Our First Day Of School

August 30th, 2009

A couple of weeks ago the local kids all headed back to school.  And I’m thrilled for y’all that have done all of your prepwork, bought the clothes, the supplies, and are resting peacefully at home without your children.  Really.  But for me, I’m amazed that I have no twinge of “should I be following suit?”  I have no doubts about them being home.  Sure, I have doubts about what grade my oldest should be in, doubts about my curriculum choices (or lack thereof), doubts about my sanity, but never doubts about whether they should be headed out of the house with the multitude of others.  This was driven home again this spring with my in-laws.  I had mentioned to my mother-in-law that I had been thinking about “putting my oldest back through second grade”.  In my head this meant, that I wasn’t sure if he should move onto third grade curriculum just yet and officially sign the registration forms with “second grade”.  My sweet mother-in-law took this to mean that I was putting him back into public schools, but not wanting to offend me, she said nothing, just worried in silence about her grandson.  Until I brought up curriculum again.  And the air was cleared.  But not before I about fell out of my chair thinking that she had thought we would do that.  And I reassured her, that was such a shocking thought to me.  I would not be doing that.  No matter how many doubts I have or panics that arise, I am completely assured in this one thing – they’ll be home with me.

Also driven home by the rude, inept, and ridiculous scenes I had (twice) at my local public school office in the process of registration.

Driven home by the semi-constant discussion with our neighbor kids that were gearing up for school, and my 6 year old leaned into me and quietly said, “I’m really glad I get to be home with you.”

Driven home by my 2 year old that yells at the movie Journey To The Center Of The Earth “That not water, guys, that LAVA!”

Driven home each morning as the school bus passes.

And so, on the first day of school when everyone else was donning their new school clothes, we put on our play clothes, posed for “class pictures”, packed a picnic lunch, called fellow homeschoolers, and headed off for a “not back to school” adventure day.  We went to the Children’s Museum of Discovery (didn’t take the camera and kicking myself like crazy) where we have a year pass, but have avoided like the plague while the public schoolers were there in force during the summer time.  And then we went to the fountains to play the afternoon away.  I wanted to make the most of yet another day that I had been given to be with my kiddos.  A day where they explored space, the human body, magnets, light, circuits, iguanas, patience, waiting in line, listening, obeying, physical education, playing with others, meeting new people, and taking turns.

All awesome pics below were taken by Maury!

Our first day of school for this year was a success, to say the least.  How was yours?

Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

August 28th, 2009

Okay, I’m offering up this recipe just in time for the weekend.  Because you know you’ll want a quick breakfast in the morning.  Or a snack for tomorrow afternoon.  Or a marvelous side for dinner.  And this one could meet the criteria for any of those.

These are reminiscent of Red Lobster’s famous biscuits.  I didn’t say I actually had the recipe, it’s just in that family.

Also known as Drop Biscuits in their plainest (but still great) form.  I took a very simple recipe (that’s quick and great with jelly or gravy for breakfast) and added two of my favorite ingredients.

For my sized family of 6 I double this and it’s just right!

Ingredients

• 1 cup white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons butter – softened
• 1/4 cup milk – or more if needed

(stop here and continue with baking directions if you want the simple drop biscuits – continue if you’re hankerin’ for a little somethin’ more!)

• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt (or 1/2 -1 teaspoon minced garlic – they’re both great)
• 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I like sharp cheddar or mozzarella best, but this is up to you)

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Measure flour and baking powder into a bowl.  Add butter to bowl and rub butter into flour with a fork (or your fingers if you’re brave).  Add garlic and cheese at this point, if you so desire.  Add milk to make a thick batter, stirring only until dough sticks together.  Drop by teaspoonfuls on a very lightly greased baking sheet.  Bake 7-8 minutes in preheated oven.  When they’re golden pull ‘em out and serve ‘em warm!

That’s it.  Really.  No kneading.  No rising.  Just dump, stir, scoop, and bake.  20 minutes total and you’re serving little mouths yummy treats!

Happy Baking!

Our Class Pictures 2009-2010

2009-2010 School Year

2009-2010 Class Picture

TheOldest 3rd Grade

TheMiddlest 1st Grade

ThePrincess Pre-K

BigMan Preschool

Granola Bars

August 14th, 2009

My kids love granola bars and if we’re being completely honest, I do too.  But when you have 4 little ones that want more than one bar at a sitting, and add me along for the granola ride, then you’re shelling out bigger bucks for these little things than you want to be.  Therefore, I went looking for a recipe.  And I found a couple that I really liked.  I’ve still tweaked them and changed them, especially according to what we have on hand at the time.  The basics, though, stay the same.

Leftovers made into cereal

Funny how I don’t have a picture of the bars – we ate them up too fast!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (don’t use the instant/minute oats)

1 1/2 – 2 1/2 cups dry yummies (I’ve used peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and shredded coconut.  You can use flax seeds, wheat germ, pepitas – or so I’ve heard.)  The actual dividing up of these ingredients is up to you and depends on what all you want or have on hand.  I almost always use the shredded coconut, some sort of seed, and some sort of nut in every batch.  The total sum of all that you add should equal 1 1/2 – 2 1/2 cups.

*******

3/4 cup – 1 cup sticky “glue” – let me explain!

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

- Substitute more honey and brown sugar if you’re leaving out the peanut butter.  Add a little more of all of them if you’re going heavy on the dry goods above.  Less if you’re going light.

*******

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (if you desire)

*******

1 cup dried fruit or chocolate chips or peanut butter chips or m&m’s or reese’s candies ….

- I’ve used raisins, dried cranberries, and I’ve used those little bags of mixed goodies from the dollar store that includes a few dried fruits.  I’ve even added at this point, some of the rice crispy kind of cereal – it’s a good filler and gives a little lighter texture.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter or spray or use parchment paper to line a 9 x 13 casserole pan.  Spread the oats and the dry yummies (oats, nuts, seeds, coconut) into pan.  Toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the meantime, in a medium saucepan heat the sticky “glue” (brown sugar, honey, peanut butter, vanilla, salt, cinnamon – and a pat of butter if you desire, but that’s optional).  Over medium heat stir continuously until brown sugar is melted and all ingredients are completely combined.  If the mixture dissolves before the oats are toasted lower temp to low and continue to stir.

Once the oats are done, remove from oven, and lower temperature to 300 degrees.  Pour the toasted oats mix into a large bowl (and I do mean large!)  At this point I usually wipe out the 9×13 pan and prepare it (seems like I either doubled this recipe or it made more than I originally thought and I needed two pans – I can’t remember) with nonstick spray or butter or parchment paper.  Then add the dried fruit (hold on the chocolate or peanut butter chips, though, they’ll just melt down) and pour the sticky mixture over them.  Mix well.  Pour mixture into prepared 9×13 pans.  If you’re using chocolate or peanut butter chips press them into the mixture at this point.  Press down with a measuring cup (spray the bottom of the cup to keep from sticking!) or the bottom of another pan (spray it too and then wipe it off before putting back in oven!)  The pressing down firmly is really important if you want actual bars.  I press down with all my strength!  Place pan into oven to bake for 25 minutes.  This will take some tweaking on your part.  Too short a time and it’s a sticky fall apart kind of granola, too long and it’s so crunchy you’ll need to chop it up and use it as a topping or cereal!

Remove from oven, allow to cool completely in pan.  Turn onto a wax paper or parchment paper covered cutting board and cut into squares or bars.  Store in an airtight container for up to a week.  (Ours lasts longer in the fridge, but never really lasts that long!)  Any leftover fall apart crunchies we use as cereal – and, yes, even the kids eat it!

This is great to stick in baggies and hand out on trips: nutritious, yummy, and you know exactly what went into them.  They are cost effective in that you can make such a large batch at a time and in that you have leftover ingredients to use on the next batch.  If you have a smaller family – package them prettily and give to friends and family, store in fridge, or experiment with the above ingredients in smaller amounts.  No matter how you do it be sure to enjoy them!

Happy Munching!