I mentioned finding my living room again.  Now I’m busy at work cleaning out and organizing every room because oh my goodness does my house ever need it. 

What IS it about a new year that inspires so many of us to re-organize…re-group…re- re- realize that we have too much stuff hanging out of our drawers and THAT is why they won’t close?!

Here’s a room cleaning organizational tip that my sister-in-law Kari shared with me several years ago:

Start in one room.  Stay in that room.  If something belongs in another room…just throw it into that room and go back to the room you are working in to begin with. 

Otherwise…you’ll start in the living room…notice a dirty plate…take the plate into the kitchen…see all the dirty dishes…start to wash them…stop to pick up some dirty socks on the kitchen floor…take the socks to the laundry room…start sorting the laundry…pick up a stuffed frog sitting on the dirty underwear…take the stuffed frog into the kid’s room to put into the toy box…notice your best scissors on your son’s dresser…take the scissors into the craft room…see the wrapping paper all over the floor…

And you’ll never get to the living room.

It’s called Organizational ADD.  I have this disorder if I don’t follow the advice of my sister-in-law and work on ONE room until I finish it entirely. 

This method works very well.  And it is SO nice to at least have one room clean when you start to tackle the others. 

Anybody else out there struggle with Organizational ADD?  Anybody else out there cleaning out and re-organizing like CRAZY lately?  Anybody else think that January should really come more often so we will be inspired to get organized more often?  (ooh, except I don’t want it to be cold more often…)
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See what everyone else is sharing today at Rocks in my Dryer!

Here are a few more gift ideas and fun things to make!  If you missed the other posts in this series, check them out here.

Applesauce Bread

I delivered a big loaf of applesauce bread to some friends the other day.  Their response?  “This bread tastes JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS!”  Ah, you’ve gotta love delivering a nice loaf of Christmas to someone!

Kettle Corn

¼ cup oil
¼ cup sugar
½ cup popcorn kernels
 
Heat oil, add sugar and popcorn.  Shake the pot back and forth till the popping slows.  Carefully dump kettle corn in a large bowl and sprinkle w/a little salt.

Pretzel Wreaths

I got this idea from my very clever (beautiful, intelligent, talented, sweet….) sister-in-law, Michele.  These are very easy to make and oh-so-cute!  See instructions here.

Merry Christmas and a HOPPY New Year Card!

Is he the cutest?  (well, as cute as a frog can be anyway)  These cards are simple to make and fun to give!  Here’s the pattern and the instructions.

In a couple of days, I’ll share a few fun ways to wrap up your gifts!  Thanks for all the ideas you’ve been sharing in the comments too!  Is there no end to all the fun ideas?!
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That’s the latest Christmas carol we’ve been singing at our house. 

The boys and I have been going a little crazy with our Christmas cookie cutters and oh boy have we had fun.  Who says cookie cutters are limited to COOKIES?!  My friend Holly (who loves cookie cutters as much as I love jars) even decorated her entire Christmas tree with cookie cutters one year!!   What a great idea!

Here are a few of the things we’ve come up with to increase the level of Christmas Festivity around here.

Christmas Sourdough Biscuits

Christmas Graham Crackers

Christmas Pizzas

Christmas Donuts

The boys also suggested that Christmas Quesadillas and Christmas Grilled Cheese Sandwiches would be good.  Sounds good to me!!  It’s always fun to eat Santa’s head.  (Yikes, I’ve been hanging around with silly little boys for too long…)

What other ideas have you thought of for using cookie cutters?!
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Read more Works for me Wednesday posts here!

I recently found this great recipe…then played with it and adapted it to create a healthier dessert!  It is very tasty!!  Simple and sweet…and just a little nutty (which are some of the exact characteristics I strive for in my life). 

I love the crust part the best.  But I also love the filling the best.  The topping was also very, very good.  And of course, I always love the fresh whipped cream the best.  Oh, such a great combination of lots of yummy tastes.  Try it for yourself and see which part you like best!

Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares

I was trying to go for a dollop of whipped cream…
but I can’t quite do a dollop. 
Anybody out there good at a dollop? 
(I think it’s fun to say the word dollop.)
(dollop)

Crust:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup rapadura (or sucanat!) (Did you read my updated post about the rapadura/sucanat mystery?)
1/2 cup butter

Filling:
3/4 cup rapadura
2 cups pumpkin
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 large eggs
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. ginger

Topping:
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup rapadura

Whipped cream

For Crust:  Combine flour, oats, rapadura and butter.  Mix until crumbly. Press on bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

For Filling:  Combine rapadura, pumpkin, cream, eggs and spices in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed for 1 to 2 minutes; pour over crust.  Bake for 20 minutes.

For Topping:  Combine pecans and rapadura in small bowl.  Sprinkle pecan topping over filling.  Continue baking for 20 to 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Cut into bars.  Top with whipped cream (just a dollop).

If you recall…I don’t usually like recipes with nuts in them.  I surprised myself by liking the pecan topping.

See?  Everyone likes to be nutty every now and then…

(dollop)
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You’ll find more great recipes at Money Saving Mom.
Visit Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday.

We love reading books together.  We love learning together. 

We love stuffing the ourselves into our small bathroom with the light off, so that we can look into the mirror with a flashlight through prism glasses to see how color is dispersed through the light (and then laughing our tails off together because we are so crammed into the bathroom that we can’t open the door to get out without practically falling together into the bathtub.)

We don’t spend hours of our time filling out workbooks at our house.   We used to and it didn’t work.  It was grueling for the boys and I found myself nagging all day at them to finish their pages.  Yeah, not so much a fun way to learn.

We want our boys to love learning.  (Not that is always has to be fun…but we want them to be curious and creative and excited about learning new things.)  And we don’t want them to think that learning begins and ends with the opening and closing of a workbook or a textbook.  We’ve begun to take more of an “un-schooling” approach to homeschooling over the past couple of years.  (I’ll try to share more often some of the ideas we’ve used to teach our kids spelling and writing creativity and math and science…)

But beyond all of that…

Our family’s homeschool philosophy is that there are some things that are much more important than others: 

Matt and I feel very strongly that teaching our boys to love and serve others is far more important than learning the states and capitals.  We feel like teaching our boys about God’s kingdom is more important than learning all of the past presidents of the United States in chronological order.  And we think that if they learn to be hard workers, but they don’t learn all the dates of history…we will not have failed as parents (or educators).

Our kids still learn all of these factual things…but we don’t focus on them nearly as much as we try to focus on spiritual matters and areas of the heart.  Because of this philosophy…there are some days we don’t open very many books at all. 

Some days our boys simply learn about life.  And caring.  And loving.  And serving.  And about being patient.  And about how to talk to an elderly person.  And about working hard until you are so tired you can’t see straight. 

We’re constantly working to figure out all of this education stuff.  And discipline stuff.  And the most effective ways to train our kids to be like Jesus.  Never have we been so thankful for grace as we have been as we raise our boys.

I’m very curious about what your opinions are on this subject (whether you homeschool or not).  If you do homeschool…what are some of your philosophies?  Are you a workbook-y family?  Does that work for you?  What do you think are the most important things for our kids to know?

One more quick thing.  Suddenly I’ve been receiving lots of emails asking about our schedule, specifically how we accomplish our school day and get everything else done too (like eat and sleep).  Maybe it’s because I promised to tell you more about our schedule and I haven’t yet?  :)  I’m finally going to share about that in a few days…
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Read more Works for me Wednesday posts at Rocks in my Dryer.

Then, might I suggest you try these Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins?

I found this recipe recently and adapted it to make it healthier.  Here’s what I came up with!

Sweet Potato Streusel Muffins

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. sea salt
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1 egg
1 cup mashed sweet potato*
1/2 cup milk
3 T. melted butter

Topping:

3 T. rapadura (dehydrated cane sugar juice) or brown sugar
1 T. butter, softened
2 T. chopped nuts (optional)

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg in a bowl.  Add honey, raisins, eggs, sweet potato, milk and butter.  Stir until just mixed.  Scoop into 15 paper lined muffin cups. 

In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients.  Sprinkle evenly over each muffin.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

*To make mashed sweet potatoes:
Scrub two medium sweet potatoes.  Stab them each with a knife, then place them in a glass baking dish.  Cover and bake for 1 hour or until the potato is very tender.  Allow potatoes to cool a few minutes, then carefully peel them.  Mash the potatoes with a fork or potato masher.

You’ve gotta love a recipe that makes your house smell like everything your house is supposed to smell like in the fall!  And, a recipe that helps you get sweet potatoes into your kids.  And, a recipe that makes something simple that tastes so good!!

p.s.  I know a lot of you have never heard of rapadura and want to know why I use it instead of sugar.  I’ll blog about it soon.  Because I LOVE rapadura.  Love it.  Those of you who’ve tried it…do you love rapadura as much as I do?
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Read more Works for me Wednesday posts at Rocks in my Dryer.

(You know that song right?  Dad is great, he gives us chocolate cake!  It’s an old Bill Cosby comedy thing.  Matt sings this song everytime I make this for breakfast!)  (Anyway…)

This is a super easy breakfast that can be made ahead of time…or made fresh the morning you plan to eat it.  I adapted my Giant Breakfast Cookie recipe to make this cake, and it’s moist and yummy.  Especially with a glass of milk!

“Mom is Great”  Breakfast Cake (yes, I humbly named it myself)

1 cup butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups whole rolled oats
¾ cup honey
2 eggs
1 t. sea salt
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla
1 cup raisins, chocolate chips or other dried fruit

Stir together butter, buttermilk, flour and oats in a glass bowl.  Cover with a cloth and allow the grains to soak on your counter overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Stir in honey, eggs, salt, baking soda and vanilla.  Fold in raisins, chocolate chips or dried fruit.   Pour into a buttered 9×9 inch baking pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Serve warm…serve cold…it’s good either way.  Cut into squares and wrapped in plastic wrap, this is a great portable breakfast or snack too! 

Who wouldn’t want cake for breakfast?  Just watch, your family will be singing to you too if you serve this!  “Mom is great!  She gives us breakfast cake!”

Hehe…think we should tell ‘em it’s good for them?
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Visit Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday.

In this post about our schedule, I mentioned my struggle with being disciplined to have personal Bible study time.  I appreciated your encouraging comments.  I’m working to just schedule it in so that I’ll be more consistent about it.   It’s not like I don’t have time…its just about DOING IT. 

Anyway, in the meantime, I wanted to tell you what works for our family Bible time. 

First, may I hop on my soap-box for a moment?  (thank you) 

The responsibility of teaching the Bible to YOUR children does not belong to anyone but YOU.  It is not up to their Bible class teachers or the ministers at your church or anyone else.  The Bible tells PARENTS to train up their children in the way they should go.  I think Bible classes are wonderful and I LOVE what my kids learn at church from their teachers.  BUT…if we let their Godly training END with Sunday morning and/or Wednesday night Bible classes…we’d be neglecting our duties as parents.  It’s our job.  Godly character training doesn’t begin and end at the church door. 

Okay, now that you know how I feel about that…I’ll sum up what works best for our family Bible training time in two words:

Meal.Time.

It’s a time we’re all sitting down together (ooh, another soap box)…and if the kids have food in their mouths, they are less likely to be talking (hopefully)…so they are able to focus their attention on you and listen.

For years we’ve had “Bible at Breakfast” time.  It’s been a great way to start our day.  We’ve done a variety of things from reading chapters from the Bible to reading through Egermeir’s Story Bible to reading short devotionals from books. 

Then, at lunch and dinner time, we do memory work.  Usually, Daddy leads this and asks the boys to repeat after him as he works to teach them new verses.   We’ve learned lots and lots of new verses this way…and it’s amazing what the littlest guys can learn just by repeating the verses over and over.  Often now, Malachi (age 3) stands up in his chair with his hands on his hips (this is not the exact way Daddy does it, by the way) and says, “‘Peat after me!”  and then he launches into the verse he’d like us to repeat. 

This has made our meal times even more memorable and filled with purpose.  Hmm, you’ve gotta love that kind of nourishment!
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Visit Rocks in my Dryer for more Works for me Wednesday posts!

Wanna learn all kinds of great tips about organizing your kitchen?  Go check out Rocks in my Dryer where all kinds of smart people are posting today on their favorite kitchen management tips.

You know I love talking about kitchen management.  Having a functional kitchen (aka Funky Kitchen) is the only way I can survive.  Which is why I wrote an entire ebook about the subject, “Do the Funky Kitchen“.

Out of all the fun ways I work to have a  Funky Kitchen…here’s my FAVORITE way to keep my kitchen organized: 

I try to keep my countertops as cleaned off as possible. 

If I have stuff all over my countertops it makes cooking SO much harder.  But if I have hardly anything on my countertops…the kitchen looks clean and welcoming and organized and cheerful and refreshing.   And I can put meals together so much more easily. 

I’m talking about appliances too…toasters, coffeemakers, blenders…anything that takes up space.  Put it somewhere else if you possibly have a somewhere else to put it.  Clear the clutter people. 

Then, wipe off your countertops and enjoy looking at all of the nothing that is all over them.  I promise you’ll be glad you did!

Get thou into the kitchen and organize it!  Let’s all do the Funky Kitchen!!

First, can I just tell you how much I am learning during school time?  Yes, me, the mom.    The one who is the teacher.  I’m pretty sure the kids are learning too, and that is…you know…the real point of home education.  But I just love how much I’m learning too.  Wow.

So now, let’s take a poll…  When did you learn World History in school?  And how much did you learn? 

Me?  I had one semester of World History in high school and that was it.  And I don’t remember anything about it. 

Just the thought of learning World History has always sounded very dry and boring and overwhelming to me.  And it also sounded very dry and boring.

AND, I’ve always had such a hard time connecting Bible Times with World History.  In my head (limited brain space that it is)…I’ve separated the two.  Like there were Bible Times…and there were also Ancient Egyptian times…but I never could put them together.

THAT, my friends, is the reason I love this awesome set of books my boys and I are reading about World History!!  They are written by Susan Wise Bauer and are called The Story of the World.

We are a little over half way through the first book in this four set series.  They are so well written that my six year old is understanding it…my eight year old…my eleven year old…and yes this 35 year old mama.  We’re all getting it!  It all makes sense!  The information is captivating and incredibly interesting!  (Of course, it’s highly likely that the reason the boys are enjoying the book so much is because ancient times were so filled with fighting and wars and violence and swords…but whatever.)

The best part of these books?  The author combines Bible Times and World History for me!!  She writes about how Jacob and his sons came down to Egypt and made their home along the Nile and how the nation grew!  And then about how things changed years later in Egypt and the Israelites became slaves and how Moses delivered the people.  It all makes so much sense!!  With dates and everything!

I just love this set of books, and my boys do too!  So, I had to share that with you.  If you’re a history buff then you know all this stuff already and you’re laughing at me…but I’m okay with that.  I finally found a book that makes World History make sense to me! 

I just may be able to be on Jeopardy yet. 

(Yeah, that was a joke.  But you didn’t have to laugh that hard.) 
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And…visit Happy to be at Home for more homeschooling info!