Do you have a favorite cookbook?

I am a little ashamed to show you mine, but it is also funny to me. See that shelf of cookbooks? I spot Noah's Star War's one, 2 of Leah's Kids Cookbooks, Clay's Emeril and Martha Stewart (yes, they are his, and Martha has some great tips to make food really yummy!) Can you guess which one I love, and use the most? It is right there in the middle.

Yep, the ratty, torn up, overflowing old notebook....that is obviously old, b/c it has Maury Linder written all over the top of it.
It was apparently an old College Notebook,and I apparently didn't even know for sure what classroom I would be in. :)

My very first recipe? Maccaroni Squares. Clay's family all-time favorite. Which has even been scribbled all over. Do your favorite recipes have big stains all over them? Mine do.

I have quite an eclectic assortment of recipes. This one, I was e-mailed from Debbi,

She had a cooking/freezing party, and then passed along her recipes. I can't tell you how many times I have cooked the sour cream enchilada and the chicken spaghetti.

This one came from a facebook friend

This came in an e-mail from a friend after we visited them....a spice bread recipe, recipe for laundry detergent, and a message, all in one.

Got these free in the mail once

My favorite....hand written by my grandmother

A sticky note from my sister

Someone obviously much more together than me. When Leah was born, she cooked me a meal, then thoughfully brought the recipe card along with the meal.

The best Coconut Pie ever from Clay's mom....again, note all the stains

Noah's favorite, and another recipe passed along from a friend, b/c of the yummy meal she made when one of our babies were born.

My notebook finally exploded, and now all the papers spill out.

Seriously, these are the main recipes I use....and I spend a lot of time flipping through this mess looking for what I need, as you can tell. Maybe, someday in my "spare time" I will organize it, retype it, and put it in a binder in plastic sleeves....ahhh that would be glorious!

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Noah's pumpkin

Noah's 1st pumpkin has been picked, but not by his choice, as you can see in the first picture. He went out to check on them, and saw it had been pulled off the vine. We are thinking it was an animal that did it? He does have some more coming up, but he wanted to share his pictures of this one with you.

Public School for us!

What may have sounded like a haisty decision to some, was a result of months of me disliking homeschooling. There are things that I really liked, as reflected on my blogs...but there were many more moments, that outweighed those, that made it torture for me to get through the day. I think it may have begun really when we moved here. There is something about me being in confined spaces that makes me get stressed out really quickly. I felt that way when we lived in an apartment, and it got better when we moved to Maumelle. That house had tall ceilings, and big open rooms...I felt I could breath, even when we had 8 people living in our house. Then we moved here. I like the house fine, but the rooms are small, and just my personality, I don't know, I felt like I was climbing them everyday. Mix that in with a special needs, high maintenance child, and I really was stressed. I thought when Talan left, things would get better. They didn't though. Everynight, at bedtime, I just felt this sickness, this sense of dread at the thought of getting up the next morning and teaching my kids. Yeah, it was that bad, and that is when I knew it was a time for change. That wasn't fair to my kids, or to me. It made me so grouchy, and there were too many days that I just threw up my hands and said, I can't do this today. Throw in a 1 yr old, and a newborn baby I hadn't planned on (but was such a delightful surprise) and you have 1 crazy homeschooling mama. I am ashamed to say that everyday for over a month, I threatened the kids with public school, and everytime Clay walked in the room he was met with complaints that, "I hate homeschooling. I wish the could go to school. I am so done" Every-single-day. Bless his heart. I know they were all so sick of listening to me.

So, alas, I finally got up the courage to put them in school. I know, I did this last year, and pulled them back out. I am pretty sure I am really done this time. At least for now, at this point in our life. Never say never, huh. I love my kids so much, and putting them school has allowed me to enjoy being around them again. And to miss them....oh how I miss them. And I love hearing all about their day. And I enjoy helping them with their homework, b/c I know it isn't my responsibility anymore to know what to teach them. I only have to show them how to do that one paper at a time. I love the smiles on their faces as they talk about their new friends. I laugh with them when they talk about the kids in their class that get in trouble....and laugh to myself knowing that is how my kids had been acting for me at home. I love their school. I love their principal. She is so genuinely nice, and really cares about her kids. Took a special effort to place my kids with teachers that would help them adjust. She is awesome. Gave us all a hug when attended a Math/Science night at school, and was genuinely excited to see us there.

Have I mentioned I can see their school from our house? How spoiled is that? I told Clay today that it would be hard to ever move from here, being so close. I love that I can step outside and see it, will drive by everytime I run an errand.

The first day I walked to pick them up from school. I think it is really quicker than driving.

I forgot to take their picture before school the first day, and they weren't the most enthusiastic bunch after school.

And, I would like to share with you the most awesome infant carseat/stroller combo ever. It is SO nice. Someone, whose friend bought it for foster babies, is letting me borrow it. I call it my limosine stroller, b/c it is that nice. I would have never bought something this nice for myself but I am LOVING it!

We saw a snake skin on the street on the way home....see, we are still learning together

And I looked over, and saw Miss Rachel chowing down on her left over lunch while we were walking. Silly girl.

Volcanoes

We recently did a lapbook/unit study on Volcanoes. I found a project book that told us how to make our own volcanoes. We tested it out first, just to make sure that it would work before we made them.

We had these mini water bottles, and we put screen/netting around the bottles...

Then we put plaster of paris over the screen. I have had this bucket of that stuff for a long time...I kept holding onto it, and finally found a use for it!

Then we painted them

Noah added in toothpicks to represent his village

Then it was time to take them OUTSIDE, and put them to the test.

First, we put in baking soda

Then we put in food coloring...obviously, lava isn't green, but that was the only color we had

Then we poured about a cup of vinegar into the volcanoes...

And ERUPTION!

Update on Noah's pumpkins

He's got 2 pumpkins forming!

Smooch smooch!

Have a great day!!

Burn's Park, a log cabin, and a grasshopper

Instead of waiting around a phone call anxiously yesterday, we decided to venture out and enjoy the beautiful weather! We headed out to Burns Park, and just drove around enjoying the beauty.

I have never stopped at this cabin, but have always seen it driving by, so we stopped today. It was cool for them to visually see it, it seems much like the Ingall's home as described in the Little House in the Big Woods books.

We had also been in search of some pretty fall foliage, but I was disappointed, until I saw these 3 trees as we were leaving the park. This was the best color I could find.

News....

I have the best news ever to share with you over here....!