7 Quick Takes -Spring Break edition

Hello lovelies!  Well, Spring break came and went here at {Home}...way too fast!

~1~

Sky is making a farmhouse table using reclaimed wood.  This table will be longer than our current table, so we can fit more Bible College boys around it.  Right now we have a smaller table pushed against our table to make it longer. The table-top is made of curly-spalted maple wood and was left out in the open, has water-damage, fungus stains and termite holes. It has so much character.

~2~

I put together a web-page for Sky for his woodworking, he is hoping to eventually sell furniture.  It's in the very rough stages still, but it was a lot of fun to help him set it up and share with him my knowledge of working with wordpress, widgets, plugins and blog stuff. [I love talking blogging..love it!]

~3~

Right before we were off for Spring Break, Josie did a report on The Diary of Anne Frank.  She also did a timeline project from the book.  This book had such a profound affect on me when I read it as a girl. It meant a lot to me to share it with her.  We had many discussions and did further research on the internet to help her understand what the times were like for Anne Frank before and after her hiding.  Once again, I grappled with describing absolute evil to my kids - and I struggled with the details I held back.  Some things I just can't tell me kids about, yet.

~4~

We continued art lessons during Spring Break.  Amie and Teddy worked on charcoal tea-pot drawings. Here is Amie's finished work - love it!  Art class is ending after next week.  I am kind of relieved because gas prices are starting to take a huge toll on our budget. (I will, however, really miss my secret outings for a chocolate chip bagel & diet coke while they are at class!)

~5~

Meg was hired to exercise some horses five days a week.  She is so excited, working with horses is her dream job.  It was a little tricky the first week, I had to drive her back and forth.  I was really glad it was Spring Break because the driving would have added chaos to our day.

~6~

Relief has arrived, though.  Meg just passed her driver's license test.  She can now drive herself to her job.  I am equal parts relieved and terrified.  I'm having a hard time with letting her drive off alone.  I keep telling myself we were all new teen drivers and survived without incident. >Rinse and repeat...

~7~

Here in Orange County we had dramatic weather shifts from beautiful sunny days to thunderstorms and rain. This messed with any beach plans.  The girls fit in a few horse riding/care days at our friend's house.  My sister drove up and we spent an afternoon at the Orange Circle instead of the beach.  Whew, this vacation week just flew by!!

Did you have Spring Break? How was it?

7 Quick Takes Friday is hosted over at Conversion Diary every week.

the wind beneath her wings

Piano recital-time is approaching.  Our piano teacher likes to add a little something extra to these performances and usually assigns some kind of neat extra, like artwork or an essay.  }I blame this on the fact that her child is not school age yet, more homework:the gift that keeps on giving for mom. So- for the recital my kids were to compose a little essay to dedicate their performance at the recital to some person, ideal or sentiment.  These will be printed up in the little program booklet and the kiddos will read it/ speak it to the audience before they perform.

Let me preface this story by saying I had no preconceived ideas about this assignment, no guesses as to what my kids would pick (my kids always amaze and surprise me with their individual ways at looking at the world/life) and no real desire to delve deeply into it besides making sure it was done and punctuated correctly.

So, I pick up Amie after her last lesson and her teacher with simmering excitement bids me to sit down, takes my hand, and tells me that she has some exciting news about little Amie's dedication....(I have to preface this by begging you to realize that I don't expect adoration, thanks, fawning, etc. from my crew, I am just happy if they follow my directions without grumbling-they are all reaching tween/teen years- we are just trying to survive at this stage.  I drive them around, teach them, direct them, sacrifice for them and figure that someday- ten years from now when as a parent they are sitting up at 2 a.m. rocking a crying child who has just puked on them, my children will each, in turn lift of a prayer of love and thanksgiving for me, beyond that...not expecting fanfare...)   So, no passing thoughts as to who they will pick- but the way the teacher was acting, the fact that she took my hand...I will admit that just for a teeny/tiny fraction of an instant- my heart leapt a little at the thought that it must be me.  Amie must be giving her dedication to me, for the time I spend taking her to lessons, finding her music book, making sure she is clean before she goes, asking her to practice... just for an instant I kind of thought this.

drum-roll please...  her teacher told me with great excitement that Amie's performance was dedicated with much love to ~

our dog, Emma.

yes, she is the wind beneath her wings.

this was the only way this story could end, really.

the interview

I've been tagged by the lovely and mysterious Caffeinated OC Mommy for an interview blog-meme. I'm going to be a good girl and blog this before my A.D.D. brain forgets all about it...

here goes:

1) What is your favorite lipstick color?  Okay, here is the point, on the very 1st question, even! -where Caff might break-up with me. Confession: I don't have a favorite lipstick color!!  I should!  I would!  Um, but I keep forgetting or don't have time to go on the hunt for the perfect color.

I will tell you the color I have been wearing the last few months:  Raspberry Glace by the body shop.  It's a little too dark for me, I look best in a faint blush I think.  This color is close, but a bit too dark.  I put it on and then blot it down a notch.  I am so sorry to disappoint you, Caff!  {hanging my head in shame}

2) Betty? or Veronica?  Neither, my answer is Amy Pond.

3)  What's your best advice for a new blogger? Find your own voice, but don't be afraid to experiment a bit till you find it.  Post often (I fail at this! do as I say, not as I do!)  share the bloggy love and for goodness sake, no automated music or super busy backgrounds that make my eyes burn!

4)  Where's your favorite spot for a date night with the Hubby?  Dinner in Old Town Orange and then Barnes & Nobles

5) Why did you start blogging?  I wanted to share our daily life, specially our homeschool life- with family.  Funny though, I rediscovered a love of writing, made a new love of photography and made many friends online.  (the one family member I really hoped to share with has never read my blog, sadly)

6) If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?  Two places: back to Dublin, Ireland with Sky and anywhere  warm & tropical that has the word "Island" in it, with Sky.

7) Any future goals you'd like to share?  I'd like to learn how to use my camera and kyak with orcas. {I am currently badgering Sky to take me where I can kyak with Orcas...I'll report back}

since this is a meme, I will be tagging a few bloggers whom I would like to know better.  Here are the rules:

1) Post the rules.

2) Tag up to eleven 5 bloggers by posting links to their blogs, and let them know.

3) Create eleven 7 (it's lucky!) questions for the people you’ve tagged.

4) Answer the questions your tagger posed for you.

5)Have fun!

I am tagging-

Julie at Soldier's wife, crazy life

Theresa at Red Oak Lane

Karen at Just Twiddlin

Adrienne at The Mommy Mess

Jenny at Teaching my Baby to Read

ladies, I will email you my questions :)

March photo-a-day {days 23, 24, 25, 26}

March photo-a-day {wrap up post}

{Home arts}

Sky made this cutting board for the sweet friend who lets Meg & Josie ride his horses.  The horse in the center was put in using an inlay method - the horse is cut out in pieces, like a jig-saw puzzle and then set into the scooped-out board.  It has a back-view of the horse on the other side. The stripes are different types of wood put together to make one whole board.  My guy is pretty talented :)

{chores} 

-not my chores: this is our neighbor across the street, the photo in my blog header is taken from his yard, looking back at my house.  I love, love his poppies.  We see him out almost daily working in his yard.  His grass is smooth like a carpet.  When we first moved in, we kind of raised our eyebrows at each other in fun the first time we saw him vacuuming his lawn with a shop-vac.  Who's amused now??  He has an awesome yard.  People drive by to look at his poppies.  His yard is super awesome because he spends a lot of time working in it. (ours-not so much. We make an effort so we won't make him cry when he looks out his front window....)

{morning}

I captured these wisteria blooms in the morning light.  Quite a bit of sun-flare going on, but I like the dreamy look of it.

{motivation}

Emma is quite motivated to get out the peanut butter in this jar.  She loves peanut butter!  Meg decided to skip stuffing a kong toy with it and just give her the almost-empty jar.  It kept her busy for quite a while.

hope you are having a happy Spring, bloggy friends! <3

Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies {a recipe for grownups}

Oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies with more goodstuff {like oats} and less bad stuff {like sugar}

tweaking my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe to include more bulk (oats!) more dark chocolate (for the adult palate) and less sugar had the surprising side-effect of being less appealing to my kids.  Which means, more for mom... a win-win.

The recipe:

grownup oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies

1/2 cup plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened  (or better- substitute coconut oil)

1/2 or 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (depending on how sweet you prefer)

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 heaping tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups oats uncooked

1 cup chocolate chips (bittersweet 60% cacao is perfect for this)

directions:

preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine butter and sugars, mixing until creamy, then add in vanilla and eggs, mix well.

In a smaller bowl mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixed wet ingredients and mix together.  Add in the oats and chocolate chips, mix together until well-combined.

use a spoon to drop rounded dough onto cookie sheets.  Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown.

These cookies are chewy, full of bulk, not too sweet and the bittersweet chocolate-chips give you the chocolate you crave.  Bonus, they will still be around tomorrow to snack on.

You could substitute the chocolate-chips for raisins, but where's the fun in that???

March Photo-a-day {days 18,19,20,21,22}

{Day 18 ~family  Day 19 ~grammar}

Okay, "family" kind of stumped me, it's been a while since I've had a photo with all of us in it...so I decided to show you our family art here on these shelves.  We've got art work here by the kids and by me.    Grammar- here is a lesson I did with the kids on definite & indefinite adjectives.

{day 20 ~view}

a view of my backyard, Annabelle and Dapples like to roost on this bench in the evening.

{day 21 ~Me  day 22 ~try}

Me:  Dapples was looking for a treat while I was out in Sky's workshop.  Try: We traveled to Hemet for Josie's first official saber tournament, she went to qualify for the upcoming regional tournaments in July.  This was a small event, just right for getting our feet wet :)

I have gotten so far behind on this photo challenge, eek!y

(you can find the March prompts here, if you'd like to join in!)

How is your March closing?  Was march gentle like a lamb or roaring for you??  Mine was kind of roaring!

I'll take random thoughts for $200...

Hey-ya friends!! My life is totally on cruise control right now, I'm a victim of my circumstances- something like that...or maybe not....

• First up, I have achieved total slacker level in my own photo challenge.  Um, I'll catch up, maybe tomorrow.  The problem, after being sick- it's kind of cold here in Orange County and I like to sit next to the fireplace in the dining room, sitting at the table with my laptop.  Problem is, all my photos and photo editing software are on my desktop in the front living room.  The cold front living room.  I'm kind of disinclined to change my location.

• Our homeschool plans/curriculum have been in a state of flux.  I am contemplating if I should do a side-by-side comparison of what we started of with and what we actually ended up using....it will make a busy page even more messier though, I am conflicted.  Here's a teaser, I've ditched MTC Grammar for Shurley Grammar. Does the change in educational philosophy just make your head spin?  Honestly, I loved MTC, but the format was a more -read with a child one-on-one and discuss.  In this crazy household, it just kept getting pushed off.  Shurley Grammar has worksheets and I can do the lesson with all 3 kids together.  !worksheets!  [yes, I am forever a worksheet girl]

• My car theft saga:  Photo evidence here * March photo a day: mom-my-ride Back -story: I now have the nicest car I have ever had. It's a 2004 with a bucket-load of miles on it, but it is fully loaded to the max.  I told Sky it was all over, luxury all the way, from now on, baby!  I had it 2 months maybe- and it got broken into, on our driveway, and the fancy radio/navigation system touch -screen- wonder was stolen.  Top it all off, this was when I was really sick, so I was sick in bed and Sky called home to tell me.  After I got over feeling depressed that I was not destined to have nice things {extreme pity-party in action}  I snapped out of it determined to replace it and move on.  I was also determined on some righteous karma wishful-thinking....

I had it all figured out:  The radio actually didn't work all the time and had lately started shutting off when I tried to use the nav system.  it was starting to do this when I was changing music functions, too.  My great all-consuming hope/dream was that the thieves would go on to sell the radio on craigslist, sell it to a gang-member and then get their tuckus kicked when the gang person realized the radio was broken.

You're a little psyched with me, I can tell!  Karma, got to love it!

Sky returned home from church and I filled him in on my great hope.  He looked at me, a little confused/concerned and said...

"I just prayed for them, they really must need the Lord."  ....okay.... I realized with sudden clarity that it was glaringly obvious which one of us was reading their Bible and which one of us hadn't been...

So okay, I prayed too.  Is it bad that a teeny tiny part of me still kind of likes the whole craigslist scenario??  Don't answer...

• I am getting a lot of visits to my blog because of a google search for River Song's red shoes.  This makes me a bit giddy.  You can see her shoes in action here *River Song video

• I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with way less sugar. Brilliant move, the result was the kids left them alone.  Score!  I will share my recipe as soon as I can get it together enough to take nice photos of the cookies.  My name is Jenn and I have a homeschool curriculum habit problem and a picky photography hang-up, I am seeking an appropriate 12 step program. 

• I actually made three things on my pinterest boards!!  Woot!  I made the crock-pot French dip sandwiches [great but lacking in flavor, must figure out a spice remedy] the pancake apple rings [made them with gluten free pancake mix-they are an awesome snack!] and then tonight the Greek lemon chicken. [Sky thought they were too sour, but he ate the skin, I did not eat the skin and liked them]  I think I need to make a pinterest board titled "pins I've actually done"   Here are my boards - henjenca on pinterest

• everyone but me it seems, has seen The Hunger Games.  Big pout.  Meg and Josie went with friends on Saturday night.  Sky is going to take me hopefully tomorrow.  He has no real interest in it, but knows I want to see it badly.  He's a good man <3

Hope your week is beautiful, bloggy friends!  :)

March Photo-a-day {days 14, 15, 16, 17}

March photo-a-day challenge

day 14  {Math}

a short lesson for Demi & Sky out of their 6th grade test prep.  The chocolate bar upper right made me hungry....

I'll have to remember for tomorrow that fractions are more fun with Hershey Bars :)

day 15  {Mom-my-ride}

Sunday morning, I was sick in bed but Sky and the kids jumped into my car and discovered it had been broken into and the fancy nav/stereo was gone!  Also gone: my ashtray which holds spare change :(

I recently moved way up in style and got an older, many miles on it- used car.  *But, it is loaded to the max.  I told Sky I was  never going back, luxury for me, all-the-way!  (it has heated seats- OOXXO)

But alas, my love affair lasted only a few months.  I'm back to "mom-my-ride" land...

day 16 {black & white}

snapped a photo with my iphone of the ash tree next door.  There is a huge crows nest up there, and everyday I see mr. & mrs. crow sitting together in the tree.

day 17 {green}

this is my keychain, it is an Irish symbol of the trinity.  (I was sick St. Patrick's day, so nothing festive happened, except Meg danced in an Irish dance show)

Well my lovelies, a horrible host I have been!  I am so behind, but I have been really sick.  Link up or comment if you have been keeping up!

You can find the link-up and the list of March prompts here:

March photo-a-day-challenge @ homeiswhereyoustartfrom