An Exercise in Butter Making!

It took us about 20 minutes of shaking it up, down, and all around to turn heavy whipping cream into whipped cream and then another 10 minutes to turn it into butter. The girls almost lost interest half way through, but I was determined that we would have butter on our bread for breakfast.....and we did!

On the right you have the whipped cream or clotted cream, on the left you have the butter, and up front you have our homemade strawberry jam from our visit to the strawberry patch, yum!

  This is what it looked like after 10 minutes.

 This is what it looked like after 15 minutes....we have whipped cream.

 And now we have butter around 20 minutes. (Sort of like the curds separating from the way.)

 The girls were so surprised to see what we could make with heavy whipping cream.  The fun really starts to happen between 10 and 20 minutes of shaking as shown above.  I appreciate Counting Coconuts for posting about her extreme butter making experience a few months ago found here.
Happy Memorial Day!

Summer Nature Study Schedule

My girls love being outside so I thought I would put together a summer nature study to follow.

June: Birds- name, visual identity, song
         Ocean- plants, shells, mammals, crustaceans

July: Amphibians- life cycle, parts, habitats, identity
         Butterflies- life cycle, watch it grow

August: Rocks- types, visual identity
       
Along with our study each girls will keep a nature journal, nothing fancy, just another way to record what they see by drawing, sketching, and doodling. These take along guides found here at Amazon should help us on our nature journey. I hope you come along too!

Monday Fun- Baking and Pipe Cleaner Animals

Make this for breakfast, I promise you'll love it!

Aunt Eileen's Baked Oatmeal

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil or applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup any fruit you want (we added strawberries)

Mix all together, place in baking pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I baked this in my new Le Creuset rectangle baking pans that I ordered from CSN web site. The product came in 10 days and was simple to order. The Le Creuset baker is of top quality, heats evenly, and came in this lovely blue. You can really order almost anything from CSN and they even have free shipping on some items, like the one I ordered. The only downfall is that many items have hefty shipping costs. To conclude my review on CSN....yes, I would for sure order a product again, if it had free shipping.

We are also having a good time this morning making pipe cleaner animals.

I glued eye onto buttons that I purchased from Oriental Trading Company and the girls went to town twisting legs and tails for their animals. Enjoy your Monday!

Crafty fun with recycled trees

I love this project...right now we are using these cute trees as part of our fairy forest. This is a great recycle craft for all those old brown bags.

We saw this neat idea in an craft book at our local museum. I think they look lovely and can be made for all four season. Just take a paper bag, cut 3 inch strips at the top, open the bag, and then twist 2 strips together until they all look like branches. Glue whatever leaves or flowers you want on the branches. Have fun!

German Friends

We've have friends visiting from Germany all week....I'll be back blogging tomorrow. We sure had a great visit. I feel so blessed to have stayed in touch with my friend since she was an exchange student in high school.

Crafty blog writing tomorrow!

Sunglasses "I Spy"

Ok, so this is too cute not to share. The girls both got a pair of new shades and they look so cute sporting their new look! So this is what I over heard.... Olive says "I spy" with my little sunglass eye something that is purple....well, her sunglasses are shaded purple, and then Jem will say "I spy" something with my sunglasses that is pink, you get the idea! I just found it super funny. Have a great sunny day.

Car Potty

I know she'll probably hate me for this photo when she gets older....but I have gotten so many comments about our CAR POTTY.  We carry this little potty around in the back of our SUV wherever we go. It's so much easier than going into a gross gas station on a road trip, and it helps when "I gotta go" happens at the most unlikely time, or when you are stuck in traffic and have no idea where the next rest stop will be....you get the idea. If you have a good idea that saves the day, please let me know, happy travels!

Charlotte Mason goals.

Charlotte Mason included in her Original Homeschool Series books some list of goals for 6 year olds. I am posting this because I found it helpful and interesting at the same time.

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", a reprint of a curriculum outline from a CM school in the 1890's.
1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. to recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. to add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. to read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. to copy in print-hand from a book
6. to know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows 7. to describe the boundaries of their own home
8. to describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach 9. to tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. to be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. to mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. to do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. to know 6 birds by song, color and shape
14. to send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. to tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. to name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. to sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. to keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.

Strawberry Patch

We have been doing our schooling outside these past 2 weeks, really digging into nature. My girls  thrive in the outdoors and always find something new to explore. We visited a local strawberry patch with Olive's Daisy troop and picked 11 pounds! We made some yummy jam, baked oatmeal, and strawberry crisp. It was a super hot day, but a lot of fun.

How does your garden grow?

My girls love, love, love, to be in the garden. Usually we have a big raised bed, but this year we just did a few planters with tomatoes, peppers, and basil. We love to watch anything grow!

Using the phone.

I've been working with Olive on learning her phone number and using the phone. When the phone rings and I can't get to it, she now picks the phone up, presses the green button, and says, "hello, may I ask who's speaking." She also dials daddy's work number and knows to only dial 911 in an emergency.

FYI- During a hotel stay Jem was playing with the phone and with out us knowing pressed the emergency button....10 minutes later we received a knock at the door from a policeman asking if everything was OK. Before he left we had him talk to the girls.  He was really nice about it and explained that the emergency button was just like dialing 911.  After that we unplugged the phone in the room!

We have ladybugs!

The ladybugs have emerged...at first they were yellow, but now they are turning more red. The girls have really enjoyed watching them change. We will find them a nice home in our garden next week.

Fruit of the Spirit

Olive made this cute Fruit Of The Spirit Tree to go along with her co-op class. She is also singing the same song in church choir at the end of the month.

The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self control.

CSN upcoming review

I am sitting here browsing through the 200 stores that CSN has online. You can find pretty much anything...my only difficulty is trying to figure out where I should start! There are toys for babies, and big kids, kitchen wares, furniture, and even TV stands in all sizes.

I did decide on a great item to review from CSN and I think you'll like it too, along with the recipe that goes with it!
So please stay tuned for this fun review.

*Full Disclosure: CSN Stores contacted me with this promotional opportunity. I am being compensated for my review concerning my personal experience with CSN Stores.

Mother's Day Poem

This is a really lovely poem I found, author unknown, and I think I'll include it in a card to my Mom..

If I could give you diamonds
for each tear you cried for me.
if I could give you sapphires
for each truth you've helped me see.
If I could give you rubies
for the heartache that you've known
If I could give you pearls
for the wisdom that you've shown.
Then you'll have a treasure, mother,
that would mount up to the skies
That would almost match
the sparkle in your kind and loving eyes.
But I have no pearls, no diamonds,
As I'm sure you're well aware
So I'll give you gifts more precious
My devotion, love and care.

-- Author Unknown

The Pupa stage....almost ladybugs

Our ladybug eggs have made it through the larvae stage and not it's onto the pupa stage. They look like tiny yellow shrimp and will soon metamorphosis into a ladybug. 

This is a great site for learning about ladybugs, here.
Interesting Facts:

• Because Ladybugs eat lots of aphids and other pest insects, many gardeners and farmers use them for pest control instead of chemicals.
• A Ladybug can lay up to 1000 eggs in its lifetime.
• Not all Ladybugs have spots.
• Ladybugs will clean themselves after a meal.
• Ladybugs come in many colors like pink, yellow, white, orange and black.
• Over 300 types of Ladybugs live in North America.
• Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes bad so predators won’t eat them. 
• Ladybugs hibernate in large groups in cold weather.
• Many countries consider a ladybug to be a sign of good luck.
• Ladybugs are actually beetles, so sometimes are called LadyBeetles.
• The bright colors of Ladybugs warn birds that they don’t taste good.
• The spots on a Ladybug fade as they get older.

New Children's Medicine Recalls

We have 4 bottles of recalled medicine in the closet of Tylenol, Motrin, and Benedryl.  Please take a look...this is the first time we had recalled medicine.

http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com
Call: 1888-222-6036