Day Four of the Creation

Before we started studying the Creation, we read the scriptures for the exact account.

First we read it in Genesis, then we read it in the book of Moses, and finally, the book of Abraham.  All three are essentially the same, but I wanted the girls to be able to know that with the scriptures, there are multiple witnesses of the events, prophesies, and teachings written.

Since we are studying each day more in depth, including science, I decided that we needed to read at least one of the accounts, for that day before we begin.  Both girls love reading the scriptures, and they are very good at pronouncing the difficult words.  I can't think of a better way to become a strong reader.

Baby K was learning sorting.

Day four, God divided the day from the night, and created the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night.  He also created the stars.  The scriptures say, "and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years;" (Moses 2: 14).  A great opportunity to study the seasons, and time, right?  Well, next week, we are going to create our own sun dial.  I'll post that in a separate post.

 So I found a website that had a diagram of the Earth's rotation and revolution around the sun (that is the diagram that I drew on my marker board -pictured below-, but I had to erase part of it before I thought of taking a picture..so visit the link to see the full diagram).  Along with the diagram, I drew the four seasons that we usually experience.

My Diagram

I taught them about how the earth is on the axis, and it spins.  One rotation taking a full day.  Then we talked about how the earth revolves or orbits the sun, and it takes 365 days aka 1 year to make it all the way around the sun.  We then discussed that the earth is positioned at different angles toward the sun as it revolves... which causes the seasons to change.  You can see it in the diagram.

I needed a way to show them what it means to spin on the axis, and luckily, the Lord is on my side, because He fed me the idea that I needed to get the point across... in a fun way!

What you need:

1 apple
1 chopstick

Insert the chopstick through the center of the apple.  I suggest pushing it through from the top side, across the core and out the opposite bottom side.  That way, you can see the differences around your "earth" as you pretend to make the apple revolve around the "sun."  In this case, we used a trick-or-treat pumpkin to represent the sun.  Spin the apple on the chopstick, while you make it revolve around your sun.  

Baby K saw the apple on a stick, and he insisted that he have it.  So, we made up a fun Creation Day Four snack!  Apple on a stick.  Big T, and Little H both got one too!   

We finished up our lesson with vocabulary words, that both girls wrote 3 times.

Fun lesson!

Now it is on to sewing Little H's Halloween costume!  The kid's costumes are a surprise!  Don't worry, I'll post pictures!

Sincerley,

Evelyn   

Day Three of the Creation

We are plugging away nicely here with the Creation.  I suppose we are taking our time with it.  Fun activities here and there, pointing to the glorious world we live in, the animals, the plants, everything.  The following are the things I happened to remember to get pictures of!

Day three of the Creation, God divided the dry land and the water, naming the dry land earth, and the water, seas.  He also caused all of the plants, trees, and seed yielding herbs to come forth out of the earth.

Lady Bug coloring her earth with its land and seas,
and writing the information she's learned.

Bunny (Big T) and Lady Bug (Little H) helped come up with our vocabulary list that went with the topic.

We learned some fun ways to draw trees, and we made a list of some plants and trees that grow.

Source: iheartprintsandpatterns.blogspot.com via Evelyn on Pinterest

I like going with the flow of the lesson, and I have that we should go out of the house in hunt for tree leaves.  We have an awesome book on trees that my wonderful Aunt Janet gave me when I graduated from high school.

*Side story:  Aunt Janet visited us in Idaho a lot.  I always loved spending time with her, as she was so much fun, and I think we are kindred spirits.  I had a news paper route that I worked from about the age of 7 or 8 to 14 or so.  When she would visit, she would come with me.  I always took my time, playing along the way.  An hour (walking) job, usually took me 2 or more hours.  I remember her looking at this really huge tree.  The trunk had to be 6 feet in diameter!  She remarked on how big it was, and mentioned that it had to be at least 100 years old.  I was fascinated.  I think that sparked something in me, because from then on, I paid attention to trees.  I love trees.  I guess, that is in thanks to her!  So when I graduated, she must have noticed that my love of trees lived strong, because she sent me this book, that I've referred to many times!  It is packed full of information about all of the different trees, with ways to tell what they are by the bark, leaves, and shape.*

So I thought we'd use that book to identify the leaves we find, based on the descriptions and pictures.  As we looked them up, we will string them up to hang somewhere as a fall decoration!  Fun fun!  Now we just need a free morning to do it!

Our kitchen is our best workspace.  It just goes to show, homeschooling in a tiny house is doable!

Homemade Pizza Sauce

One day, a few months ago, I had planned meals for the week, and shopped for those ingredients.  On one of those days, I had planned to make pizza.  As I got the dough rolled out then slipped it in the oven for the "pre-bake," I realized that I had failed to purchase any pizza sauce.

I've made my own dough before, but I had never made my own sauce.  So I went to the computer, and I googled, "How to make pizza sauce from scratch."  I looked at a few different recipes, and of course they all had tomato.  I was short on time and was limited on the extra ingredients needed.  So I scoured the ingredients I did have, and I came up with the following.

Homemade Pizza Sauce  

1  Roasted red pepper      

1  small can tomato sauce

Blend the two ingredients together in a blender, or in a food processor.  The particular bottle of roasted red peppers that I have has seasonings and such in it.  It seems like it has about 3 full red peppers in it.  I did my best at pulling out the equivalent of 1 pepper.  Then I stored the rest for later.

Spread the mixture on top of the pizza dough.  I usually buy the Pillsbury roll out dough when I don't want to spend so much time and effort making the dough (I like my pizzas to be one of those quick meals).  Add your toppings, and cheese, and bake as directed.

 I forgot to take a picture of the pizza after I baked it...it was quickly devoured by the hungry children for lunch today!

The sauce has a little zing to it, and it tastes so great!  We all love it!  Even Baby K!  And he is the most picky of them all!

It was a good lunch for us today!

Sincerely,

Evelyn

Daily Reminder

I don't know why I don't watch this every day.  I think that if I am reminded this daily, it will do me wonders.  I think it is easy to forget.

I will have more posts updating the family later in the week!

Sincerely, 

Evelyn

Activity Day: FHE on Thanksgiving

Just under 3 weeks ago, I was called to be the Activity Day leader for our ward.  If you don't know what that is, I serve in our Church for free, helping the girls ages 8-11 reach various goals as they get ready for the youth program in our Church.  They get to do a lot of fun activities, learn sewing, crafting, and learn how to be teachers and leaders.

I have a great group of girls...all of which, I'm still learning their names.  That's the half the battle!

The activity for this past Wednesday was planned by the previous leader only by title.  So, it was up to me to come up with the activity behind

“… I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”

A few Saturdays ago, I attended the annual General Relief Society Broadcast.  I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of the women in our new ward with a soup dinner before the broadcast.  It was delicious, and there were many laughs shared.  Now some of the women look at me, a little more knowingly, and I them.  Slowly but surely, I'm meeting and getting to know the sisters in the area.

After the dinner, we all meandered into the chapel for the broadcast.  We were so edified and uplifted through the first talk... then our Internet connection failed, and we did not get to finish the full broadcast.  Even though we missed most of it, I have to say, that I left feeling uplifted and edified.  Just that one talk was one I definitely needed to hear.

Today, while I was making dinner, I decided to play the full broadcast.  The talks were all so great... I

Crunchy Cereal- AKA Granola

Ever since I was a little girl, my mom has made what I considered as THE best granola cereal ever.  We called it Crunchy Cereal.  I'm not sure if it is the official name, but I do know that my oldest brothers would sift through it to eat all of the "cruchies," leaving none for anyone else! ha ha... The cruchies are the clumps of honey, oats, and sugar.  Which is something that has carried over to my family.  Big T especially, and Hoss.... okay, and myself, loves to pick out the crunchies!  Really, all five of us like them...what's not to like?

So, recently, I was texting my good friend Shawna, and she mentioned that she was making granola

Helaman's Stripling Warriors

I have been doing a lot of thinking about General Conference this past Saturday and Sunday.  It was amazing, and it was just what I needed after the 6 month wait from last April.  What exciting changes that are being made!  Missionary work is going to keep moving forward, and we all have the opportunity to get more involved! 

I read a blog post yesterday, that hit the nail on the head, in terms of how I feel about it all (Conference, the topics, and applying them in my life).  Go here to read

Our Homes are Pre-Missionary Training Centers! 

It is totally worth the time!

Many of the talks were witnesses to me of what I need to be focusing more of my time on as a mother, and as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  I don't want to stand before Him and have Him ask me three times if I love Him...because I just didn't get "It."  I have lots of room to improve when it comes to missionary work.  I mean,

Sick Day and The First 2 Days

This is how us girls started the day.
Hovered over steaming bowl of water,
with a few drops of peppermint oil.
A good way to clear out
those sinuses.

 Today, more than half of us woke up sick.  A cold has been threatening us all week long.  Big T was the first to get it, then Baby K, then Little H, then Hoss.....and this morning, I woke up with it.  I've been sneezing all day and have the worst sinus pressure.  Not to mention the aches and fatigue coming on.  Ick.  I hate being sick.  So today was one of those lounge around kind of days.  I'm so grateful that I got the dishes done last night.  It would have made today frustrating.  

I took the opportunity to edit some photos, and create some blog posts.  I've had a bunch of

So Tired

I am usually pretty tired on Mondays.  Sunday, while being a day of rest, usually winds up being one of my busiest.  Since we moved, it hasn't been quite as bad for me...since I'm no longer serving in the young women's organization.  That is one busy calling, and it keeps one on her toes!  I suppose that yesterday should have been extra restful, since it was General Conference, and we got to lounge in our jammies for longer than usual.  That was nice.  (By the way, my new calling as of a few weeks ago is Activity Day leader!  I'm excited about it!  Hoss's calling is 1st counselor to the Elder's Quorum President.  He has really liked it...especially since the president is very gung-ho)!

But what really has me so tired today was the events that transpired last night...okay, well technically early in the morning.

Well, let me back up.  We got to bed at a reasonable hour.  My new goal is to go to bed by 10pm every night (with the exception of date night - Fridays).  I tend to stay up way too late... causing me to pay for it the next day.  It has become a cycle that I've developed over the years.  So, last night, I

Facebook and Some Pictures

Today marks 1 week, and 2 days that I have deleted my facebook account.  It was a decision long in the making.  I put it off for so long, because it is the easiest way to stay in contact with family and friends that live far away.  Months ago,  I went as far as "unfriending" just about half of my friends.  If it was you, it wasn't anything personal.  I just decided to cut my friend list down to family (extended included, and friends I interact with all the time). 

A Magic Kind of Day

The girls have been learning about the Creation and everything in it.  We read the Creation directly from Genesis, then we compared it to Moses.  After doing that, I thought it would be fun to cover the universe!  We have so many tools at our fingertips to help us in our homeschool journey!  The Internet is chuck full of resources!  So, we began our research on the sun, the planets, the moons, and the stars in our universe!  Did you know that Mars has two moons that are not perfect spheres?  That is because both of those moons do not have a strong enough gravity to pull itself into the tight sphere!  Our universe is full of wonder!  I feel so blessed that we have it to ponder and learn about!

In the last few days, I have been doing more research on lapbooks.  We have been making everything

Lapbooks

Today was a bit cold outside.  Okay, for a native Idahoan referring to 65 degree weather as cold is pretty much disgraceful.  I'm sorry.  The south has a way of weakening any cold blooded person!  But, even a now southern girl, can appreciate the soft cool breezes that come with 65 degree, sunny weather!  So today, after some work on our school project, we headed to the park!  I call it the dinosaur park.

It is a brand new park!  Finished at the end of the summer, with fun new toys that spin, and