That phrase brings home that the clock is ticking for our dear dog.

Another wonderful blessing this week came via a package in the mail. Do you remember a few weeks ago I told you about a giveaway for a gift card from Stephanie? I WON! How exciting! I bought a stop watch, stethoscope, scented pens for my youngest sensory integration child, and magnetic blocks with the gift card. What fun new additions to our home!

Summer Fun ~

We are really enjoying our library reading program this summer. This week we learned how to tie-dye shirts. This was a first time for my little kids. They really enjoyed it and they came out great.

We have gone on a few family walks in the evening, the time of day when the heat is becoming bearable. In the bottom photo, dh is carrying wood back from the camp store to start our campfire while we were camping.

 

Living Frugally ~

We have several major expenses coming along in the next few months. In an attempt to pull as much of those expenses out of our budget instead of savings, we are going to tighten the belt wherever possible. One thing we are doing is limiting our groceries to $100 a week. Thanks to the organic dent and scratch store in town, this should be possible. This is what I got this week for $93 dollars. The trick is to buy very little meat and buy the deals when you see them.

Menu Plan ~

Dinners -- The beef bones will make a nice stock for veggie soup (I have veggies on hand in the freezer); ham will be mashed with potatoes and cabbage; ground turkey will make spaghetti with meat sauce; chicken thighs will be added to a veggie stir fry with rice; cheese will make a mac and cheese; cottage cheese will be added to a pancake mix; ground turkey sausage will be mashed with white beans and rice.

Lunch -- peanut butter and jam sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, left over veggie soup, deviled eggs and tuna salad

Breakfast -- cereal, yogurt sticks, watermelon (on hand), bananas, and gluten-free pancakes, eggs.

Snacks -- yogurt sticks, fruit roll ups, apples (already have) and peanut butter on crackers

Learning Time ~

I decided that this would be the summer that the kids became swimmers or at least became safe around water. I am starting to see real progress with our concept of full immersion swimming lessons. Between their paid lessons at the YWCA and the free lessons from the Red Cross, the kids were in the pool swimming six times this week.

We also attended one night of Chautauqua this week. Chautauqua is a great event put on by the county library system that hosts actors who impersonate different famous Americans. We went on the night of Benjamin Franklin. It turned out that a severe storm developed and the event had to be moved from the tent into a nearby building, which had lost electricity. Several large trees fell down and there was a great deal of lightning (which was fitting for Benjamin Franklin). The kids remember the storm more than what the actor said. LOL!

I did not get a picture of Ben Franklin.  But I did get a picture of the Cat and the Hat advertising the Dr. Seuss performance later in the week, which my Mom and Tim attended.

Blessings, Dawn