Show off your homeschool linky party

I'm joining the "Show off your Homeschool linky party" hosted by The Joys of Home Educating.


These pictures were taken a few months ago, but the layout is still pretty much the same. Here is Nathan's desk. The computer cart has been moved next to my desk.

This is Claire's desk. We now have a computer cart next to it for her computer. The big dry erase board is my favorite part! I had it for several years, but it didn't fit in the school room at our old house. We use this every day.

The closet. Its very roomy and manages to hold all of our school books and supplies.

This is my desk...

And we usually have our cat, Simba in the room for a bit!

And our yard is our playground! Claire got a swingset for Christmas so she can now play in the backyard. Before that, she played in the front yard. Both she and Nathan love all the trees at our new house. They are always climbing them and claire loved all the leaves in the fall!

We have a pool in the backyard so when it gets warm enough we'll have to have "swim class"!




Check out my current giveaway here.

Giveaway & Recipe

Just a reminder that you have one week left to enter my homemade gourmet giveaway. Click here to enter.

Here's a yummy, EASY recipe I'd like to share with you:

Pineapple Chicken:

3 lbs chicken (can be boneless, skinless breasts, leg quarters, whatever you'd like)
1 pkg. Homemade Gourmet Italian Red Pepper Bread Dippin' Mix
1 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits or crushed pineapple

(If you'd like to make this ahead of time and freeze or cook it right away. The directions assume you are freezing it, but you don't have to.)

1. Place all ingredients into a gallon sized ziptop freezer bag and SMOOSH. After labeling, "Pineapple Chicken", freeze until the day of cooking. This is a 4 meals in 4 minutes™™ recipe, so your cooking options are:

BAKE: Thaw meat and marinade. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour entire contents of bag into baking dish and cover. Bake approximately 40 minutes or until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink in the center.

SLOW COOKER: Thaw until meal can slide out of bag. Place entire contents of bag into slow cooker. Cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low 6-8 hours.

GRILL: Thaw and discard marinade. Preheat grill to medium high heat. Place meat on grill and cook about 10 minutes per side until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink in the center.

When I made this I did it in the crock pot. It was really good. The next day I shredded the leftover chicken and used it for toasted sandwiches with mozerella cheese and honey mustard dressing. They were sooo good!

If you'd like to try this recipe you can find the italian Red Pepper bread dippin' mix on my Homemade Gourmet website: www.homemadegourmet.com/aimee

Postcard Friendship Friday #66

I don't know what it is about them, but I've always loved map postcards! I picked this one up on our vacation last year. We went to Phoenix, Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon so its kind of nice to have all of our destinations on one card.

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.


Don't forget...there's still time to enter my giveaway. Click here for more info!

Wordful Wednesday

Yea, she doesn't need anything from Pottery Barn...she can just snuggle up with the catalog!

The catalog was actually on the other side of her while she was napping in my chair. I moved it because I wanted to take a picture that looked like she was actually reading the catalog. She wasn't very interested in posing and went back to napping....right there on the catalog!


Wordful Wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies and Seven Clown Circus.


Don't forget to enter my giveaway for free Homemade Gourmet mixes!

Announcement & Giveaway!

I have a big announcement! I just became an independent consultant with Homemade Gourmet®. If you've never heard of Homemade Gourmet® before let me tell you a little about it.
They make wonderful food mixes that help you make a homemade dinner in less time. Who doesn't love a homemade dinner, right? But who has time to make one every night? Not me. I used to, but with the kids' activities now I don't. Claire has gymnastics 3 days a week until 6 pm each night. I've been relying heavily on Homemade Gourmet® on those days!

I've actually been using their products for about 9 or 10 years now. I've never tried anything I didn't like. They have marvelous soups, tasty dips, and delicious desserts. I wouldn't have become a consultant if I didn't really love their products.

You can check out their products on my website here: www.homemadegourmet.com/aimee

I will be posting more about my Homemade Gourmet® experience in the future, including some wonderful recipes, but for now I'd like to introduce you to a couple of their products through a giveaway.

One of my lucky readers can win the Season 'n' Steam Fajita mix and the Roasted Tomato Salsa mix!

Both of these are very easy to make. The Fajita mix even includes a steamer bag. All you do is add steak or chicken, pepper and onion. Then, cook in the microwave or slow cooker in the steamer bag! The Roasted Tomato salsa mix is a nice accompaniment to the fajitas. All you do is add a can of stewed tomatoes and a can of tomatoes with green chilies. Then, blend all together in a blender. Its that easy! And it tastes like salsa you find at a fine Mexican food restaurant!

So here are the details for the giveaway:

Mandatory: Visit the link above and leave me a comment telling me what product you'd most like to try. (1 entry)

Optional for extra entries:
Follow my blog (1 entry)
Post about this giveaway with a link to this post on your Facebook page. (2 entries)
Post about this giveaway with a link to this post on your blog. (3 entries)

Be sure to leave me a separate comment for each entry. If you post about it on your blog leave me a link to that post in one of your comments. It is not necessary to leave your link in all 3 comments.

The winner will be chosen by the Random number generator on Sunday, February 6. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Postcard Friendship Friday #65

Last week I posted my prospector card from the Old West Collection Series. This is the other card from that series that I have...The chuckwagon.

My husband and I went to a chuckwagon breakfast one time in Palo Duro Canyon. It was really cool, but not nearly as rustic as this card shows. We had picnic tables and covered seating! I'm sure these guys would have enjoyed that back in the day!

Thanks to Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday!

My birthday cake

Yesterday was my birthday. My husband usually makes me a cake with Claire or buys me one. I love ice cream cakes. Every year he talks about making one for me. Well, this year he did it! Now, my husband doesn't cook very much. His motto is if you can make scrambled eggs and mac and cheese you can survive! He did a wonderful job on the cake though...and it tasted soooo good! He used mint chocolate chip ice cream...one of my favorites!

Pretty good, huh? I told him I want one of these every year! I guess I can make this #101 on my list of why I love my husband. :) In case you don't know, I listed 100 reasons I love my husband on my 100th blog post. You can read it here. I'm a lucky girl!

Happy Birthday Poe!...Wordful Wednesday

January 19th...the birthday of the greatest American writer! It also happens to be my birthday, but I haven't had a great influence on American literature so I'm going to post about my favorite writer of all times instead. :)

Here are a few great Poe quotes:

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant.
Edgar Allan Poe

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allan Poe

I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the rhythmical creation of Beauty.
Edgar Allan Poe

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.
Edgar Allan Poe



Here is the link to the Poe museum. I would love to visit this one day!!
http://www.poemuseum.org/index.php


And here is my favorite Poe poem. I remember memorizing this in the 5th grade for some poetry reading competition. I also used it in my poetry notebook in 6th grade, of course, as my favorite poem!

Annabel Lee


It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.


I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do! I don't know why I've always loved Poe. I guess I'm drawn to the dark, mysterious works. I can even remember watching The Fall of the House of Usher on TV when I was in the 2nd grade, I think. Now, I really don't recommend that movie for 2nd graders!! My parents were a little too lenient with our TV watching! Anyway, I've always thought it was cool that my birthday was on the same day as his. So, each year I always read a little Poe on that day!

Do you have a favorite Poe story or poem?

wordful wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies and Seven Clown Circus.

A.A. Milne's Birthday

Today is the birthday of A. A. Milne, the author of those fabulous Winnie the Pooh books!

Since we all love Winnie the Pooh we are going to do a little impromtu Pooh stuff in school today. I found a great website with fun pictures and activities...

http://www.just-pooh.com/

I got Claire a coloring page from that website and found the idea for these honey sandwich rolls that they kids are having for lunch:

Nathan has peanutbutter in his too, but claire is allergic to peanuts so she just has honey. Rolling them up is a fun variation of the regular ol' sandwich!

We are also going to read a Pooh story today and, if we have time, watch a pooh video.

In our family we have our own Pooh character names. I think it started when Claire was little. Its funny. There is a Pooh character with a personality similar to each of us. Chris is Pooh, I'm Rabbit, Nathan is Eeyore, and Claire is Piglet. (Although she's becoming more like Tigger these days!)

Thanks to A.A. Milne for such wonderful characters!

Who is your favorite character from the Hundred Acre Wood??

L.E.N.S. Photo Challenge

The theme of this week's L.E.N.S. Photo challenge hosted by Home is Where you start From is "Learning spaces".


Now, we have a school room that we do school in on a daily basis, but I think the best place to learn is on the road! My kids always get so much out of field trips. These photos are from our Texas History field trip from a couple years ago. Our final stop was Washington on the Brazos which was a lot of fun, very educational, and had lots of good photo ops!

Yes, we even educate the stuffed animals!

Bathroom makeover

I'm joining in with Amy's Round Robin today. Stop by her blog to join in or read more.

One of my projects over the holidays was to paint the kids' bathroom. They had picked out a color back in August. I carried the paint sample around in my purse for months which worked out great because the day after Thanksgiving I was able to get matching towels at a great price! So, there is my little tip...if you are repainting a room always carry the paint sample with you even if you haven't painted it yet.

Ok. Here are a couple before pictures....

I didn't like the color. It was odd. In some light it looked yellow, in some light it looked olive green. I let the kids pick out the new color all on their own. they actually agreed on it rather easily. (my kids aren't known to agree on anything easily!) I thought they picked a great color.

Here are the after pics...

With all the cabinets, doors and windows in the bathroom there's not much space to put much on the walls. There is a blank spot above the toilet though. I have some nice lithographs of the Disney Cruise ships. I think I might frame a couple and put them there.

Postcard Friendship Friday #64

Wow, its been so long since I post a postcard for PFF that I had to go back to my old blogs just to see when it was...It was November! I guess I had a lot to do over the holidays! Finally, things are settling down and getting back to normal.

My son was just reading about the California gold rush so I decided to post this postcard of a prospector and his mule. My mom gave me this a while back. It's part of an Old West collector's series. I really liked it. That's one of my favorite times of American History. Of course, I like reading about it...I would not have wanted to live back then!

Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Fairy Tale Lessons & Recipes

I discovered a wonderful book at our library over the holidays. Its called Fairy Tale Feasts by Jane Yolen. Last year Claire did a different fairy tale lesson each month. Each week we would read a different version of a classic fairy tale and she made lapbooks to go with them. Since we were moving into the new house at the beginning of school I didn't plan for anything like that this year. I was just trying to cover the basics. She really missed it though so we started "Literature" again this semester using the Fairy Tale Feasts book. Its working great. Claire LOVES to cook!

The first week we read The Runaway Pancake and made pancakes for dinner. She read the recipe and learned about measurement. The book also has sidebars that tell about the origins of the stories.

Today we are reading Diamonds and Toads and we'll be making cinnamon toast with blueberries and pineapple. This isn't the recipe in the book. The book has a french toast recipe, but I bought some yummy cinnamon bread yesterday so we are using it! The blue berries represent the pearls in the story and the pineapple represents the diamonds.

What I like most about this book is the tales in it are not your everyday, heard it a million times fairy tales. Most of these Claire hasn't heard before. The recipes are pretty kid-friendly too.

The books were also published separately...Fairy Tale Breakfasts, Fairy Tale Dinners, Fairy Tale Desserts, Fairy Tale Lunches. The one book includes all the recipes of the individual books plus some.

Here is a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tale-Feasts-Literary-Cookbook/dp/1566566436

In addition to Fairy Tale Feasts we will also be using the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook and reading some of the stories that go with the recipes. We'll be making Goose Juice and Moose Juice (The Sleep Book) and Schlottz's Knots (Did I ever tell you how lucky you are) and many others! I'll try to remember to take pictures and do another post about how it all turns out.

Here's the amazon link to the Green Eggs and Ham cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Green-Eggs-Cookbook-Georgeanne-Brennan/dp/B001I8C588/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294858689&sr=1-1

At the library I also saw a Little House cookbook and a Boxcar children cookbook. I'm thinking of incorporating the Little House one next year. Claire isn't very fond of reading so I like to add these fun things to encourage her to read.

If you know of any other literature lessons that involve cooking I'd love to hear about them!

Wordful Wednesday

Simba, the mighty hunter.

What do you see, Simba?

A Squirrel!

Can you catch it, Simba?


What do you think? Do you think she caught it?



She didn't! Those little things outsmart her everytime!
(Which I am glad about because if she ever gets hold of one I have a feeling
it will put up quite a fight!)



To join Wordful Wednesday visit Seven Clown Circus or Parenting by Dummies.

Our year in pictures

2010 was a great year. We are very blessed. Here is a little yearly review in pictures...

January brought my birthday. I think I was 29 again!

February brought Nathan's 12th birthday. Here he is with his all you can eat pancakes at IHOP!

March brought gymnastic meets for Claire!

April brought Easter and a little egg hunting...

May brought a fantastic vacation to Arizona...

(after the Diamondback's game)

(in the cabin)

(at the Grand Canyon)


June brought summer fun and a trip to Six Flags.

(I was a big Batman and Robin fan when I was a kid!)

All throught the year we were looking at houses. In July we finally found the one we wanted!

We moved in in August just in time to enjoy the pool!

And the many trees in the new yard provided Claire with lots of leaves to play in in September.

We had a busy October.

My in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary,

Claire celebrated her 8th birthday,

and we all celebrated Halloween!

November brought All Saints Day. Here are my 2 little saints.

December was another busy month. We finally sold the old house, had numerous Christmas parties and celebrated Chris' 40th birthday!

We ended the year with a wonderful Christmas in our new house and a New Years Eve party with friends.

Now, as 2011 begins, I'm looking forward to another great year with family and friends! We have lots of things coming up this year... A new little adventure of mine that I'll be posting about soon, Nathan getting back into baseball after his year off with an injury, more gymnastic meets, and another family vacation (if we can ever decide where we want to go!)

What are you looking forward to in 2011?

Free samples

Who doesn't love a free sample? I've recently come across some great samples through All You so I thought I'd share. I've signed up for the All You email and facebook notice of free samples. I've already received free coffee, cat food, lotion, pens, and lots of other stuff! Just click on the links below to be taken to the sample page to request your sample. And if you'd like to sign up for the All You samples the link is at the bottom of this post.

post-it products samples and coupons

Purina One from Target

Nature Made chewable vitamin from Walmart

EmergenC vitamin drink

Dove Daily Treatment conditioner

Here is the All You magazine site. Start Sampling is also a great website for finding samples.

Do you have any good websites for finding samples? If so, I'd love to hear about them!

Disclaimer: I haven't been compensated by any of these companies. I just like to share a good deal when I find one!

Wordful Wednesday

I've been so busy with holiday stuff lately that I hadn't even posted Christmas pictures! We had a wonderful Christmas. We went to mass on Christmas Eve and then to our favorite restaurant afterwards. The kids had a great time on Christmas morning. We actually got up before them too...that usually doesn't happen!

Claire was very excited and dumped her stocking out and tore through her presents!

Nathan, on the other hand, meticulousty separated all of his gifts, opened them in an organized fashion and then placed them into neat piles! (That's my DNA!)


Santa even brought Simba a little something in her stocking!



But she wasn't really amused by me taking pictures of her!

Especially with a Santa hat on!


Claire got a swingset. She's so happy. We didn't move the one from the old house because it wouldn't fit in the grassy area of our new yard. She had really been missing her swings.

Now, our Christmas vacation is over and we are back in school and looking forward to our summer vacation!

How was your Christmas?

Wordful Wednesday is hosted by Parenting by Dummies.