American Girl: Molly week #5 (time #2)

We had a fun class in American Girls this week! In our book, Molly Saves the Day, (book 5 in the series) Molly and her friends go to Summer Camp. We discussed our book and then we made craft- something that Molly might have made at camp-- a sit-upon!

 Silly girl put it on her head before she finished it up! I had a few pieces of zebra striped vinyl that we used too...

For this craft, I gave each girl a 26" square of vinyl with flannel backing. I found some fun patriotic vinyl at Jo-Anns crafts. The girls folded their square around a few sections of newspaper, and sealed it up with patriotic duct tape! I explained that they could take it and sit on it at the park or in the grass, and their bottoms would stay dry! Most of the girls were confused at first, but thought it was nice once we completed it-- and sat on it right away!

For snack, we had Vanilla Ice Cream in plain cones-- several of the girls said it was the best snack ever!  It was a snack that Molly and her friends had at camp after the Color war was done.

After snack, I had thought about trying to play Capture the Flag, but the weather was chilly since it is February. It had snowed that morning, so I decided not to play outside. I brought a flag and we recited the pledge of Allegiance. We talked about what the words in the pledge mean (i.e., allegiance, indivisible, liberty, justice) after the recitation. I also read about page out of Welcome to Molly's World about D-Day and the army making floating bridges like they did in the Molly book.

The 2:00 class

One girl put her sit-upon on her doll as a blanket! ; - D

We have only one more week of Molly left before we start to discuss JULIE!


Genesis 32:2

When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.

Exodus 19:17

Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

Joshua 6:14

So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

Valentines Day 2016

We had a fun and fabulous Valentine's day this year! We had a party at our church with homeschool friends on Friday for lunch. The moms all brought food for a potluck, and one mom brought cute cherry chocolate kiss mice for dessert! They were just adorable with their little cherry stem tails!

 We played games and traded Valentines with friends...

 It was fun to be together!

Such a cute group of elementary (and a few middle school) kids!

 After lunch, my hubby gave me this heart and told me to be ready at 3:00... Oooh la la!

 We went to a local hotel, checked in a chatted for a while. Then we walked around downtown, went to a few antique stores and a candy store that has a fun variety of candy. We bought some for the kids! We had a lovely dinner and breakfast downtown too. Yum!

 Bethany loved her candy necklace...

 On Sunday morning, the girls read their cards from Caleb together... we did brush hair before church!

 Our uncle spoiled us with Valentines donuts for Sunday!

 My sweet valentines from my kids... <3 p="">

How was your Valentine's day this year? Did you do anything special? I'd love to hear about it!

1 John 4:11-12Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Our 100th day of school--2016

We had a fabulous 100th day of school again this year! We spent the morning counting lots of things to 100, including our snack, stamped items, colored items, and more. We made a 100-piece puzzle again. The new thing we did this year was some printables I found online, that had different spots to place 10 things for their snacks. There were 10 spots on the paper of course! While we didn't have everything they specified, we improvised with other items. The girls loved getting to eat chocolate chips and m & m's as part of their snack! Its was another great day for homeschooling at the Nadel Academy!

I sure love teaching these girls!

 Making the puzzle...

 All done!

Eating snack!

Don't feel sorry for the big kids... they got 100 grand candy bars too! ; - D

We read this Bible story too...

Luke 15:3-7

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

American Girl class: Molly week 4 (time #2)

We had another great Molly class this week! We read Happy Birthday, Molly! (book 4 in the Molly series) for class and talked about it. We also discussed birthdays in 1940, and a blackout drill. 

After we discussed the book, we made princess crowns. I gave each girl a 12 X 20" piece of foam, and gave them tracers which I found here. I printed the template and traced them onto card stock. Each girl traced the template two times (back to back) to make a crown. I also gave them jewels and glue to decorate the crowns. Then I punched two small holes in the bottom corners, and gave them a 12-15" piece of 1/2" inch piece of elastic. They put the elastic through the holes and tied a knot. If the elastic was too long, they could trim it down a little.

 Tracing and cutting the crowns...

  So pretty!

 Our snack...

Here is the recipe for lemon tart:

Lemon Tart

¾ cup butter, room temp

½ cup white sugar

½ tsp vanilla

Pinch salt

1 ¾ c flour

1. Combine butter, ½ cup sugar, vanilla and salt in mixer. Add flour to make smooth dough. Press into 9” pan.

2. Refrigerate 30 minutes. 

3. Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Filling:

1 ½ cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 Tbsp lemon zest

½ cup fresh lemon juice

½ cup flour

1 tsp powdered sugar

1. Whisk sugar, eggs, zest, juice and ½ cup flour until smooth. Pour lemon filling into crust. 
2. Cover edges to prevent burning. 
3. Bake tart until set, about 20 minutes. 
4. Cool completely and dust with powdered sugar.

Our snack mom had a hard time making the crusts, so she bought cookies and we put the lemon filling on the top. It was delicious! All of the girls loved it!

The 2:00 class...

Tracing and decorating their crowns...

Love seeing girls help each other during craft!

 Cute crowns!

After snack, I read a story from the Welcome to Molly's World book. 

It was another delightful class day!

Psalm 103:3-5

...who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 149:4
For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

Revelation 4:4
Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

American Girl: Molly Week 3 (time #2)

We had another fabulous American Girl class this week! For class we read Molly’s Surprise (book 3 in the Molly series) and talked about it.  We also discussed Christmas in the 1940’s and Dad being away for a long period. 

Our craft this week was a Pipe cleaner ornaments and a letter to Dad. We made ornaments like was shown in the back of the book, on page 62. It was pretty easy for most of the girls. I didn't give them all Christmas colored pipe cleaners, so they could use the ornament to decorate their room if they wanted. They just bent the pipe cleaners into a star type shape. We bent one pipe cleaner around our finger as a hanger.

Our snack in class this week will be: Cinnamon Sticky Buns. You can find a recipe using refrigerated biscuits here: http://www.mccormick.com/Recipes/Breakfast-Brunch/Cinnamon-Sticky-Buns

 The girls really liked this snack!!

After our snack, I taught the girls how to address an envelope (p. 12) and then we wrote a letter to their Dads. Molly does this in the first chapter of the book, and I thought it would be a good thing to teach the girls. I think in this day and age of emails, texts and phone calls, letters and letter-writing is getting to be a lost art. I think it is still important for students to learn to write a letter. 

 Girls writing letters to their dads...

We had a chalkboard on the wall in our room that I used to write ideas for the girls. This worked well, and the girls could look at how to spell our town's name. I also have a list of their addresses which was very useful this class time!

 Some of the girls put some nice detail into their letters, and others had a harder time writing much. I am sure their Dads will enjoy the letters. I put stamps on them when I got home, and hope they will go out in the mail soon. Most of the girls wrote Valentine's day greetings since our class was just before Valentine's Day this year.

Here is the 2:00 class...

It was another fun class day... the time went by quickly! I had thought about singing "Joy to the World" but we ran out of time! I hope the Dads enjoy their letters!


2 Corinthians 3:2
You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

2 Corinthians 3:3
You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Hebrews 13:22
Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.

Lent 2016

I have done lots of different challenges for Lent over the past 10 years. Last year, some of you may remember that I used the book 7 by Jen Hatmaker to give up different things each week for the 7 weeks. (You can find the first blog post here.)

Lent is typically aa Catholic holiday to celebrate, but I really appreciate the idea of preparing my heart for Easter. A friend of mine posted about Lent on Facebook this past weekend, and I enjoyed the post. It talked a lot about ways to deny yourself during Lent. It had these five questions to begin:

1. What habits do I have that get in the way of a healthy spiritual life?

2. What distracts me from living a deeper interior life?

3. Where do I lack balance?

4. What takes an inordinate amount of time out of my day?

5. What am I overly attached to?

An answer to these questions might be a good indication of what to do to live Lent well. I've sacrificed various things over the years- such as chocolate, coffee, sweets, etc., I liked how the article talked about being creative with your ideas, and ask yourself the question: "Will this sacrifice help me love God more, forget myself more, and love my neighbor better?"

I found the above questions quite convicting, but I enjoyed other ideas in the article. I liked the idea to make a daily sacrifice to become closer to God.

Here are things I wrote down to do:

No chocolate
No coffee (ouch!)
No dessert
Less food for a meal, or fasting
More exercise
No iPhone games (or less)
Less Facebook (or no)
*MORE Prayer!
More Bible Study (not just reading a devotional)
More service/ chores
Write a letter or a card to friend or family
Call a friend or family
Less heat/ blankets (or no heated blanket at night!)
No car radio or music
No Netflix
No crafts
No nail maintenance
No pills or vitamins?
Purge belongings to charity

Other ideas:
Drive in silence
Stop multi-tasking
Walk slower- be present in the moment
Give up watching sports
Or to deny one of your senses on a different day of the week
Hearing- no music, phone on mute
Seeing- stop checking phone or computer for info constantly
Touch- take a lukewarm shower, not using the most comfortable clothes or blankets
Smell- dealing with those uncomfortable scents of life without complaint
Taste- giving up sugar, salt, a favorite condiment, fasting from a meal for the sake of a friend's salvation

You can read the whole article that I referenced above here.

So that is what I will be doing this year, a daily sacrifice. My first sacrifice today is no chocolate. It may be harder tonight at dessert time! What will you be doing for Lent in 2016?


Joshua 7:13
“Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

American Girl class: Molly week 2 (Time #2)

We had a fun class this week in American Girls! We read Molly Learns a Lesson (book 2 in the Molly series) for class this week. We talked about the book and I read the War message in the back of the book. I also read a few pages out of Welcome to Molly's World.

In the Molly book this week, she and her classmates take part in the Lend-A-Hand contest at their school and they knit squares for a blanket. I don't know how to knit, and wasn't about to try to teach the girls, so we made Polar Fleece blankets to donate instead! I looked at the polar fleece kits, and decided that they were more money than I wanted to spend. So I just picked out coordinating colors of polar fleece that I liked, and bought enough for four blankets. This worked out well since the classes are smaller this semester. I loved seeing the girls work together to cut and tie the blankets. Some of our scissors were not too sharp though, and that didn't help much! 

 Starting to cut and tie...

We made two blankets in each class, and the girls seemed to enjoy the craft! I got 1 1/2 yards of fleece in two colors for each blanket. I showed the girls how to cut one-inch strips that were about 3 inches long. They cut through two colors at one time. 

Showing off the finished products...

After we cut the strips- there were 3-4 girls working on each blanket-- then they tied the strips into double-knots. A few of the girls thought that was kinda hard. I was very thankful for my mom helpers who helped a bunch with this step-- and I did too! But it was a very fun craft, and we get to donate them! You can find out more about Project Linus here. I will be contacting someone with Project Linus soon to donate the blankets to children in hospitals or social service care. 

When we finished the blankets, we had Boston Brown Bread with Raisins for snack. I found several recipes here. The girls seemed to like the bread! We had butter on it, and water to drink. 

The girls are delightful and make me smile every week!

Next week we will get to celebrate Christmas! 


Matthew 25:35-40
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’