All Things Hold Together

ARGH! I was just about to do a post about a purse that I made and my camera battery died when I was trying to upload the pictures to the computer.

Oh, well.

I am going to enter a handbag making contest and I want to show you the three handbags that I am considering entering. I will have a poll, so you can tell me which one you like the best.

One is the crochet one I was just about to post about. The other two are patchwork, but different styles.

I will try to post it tomorrow after my batteries charge.

I am still planning to post my curriculum reviews - soon!

I recently finished a blanket I was crocheting for a friend who just had a new baby.

I used a variegated sport weight yarn (TLC Baby by Red Heart), two strands held together, to do a simple single crochet. I crocheted through the front loop only of each stitch, instead of going under both loops. I like the look of that.

I finished it off with a scallop border made from a single strand of pink yarn, once I learned that the baby was a girl.

Here is a picture:

I think it looked a lot prettier in person (not that I am biased), but this was the only picture that did not come out blurry.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Alasandra. It looks like there are a lot of great homeschooling blog posts to read this week. Be sure and stop by.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up at Principled Discovery. Go have a look.

I am battling yet another cold and this one is pretty bad. I only came online to check for an important e-mail I am expecting. (I couldn’t resist posting the Carnival link.)

When I am feeling better, I am going to start a series of posts reviewing the curriculum we have used in the past two years.

Have a wonderful day!

This morning on the way home from church, the kids were talking about the Heroes Unmasked series that they are doing in children’s ministries. The preschoolers are doing the same hero each week as the elementary schoolers, so Big E was telling Little E that they are leading up to the ultimate hero - Jesus (on Easter).

Big E said, “Yeah, if Jesus didn’t save us, and die for our sins, then we wouldn’t get to go to heaven and be with God.”

Big D said, “Well, we would; we would just have to sacrifice an animal every time we did something bad.” (He reads a lot of Old Testament.) “And not just any animals, our good animals, like sheep. We would have to get them all clean and nice looking, then sacrifice them with our own hands - yuck!”

I never really thought about it that way.

The Carnival of Homeschooling is up.

Why Homeschool provides the wonderful format. Homeschool bloggers from all over provide the reading material. Now if only someone would provide the babysitting, so I could read it!

Wow. I can’t believe that I haven’t posted since lat Wednesday! I wish I had more time.

I decided that I should start recording the cute things that my kids say, so that I will remember them. I might even record some things the older boys did when they were younger, while I can still remember. I added a new category, “Cute Kid Moments.” I changed the categories to include on for each child: Big E, Little E, the D.

Here’s the first entry.

Last night, Little E said the funniest thing. At dinner, he usually starts the prayer. He recites bits of things he hears us say, such as “Bless our neighbors downstairs” and “Thank you for this wonderful food,” and bits of verses he learns at church, like “God made us to do good” and “God made the world and everything in it.” It’s really cute.

Well last night, he added, “Just, please, don’t look down at us when we do bad things.”

We all had such a laugh!

I picked this up on a Google Alert and I am not familiar with this source, but I thought I would relay the article anyway.

According to the article, a judge in New Jersey, upset that NJ does not require enough supervision of homeschooling, decided to follow his own law and ordered a homeschooling mother to submit her children to standardized testing, and further, ordered the school district to file suit against the mother (which is the only way to get an investigation of the homestudy program).

The judge criticized the NJ law and lamented the fact that it upholds the rights of parents to home-school their children without interference from the government. Implying that children being educated by their parents are unsupervised, the judge stated, “This is shocking to the court. In this day and age where we seek to protect children from harm and sexual predators, so many children are left unsupervised.”

The judge continued, “In today’s threatening world, where we seek to protect children from abuse, not just physical, but also educational abuse, how can we not monitor the educational welfare of all our children?” He then gave the case of a recently found starving child locked “in a putrid bedroom” as an example of what happens when home-schooled children are not “registered and supervised.”

If this story is true, this should alarm all homeschooling families and remind us that our fight is not completely won yet.

I think it is easy to get complacent, in this time where homeschooling is already legal in all 50 states, but there are still anti-homeschooling forces in the government that would love to change that.

I know that I haven’t posted any recipes in quite a while. That is because I started doing the Weight Watchers “Core” plan, which basically means I am eating only vegetables, fruits, lean meats, fat-free dairy, whole grains, and eggs. No sugar, no fat (except 2 teaspoons of healthy oils a day), and no bread. I do get 35 “points” worth of other foods per week, so I can have some bread. (I love bread.)

I have realized while doing this that our food in this country is over sugared and over fatted. Once I got through the initial withdrawal - about a week - I began to appreciate the natural sweetness and goodness of food. Food is actually really good in its natural state.

Anyway, I made a dinner last night that was so good, I thought I would share the recipe. The best part is that it can be customized for your tastes.

I had some left-over cooked chicken breast, so I decided to put together a Tex-Mex style dinner salad.

Just gather up your favorite ingredients and layer them in a bowl.

I used:
Lettuce,
Avocado,
Red Bell Pepper,
Dark Red Kidney Beans,
Onion,
Tomato,
Corn,
Fat-Free Cheddar Cheese,
and Diced Cooked Chicken.

You could also use Black Beans, Green Pepper, Chile Peppers, Black Olives, or Tortilla Chips, to name a few suggestions.

For the dressing, I mixed together fat-free sour cream and salsa. (I think salsa mixed with ranch dressing would be good also.)

The Carnival of Homeschooling is now up. Grab your favorite hot cuppa and take a read of what’s new this week in the homeschooling blog world.