Family Day

Our Family Saturday...

Nature Sight-seeing

Bird Watching

Day Trip

Clothes Shopping

Library Trip

Park Play Fun

A wonderful day together enjoying each other and enjoying nature around us.

{this moment}

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{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Linking to Soule Mama 

 Silly pup with his playful growls, hopping to and fro and head shaking, so much fun to watch!

Playtime for this boy and his pup. Love seeing the love between them.

Wild Turkeys

Bird watching from our own front porch....6 wild turkeys made their way across our yard. Beautiful, quirky fun birds. And so prompted some research and study for our morning.

Return of the Wild Turkey video, Produced by Missouri Dept. of Conservation (1970).

Nature Watching...beauty surrounds us wherever we look.

Creative Morning

Yesterday when talking about what we wanted to do for the day in learning...everyone was on the page for something creative...our daughter looked up tutorials and worked on her sewing. Our son and I baked blueberry muffins- he only needed my help for sitting them in the oven otherwise he made them himself..and then went to learn a few new songs on the piano. Momma played piano too and looked up some crafting/sewing tutorials online as well. We listened to music, chatted about our creative interests and had a relaxing morning together.

 A photo taken by our son..since hubbie and I don't have that many photo's of ourselves!

Thankful for Friday...because it brings the weekend tomorrow. This momma is looking forward to sleeping in, and getting a break from a busy work week to clean house and have a family outing too.

Snow Play & Deer

Snow filled play engulfed our day...as our son has the start of an ice barricade going on and I hand shoveled most of our drive. All I could think was that I really didn't have to have done my work out video that morning because shoveling was a work out itself! First un buried the car then shoveled the drive or most of it. Our daughter came out to say hello to the neighbors dog who was busy watching our son and then eating snow, a few quick pets to the pup and we encouraged him to go on home. Then we all left the house to go to the library and then on a small drive with the family up into a neighborhood area we had seen close by on the maps that had several homes for sale. Being it had just snowed yesterday the tree's were heavily covered and luckily the roads were pretty clear. We saw several groups of deer on our drive. Frolicking looking like they were prancing and playing together. Their tails wagging as they ran. What a fun sight. A quick glimpse on my camera before they took off.

Blending in so well...beautiful deer amongst the tree's and snow.

Crafting & Into Town

Just a normal week with schooling and working. The kids finished up a documentary about Benjamin Franklin as they've been studying American History and Colonial Times and are now moving into the American Revolution. Our daughter has been working hard at math skills and our son has been taking to reading more independently on his own and seems to be enjoying it more. Those are two things they struggle with individually that seem to be coming along. Piano was played his week...new songs learned. Our son found a mini-hymn book and has been learning songs from it. Yesterday our daughter worked on sewing a costume while hubbie taught our son how to make a paracord bracelet. Today brought a trip to the library and shopping in town..a few pictures captured along the road to show off the beautiful snow that has glazed everything over. A normal week is still wonderful.

May your week be blessed with happiness and adventure even in the 'normal' happenings.

Buried in Snow & New Recipes

We've been free of snow for about 4 days now....we were blessed on Monday to have a member of the church send over a friend to plow our road, if not it wasn't likely we would have made it out. The snow got so heavy on our roof, it all came sliding off in a loud bang one afternoon...its nearly as tall as our 9yr old! Amazing how much snow there is. Today, after having a bit of rain after the snowfall then a bit of sun its seeming to be just a lot of ice and less snow-like. We saw deer in the daytime in our yard for the first time today. My son and I ran to grab our camera's - it was the dogs that noticed them first from our back door- of course they tried to shoo them away with loud barks, but the deer didn't budge. We went outside slowly, and lifted our camera's but right before any pictures snaped they ran behind the tree's. Gorgeous creatures- a female and male roaming around the tree's that circle our yard. The week's been filled with 4H, schooling, learning, library trips, grocery shopping and even some snowy park play. Its been a good week.

New Dishes for the week -

We had Kelp Noodle Stir Fry with yummy Kelp noodles we found in the vegan section at the store near by. Great for something different and tasted good too!

And a take on Fried Rice for our side dish with the stir fry- Recipe here:

Cauliflower-fried-rice 

I've always wanted to try it and we finally did- not as much work as I thought and the taste was so yummy! We ate it all!

Looking forward to ending the week and enjoying the weekend ahead!

A Quiet New Years...here's to 2015

Christmas came and went and we had a wonderful weekend after with a shopping trip for our daughter and eagle watching for our son- New Years week was slow, purposefully, a lot of time being at home, quiet, together. We went to a church potluck on New Years Eve and home to watch movies till midnight with the kids- just us four. It was pleasant and nice. New Years Eve my daughter and I made sugar cookies together- her favorite and my son and I made chocolate chip- his favorite. Then hubbie got the baking bite as well and spent the  next few days cooking...Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip cookies, home made Vegan Tamales with refried black beans, and banana nut bread. This man can cook, and it was all good stuff! We also tried a new recipe last week of Shrimp Jambalaya too- spicy enough for us adults but not too spicy for kids. The dogs have gotten plenty of outside time- they enjoy seeing me pull our son on the sled while they chase behind him...it gets them rather excited. We had some special time with our big girl Sadie today, just us and her in the yard without the other two pups- she enjoyed eating the snow, running and playing. She's the best listener of them all, the boys just can't be trusted :) But we love them just the same. After our pup play we ventured into Newport, WA, check out the library there for the first time, walk along the main street in town in and out of shops then pick up a few things from the grocery store and headed home. And onto a quiet eve of dinner and a movie and maybe a couple of board games or two before heading to church tomorrow and back into our schedule of school and work on Monday.

One of my goals for the new year...is to really manage my time better. I try my best, every day, every month, each year between homeschooling and working more than full time and home life but at times I feel I come up short. My priority is my children, homeschooling. I'm going to try my best not to let work or a dirty home crowd my precious time with them. So, we begin January with some excellent idea's for schooling, field trips and interests for the kids. I'm excited too, its a new start!

 Sharing our Vegan Jambalaya recipe: http://veggieconverter.com/crockpot-jambalaya-vegan/

Our slight changes - We did not use Seitan or or Vegan Sausage - we substituted Shrimp (because we do partake in seafood every once in a while)

We also used 2 cups of Veggie Broth and did cook our rice on the side.

 Our first 'tiny' snow man that Jordie named 'Bob'. He said it had to be a 3 letter name- that kid!

And onto the new year together, excited for all the possibilities the new year holds.