For Today (March 9,2009)

Outside my window....

partly cloudy, looks like rain.

I am thinking....

about Purim, which we are celebrating today, just for fun. The cookie dough is made and we'll work on our Hamantaschen today and have our play tonight after Katie gets home from work so she can be in on it, too. We might make a Pin the Crown on Esther game today, too, and noisemakers.

I am thankful for...

Anna's (14) continued progress with the shingles on her face and in her eye. I think the eye dr. will release her when we see him tomorrow. God has taken such good care of her!

From the learning rooms...

I'm almost ashamed to post this because it sounds like a broken record (should we change this expression to broken CD??). Basically, the same stuff is planned that I've been trying to accomplish for the last 2 weeks. I have a super-busy week, but we'll do what we can and when I'm not here Rachel (19) will be a very good teacher in my place.
For Five in a Row this week, we're going to row the Salamander Room and include Thomas (almost 10). His birthday is Friday and shhhh! we're having a bug birthday for him.

From the kitchen...

Yesterday, because my girls who are seriously allergic to milk were gone, we had crab chowder for lunch. YUM! A milk extravaganza because I made it with whipping cream and half and half.

When the kids helped with chickens the other day, our neighbor gave them some money and laughingly told them to get KFC. They want pizza today instead because somehow KFC just isn't appealing after seeing those cute, fuzzy chicks!

And finally, here's Thomas' birthday menu which he picked out: fish sticks, chicken nuggets, and celery, chocolate cake and Blue Bell Cookies and Cream ice cream. Doesn't this sound like a boy's menu????

I am re-reading....

Jewish Family Celebrations and Celebrate the Feasts
to start getting ready for our annual Passover Seder at church.

Around the house....

the closets, the armoires, and the drawers are straight. There's just my sewing desk to finish this week or next week when I have a chance.

One of my favorite things....

being at home with my kids. What a privilege my husband has provided for me!

A few plans for the rest of the week...

Anna to the doctor. Thomas' birthday. Meet with the lady at church who is over the celebrations committee to start planning the Seder. Work at the mission as part of my Lenten Challenge community service - this week I'm folding t-shirts, which the mission will sell to make money for emergency help services. Prepare for my parents to come for a couple of days so Mom can sew while hubby and I go to an out-of-town meeting.

Here's a picture thought I'm sharing....

And here's the story: My husband bought some lights for Anna to use for photography. (be sure to read the comments under this post - there has been an exchange going between my son Daniel (21) and Anna, which is pretty funny)
I asked her to choose whatever she would like and make a photo for my daybook and she chose one of my favorite teapots, which was a gift from the Rachel and Anna.

Katy and the Big Snow; Nana and the Big Sew

Abby had a fun time this afternoon, discussing the seasons and making a paper doll girl with clothes for every season. We are finishing up Katy and the Big Snow today. Actually, it's so warm this afternoon, Abby has gone outside to play and we'll read our story later. I found the paper doll pattern at familyfun.com and I used some scrapbook paper to cut out different clothes.

Yesterday we went to the fabric store to purchase cloth for spring skirts and a jacket to go over a purchased dress. This is what we found:


My mom does almost all our sewing and she's planning to come next weekend and get started on the skirts and a couple of dresses and the jacket. She smocks and does French handsewing, as well, and creates lovely things for the girls and makes all sorts of things for everyone. One day soon I'll post a photo of 2 very cute skirts with matching purses that she recently make for Abby for summer..... My mom is a huge blessing to me!

As the girls have gotten older, we tend to buy things for them instead of sewing, but they used to all have matching dresses made by Mom every Easter. Perhaps I'll dig out some pictures soon and have a walk down memory lane!

Last year and this year, Carrie (12) has been learning to sew using this book from Martha Pullen. She especially enjoyed making matching skirts for Abby and herself, both last year and this year. This book comes with the patterns and has very clear instructions and you only have to buy the fabric and notions for each project. It has clothing for girls, clothing to fit American Girl dolls, and things to give as gifts or to use in their room, such as a throw pillow. It teaches some embroidery stitches, as well. The other girls learned to sew using 2 books called Sewing Machine Fun and More Sewing Machine Fun. Truly, the girls were able to teach themselves to do all the projects in the books and had the skills needed to move to simple garments after finishing them. These books have craft projects instead of clothing. The instructions are very clear and they are easy for a child or an adult to use.

Bean, Chicken, and Sausage Soup

We had this for lunch yesterday and everyone decided it is a keeper.

Bean, Chicken and Sausage Soup

1 1/2 lbs. bulk Italian sausage
2 cups chopped onion
6 bacon strips, diced
2 quarts water
2 cans (14 1/2 ounce, each) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon each dried thyme, savory, and salt
1/2 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano, and pepper
4 cups cubed cooked chicken
2 cans (15 1/2 ounces each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained

In a heavy 8-qt Dutch oven or soup kettle, cook sausage, onion, and bacon over medium-high heat until sausage is no longer pink; drain. Add water, tomatoes and seasonings. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the chicken and beans. Simmer, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes. Remove bay leaves before serving. Yield: 18 servings.


I have to tell you: I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I used less sausage. My family would loudly protest if I used 2 CUPS of onions in anything, so I used one small slice, chopped. I cooked navy beans (instead of northern beans) in the crockpot and added the other ingredients to them. I cooked some chicken (but not 4 cups) in another crockpot overnight. I didn't have savory. I used garlic salt instead of powder. And we garnished it with Parmesan cheese. Now you know. And we loved it anyway.

Planning for Purim

This year Purim falls on March 9th. Have you ever celebrated Purim with your children? It's the beautiful story of Esther and is great fun to observe! At our house, Purim is much anticipated all through the winter months.

Most of the time we celebrate with just our family, although we have had a party with our school group before and with a couple of little girls from our church last year. First, it's essential to have some dress up clothes so Esther can look just like a queen. You'll need a Haman, a King, and a Mordecai, so you'll need some sort of dress up clothes to differentiate between them. It might be fun to make and decorate a crown for each person - there is a pattern here. Or you might enjoy making masks.

If you don't have enough people, you might make puppets out of paper or socks or use these paper dolls (or some homemade ones, although these are especially nice and can be used for all sorts of different occasions) glued onto popsicle sticks for handles. Once we made a nice puppet stage with a box turned on the side and decorated - it even had "footlights", which was a string of clear Christmas lights!

Since you boo, hiss, and make noise every time Haman's name is mentioned in the story, you might want to make noise-makers with 2 paper plates, decorated and stapled together with some dried beans in the middle and some ribbons around the edges. Or you can buy real groggers at Judaism.com. You might like to prepare a "Pin the Crown on Esther" or "Pin the Hat on Haman" game, too.

Then you'll need the story of Esther, either straight from the Bible, which is my preference, or from a good Bible story book. You'll need to read it ahead of time so you can decide how long you want the story to be, perhaps highlighting the parts your narrator will use.

Finally, you'll want to make Hamantashen, the traditional Purim cookie. I usually use my favorite sugar cookie dough and jam, but here's a recipe and an illustration of how to fold the cookie (be sure to refrigerate the dough for at least an hour before rolling out a portion at a time). Here's another recipe that sounds great - I might try this one myself! It's traditional to make enough cookies to give to neighbors and friends, along with fruit or other goodies.

I have two books, which I like to use to celebrate Jewish feasts. The first one is Jewish Family Celebrations by Arlene Rossen Cardozo. It does include Purim. The second one is Celebrate the Feasts by Martha Zimmerman and is a Christian book which explains simple Christian ways to celebrate Jewish feasts (Purim is not included in this book, but all other Jewish feasts are). Both books include recipes and ideas for celebrations.

Purim can be as elaborate or as simple as you want to make it. Why not give it a try this year?

Katy and the Big Snow

What will a dollar buy??? A can of shave cream and an afternoon of fun!

Abby and I laughed today over the funny pictures "hidden" in Katy. We read a classic, The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader. And another book called, Togo by Robert J. Blake, that would be a wonderful go-along for The Very Last First Time - I'll have to write about it in my FIAR notebook so I can remember to re-check it when we row that book.

So....nothing vastly exciting today, but a good day, after all.

Since 2000, I've kept a FIAR 3-ring notebook. I made forms for each book where I can write the name of the book, what activities we did to along with the book, whicht websites were good, and what books we read as go-alongs. Then I print off ideas, etc. from the FIAR board or other places on the internet and put those in the notebook behind the book page. I have one of these notebooks for Before Five in a Row and Beyond Five in a Row, too. It helps the old brain, you know, to remember exactly what I've done with each book so I can either repeat it for the next child or not repeat what we've done if we re-row the book. Just in case you wanted to know......

For Today (March 2, 2009)

Outside my window....

The sun is gloriously shining, the dusting of snow is all gone,
and it's very cold.

I am thinking....

about the scriptures I just finished reading for The Great Lenten Challenge, which we are doing at church. The challenge involves reading scriptures from the lectionary, praying, journaling, doing a kind deed in secret for someone every day, and giving 2 hours of community service per week. We just started it last week, but already it's helping me be more consistent and working on my character.

I am thankful for....

Anna, healing, our doctor

In the learning rooms....

We're having fun with Katy and the Big Snow! Abby has really taken off with reading and it's fun to watch her. She's doing well with fiddle, too, since Rachel has been giving her a chart with stickers for practice time.

This week Thomas, Carrie, and I are going to learn about bears for science and continue on with The Taming of the Shrew. Abby is enjoying narrating the story, Carrie is the editor, and Thomas is the illustrator and has learned to use the dictionary to look up vocab words. Thumbs up for this project!

From the kitchen....

If you watch The Parson's Daughters' blog this week, you'll probably see a recipe for some delish Cranberry Date Bars that Katie made over the weekend. I'm making Bean, Chicken and Sausage Soup one day this week and I'll post the recipe if it's tasty. Next weekend, we may try making Raspberry Newtons.

I am reading...

I am enjoying reading my husband's copy of Reformed Worship magazine.
Some very useful things in there!

I am hearing....

almost nothing. The house is very quiet this morning. Katie is getting ready to go to work. There are cars passing by outside, but not heavy traffic on our country road. Rachel just came in from taking some mail to the box and ran right over to the heater to warm up!

Around the house....

There are only 2 more closets, an armoire, and the sewing desk drawer to straighten. Perhaps we can get to those this week?

One of my favorite things....

Well, here's what I'd planned to show: my favorite artist, especially the drawing of a mother on the swing, reading to her children, which I have hanging in my living room. (for you FIAR users - the book she's reading is Paul Revere's Ride!)

But because Anna has been sick, our friend brought the kids a bag of treats yesterday, including a jar of Nutella, which we've never had before. Oh my! Now I might have to change my favorite thing to: Nutella!

A few plans for the rest of the week....

Doctor appt. for Anna today. Orthodontist appt. for Rachel today. Then the usual round of lessons and classes for the rest of the week.

A picture thought I'm sharing....

Happy 53rd Anniversary to my parents!
This is their wedding picture, colorized by my son, Daniel, for their 50th anniversary.
In the diary she kept while they were dating, she wrote, "Oh, how I love that man!"

Looky Here Gail!

And there's more coming down...