My Favorite Things

Aimee's post this morning over at Simple Bites got me thinking about my favorite things. So I grabbed my Nikon, and 3 of my favorite things and thought I would share them with you this morning.

First up is my all time favorite - Snowflakes on Turquoise vintage 2.5qt Pyrex casserole dish. This was inherited by my husband when his mother passed away. I LOVE this piece!! My favorite thing to bake in it is Blueberry French Toast Casserole (yep, I'll be doing a post on that in the near future!)

Look at that beautiful gold work on the lid. You just can't buy stuff like this anymore!

Second favorite is my new (to me) late 50's Pyrex Hostess Casserole Dish with lid in Harvest Red. I bought this from my friend Beth over at 3 Little Chickens. She runs a fantastic Etsy shopped names Vintage Bizzy. Stop on over there for some GREAT vintage pieces and fantastic prices!

My third is this vintage Chip & Dip bowl set. I can't find a marking on it, so it might have been a generic piece that my inlaws picked up. DH remembers them having lots of parties when he was young and this was always there.

I have several other favorites, I will post them here and there for your viewing pleasure.

What are your favorite pieces? Do you have vintage pieces that you enjoy?

2011-2012 Curriculum

This year was the easiest this year to decide on which curriculum we would use. We decided early on in our homeschooling journey that Joshua would be kept with his peers (he's an October baby so the school system would keep him back a year). He is also very bright and has craved learning since he was little. He LOVES booklearning and doing book work so we have continued to foster that throughout his preschool years.

Joshua will be 4 this October and is enrolled in Seton Home Study's Kindergarten program. Joe and I love how the program is a traditional, orthodox, Catholic program. I think he will learn more from his Kindergarten Catechism book then I learned during my entire time in the RCIA program. Seton is also very flexible. We can supplement where we feel there is a need, I can create my own lesson plans, or use theirs (Math, Phonics, Religion are the big 3 Lesson Plans they have - the others are create your own), and we can also bring in higher level studies if the student is more advanced. I am thinking that Joshua might fly through the Kindergarten Math and be ready for first grade Math in the middle of the year.

Here is a breakdown of his books:

Letters and Numbers
* Everywhere We Go (Christian)
* ABC Coloring Book (Catholic)

Handwriting
* Kindergarten Handwriting for Young Catholics

Mathematics
* Math K for Young Catholics
* 123 Coloring Book (Catholic)

Music
* Songs of Praise (Catholic CD)

Phonics
* Kindergarten Phonics for Young Catholics Vol. 1
* Kindergarten Phonics for Young Catholics Vol. 2

Physical Education
*Outside play and field trips

Religion
* Kindergarten Catechism for Young Catholics
* My Jesus and I
* Catholic Coloring Books (3)
* Leading Little Ones to Mary
* St. Joseph Picture Books (3)

Science
* Kindergarten Science for Young Catholics

John-Michael will be doing preschool again this year. Last year I allowed him to flit in and out of our lessons. This year, I think he will be more interested in learning as he has to do EVERYTHING his older brother does.

We will be doing Making Music Praying Twice for our music and movement curriculum.

I had seen it in our Emmanuel Books catalog, but when I went to the IHM National Conference, I was able to put my hands on this curriculum and see it first hand. It is a wonderful, Catholic, "Kindermusik-like" program. The boys loved going to Kindermusik and we were disappointed we couldn't put them in this past year - but it is uber expensive. The cost of this program is less than 1 child in a 12 week session, plus I can use it year after year!! I am currently downloading all of the songs to my iPod Touch so that we can take the music anywhere we go!

Both boys will also be using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

Thanks to my AWESOME friend, Beth, we have one of the Faith and Freedom Catholic Readers from the 1950's.

We will be supplementing our science with the Usborne Science Activities books, and various projects found online.

John-Michael has been enrolled in Seton's Preschool program. It was set to be released August 15th, but that has been pushed back to September 15th. In the meantime, he will be doing Letter of the Week program that I glean from different sources such as Catholic Icing, Catholic Toolbox, Confessions of a Homeschooler, 1+1+1=1, and other online sources.

Have you finished your curriculum yet??

Homeschooling Planners

So planners seem to be a big deal in the homeschooling community. Not only to keep us on track, but also to help show the work that has been done (our records). This morning, Angie over at Many Little Blessings wrote on how she creates her planner. I thought there were some great concepts in her book.

While at the IHM National Conference, I saw these From Family Centered Press:

I really liked that they would incorporate the Daily Planner and the Lesson Planner and the Menu in one book!! I love all of the traditional art that they have for their planners as well.

This morning on one of my Catholic Homeschooling Email lists, this link came up for a FREE PLANNER from Sanctus Simplicitus. There isn't a clip art picture of the planner but here are some of the features:
A Traditional Catholic Homeschool Planner

*Based Around the Traditional Liturgical Calendar*
*Room for 4+ Children's Lesson Plans*
* Menu planning available right on lesson planing page!!!*
*Color Coded for the Liturgical Season*
Download a Liturgical Wheel Here for Season Colors
*Special Devotions for Each Month*
*Saint Quotations and Bible Quotes for Each Week*

I LOVE this!! I'm having DH print these off today (because I am totally out of black ink at the moment) and see how they compare to what I am using now, and which one might be more useful.

Right now I am using Seton Home Study's Teacher Planner

in combination with their Seton Family Appointment Calendar

The Planner book is a generic plan book with weekly pages in the front and calendar pages in the back. I would love a book that has the calendar month at the front- complete with Liturgical Feast Days, and weekly gridded pages behind it.

So I will see tonight how the Sanctus Simplicitus Planner works out. I Love that the planner I'm using now is spiral bound, but the Sanctus Simplicitus planner isn't - and I'm not thrilled about that. I guess I can have it bound at the end of the year so I can keep our records per South Carolina State Law.

Note - I lovethat my Facebook images turn up teeny tiny here on the blog, but outside picture links turn out to be huge. And Blogger photo uploader just does not like my internet access (which is slowwwwwwww......). I guess I can't win. LOL

What type of Lesson Planner are you using this year???

Strawberry Balsamic Preserves

Strawberry season in the Lowcountry comes early. We were so busy that we missed it this year. However, Costco had strawberries for $1.94/lb in 4 lb clams. I bought two! I brought them home to make my two favorite Strawberry preserves. My first is Strawberry Freezer Jam, my second is Paula Deen's Strawberry Balsamic Jam

Yields: 6 Cups

Ingredients:
8 cups strawberries, washed and hulled (about 1 ½ pounds)
5 cups sugar
½ teaspoon butter
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
6 half-pint canning jars, lids and bands

Directions:

Wash strawberries to remove any field grime.

Remove the tops

Add to Dutch Oven, or in this case a Le Crueset French Oven

In a Dutch oven, mash strawberries with a potato masher. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until strawberries begin to simmer.

Stir in sugar, and cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a boil. Stir in butter, and return mixture to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 40 minutes or until strawberries are soft and the sauce has thickened.

Remove from heat and stir in balsamic vinegar.

Sterilize jars, lids and bands just before using for 10 minutes in simmering water or in the dishwasher. Remove one at a time when ready to fill.

While strawberry mixture is still hot, ladle into the hot sterilized jars, filling to within ¼ inch of the rims. Wipe rims with a clean, damp cloth, and seal jars with lids and bands.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from the water bath, and cool completely at room temperature.

Serving Suggestions: For a quick dessert, warm a couple of tablespoons of Strawberry Balsamic Jam in the microwave and drizzle over a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream.My boys love it over gold 'old fashioned PB&J as well as warm, homemade biscuits!

Courtesy of Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine July/August 2010


BTW - 2 4lb boxes got me 6 1/4 pints of Strawberry Balsamic Jam, 2.5 pints of Freezer Jam, and a big bowl of fresh, sliced strawberries to top the homemade pound cake I made.


Blessings!!

Canning Party!!!

I was selected to host a Ball Discover You Can canning party through House Party

My dad, the boys, and I went out picking Blueberries two days before, so we had fresh, organic blueberries to can. I had $30 worth of blueberries and after 20 something half pints of blueberry-lemon preserves and 5 half pints of blueberry syrup, I STILL had blueberries!!!!!!!

I decided to make Paula Deen's Blueberry-Lemon Preserves. I had bought her Paula Deen magazine last year with the recipe in it. I have already made a few of her canning recipes, so we thought we would give this one a try. Oh.Em.Gee..... My husband doesn't even like blueberries (thanks honey for telling me BEFORE I picked & bought 12lbs of blueberries), but we ALL LOVE this recipe!! I think we've already gone through 4 or 5 half-pints in the last month alone.

Ingredients

5 cups blueberries
6 1/2 cups sugar
Zest of two lemons
Juice of two lemons
2 (3 ounce) envelops liquid fruit pectin (Ball Fruit Jell)
7 (8 oz.) Canning Jars with lids

Directions

Prepare jars and lids according to manufacturer’s instructions.

In a large saucepan over high heat add blueberries, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir frequently while bringing to a rolling boil. Stir in pectin and continue boiling for 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Skim any foam if necessary and ladle into the hot prepared jars.

Don't you just want to lick that pot???

Be sure to leave at least a 1/4” space at the top of the jar.

Place the cap on the jars and process for another 15 minutes in a canner with boiling water.

Our snack table - Buffalo Chicken Dip, Homemade Chicken salad sandwiches, homemade bluebery muffins, pasta salad..... YUM!

The Caprese salad did not last long at all!!

Since I had a ton of blueberries left over, I made Blueberry Syrup

This lovely mess of blueberries got turned into popsicles for the boys and the juice was turned into the syrup. being a good homemaker or homesteader is about not letting things go to waste. :)

I do hope you will try this Blueberry Lemon Preserves recipe!! My friend Fairlight over at Polka Dot Tree asked me for this recipe and did her own batch.

Blessings!!

Homeschool Beach Explore

Our Endeavor homeschool group met out at Folly Beach this past Thursday for a low tide beach excursion. Usually, they find really cool things like horseshoe crabs, starfish, sea pork, etc... This was not a very prolific exploration, hopefully we can go back out there on a full moon low tide.

We met at the end of Folly Beach. You have a 1/4 mile walk to the beach.

John-Michael LOVES riding his Daddy's shoulders.

Joshua walked and road Joe's shoulders.

Nikki had already been there for a little while and had already found the startfish.

Joe and John-Michael admiring the blue crabs that Ted had caught

We climbed over the Jetty rocks to see if there was anything on the other side. Sometimes rays are caught over there. The surf was really rough so we didn't stay on that side for very long.

Nikki

wading

deceased baby starfish

Joshua is curious about the baby starfish

John-Michael was digging for treasure

the boys don't like walking on all of the shells

Joshua and Bella "swimming out to the lighthouse"

Not our cutie, but she's a sweetie!

here's our cutie!

Bella climbing one of the trees in the boneyard.

We went over towards the boneyard section of the beach to play on the dead trees

smiles at sunset

Joshua is curious about the madreporite on the starfish

a closer examination

Joshua releasing the starfish back into the sea

sunset on the island