The Peanut Butter Family Homeschool - Book Review

I don't get much time to read for pleasure, but I picked this one up at a used book store a while back and the title cought my eye...peanut butter? I really liked this book. It was an easy read, I read through the entire thing in about three evenings. Bill Butterworth, the author writes it from his perspective and it begins when their oldest children were in school and how his wife approaches him about homeschooling thier children. This is an older book, written in the mid 80's so that was when homeschooling wasn't mainstream. I found it funny, delightful and heartwarming. It recounts some of the basics of homeschooling from the beginning and mentions the methods of the late Raymond and Dorothy Moore. It helped me to begin thinking about the basics of homeschooling rather than the techniques. Techniques is what we have a lot of in this time and I tend to get lost in the techniques and thus lose the spirit and joy of what I am really doing from day to day. May each of you find the joy in the journey, if only for today. Have a blessed day, Suzie E.

The Santa Barbara Crab

While visiting in California, dh and I retreated for a few days to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We went to Santa Barbara and left the children to spend some time with grandma and grandad.

We really enjoyed spending time at the Santa Barbara Pier. We went there both days we were in Santa Barbara. One evening we ate at a little crab shack at the farthest end of the pier. It was a rather small and informal place but the sunset was breathtaking and the atmosphere so relaxing. Did I mention that the food was exceptional? It was the hands down, the best seafood I have ever eaten! They served local caught crab. Dh and I split this 3# Rock Crab. It was plenty for both of us.

They had huge tanks of these guys, alive! I was amazed!


Here is our meal right before it was cooked, amazing!

We saved the shell and brought it back to the apartment where we were staying. I boiled this all night because I wanted to take it home smelling a bit better than it did previously. Isn't it beautiful. I really think it is a nice color.

Here is the underside. The children discovered that he has a built in happy face.

Do you see it?

I am sure you can see it now. I wonder if all crabs have this smiling face on their underside?

His cute little smile reminds me to always have a HAPPY FACE and never be a CRAB!

Blessings to you for a very happy face day. Don't let crabiness steel your happiness. Suzie

Roman Arches

Did you know that the Romans were the first to build arches in their architecture even though the Greeks and Egyptians were familiar with the architectural techniques. Today, this was part of our history discussion (TOG year 1, unit 28), how an arch is different from a post and lintel design.

Youngest son demonstrates with legos how the weight of an arch is supported mostly by the blocks at the top, where they come together. The Romans also were able to develop higher grades of concrete that made it all hold together better.

The Romans built triumphal arches, which were built to honor emperors or major military victories by generals. In a few weeks, our studies will take us to many prisoners of war that were forced to march through these arches and into the city of Rome. At one time, there was thirty-six triumphal arches scattered throughout Rome. Only three of those are still standing today.

A Tribute To My Mother

Happy New Year, Friends! We arrived home safely from our travels. Thank you for your prayers. We travelled to spend the holidays with my family in California. We had a wonderful vacation.

I would like to introduce you to my wonderful mother. For Christmas this year I made her this quilt. While I don't profess to be a great quilter, it is something that I love to do and do with love. Stitching a quilt is therepeutic for me.

My mother loves flowers. She has a flower garden just steps outside her kitchen door. Her favorite thing is to 'puts' around in her flower garden. I chose each fabric carefully. As mom ages, I want her to be surrounded by the beauty of the flowers she loves so much, as she rests in her recliner as well as in her garden.

When I was young, mom and I didn't seem to have a very good relationship. I think this was more about me being a perfectionist than there really being anything wrong with mom, except that she is an imperfect human, just like me.

As I worked on her quilt, it seems the tears cleansed my soul. I so wish I could take back those difficult years and just be friends again. The good new is that she is my friends. I am thankful that she gave me a Godly influence to look to. I am thankful that she loved my father so I could see how it is to love my husband. I am thankful that she took care of the home I grew up in. I understand so many of the things now, because I am living them myself. There are so many things she did right in my life. I am thankful for her wonderful influence on my life.

If you havn't hugged your mother recently, I would encourage you to do so. I shed many tears on the way home, wishing I could be close enough to hug mom at least once a week. If you are that close, you are blessed.

Blessings, Suzie

Travel Prayers

Hello friends. We will be travelling to be with family this holiday season, through some snowy winter weather. Our family requests prayers from all of our friends. Blessings for a safe and happy holiday. I hope to have lots of wonderful blessings to share from our journey.

Merry Christmas, Suzie

Holiday Gift Baskets

Each year about this time, I approach dh to find out how many 'projects' we need to do for the special folks he works with. This year we prepared six gift baskets for his work and several extra to deliver to special people like the children's music teachers and a few special families that we are very close to.

Since I had put up copious amounts of pumpkin last month, I knew that some of it would go into a baked item in these baskets. We made mini loaves of Holiday Pumpkin Bread...simple but delicious. Here is the recipe. It makes 3 regular or 2 large loaves or 9 mini loaves of bread.

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup applesauce

2 cups pumpkin

1/2 cup orange juice

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups unbleached white flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Allspice

1 teaspoon Nutmeg

1 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Cloves

1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (opt. we use pecans)

1 cup raisins (opt.)

Preheat oven, grease and flour 3 loaf pans or equivalent. Mix oil, applesauce, sugar and eggs together. Mix in pumpkin and orange juice. Stir together flour, soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add to wet mixture. Stir in nuts and raisins. Divide batter in prepared pans. Bake 1 hour. Cool on racks.

We also make these cute little suckers. The children had a wonderful time working in the kitchen making these and clean up really wasn't that big of a deal. The spent an entire afternoon making these and letting them set up in between listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies and playing legos. The molds were purchased at a local kitchen supply for less than $5.00 total and the candy was purchased at Hobby Lobby, they have it 30% off this week. I had the sticks leftover from a previous project but you can also get them at Hobby Lobby. They were wrapped in a fold top sandwich bag with curling ribbon.

Here is the final result. Isn't he cute. There were candy canes, snowmen, Christmas tree and a reindeer in the same mold and we make some of each. In our baskets, we also included some of our family holiday favorites like Buckeyes and peanut butter blossoms. Also included favorites like Hershey Holiday mix of mini candy (kisses, mini peanut butter cups and mini bars) and other hard candy, too.

We all have traditions of giving during this season. I am challenging myself to continue my spirit of giving all through the year. Blessings for a wonderful holiday season, Suzie

The Hum of the Sewing Machine

My sewing machine has been very busy lately. I am finishing up some Christmas gifts including quilts for my mother and newest nephew as well as pillows for many of the extended family. The greatest, most practical items are unmentionables that I will use each month for my cycle. For years I have read that cotton pads would help with my most unmanagable flow but never thought it would help this much. I had the lightest cycle in probably 10 years. I purchased my pattern from Kristin and JoAnns had all thier flannel on sale for $1.49/yard a few weeks ago. I purchased PUL waterproof barrier off of ebay and had some leftover organic cotton batting. I only needed a little of the PUL and batting for the waterproof layer. I went to work and they are truly wonderful. They are so comfortable and pretty, I might add. I will never buy those sticky, boring paper ones again. Also, in considering the cost, I spent about $30.00 in materials to make enough pads for one cycle, with plenty of materials leftover to make several more. I typically spend $6.00-8.00 a month in pads so conservatively, this project will pay for intself in 6 months and I will begin saving that much per month. What a blessing it has been to me. Hope it can bless you in some way. Suzie