December Cloverbud Meeting

 Every year in December, we have a little Christmas party for our club.  We try to schedule it in the beginning of the month before things get too crazy because of Christmas and New Years.  I scheduled the meeting for last night at 5:30 and then found out that was the exact same time as the downtown parade.  So, I changed the time to an hour later giving those that were in or watching the parade time to get to the meeting.  We picked up the pizzas, dropped them off at the EH house, loaded the girls in the stroller, and walked down to Main Street to watch the parade (which by the way was a pretty good one and the children ended up with almost as much candy as they got on Halloween..)  After it was over we went back to the EH house to get ready for the meeting.  We had planned on eating pizza and whatever anyone brought to go along with it (nobody brought anything), making an edible craft, and playing two games.  The children were also bringing canned foods to donate to the local soup kitchen. When we got there we found the EH House all decorated for something coming up and lots of white table cloths (not good for a group of children under the age of 10!) so we set chairs around two big tables without table cloths and planned on eating and making the craft there so we would not get pizza sauce all over the table cloths.  We had quite a turnout with several new children that I didn't even know had joined the club.  We ended up with 20 children which is the most we have ever had at our December meeting.  I actually was afraid I didn't have enough pizza but the younger children only had 1 slice and the older boys we only let have 2 (though they certainly would've eaten more!)

 When they were eating pizza, Emelia decided to lean back in her chair and flip the chair over.  I couldn't get to her fast enough to stop her from hitting the floor.  She really scared me!  I picked her up and she of course was crying and kind of went limp in my arms for a second.  But I nursed her and she stopped crying and seemed to be fine.  I could not find any marks on her and she got down and acted normal.  She has been fine all day today so she must've just been very scared too!  When she fell I dropped my pizza (since I was eating standing up with no plate) on one of the white table cloths and got sauce all over it! So I took it home and washed it and brought it back this morning.

We made these for our craft.

Instead of a boxed mix, Chelsea made homemade brownies (the mixes fall apart on me) .To make it a little easier we did not put the icing into baggies to squeeze out.  Instead we gave each child a plate with a brownie, candy cane, icing, m &m's, and a knife.  Then they could spread the icing on it however they wanted to.  We had red and green sprinkles that we passed around.

Our games were pin the nose on Rudolph.  I printed out a Rudolph, glued him to a piece of cardboard, and taped it to the wall.  I also printed out numbered red noses and put scotch tape on the back.  We put a scarf on the children but did not spin them around.  They had fun!  I didn't get any pictures of this game since I was tying scarves and directing children.

The other game was kind of like hot potato mixed with musical chairs.  You fill a bowl with candy, sit the children in a circle, and play some music.  When the music stops whoever is holding the bowl takes a piece of candy and leaves the circle.  Play continues until everyone gets one.  They liked this game and wanted to play twice but we didn't have time. 

I was so thankful to have so much help from Chelsea and the other parents!

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Favorite Recipes: Homemade Chicken Nuggets

One of my children asked if we could make our own chicken nuggets, so I checked out some recipes and we tried them yesterday.  Wow!  Much, much better than the frozen kind and easy to make.  A little more expensive.  I doubled the recipe and spent around $7 for the boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  The 6  big chicken breasts I used made more than enough for the 9 of us with leftovers for lunch today.  The other ingredients I already had on hand.  I served them with broccoli and rice.

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into one inch chunks
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter


Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Dip chicken into butter and then cover with bread crumb mixture. Place on a cookie sheet.  Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees turning nuggets over after 10 minutes.

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Review: Silent Night by Colleen Coble

Description: 
"As Christmas day nears, Bree and her faithful search-and-rescue dog Samson follow the trail of a troubling mystery into the snowy forests of Rock Harbor.
Bree Matthews is preparing for Christmas guests, but her heart is reeling from the recent and tender loss of her unborn child. Her sister-in-law, Lauri, suddenly turns up on the doorstep of the lighthouse home Bree shares with her husband, Kade, in Rock Harbor. Secretive and withdrawn, Lauri seems curiously intent on discovering what happened to a parachuter who disappeared in the North Woods along Lake Superior's icy shore.
As Bree and Samson, her search-and-rescue dog, plunge into the search, Bree wonders if Lauri may know more than she’s admitted about the parachuter. And then the clues lead them to the trail of a young woman whose family fears the worst about her disappearance.
Will the search on this snowy, silent night lead Bree and Samson to more than clues about the missing girl? And will Bree’s prayer for a baby ever be answered?"

I chose this book because I absolutely loved TideWater Inn by the same author.  I "met" Bree and Kade Matthews during the course of that story.  Their characters intrigued me and made me very interested  in reading this (and others) in the Rock Harbor series.  Silent Night is a novella and is only a little over 80 pages long with the other 60 pages being excerpts from two other books.   That was a little disappointing  as I was not expecting it to be that short.  The story itself was a good one.  There was a mystery to be solved and a background story about Bree and Kade and their family and desire to have more children.  I love the character of Samson the rescue dog and he proves himself a hero again.  I enjoyed the mystery and the family aspects of the story.  I was surprised that not all of the loose ends of the mystery were tied up but instead seemed as though they were forgotten about. The epilogue was very sweet.   I look forward to reading others by Colleen Coble.

I received a complimentary copy of Silent Night for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation.

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Reading Aloud

Reading aloud.  It's one of those things that we know is very important when our children are small but when they start reading on their own, we stop.  Reading aloud is still very, very important when children are older.  They can enjoy reading books that they are able to on their own and benefit from listening to books that are above their reading level.

When I was just homeschooling one child, I read aloud all the time.  We spent a year reading aloud the Little House on the Prairie books and worked through the Prairie Primer.  We did three years of Sonlight which is very heavy on reading and reading aloud.  We loved Sonlight!  But as the younger children reached school age, I couldn't juggle (or afford) multiple cores from Sonlight.  Then we did The Lord of the Rings.  But, a few more babies and pregnancies that I was very, very sick for months on end made me fall off the wagon (so to speak) on reading aloud.  Then just the everyday tasks of homeschooling, housekeeping, and taking care of 7 children pushed it way down on my priorities list.

But, though my oldest two children could read well and loved to read at a very early age, but third child has reading difficulties.  He does however love a good story.  There was no way I could read aloud enough to satisfy him.  So, we discovered Audio Books.  I bought Alex an inexpensive mP3 player and loaded it with books from www.booksshouldbefree.com and other audio books from the library.  I purchased some audio books on CD like Jonathan Park and the Chronicles of Narnia.  We also had the great pleasure of reviewing The Sugar Creek Gang from Beloved Books  (you need to read my review on The Sugar Creek Gang audio books here. There is also a coupon code for my readers to use on The Sugar Creek Gang audio CDs.)  Just today I was able to use the coupon code and order the second volume for Alex ( a big thanks to those that purchased items through my affiliate links!)  He will be so excited!!

Along with the audio books, I have made it a priority to read aloud to the children again.  Even though we never stopped reading aloud from "school books"  it's just not the same as a good story.  I learned from the years of doing Sonlight, the best way for children to learn is from living books and children love to hear a good story!

So far this year we finished Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (illustrated clasics version), The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (again, by request although I was told my sound effects were not as good as the Cd's),  and The Swiss Family Robinson.  I had planned on reading The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr right before Thanksgiving, but did not get to it.  We will be reading that one at some point.  I love that book!  This week we started The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson.  I would like to get in at least one more Christmas book.  After the holidays I plan on starting the Sons of Angels series by Jerel Law.

Read For the Heart by Sarah Clarkson (my review is here) is a great resource for finding delightful books to read to your children.  Not only is it a great resource, it is an enjoyable book to read and has lots of great tips for reading aloud.  I still use the Sonlight catalog for ideas for what to read aloud also.

Debra at Footprints in the Butter is hosting  weekly Read Aloud Challenge.  I will be linking up this post and invite you to do the same.  You can find this week's post here.

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Menu Plan Monday 12/3/12

I haven't posted any menus in a long time, so I thought I would while I had a spare minute.  I have been writing menu plans for a month at a time and shopping for everything I need for those meals all at once (except perishable items.)  It has been working out really well for me and helping with the grocery budget. 

This week's menu:

Fri 11/30- pizza
Sat 12/1- eat out
Sun 12/2- cheesy chicken chowder, grilled cheese
Mon 12/3- Spaghetti and meatballs
Tues 12/4- pot roast, potatoes, carrots
Wed 12/5- baked chicken nuggets (new recipe), rice, cauliflower
Thurs 12/6- 4 H pizza party


Check out some yummy menus at www.orgjunkie.com.

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Homeschool Art Class 11/30/12

Friday we got to go back to Art class after being off for two weeks.  After everyone had been sick for what seemed like forever, it was nice to get them all out of the house for the first time in almost 2 weeks.  Everyone had been fever free for 2 days, although they still had runny noses and a little bit of a cough.  They were glad to be back at Art!  We did three fun projects.  First they learned about Picasso and designed and colored their own Picasso-like drawings.  Next we made the North Pole  using a paper towel roll, construction paper, glitter, and cotton.  They turned out so cute!  For the last project of the day they got to do a painting with water colors of their choice.

Every week after Art we go to the park for a picnic and to play.  We skipped that this week but we did go to the library and Walmart.  We had quite a long list!  I had promised the children they could buy a few more fish for their tank because we had lost a few.  On the way out the automatic doors, one of the bags of fish fell and broke open.  Water was everywhere!  One of the two goldfish was flopping around on the floor and poor Anthony was trying to scoop him up!  I grabbed the bag that had one fish and a little water left in it and he caught the flopping fish and put him in.  An associate came over with Wet Floor signs and Chelsea went back to get a new bag for the fish (that died the next day.)  Always an adventure!

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Christmas Tree Farm 2012

Today we headed to Texas to get our Christmas Tree.  Every year we go out to eat and go to the Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our tree.  Usually it takes a really long time to pick out the tree, but this time we chose it in just a few minutes.  I didn't realize until after we cut it down and had to put it in the van how big it really was!  We usually get a 6 foot tree but this one was 7 and that extra foot made a big difference.  We did not do a hay ride or anything special this time so the only picture I have is the one of us in front of the tree.   Usually the kids have a hay ride when they go and get the tree and take it up front, but the guy that cut it down carried it the whole way.

December 2012

I did get a few as we were decorating.

(Lily did NOT want to take a picture)

Pictures of  Christmas Trees past:

December 2011

December 2010

December 2009

December 2008

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