Family Movie Night

Are you planning on having a Family Movie Night anytime soon?  Check out Plugged In Online before you rent your next movie.  This website is run by Focus on the Family.  You can find honest, unbiased reviews of movies, videos, music, TV shows, and games before you buy or rent them.  There is a even a page for suggestions and frequently asked questions about Family Movie Nights.  I love this website, and I find myself checking it often before we watch movies. 

Today's Shopping Deals

I've been working on finding deals and using coupons for over a year now.  I feel like I'm just now starting to get the hang of this.  Here's what I found today:

Target: 6 rolls of scotch tape, one write on/wipe off board, 3 paperback novels, 2 sets of pens, and a bottle of baby soap =  $4.92. 

Staples:  25 sheets of Premium HP Photo paper, and 12 clasp envelopes = $6.00 (Regular price for both = $23.98)

Walgreen's:  6 cans of tuna and 1 dozen eggs = $4.30 - $3.00 in register rewards = $1.30 out of pocket cost

Reading Corner

Who doesn't want to curl up in a comfortable chair and read a good book.  I think it is so important to create reading spots in your home for your children.  When I taught fourth grade in the public school I always had several comfy reading spots around the room for the children.  (I wish I would have taken a picture!)  Now that we are homeschooling, I figured my own children needed their own reading spots.  We don't have a lot of extra room, but I squeezed an old beanbag chair and oversized pillow between the couch and one of our bookshelves. 

Our books are spread throughout the living room and hallway, all on low, easily accessible bookshelves. This created a problem for a few months as our toddler emptied them all daily. He's better about it now though.

If you have made a special reading spot for your child, please share it with us.




This post is part of the July 13th edition of the Carnival f Homeschooling.  Check out all of the great posts there. 

Freezer Cooking - Taco Casserole

I'm not a huge menu or freezer cooking planner, but I do like to get meals in the freezer when I have the opportunity.  Instead of planning out a big freezer cooking day, I just try to make huge amounts of whatever I'm cooking for dinner that evening.  I always fry my ground meat ahead of time and store it in one pound amounts in the freezer.  That way I can just grab a bag and heat it up.  Lately I've been combining ground chuck with ground turkey.  So yesterday afternoon I decided to make taco casserole (Luke's favorite).  It probably only took five minutes longer to make two casseroles instead of one.  Each casserole, when served with sides, feeds us two meals, so we got four meals out of one cooking session.  Yeah, less cooking for me! (I baked the first casserole, and I froze the second casserole, unbaked.)

Taco Casserole

12 taco shells, coarsely broken

1.5 lb ground meat

1 pkg. taco seasoning mix

1/2 c. water

2 Tbsp. dried onion flakes

1 - 8 oz can tomato sauce

2 c. Monterey jack cheese, shredded

1 lg. tomato, cut in wedges (optional)

6 stuffed green olives, sliced (optional)

taco sauce (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place half of the shells into a lightly greased 6-cup baking dish.  Brown meat and drain.  Add taco seasoning, onions, and water.  Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.  Stir in tomato sauce.  Spoon meat mixture over taco shells.  Sprinkle with 1.5 cups of cheese.  Sprinkle remaining taco shells over cheese, and then the remaining cheese over the shells.  Arrange tomato wedges and olives on top.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Serve with taco sauce. 





Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July to America!

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."
- Patrick Henry

Math Monday Blog Hop

I linked up with Math Monday Blog Hop today.  Check out all the great math ideas others are sharing.

Lesson Learned from Kitchen Mistakes

Today I thought I would get up early and make Fourth of July treats for our Sunday School classes and for the party we are going to attend tomorrow.  My idea was to make star shaped crispy cereal treats with sprinkles and chocolate chip cookie cakes.  Here's a picture story of my morning. 

The cereal treats did not come out as expected.  They were too sticky, and I learned that you should cool them more than a few minutes before using cookie cutters on them. 

The first batch of cookie cakes were too thick and did not get done in the middle.  Yuck!

I tried to make the cookie cakes thinner, and they stuck to the pan!

Then I gave up and thought I would just make cookies.  As my oldest son, Luke, was pouring the dry ingredients in the cookie mixture, my youngest son scared him.  Luke dropped the flour mixture all over the floor.  Notice his footprint in it too!

I finally got a tray of semi-okay cookies for the party tomorrow.  We'll see how they taste.  Now I have pizza dough mixing in the bread machine.  Who knows what will happen with that!

So besides the obvious cooking lessons I learned today, I found a life lesson in my morning.  Sometimes as Luke gets frustrated with his math or spelling mistakes, he just wants to give up.  I was getting frustrated and grouchy in the kitchen this morning, and I wanted to give up.  Luke and I talked it over and decided it was not okay for me to be grouchy about my mistakes, but to learn from them.  We discussed how he has to learn from his spelling mistakes, and now I have to learn from my cooking mistakes.