Snow day – seizing the moment

Our car in the snow this morning

Our car in the snow this morning

We’re getting hit by a lovely snowstorm here. It started snowing in the wee hours yesterday, and isn’t supposed to let up until tonight. We’re getting a good amount of accumulation.

We’re measuring the snow every three hours (during the day – I’m not THAT dedicated) and recording it. Tomorrow, we’ll make a graph of the snowfall. It has felt very steady, and it will be interesting to see if it really has been, or if it has fallen in

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Five minute microwaved spiced pecans recipe

About a month ago, I shared my recipe for microwaved candied pecans. I called them spiced pecans, though, and I mentioned that I also make a spicier (hotter) version, and then after I posted, I realized that the sweet ones were probably more candied than spiced, so I changed their name.

I also have now figured out a way to make my oven-made spiced pecans (the hotter ones – is this confusing enough yet?) in the microwave, so I thought I’d share.

5-minute Microwave Spiced Pecans

Microwaved Spiced Pecans

Microwaved Spiced Pecans

3 tablespoons butter
3/4 teaspoon

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Menu Plan Monday and Recipe for Italian Soup

Last week didn’t go exactly as planned – things got crazy busy! So we’ll be having our salmon this week.

Menu Plan

Dinners:
Sunday – Italian Soup with garlic bread sticks (see below)
Monday – Chicken with Shallots
Tuesday – Salmon with Primordial Ooze
Wednesday – Salmon Salad
Thursday – Something from the freezer
Friday – Kids at their dad’s
Saturday – Kids at their dad’s

Breakfasts:
Farina, oatmeal, smoothies, cold cereal

Lunches:
Quesadillas, PB&J, eggs in hats, beans and wienies

Years and years ago, I’d had a soup at an Italian restaurant that I was enchanted with, and so I tried to duplicate it at home. This is when I was first

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Free Math Curriculum

This is one of the most amazing things on the internet, at least to me: A completely free math curriculum. This page has math curriculum from first grade all the way to high school. There are printable worksheets, full lesson plans, and even online interactive curriculum. And the whole thing is free.

It makes it really simple for me to email math assignments to my kids. My kids don’t respond well to a “mommy lectures us” form of teaching, so this way they can learn independently, asking me for help when needed.

We do supplement with lots of real-life math (cooking, writing

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Homemade Slice and Bake Cookies

Chocolate chip butterscotch cookies

Chocolate chip butterscotch cookies

When I bake cookies, I tend to lose interest after the first cookie sheet-ful is baked. After all, we’ve got our hot-from-the-oven cookie fix, but I don’t want all the rest of the dough to go to waste. I also don’t mind having ready to bake cookies available. Some folks just refrigerate the dough, but I find cold dough difficult to scoop. Other people scoop it out into cookie size dollops and freeze those – that way, when they want freshly baked cookies, they can

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Taco Salad Recipe

Doodle, my 15 year-old, was in Texas visiting her grandmother for the last two weeks. She came home last night! We wanted to eat dinner together, but she didn’t get home until late, so I wanted something that I could do most of the cooking ahead of time, and just throw it together when she got home. Taco salad fit the bill!

Taco Salad Recipe

Serves 4

Taco salad

Taco salad

1/2 pound hamburger
1/2 cup salsa
1 head of iceberg lettuce
1 cup of pinto beans
1 cup of shredded cheese
2 cups corn chips
Salsa and sour cream for

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Menu Plan and Recipe for Meatball Subs (and meatballs!)

Dinners

Sunday: Meatball Subs (see below)
Monday: Taco Salad
Tuesday: Sherry’s Chicken with Noodles
Wednesday: Salmon with Primordial Ooze
Thursday: Fend for yourself night
Friday: Salmon Salad
Saturday: Kids at Gramma’s
Sunday: Chicken Picatta

Lunches

Grilled cheese, quesadillas, PB&J, cheese and meat sandwiches, eggs in hats, beans and weinies

Breakfasts

Cinnamon rolls, cereal, farina, oatmeal, smoothies, mmmuffins

Meatball Sub Sandwiches

Meatball submarine sandwiches

Meatball submarine sandwiches

1 batch of hoagie rolls
3 cups of marinara sauce
1/2 batch of meatballs (see below)
8 slices provolone
1/4 cup parmesan, grated

Heat the meatballs in the sauce over medium heat until the sauce begins to boil. Immediately turn the heat down to a slow

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Whole wheat cinnamon chip pancakes recipe

This has become one of our favorites. I am in love with the flavor combination of whole wheat and cinnamon. Of course, I am about cinnamon the way other people are about chocolate, so I’m kind of guaranteed to love this.

I buy my cinnamon chips at King Arthur Flour, but I recently found them at The Prepared Pantry, and I’ll be ordering them to see if they are the same quality (they look just the same, don’t they?). The KAF chips have fantastic flavor and a perfect consistency.

Whole wheat cinnamon chip pancakes

I make very tasty
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Learning in the Car

A year and a half ago, we moved to the opposite side of town from where we’d lived for years (the reasons are kind of pointless now). Now it takes 45 minutes to drive to my mother’s house, and at least that to drive to field trips with our old homeschool group. My kids would object to even the most fun field trips, because the drive was so boring for them.

Then a few months ago, I bought a CD set of an audiobook of the history of the United States and we started listening to that in the car. The

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One Run Purple Racehorse

One Run Purple Race Horse

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

When I’m running out of the house for a gallon of milk and eggs and one of my kids says, “Oh, Mom, we also need peanut butter,” they are used to me responding with “One run purple racehorse…”

My ex-father-in-law taught me this memory trick over 20 years ago, and I still use it almost daily. He told me he learned it at a Dale Carnegie workshop, and I believe him, but any search I come up with on the web doesn’t mention purple racehorses, so

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