Books From the Shelf

These are the books I am reading currently:

Red Moon Rising- This book chronicles the beginning stages of the 24-7 Prayer Movement in the UK and now globally. It has been an interesting book. The author is very humble about his part in this movement and emphasizes how God's hand has moved in various people's lives bringing them together as the 24-7 Movement as developed.

Believing God by Beth Moore. I am re-reading this book because I did not finish it the first time. This book emphasizes the difference between having faith in God and believing God. She has 5 faith statements she goes through in the book. "God is who He says He is; God can do what He says He can do; I am who God says I am; I can do all things through Christ; God's Word is alive and active in me." I am on the second statement in my reading. It has been important for me to go through this book again because I am at a point of real testing in our situation. Lately, I have been overwelmed with depression and anxiety over my husband's work schedule. Last week I prayed and just asked the Lord to help me to trust in Him more. I was filled with such a peace last week and this weekend. We all need to be reminded of God's sovereignty in our lives when we are committed to Him.

Does Anyone Here Know God? by Gladys Hunt. This is a worn paperback filled with short stories of women from all walks of life who came to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. This is my second maybe third time reading this book. I love it, it seems new everytime I read it. The testimonies of these women are more than just inspirational reading. It reminds us that God has a purpose for our lives and as I said earlier we just have to commit to Him leaving our future in His hands.

This Week in School- January 21-25

(my camera is acting up, so forgive the blurry pictures)

I am hoping to write a weekly summary at the end of every week for what we have been working on in school. Don't feel like you have to read this whole thing. This is more for me than for anyone else. Also, this is not everything we do just a summary.

Our verse this week: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother", which is the first commandment with promise, "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth." Ephesians 6:1-3

Reading- Tera started The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White. She has read through all the reading textbooks I have collected over the years, so now I am starting her on "real books" She read 13 chapters this week. Daniel finished up his reading program this week, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Days. I was skeptical because this system did not work at all for Tera, but I pulled it out at the beginning of the school year for Daniel. It worked awesome for him. Today was the 100th Day, he was so excited. He will begin reading Dr. Seuss type books next week.

Math- Tera reviewed this week- she finished up a unit on measurement and also is working on her multiplication facts. We downloaded an awesome game-Timez Attack. The basic version is free and we hope to buy the whole program this summer. It teaches multiplication through a video game. It has helped her tremendously. Daniel has been working on 0-20 in order and identifying missing numbers. We did an activity today- measuring yellow and blue water to make green water. As you can see by the picture, they pretended the water was a hazardous material.

Science- We have been studying Weather. The last few weeks we have read, studied and done online activities. We have also been charted our daily weather on a graph. This week as you can see by the above pictures, we started a lapbook on weather. (This is a file folder that the kids put together that chronicles the different things they have learned). We will finish these next week. We have defined storms, listed the colors of the rainbow, decorated the outside with a season collage and colored trees according to the season.

Social Studies- The kids were interested in learning about the Revolutionary War so for the last few weeks we have been reading various books on the subject. This week we read several books from the Graphic Library series- (a comic book type history book with facts and dialogue)-George Washington, The Winter at Valley Forge, The Boston Tea Party, Patrick Henry, and The Star Spangled Banner (the War of 1812). We also read two Rookie Biography books- Benjamin Franklin- A Man With Many Jobs and Martin Luther King, Jr.- A Young Man With a Dream. We started The American Revolution (Landmark Books) but it is very comprehensive and will take us a little longer to get through. It is awesome to see the kids remember major figures and events of a time period just through reading.

We usually do poetry reading everyday and review our composers and artists we are studying, but this week that didn't happen. We have had an interesting week emotionally. All of us have been tired and irritable at some point in time. We also took a snow day in the middle of the week and still managed to get done. Tonight I have planned some 100 days of school activities for the kids to celebrate Daniel finishing his first reading book. That's our week in review.

Some Christmas Pics

The kids watching the train Nana and Grandpa Ron gave us going around the presents. They are dying to jump in and start opening but we make them eat breakfast first. (That is why the long face on Tera)

Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole

Sorry no picture again. We've been digging in before I remember to take a picture. But this is a recipe I made up and it turned out really good. Tera said "This is good, for something you just made up." My mom gave me the idea a couple of weeks ago about having a chicken, rice and cheese casserole. I took that idea and came up with this.

Mexican Chicken and Rice Casserole

4 cups cooked rice (I added a tomato chicken bouillon while it cooked)
2 cups cooked chicken shredded
2 cans Campbell's Fiesta Nacho Cheese Condensed Soup
1 can black beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can petite diced tomatoes
Taco Sauce/Shredded Cheddar Cheese

1. Cook rice according to directions with tomato bouillon
2. Combine rice, chicken, soup, black beans, corn, and tomatoes in a greased 13 x 9 inch casserole dish.
3. Top with Taco Sauce and shredded cheese
4. Bake at 375 degrees until bubbly.

This makes a whole lot and would be good for a large crowd or for a potluck.

Serve with tortilla chips.

This recipe got everyone's approval. I made it up the night before so the texture was a little dry, so we just added a little salsa or taco sauce on our individual plates.

Awesome Crab and Artichoke Dip

The other night after the kids went to bed, I got the munchies. I was in the mood for something they wouldn't like to eat. We have supper together every night. I do not cater to my kids, but you are always respectful to things you know are not too weird. Well, I was in the mood for something the kids would think was weird. The last time I was in Food Lion, they had crab meat on sale for $1 a package. I snagged one and put it in the freezer. I had a small can of artichoke hearts in the pantry and we found this recipe on Kanimi's (the crab meat company) site. This is a modified version of their recipe. It was awesome. I mean awesome.

Here it is:

1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 garlic cloves or 2 Tbsp
1/2 Tbsp lime juice ( I used more)
1 7 ounce can of artichoke hearts chopped
1/2 cup shredded cheese ( they said swiss, we used pizza cheese)
1 8 ounce package of crab meat broken apart
Top with sprinkle of bread crumbs and a little Old Bay Spice

Combine all ingredients and heat until bubbly.

Trying to Work out a System

No, I didn't forget again that I have a blog and I am not ready to give up blogging. I am trying to work out in my head a system that will work well for me. I am thinking maybe theme oriented days of the weeks. So that way I won't be at a loss over what to blog about and I will be more regular about it. I am thinking some themes might be-recipes, homeschooling, devotional thoughts. Anybody have any ideas? Feel free to leave a comment, thanks.