Thursday, May 26, 2011

Hiatus

I will be back up and running soon I promise :) We close on our new house TOMORROW!! SO excited, nervous and NOT READY!

Much love!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Peanut Butter Cookies

I know what you might be thinking: "She takes this long for a post and all we get is Peanut Butter Cookies?!"

For one, I know I have been gone awhile but please bear with the sporadic posts, life should calm down soon. We close on our new house next week so we should be moved and less hectic I hope!

Secondly, these are not just any old Peanut Butter Cookies. These are fabulously easy, cheap and FLOURLESS cookies that have perfect texture and are seriously so, so yummy. I will never make Peanut Butter Cookies with flour again. Never. Really.

After baking, mmmmm......

In other news, since we have been packing and cleaning to move, school has been a little, well ~ disorganized, but the one thing that has been consistent, weekly, is our new Geography supplement.

The History Channel has been running a new show called How the States Got Their Shapes. It is all about exactly that: what formed the United States of America? I call it geography because it is all about the geography of the states but really, it is also US history. I am working on a study guide for it in fact. I highly recommend the show!

Anyway, here's the simple cookie recipe!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

  • 1/2 cup creamy GF peanut butter
  • 1/2 cup chunky GF peanut butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp baking soda

Mix all ingredients very well. Drop by rounded tablespoon (or small Pampered Chef scoop) on a nonstick pan. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. LET THEM SIT for a couple minutes before removing them to a flat surface to cool. They will be very soft while warm but cool to a perfect texture. Resting, right out of the oven.....

Careful, they are addictive. I had 24 in this batch. Within a day they were gone.

Monday, May 2, 2011

A New Realization

I found that I have changed my thinking, without really knowing it. I was recently asked how I manage to do all of the "extras" that I teach, such as my Ancient Greece Unit (thank you homeschoolshare.com) and my new science curriculum, Junior Master Gardeners (thank you Homeschool Den) or my state history curriculum, Hiking Through Colorado History. The friend who asked is working on the same Literature curriculum as I, in fact, she introduced me to it. I thought about that and said "Honestly, because we are still on The Horse and His Boy."

You have to understand. The literature study is on the Chronicles of Narnia series and there are 7 books in this series. We are on book 3. It is May. She is on book 6. She is on track. I, on the other hand, am not. This series does include science, history, social studies, grammar, life skills and more in the curriculum. But I feel it's lacking in those. The vocabulary, critical thinking and more is AWESOME don't get me wrong. I would (and probably will) do it again for future children. But I think it just needs more. For us. For me. So we do the extras.

My change in thinking is that I suddenly realized that I don't HAVE to finish this curriculum in one year since I am doing so many other things. It is a Unit study designed for 4th through 8th grade. I can take my time with it and do many other things. THAT is the beauty of homeschooling. I want to make extra sure that they understand what we are doing.

Yes we are learning through the summer. We are going to take a few weeks off to move at the beginning of June (on the condition that our inspection goes well, we close on our new house May 27. YAY), and another few weeks in July/August to see family in the Northwest and go to Girl Scout Camp. We aren't taking off the entire 3 months though.

I am excited. My new realization opens up a WORLD of possibilities for geography projects, field trips and more literature. The world awaits the girls and I want them to savor every detail.