Not much to say

It's been a busy week but a great week for school.

The mini quiched were really good reheated today. Wrap in foil and heat at 300 degrees.

Colin's nightly prayers have begun to include "Dear Lord, I ask you to please let the force field be real. Thank you for letting it be real" We're in for it at some point!

I will have a 10 year old in a little over a week. Please excuse me while I go cry.

We're having the last of mom's spaghetti sauce from the freezer tonight. Homemade rolls are rising now.

No more jogging but I have been walking!

Quiche

I make a really great quiche. Even though who think they don't like quiche have liked my quiche! :o) It's nothing special I do, I just have a couple of really great recipes.

That being said, I really don't like how the bottom crust is a bit soggy, especialy with the leftover quiche. So I'm always looking for a variation, hoping I'll love it even more.

I am a fan of The Incredible Edible Egg on Facebook. I think a got a couple of dozen free eggs for "liking" their page once. Anyway, I've seen some pretty great-looking recipes pop up from them. Breakfast is one meal I really get bored with. I don't particularly like sweet breakfasts and I get bored with scrambled eggs or omelets.

A couple of weeks ago a recipe for Breakfast Biscuit Quiches popped up. We tried these for dinner last night and they were GREAT! So great that I made them again this morning.

Their photograph of quiche is prettier than my quiches so I thought I use it! I tweaked the recipe according to what I had on-hand.

Here's what I used and I really didn't measure anything:
dices ham
cheddar cheese
diced onion
diced bell pepper
3 or 4 eggs
half and half
salt
pepper

Here is a direct link to the recipe for complete instructions. I think next time I'll use bacon, green chilies, and monterey jack cheese! Yum! The possibilities are endless!

Breakfast Biscuit Quiches

21 day challenge

So my goal when I started blogging again in late October was to blog for 21 straight days to test the theory that doing something for 21 days creates a habit. This is day 21 in a row! I know some of my post have fell a bit short of enlightening but hey, I blogged for 21 days!

Now that I have completed that challenge, I wanted something else to attempt for 21 days. Whitney and I talked about it yesterday and we decided I'd walk or jog daily. Walk for now and hopefully make it up to a jog.

I hear stories of people who start running to get in shape and fall in love with running. I hope I am one of those people...but I don't see how that is possible. You see, I would almost say I hate jogging. I won't go so far as to say hate. We teach the kids not to say that. So I fall just below hate in how I feel about jogging. I tell you that so you will know how far I have to go to love it. I admit, I am just hoping for "I don't mind it."

That's how I feel today and we'll take another look in 21 days!

Yesterday was day 1. I was told about a program called Couch to 5K from a friend. I thought I'd try. It was hard! For week 1 you were supposed to 1) walk briskly for 5 minutes, 2) jog for 60 seconds, 3) walk for 90 seconds. It said to continue the jog/walk pattern for a total of 20 minutes, including the beginning walk. I made it 4 rotations. I jogged 4 times not jog/walk for a total of 4. So I did it right for 14 minutes, 6 minutes short. But, I did walk for another 22 minutes so I felt OK for my first attempt. It calls for 3xs per week but I will be working on every day for 3 weeks. Then we'll reevaluate.

So has blogging for 21 days created a habit in me to blog daily? I'm not sure. I guess the test begins now. I think more about blogging. I don't forget as easily. I'm not sure I will hold myself to every day but we shall see!

Anyone else want a 21 day challenge? Come on and join me!

Monster Project

So I told you we were doing a "monster project" on Friday afternoon. It was fun and got the kids energized about Geography.

I read a blog called Oh My Stinkin Heck. It's by a homeschooling mom of 3. They are so quirky and they embrace their individuality so much and I love that!

Anyway, they are studying geography as well this year. They have a monster mascot for their homeschool. So in this post there was a monster to download and decorate. The assignment was to take a photo with your monster somewhere in your city and e-mail it in. They'll be mapping everyone's locations.

It sounded like a lot of fun and we took...oh, about 80 photos! We were in Panama City with a few extra hours between co-op and the evening end of semester program so we decided to take our pictures in PCB since there were so many great choices for locations! Here are a few of my faves. Most of them are silly but we were out to have a good time.

Colin and Grace with their monsters, Zene and Polly, with a Mark V helmet at the Naval Experimantal Diving Unit or NEDU.

Grace and Whitney wearing MK20 hats at NEDU.

 Polly in the EX14 helmet again at NEDU.

Zene in the EX14 helmet with crazy Colin. 

The kids were not too thrilled with the recompression treatment chamber at NEDU. But, maybe it was because this was about the 50th photo so far and they were hungry... 

The kids with a life-sized (JAKE) Mark V at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center or NDSTC.

With a replica of a ARS50 class salvage ship. I know this because we were corrected when Colin saw the "battle ship!"

And a couple of pics in front of the PCB welcome center.

Pictures from co-op

First off I have to say we are having computer issues. It is totally why this post is 12 hours later than the others. As for why this one is 3 days after I said it would be...well, that's not computer problems! :o)

This picture of Colin and his lion was from Spanish class. The students sang a song in Spanish about animals and the kids each held an animal they were singing about.

In case you can't tell, this picture is of Grace signing. I can't remember the name of the song they signed but they also siged two Bible verses. It was very impressive!

The last two pictures are of the kids with their science class. We are studying Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day and their shirts are actually painted with real fish! You go, Ms Kelly! All three science classes are quoting Genesis 1:21.

It was a fun program and it, along with co-op itself, gives the kids that "learning with peers" and teamwork that homeschooling can be lacking if you always stay home. I was once told that the hardest thing for homeschoolers is to stay home and school. I didn't understand that then but I do now. There is so much to do and so much to learn outside of textbooks!

Oldies but Googies

I know. I know. I said I was going to post pictures from the co-op program but they are all still on my camera. And I know I was going to tell you all about our monster project but again, I need the pictures off my camera and I just did not get that done. Maybe later today. :o)

Grace and I worked really, really hard in her room today. Her closet was a mess. So much that things would not fit in there anymore. American Girl doll along with tons of accessories, empty toilet paper rolls, art supplies, sock puppets, markers, crayons, notebooks, perler bead projects...these are all things that began to pile up in the two empty corners of her room without their space available in the closet. And those piles were creeping closer to the center of the room. It was depressing to walk in there! I knew she could not have her Christmas tree this year if we didn't empty those corners! She worked hard with me and we got it done but it took a large part of our day.

After dinner the kids and I piled in bed to watch Annie. We watched the old version from 1982. Interestingly, Whitney found things he needed to take care of in the garage...for the whole movie! LOL! I have fond memories of watching the movie and I remember loving it as a child. I do not, however, remember Carol Burnett's character being a drunk. I also do not remember her being in skimpy undergarments (a lot) nor do I remember her hitting on several men in the movie. We fondly remember those old classics as being so wholesome! Story lines were a bit more wholesome and the language was much cleaner. But come on! We had a sleazy drunk in this old classic. I don't remember that from my childhood and maybe my kids won't either!

Co-op Program

We had a great time last night at our end of the semester co-op program. I'll post some photos later today after I have had time to download them. The kids did a great job and we couldn't be prouder. 

Whitney was so proud that he proposed a Chastain Dinner. What's a Chastain Dinner you might ask. Well, a Chastain Dinner last night was ice cream, Blizzards from Dari-Queen to be exact. Sometimes it is cake or cookies but last night it was ice cream. Actually, most of the time it is a Chastain Breakfast, not Dinner. It's quite a well known event in Whitney's family! Anyway...

Colin's Spanish class sang a song in Spanish about animals. It was really cute!

Grace's sign language class signed a song and 2 Bible verses. I was quite impressed with all they had learned! One hour a week for just 13 or so weeks...they really worked hard and learned so much!

The kids are both taking Zoology 2 which is Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. Their classes quoted a Bible verse. They all wore shirts made in class, necklaces too. The shirts were a fun project. They used real fish (whole fish) and painted the fish and then used it as a stamp to transfer painted fish shapes to the shirts. I say it was a fun project because I just took pictures. I didn't have to touch the fish. Yippee! I'm so thankful for co-op, otherwise I might have had to do that project at home. Yuck! LOL!

I'll post pictures later today, then blog about our monster project and more about India in the coming days. Have a fantastic weekend!