Pie and Pals

Isn't she a beauty! We got to have the Wood kids over to play and then afterwards we had a little birthday celebration for this lovely momma. I made my first Banana Pudding Pie (see recipe below) and Tobin ate my piece! (He didn't really it's an inside joke). Since Jody is a real life Bee Keeper, this poem is dedicated to her.

The Song of the Bee

By Marian Douglas

Buzz! buzz! buzz!


This is the song of the bee.


His legs are yellow;



A jolly, good fellow,


And yet a great worker is he.

In days that are sunny


He’s getting his honey,


In days that are cloudy


He’s making his wax:


On pinks and on lilies,


And gay daffodillies,


And columbine blossoms, 


He levies a tax!

Buzz! buzz! buzz!


The sweet-smelling clover,


He, humming, hangs over;


The scent of the roses


Makes fragrant his wings:


He never gets lazy;


From thistle and daisy,


And weeds of the meadow,

Some treasure he brings.

Buzz! buzz! buzz!


From morning’s first light


Till the coming of night,


He’s singing and toiling


The summer day through.


Oh! We may get weary,

And think work is dreary;


‘Tis harder by far


To have nothing to do.

_________________________________________________________


Banana Pudding Pie 

• Vanilla Wafer Crust (recipe below)
• Vanilla Pudding (recipe below)
• Whipped Cream (recipe below)
• 3-4 medium bananas, cut into slices
• 20 vanilla wafers plus more for decoration (see note)

Vanilla Wafer Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups (about 30) crushed vanilla wafers
• 1/2 cup butter  I used coconut oil and it was fantastic.

Vanilla Pudding (doubled)

• 1  1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs
• 8 egg yolks
• 4 cups milk
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Whipped Cream:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

For the crust:

In a medium bowl, stir together crushed vanilla wafers and butter  or coconut oil until blended. Firmly press on bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate.

Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool 30 minutes or until completely cool.

For the pudding: Whisk together sugar, flour, eggs, yolks and milk in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, 10-12 minutes or until it reaches the thickness of chilled pudding. (Mixture will just begin to bubble and will be thick enough to hold soft peaks when whisk is lifted. It must be thick and slightly bubbly to set up properly!) Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.

Transfer to a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap, making sure to press the plastic directly on top of the custard so it doesn't get a "skin" on it. Refrigerate til completely cool. (Can be made up to a day in advance.)

Whipped Cream: In a medium bowl, whip cream on medium high speed til soft peaks form. Slowly add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat til thick and stiff. Don't overbeat or you'll have butter!

Assembly: Arrange half of the banana slices evenly over bottom of cooled crust. Spread 1/3 of cooled pudding over bananas, then layer with 20 vanilla wafers. Spread 1/3 more pudding over vanilla wafers, then add the remainder of the banana slices and cover them with the last of the pudding. Spread the whipped cream over the entire pie and decorate with more vanilla wafers if desired.

The layers from the bottom up should be: vanilla wafer crust, bananas, pudding, vanilla wafers, pudding, bananas, pudding, whipped cream

Refrigerate at least for 4 hours. Overnight is best. Consume within 2 days.

Also I used an entire box of vanilla wafers for the pie. If you want to decorate with additional wafers then get a second box to be on the safe side.

Make me. Eat me. Be happy.

________________________

Gak Day

Like Magic

I want to write about school today because it was one of those everything-went-smooth-and-easy days. If I record these days then on the brutal-torture days I can come back to these posts and remind myself that there's good days and bad days.

When we woke up, 8 am, it was a rainy cozy day. The kids went outside to take care of the bunnies and I made hot chocolate and oatmeal of breakfast, then I had time to read my scriptures before they came in. Once they came in, we ate, then got dressed and washed up and cleaned rooms and came up to the school room. We had a scripture lesson about Obedience and we each wrote a page about that for our scripture notebook. We also practiced the hymn we've been working on, Where Can I Turn For Peace

Next, the kids wrote out their spelling words for the week using our Apple Letters, which are basically fancy Scrabble tiles.

Then, we did about an hour of math.

Then, we looked over the file folder I got out for today which was a temperature matching game.

Then, the kids got out their projects. They are each making a lapbook (my friend Amber shared this idea with me in June so I had the summer to learn about them and I think the kids will really like it).  We gathered our supplies (library pockets, mini file folders, glassine pockets, velcro, accordian paper, brads, paper clip, staples, pencil crayons, tape, glue, ruler etc.) and got started. We had already checked out our books from the library and perused them, so we were ready. Jane chose to study horses, Jacob is doing whales and Charlie is doing Peregrine Falcons because he is reading The Far Side of the Mountain.

***Sidenote: I bought a bucket jockey from Home Depot for $10 and stuck it on a bucket to contain all our lapbook supplies and projects. Today was the first day we tried it out and it worked like a charm.

When we finished and came downstairs for lunch, it was 2:30 pm. I couldn't believe the time. We usually come down much earlier but today was just flowing. We had lunch and then I helped Charlie with his piano practice and Jane with her cello homework.

DONE for the day! It was sunny out by then so the kids went out to run around for a while. My visiting teachers came over, Tim got home, I went to the gym. Through out all this, Scarlet is potty training and up to this point in the day she had no accidents so that was an added bonus.

Jacob taught us a beautiful FHE, we had healthy fruit pizza, Timmy read stories then put the kids to bed.

It was a fulfilling day and I am grateful because this is what gets me through the long, frustrating ones. I think it probably had a lot to do with me starting the day off with my own scripture reading, having a plan for the kids ready and not having anything else scheduled to interrupt us. 

So today, I love homeschool. I'll see how tomorrow goes and then I'll know if that statement is still true.

Finally.

I've been wanting to make this homemade laundry soap and since I had

so much Borax left over from the day we made slime, I figured now was the time. 

Homemade Laundry Soap

1 bar of soap (any kind you want)

1 cup of Borax

1 cup of washing soda

a big pot ( that holds more than 2 gallons)

a grater

a funnel

a long spoon

2 empty gallon jugs/containers

Grate your bar of soap into your pot.

Fill one gallon jug and pour water into pot with grated soap. Cook until the grated soap dissolves.

Add the Borax and washing soda.

Bring to a boil. It will coagulate.

Turn off the heat. Add 1 gallon of cold water. Stir well.

Pour 1 gallon of your detergent into each container.

A funnel helps tremendously.

Now you have 2 gallons of homemade laundry detergent. I use 1/2 cup per load. With the prices of detergent being outrageous, I feel really happy every time I make a batch of this.

This won't make many, if any, suds. Suds don't equal clean. It took a while to get that into my head. This detergent cleans wonderfully!

Happy washing!

estimated cost is $6.00 for 576 loads (depending on soap used and amount used per load, One BOX of Borax and Washing soda)

Woah Marvelously Woah Good

From ohsheglows again!

 I am so not a natural in the kitchen, so when I find healthy recipes that taste good and that even I can make perfectly, then it must be a good recipe.

I made this for  the treat after Jacob's super duper FHE lesson tonight. He did such a sweet job at teaching all of us. Near the end of the lesson he said that he wants to go on a mission and after adoring him the whole time he taught us, I wasn't so sure I liked him saying that. I had a nice little cry at the thought of him leaving for 2 years someday and then we had tasty fruit pizza. 

Ingredients (8-12 slices)

I doubled the crust part but not the avocado part. This made enough crust for one cookie sheet and there was lots of avocado whip left even though it was not doubled.

Cinnamon-sugar pizza crust

• 1 cup + 3/4 cup white bread flour, divided 
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon
• 2 & 1/4 tsp pizza yeast (no proofing required)
• 3 tbsp oil
• 2/3 cup very warm water
• more flour for kneading dough

Avocado-Lime Whip

• 4 avocados
• Fresh lime juice from half a lime (approx 1 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 2-3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1-2 tbsp coconut milk (We didn't have any so I left this out)
• 12 tbsp icing sugar (confectioner’s)

Fruit

• Fruit salsa: Chop up a mixture of strawberries, mandarin oranges, mango, kiwi, and raspberries. Add in blueberries too. You will want about 2-3 cups of the salsa.
• Fruit layer: Mandarin, strawberries (sliced), blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi (sliced), mango (sliced), and whatever else your little heart desires! Peach would be good too.

Instructions

For crust

• 1. Preheat oven to 500F. I did 425 F In a large mixing bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, plus the salt, sugar, cinnamon, yeast. Stir well. Now quickly add 2/3 cup very warm water along with 3 tbsp oil. Stir well. It will be very sticky but not to worry.
• 2. Now add in 3/4 cup- 1 cup more flour, gradually, as you stir. Once the flour is in, grab the dough and place on floured surface.
• 3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, adding flour as it gets tacky. After 5 mins the dough should be smooth and not tacky. Form into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl. Cover the ball with a bit of oil so it doesnt dry out. Now cover the bowl and let it rise for 1.5 hours. You can punch out the air halfway through.
• 4. After rising time, punch air out and spread into an oiled pizza pan I used a cookie sheet or you can place it directly onto a preheated pizza stone. Sprinkle with lots of sugar and bake at 
• 500F 425 for 14-15 mins. until golden. Cooking time may vary so watch carefully.

For avocado whip

• In a food processor, add in the avocado, lime juice, and agave. Process until smooth. Now add in the vanilla, melted coconut oil, and coconut milk. As the last step, add in the icing sugar very gradually until the consistency you want is achieved. Cool in fridge for about 30 minutes before using. Spread over the base of cooled & cooked pizza crust.
• The avocado whip is AMAZING! I couldn't believe how good it was. I made lots of extra fruit salsa and we just dipped fruit in the avocado whip after the pizza was gone. Its will be my new fruit dip recipe from now on.

For Fruit

• After you have spread on the avocado-lime whip, it is time to layer on the fruit. I started with an outer layer of fruit salsa, followed by a layer of sliced fruit. After those two layers, I did a very small layer of sprinkled coconut, followed by a layer of raspberries, and then finally fruit salsa. I left the inner circle open as I was going to put a large strawberry there, but then we ate it and that was that!

One Week Down

I thought the first day would be a good time to make some learning rules. We made a fun poster and kept the rules positive. I didn't want any NO rules,  but more Yes, do this... The kids surprised me with what they came up with. They had super duper good ideas like, "Laugh lots, dance in the living room (which is known to go down around here regularly, and use our Imaginations."

 Do I look like a professional teacher yet? I'm thumbing through the Wizard of Oz which we are half way through (this one is not totally floating their boats.) I'm not in my jammies so that's progress.

 This was day 2, it was one of those, "Is this really happening?" moments. The room was literally dead silent, including Scarlet. Day 3 on the other hand, not quite as smooth, the word grueling comes to mind. But I learned a lot from day 3, and that's a good thing. I also got some good encouragement from home education friends at the creek, the following day and that helped too. As  a reward for working so hard all week, we had a popcorn movie party on Saturday. We watched Treasure Island together (Timmy wanted to see it because he just read it).

 I got these pattern block pages for Jacob but Charlie loved them. Who knew.

 I'm really excited about this. I wanted to get these kids writing this year so I ordered some fun writing stuff to make it more interesting. I got parchment paper, a feather quill pen, black India ink to dip the feather in, and some wax sticks and a wax seal stamp with a fancy "E" for Eaton on it to seal our fancy letters with. The kids were way into it so it was a success. Gramma and Brady are the lucky winners of the first two letters.

 Jane is totally into embroidery right now, which makes me happy. She sits and stitches like a Gramma, while I read to her. She recently mastered the french know which can be pretty tricky. I found this book for her and we both ADORE it. The patterns are kid friendly and marvelous.

Weird Post

I don't know who took these next three pictures but it looks like a fun photo shoot.

 This is what our two morning hummingbirds do in the early morning. Get bundled up, with dollies in the backpack, on their way out to the backyard imagination land. I'm glad Scarlet didn't forget her necklace :0)

 Jacob grew carrots this summer and he pulled this one out and nearly lost his marbles with excitement.

 We drove passed this dead porcupine, then turned back to have a closer look. Did you know you can just pluck out the quills for fun? Maybe make some jewelry with them or if your Jacob, you can actually poke the apple you are eating with them... DISGUST.

Baked Tilapia

Baked Tilapia (We get it from Costco)

4 Tilapia Fillets
1 Fresh lemon sliced
1/2 onion- sauteed in olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
fresh ground pepper

350 degrees

Place Tilapia in baking dish lined with tinfoil.
Sautee onions.
Arrange sliced lemons over Tilapia.
Put onions over the lemons
Dust with sea salt and pepper.
Place in oven and bake for 12 min.

Turn off hear in oven, cover with foil and let sit in oven with door open until ready to eat.

Food Glorious Food...

I feel like I've been posting lots of recipes lately- I think its because food was so disgusting for so long that I'm excited to like cooking and baking again.

This date squares recipe is MAGICAL. If you are in to date squares, you'll never go back.

5 Ingredient No Bake Vegan Dates Squares! 

By Ohsheglows

5 Ingredient No Bake Vegan Date Squares

Adapted from KB Blissologist.

Crust:

• 1.5 cups whole raw almonds
• 1.5 cups regular oats (for Gluten-free, use GF oats)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 10 Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup coconut oil

Date filling:

• 25 Medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped (~2.5 cups)
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Line a square pan (I used 8in x 8 in) with two pieces of parchment paper going opposite ways. In a food processor, process the almond, salt, and oats until a fine crumble forms. Now add in the dates and process until crumbly again. Melt the coconut oil and add to the mixture and process until sticky. You can add a tiny bit more oil if the dough is too dry. I didn’t need to though! Remove from processor, set aside 3/4 cup of the mixture for later, and press the rest of the mixture very firmly and evenly into the pan.

2. Grab your pitted and roughly chopped dates and water and process in the food processor until a paste forms. You will have to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl often. You can add a tiny bit more water if needed, but you want the paste quite thick. Scoop out the date mixture onto the crust and gently spread with the back of a wet spatula until even.

3. Sprinkle on the 3/4 cup of mixture you set aside and gently press down with fingers. Refrigerate in the fridge until firm for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight. Cut into squares and serve. Store in the fridge or freezer.

The Calm Before the Storm

So these are the home school rooms I've been dreaming about. Who are these people!?!

I seriously have such an appreciation for teachers after spending the summer preparing for this new school year. I've been reading and reading, studying and reading, laminating, printing, copying, researching, cutting, planning, ordering, thinking, reading, thinking, making schedules, lists and more lists. Its actually a lot of fun for me, like  playing teacher but for real. Then on top of all this there's the usual stuff like cleaning out dressers and getting new school clothes and backpacks and shoes... then the haircuts, then cleaning out cupboards and the school room and taking school pictures. Its reminding me of all the work of getting Christmas ready, only maybe even worse.

We had a Back to School Family Barbeque on Saturday. 

*Sidenote* We got meat from a farm outside of Lethbridge that offers grass finished meat without the yucky stuff like hormones, antibiotics etc. Its called

Pura Vida Farms

 I totally recommend it. Its just off the highway to Lethbridge if you are local, so its handy. They are an awesome family, the farm is clean and organized and the meat is affordable and DELISH. I am not a meat eating kind of girl but if its local and free range and tastes this good even I eat it.

So our menu was PV Beef burgers, corn on the cob from the market, homemade hamburger buns, and Raw chocolate tarts for dessert. Here's the recipe, they only take 10 minutes and everyone loved them:

Chocolate Cashew Tarts

serves 2

crust

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup raisins

filling

1/2 cup cashews

1/4 cup water for blending 

2 tablespoons agave

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder

In a food processor fitted with the "S" blade, process the almonds and raisins until the mix starts to clump together. This takes a few minutes.

Press this crust mixture into the bottom and sides of two small tart pans, or use two cupcake pans lined with plastic wrap.

In a bullet type blender, puree the remaining ingredients until very smooth. This will take several minutes. Divide between the two crusts and fill to the top. Top with a small bit of chopped almonds, and pop into the fridge for an hour to firm before serving.

Tomorrow will be our first official day of school so I wanted to get a picture of our version of a school room, before it's never tidy again...

My mom gave me these pocket organizers things and they are great. I made laminated cards to put in the pockets. The top row is all the constants that the kids need to have done each morning before we start classes (dressed, bed made, eat, teeth, chores, scriptures). The second row is the fun activity planned for the afternoon if we get our work done (which happens to be making SLIME for tomorrow- hence the borax on the window sill. See recipe below.) Then each child has a row of what they need to accomplish before they are free for the day. The supplies they need for their assignments are in their work boxes, along with cute notes and treats from mom :0)

These are their individual workboxes from IKEA which I love. 

They are sturdy and a great size and only $7 each.

We spent the day in Waterton today and it was beautiful. Great weather, watermelon and the kids were in that magical place when they could play on the rocks by the water for hours. I think it had something to do with the frog eggs and snails they found. Afterwards we came home for 

Family Home Evening. 

We had a special night-before-school lesson planned. We told them what our Theme for the year was going to be and then I wrote it out and put it  up over the chalkboard. 

Its from St Luke 2:52 and it reads:

  "And Jesus ^aincreased in ^bwisdom and stature, and in ^cfavour with God and man."

We talked about how the scriptures tell us lots about Christ's birth and His ministry but we don't know much about His childhood. But, we do know from this scripture that he was improving mentally (wisdom), physically (stature), spiritually (favor with God), and socially (favor with man).

We taught the kids what goals are and why it's important to set goals so that we can find balance in our lives and always be improving.

Afterwards, Timmy gave the kids and I a blessing for the new school year and that was really neat to do as a family. The kids thought it was so funny that I was getting a blessing too so Timmy explained that I'm the teacher, so of course I need a blessing too. Then I cried briefly at the thought of teaching all my little ducklings and feeling so happy that I am able to spend the day with them. Then I cried some more because I'm pregnant and I get tired just thinking about teaching them all each day and then I got really nervous.

Homemade Slime aka GAK

1 teaspoon borax powder

1 1/2 C water, divided

4 oz (1/2 C)  Elmer’s glue, clear or white

food coloring

Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve.  Set aside.  Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth.  Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form.  Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass.  The mixture will be very soft and wet.  Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry.  Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become.  Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.

with clear glue

with white glue

Make These Now

5 Minute Chocolate Peanut Butter Chews

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Crisp Rice cereal (I used Granola)
• 1/4 cup smooth all-natural peanut butter
• 3 tbsp organic brown rice syrup (I used half Agave and half maple syrup)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp dark chocolate chips

Directions: Line a plate with parchment paper. In a medium sized bowl, stir together the peanut butter, brown rice syrup, 2 tbsp chocolate chips, and vanilla extract. Microwave on high for 35-45 seconds. Stir well and immediately add in the 1 tsp cocoa powder. Stir until incorporated. Immediately stir in the rice crisp cereal until all rice crispies are coated (I did all this in a pot on low heat.)

Wet hands thoroughly and shape the mixture into ‘golf-balls’. Press mixture together firmly into balls so it will hold. Wet hands after each ball is formed so the mixture will not stick to your hands. Place the balls onto parchment paper and freeze for 5 minutes. You can keep these chews in the freezer in a sealed container. Let the chews sit at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes before consuming. ( I pressed mine into a small cake pan instead. I was too lazy to make balls. Then I put them in the fridge for half an hour and they were perfect.)

Makes 7 golf-ball sized chews. ( Double it for the perfect family size.)

Press firmly into balls and place on a plate or small baking sheet lined with parchment. Freeze for about 5-10 minutes.

For Chickpea Lovers Like Myself

From my favorite cooking blog:
Oh She Glows

Easy Salt & Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas

Ingredients:

• 2 cups canned chickpeas*
• 3-4 cups white vinegar
• 1 tsp Coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions: Line a baking sheet with tin foil or parchment paper. Take chickpeas and vinegar and place in a medium sized pot. Add a dash of sea salt. Bring to a boil and then remove from heat. Let sit in pot for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F. Carefully drain chickpeas. Place on lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sea salt. Massage with fingers until fully coated. Roast for 45 minutes, flipping once half way through. Keep a careful eye on them after 35 minutes of cooking to ensure they don’t burn. The goal here is crispy and golden chickpeas, not black…lol. Enjoy as a high protein snack or as a side to a lunch or dinner.

Also note: When I brought the cooked chickpeas to a boil, some of the peas split open and some of the skins came off. Not to worry if this happens-it will turn out regardless!

I loved these! The salt & vinegar taste was amazing and really came through.