Oh HAIL no!

Tonight we were carving pumpkins, and P usually dives right in, grabs a handfull, and then has to be stopped before eating it, lol! WELL, tonight she decided she would have nothing of it, lol! Dave grabbed her hand and put it in the pumpkin and she quickly pulled her hand out, ripped him a new one, and then kept her hands as close and tightly fitted to her body as she could.



The rest of the kids had a blast carving their pumpkins.

My Recipezaar

I tried to email my recipezaar.com favorites cookbook to some of my friends, but it didn't work, so here are some of my FAVORITE recipes ;O)
Homemade pancake syrup - we don't have maple flavoring so, we use vanilla
Pancakes
Chicken Nuggets - you can also use larger pieces of chicken and make patties. They are awesome from what I've been told :o)
Homemade Marshmallows - it makes a lot and if you put them in the freezer, they don't freeze, but stay nice for a long time :o)
Dinner Rolls - These are to die for!
Whipping Cream - I use powdered sugar instead of regular sugar
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Refried Beans - I doubled the ingredients but not the water and it turned out great.
Green Beans with Garlic
Chicken Breasts Smothered in Tomatoes and Mozzarella
FABULOUS Pizza Dough - I add a ton of Italian Seasoning from Sam's Club :o)

Wow!

I can't believe it's almost been a month since I've been on here! It's been busy. My garden went totally wild. I had tomatoes that were HUGE, and a lot of them. I think one day I picked 8 bags of them, plus a whole wagon of carrots, and a bunch of squash. I was bummed that I left a ton of them in there that were still green, but I could hardly manage the ones I did have. I definitely need to have fewer tomato plants next year :o) I must thank my WONDERFUL Mother for helping me process them into a bunch of spaghetti sauce. I also made some fresh salsa :o)
We've also been busy with school. We go to the park with friends, went to learn about bugs at the Eastman Nature Center, and to our local History Center. The kids are getting right into school and are loving it. They're always excited to see what President we are learning about each week, and what the Science experiments are going to be. They both hate math, but do well at it, and they LOVE to read. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of teaching your child to read. Every book is a proud moment because you can see those little minds ticking along :o)
P is enjoying school. I love her aid, and everyone else that works with her for that matter. She's always coming home happy and in good shape. They hired another K teacher, so they were able to split the classes into 18 kids each, instead of 24. That was nice to see :o) This last week I went with her on a fire station field trip, and Daddy went with to an apple orchard. We all had a blast! She loved riding on the bus with Daddy and started chewing on the seat in front of her, lol!
She spent a couple days in the hospital a couple of weekends ago. She had some kind of internal bleeding and we're still not totally sure what it was from. Possibly some kind of GI irritation or something like that. We took her to the ER with blood in her stool and they sent us via ambulance to Gillette Children's Trauma Center in St. Paul. I LOVE that place! We've had bad experiences with Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, so I definitely wanted Gillette. That's where a lot of her specialists are through anyways. She goes in again next week for a GI Clinic with the GI Specialists. Hopefully we'll have some answers soon, but for now she's on Prevacid (antacid) and that seems to be helping.
Hubby is still on the beating path for a job. It's unbelievable that he hasn't been hired yet. He's applied for hundreds of jobs. I've started applying and whoever gets the full time job will work, and the other one will stay home with the kids. I think he's over qualified for many of the jobs he applies for, and the ones that he is qualified for require a degree. We'll see...
I just started selling Avon! I'm very excited. I've placed a link on the sidebar to my store if you'd like to check it out, or pass it on to anyone who might be interested. I'd greatly appreciate your business :o) They've come a long way since I sold it 15 years ago. Now you can order online and have it shipped right to you! Or, if you are local, you can have it shipped to me and I can give it to you. Whatever works for you :o) They even have women and girls clothes now, and the prices are amazing! And you can't beat the makeup. I have to control myself or I'll spend more than I make, lol! I definitely have to set some goals and limits for myself, lol! If I sell x amount, I can buy x amount, lol!
Anyways, that's my update. Thanks for checking in and I'll try not to disappear for so long this time :o) Enjoy the rest of your weekend :o)

Back to our small family :o)

The foster kids left last week and we are back to our small family of 4 kids :O) I know that's not small to most people, but it's SO quiet around here and my kids are longing for more playmates :o)
J had his first day of Special Ed for the year on Wednesday. He's loving his new teacher and friends, and was excited to be there. He did a great job!
P started Kindergarten on Thursday and I went with her for the day. I let her ride the bus and then went to the school myself. It was good to meet her aid, teacher, and all of the different ladies that will be working with her during the day. She has probably 8 or more different ladies that will be helping with her during various times. Her teacher, aid, resource worker, lunchtime lady (also the school social worker-awesome lady), adaptive phy ed teacher, speech teacher, PT, OT, and probably a couple more. It seems kind of scary but I already knew almost all of them from the last 2 years that she's been there. I kind of like having more than one person because it keeps check on her and what's going on. In her class there is the teacher, her aid, and the regular class aid. There are 24 kids in the class in all. I LOVE her teacher. She's young and energetic, and such a sweet lady.
A & W started school here on Tuesday. It was a tough start for W because he, for some reason, thought when I said that we were quitting Connections Academy to "have more time to do fun stuff and field trips with our home school group" that it meant we would be doing all fun and games, lol! It took him quite a while and some major meltdowns to get the work done for the day. I held my ground though. I never allow my kids to whine their way our of doing an assignment I've given them. That would open a huge can of worms that we aren't even going near. We later had a nice talk about the importance of education and how smart he is. I honestly think he's an "advanced placement" kid, but he would rather stare at the wall and do nothing. He's a grade ahead in Math and reads great. It's quite impressive for a kid with FASD who just turned 6, however it comes with a dedicated Mother who won't allow him to quit. If he were in public school I guarantee he would fail because he can be so slow and distracted. If given the extra time, and several repeats of the instructions at times, he's brilliant. If it were up to him he'd go to public school in a heartbeat because he's never been there and thinks is SO wonderful. But for now, we're not even going there :o)
"A" is a dedicated homeschooler :o) She LOVES being home with me, adores her home school playgroup friends (and some public school friends), and just thrives in the extra attention and hands-on instruction. She loves having the extra time to do crafts and practice piano, and is content to NEVER go back to public school.
I'm very excited that Fall is on the way and Winter is coming. Fall is such a beautiful season, and I LOVE the clean whiteness of Winter. I always hope for an early snowfall so we can enjoy the beauty of it. I also like that the bugs are gone :O), and I can bake and cook and not worry about heating up the house all the time. The smell of fresh baked goodies in a closed-up house is marvelous.
My garden is doing FABULOUS! All of my tomatoes that I had started in my house are growing strong out there, as well as the row of tomatoes that I planted as seeds. The seed ones aren't much smaller than the ones I started inside either. The cool Summer has kept them from turning red though so I'm hoping that they will finally turn red before the first freeze. I have tons of them out there just waiting to be picked. I've started bringing them in and ripening them in paper bags, but I don't want to have to do it with them all. However, the ones ripened in the house are much nicer looking. I also have got tons of carrots out there. I have picked quite a bunch of green beans, a few peas, some cucumbers, chili peppers, and broccoli. The long-neck squash just keep on coming and my Mom has made applesauce-squash muffins with it. They are awesome! We also have 1 cantaloupe growing out there and it's SO CUTE! Our pumpkins came up too and we have about 10 that are getting pretty big. A few grew out of the fence so we're hoping that the deer don't get them :0) We kind of overdid it on the lettuce. You can only eat it so fast and it all comes up at once. Next year I'll plant a few feet each week so it won't get so out of hand. And ONCE AGAIN!!!!! my watermelons didn't come up :o(
I'm making notes for next year of the things I'll change.
1. The lettuce, as mentioned before.
2. We are going to grow the pumpkins and squash out in the back yard in a big pile of soil, so they can get crazy without taking up so much space.
3. I want vining green beans because I got WAY MORE when I used those last year! I'm also going to plant a lot more of them because we eat them like crazy.
4. I learned this year to stake up my vining peas because they rot on the ground :o(
5. I'm going to plant my tomatoes all around the fence line so I can just tie them to it and not have to pound stakes all over. The ones I did tie to the fence stayed there beautifully :o)
6. I won't let the kids plant a row of wildflowers in the middle next year because it blocks the sprinklers :o) However, my redneck self, had hubby put a metal green fence post into the ground and duct tape the sprinkler to it so now it's 3 feet off the ground and working great :O) hehe
7. I'm going to combine my rows and make my isles larger. That way I can plant in larger sections, instead of long skinny rows.
8. I'm going to plant a ton more cucumbers because the kids love them and I also want to slice them and make dill pickles for the kids, since all the store ones have dye in them! (I'm SO hoping that someday healthy will out win pretty :o)
9. I'm going to plant earlier, because damn it, if it freezes, I'll just do it over :o) I'd rather take the chance and have earlier veggies.
10. I'm going to sit all of my flowering baskets in the garden to get the twice daily watering until they are blooming bright and ready to hang. Otherwise, they get forgotten and don't go very far :o)
Well, back to the laundry I go :o) Have a great weekend!

Here I am :o)

Sorry I haven't been around much! We got the 4 foster kids and life got REALLY busy! They all have to go to Dr. check ups, dental visits, eye visits, specialists, etc. Plus I had to get them all registered for school, go to counseling apts, visitations, etc. Not to mention the mounds of paperwork, lol! I also have to tend to my garden and have some fun too :o)
One of them left after about 5 weeks to go to a previous foster home that was willing to adopt her. She had behavioral issues that were beyond what we would be willing to live with for a lifetime, and we just don't have time for the intense counseling that would've gone with a child like that. Most of her behaviors were because she wanted to go to the other foster home because she has known them for most of her life. I'm glad she's where she wants to be and I'm glad she's not here anymore because it took a toll on my other kids.
The other 3 kids are great. They also have an older brother that might be coming to live with us. We're not sure yet though because they might be going to live with their Mom again soon. We'll see...

Other than that I've been working hard to get ready for school to start. J will be in special ed 2 days per week again this year and P will be in K. She will only be going 2 days per week because they do that every other day schedule and I told them she needs to have at least one day per week off that is consistant, so Friday will be her day off. She'll be in a regular class with an aid all day that will be with only her. She'll participate and listen to what she can and then she'll be pulled out to practice walking and therapies, and do adaptive phy ed. I'm very nervous about her going this year. She'll be with all new people and new kids. The last few years she's had the same therapists, assistants, and teachers. I'm very glad that her special ed teacher from before will be her case manager though because she's the one that knows her the best there. We'll see how it goes. I still get PCA hours for Peyton, so if it doesn't go well I'll just bring her back home and have a PCA here to help her while she learns with my other kids.
A & W will be starting 2nd and 1st grades here at home this year. They are each a grade ahead in math, so they will be doing their own math at their own pace. They will also read and learn language arts at their own pace. All of the other subjects will be taught together because that's what they prefer. Last year they were each doing different things, and every time I'd be reading science or social studies to one of them, the other one would be more interested in that assignment than what they were supposed to be doing :o)
They are going to be doing Math Mammoth for math.
Language Arts/Reading is going to consist of then reading lots of books of ours and from the library. I'll also do a lot of reading with them. We have a few websites online that have great spelling and vocabulary games. One of them lets you put your own spelling words in, and then it creates the spelling game/test so they can practice.
For History, we are going to learn about a President each week, and the history of their lives, where they live, their families, what happened during their term(s), and what they accomplished while in office.
For Geography, we are learning about each of the 50 states, their capitals, landmarks, people, history, state birds/flag/tree, and things like that. They will also have field journals that they will write and draw pictures in after going outside each day. They will tell what they saw and about the weather. They learned a lot about weather last year that they can put into their observations. We will also be reviewing the things we learned last year, like continents, oceans, streets, maps, etc.
For Social Studies, we are learning about different cultures in America and around the world. We will learn about their foods, traditions, dress, etc.
Science will be learning about how things work together and the natural environment around us. We will be doing lots of research and science experiments.
Home Ec is something we do all the time anyways when we cook and bake. They also know a lot about different foods and healthy, natural, eating.
For art, we will do painting, paper, and other peojects that we can find or think up to do. We'll review how to mix colors to make other colors, and how the color wheel works.
I will be teaching them both piano this year. We tried it a couple of years ago but they were too young to assign letters to their fingers, lol.
They are both doing gymnastics at the school this year. A decided that she didn't want to do Dance this year because gymnastics is more fun. I was happy about that because dance is 1/2 hour away and I can't bring the other kids with. Gymnastics is just a few miles down the road, you register monthly so if you want to skip a month you can and I can sign up foster kids without knowing how long they'll be here, there are no costumes and shoes to buy, W can do it at the same time, and I can bring all the other kids to sit in the bleachers to watch :o) Very happy about gymnastics :o)
We also do lots of playgroups and field trips with our homeschool group. The kids learn SO much from actually going places and seeing how things are done. Hoping to get to the Science Museum, State Capital, Apple Orchard, Pumpkin Patch, a Farm with Bison, Horses, Beef, and Pigs, the Nature Center, our local History Center for our county, and a bunch more.
AND a whole bunch more stuff as we go along :o)
Anyways, that's our update :o) I'll try not to disappear for so long next time, lol!