My Simple Diary: Week 44 of 2011

Outside my window……

Friday we got some much needed rain. This weekend we had highs in the upper 60's and lows in the 30's. Today, Halloween, our high is supposed to be 67 and our low 37 and it's supposed to be bright and sunny. Should be beautiful weather for trick or treating tonight.

Something that made me smile this week…..


Camden came in and said "look mom, I'm a robot!" :)

Something that made me laugh this week……




Quote of the week……




Currently watching……

We finished Season 3 of Top Shot (a history channel show) this past week. We have been watching the season on hulu. We were sooooo excited to see that Dustin won the finale as he was the guy we were rooting for pretty much from the start.




In the kitchen……

This past week we had for dinners Chili and Corn Muffins, Chicken Lasagna rolls, Homemade Fettuchini, pizzas, leftovers, and Taco Bell. This week I plan to fix for dinners, Baked Potatoes, leftover Chili, Crustless Cheese Quiche with muffins and bacon, meatloaf, mashed potatoes with country white gravy and biscuits, chicken with wild rice soup and muffins, and pancakes with scrambled eggs.

For breakfasts it will mainly be cereals and on some mornings smoothies and muffins. I have one breakfast casserole using frozen hash browns that I plan to try one morning and I have a blueberry coffee cake to make on another. I plan on doing sandwiches, homemade pizzas, and leftovers for most lunches this week. Going to try to clean out the refrigerator since it's the end of the month and I will be buying groceries again at the end of this week.

I tried out two new recipes this past week- both were recipes I found over on Pinterest.

The first was a recipe called,

Beecher's Flagship Cheese Sauce from Martha Stewart Living.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
14 ounces cheddar cheese, preferably Flagship, grated (about 3 1/2 cups)
2 ounces Jack cheese, preferably Just Jack, grated (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions

Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat; whisk in flour. Continue whisking and cooking for 2 minutes.
Slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Cook, stirring frequently, until sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Add cheeses, salt, chile powder, and garlic powder. Stir until cheese has melted and all ingredients are well incorporated, about 3 minutes. Use immediately or refrigerate up to 3 days. To reheat sauce, place in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until heated through.


The Cheese Sauce


The sauce tossed with our noodles. This recipe was delicious! All of the kids and myself loved it. The kids begged me to make it again. I must say I had never thought of using garlic powder and chili powder in my cheese sauces prior to seeing and doing this one. This was by far the creamiest and best homemade mac and cheese that I have made so far and I've tried quite a few recipes through the years. So excited to have discovered this one!

The 2nd recipe was for Bryans birthday. I made,

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars.


Oh my goodness these were amaZing!

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

Cheesecake Filling:
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:
3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel topping, recipe follows
1/2 cup caramel topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a 9x13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

Streusel Topping:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. I like to really combine it by using my clean hands to thoroughly combine the butter into the mixture.

This was a recipe that was adapted from Paula Deen. It makes a lot. In fact I sent a tray of them to Bryans work the next day and we still had plenty for our family. Bryan said everyone at his work loved them too. Hint- the recipe says to serve them cool/cold and they are indeed much better when cooled or even right out of the refrigerator once the caramel hardens some. Definitely a keeper of a recipe!


My favorite thing about this past week……

Bryan and I spent Saturday out just the two of us. A rare treat. I enjoyed the conversation. We ate lunch at a new place that was recommended to us. It's called Joe's Italian Restaurant in Alabaster, AL. It's off the beaten path so you really wouldn't know it was even there other than through word of mouth. It's a family run business and the food is very authentic and wonderful!

The first Joe's Italian Restaurant was established in June of 1981 in Gilroy, California by Giuseppe and Elvira Bertolone. Joe and Mamma emigrated from Italy in 1977 with their small children Michael and Sonia. Joe's quickly became a beloved local icon and Gilroy landmark and has been featured in the Library of Congress and on the Food Network.

After dedicating 27 years of their lives to their successful family restaurant business, Joe and Mamma decided to retire, subsequently selling their beloved restaurant in early 2007, and relocating to Alabama to be closer to their daughters Mary and Sonia. Soon after, their son Michael, decided to join the rest of the family in Alabama and the new adventure begins to unfold.

The family has joined forces to bring Joe's to Alabaster, Alabama. It was a beautiful and very authentic Italian experience. Joe and Mamma were at the restaurant when we got there on Saturday and it was around 2pm. In fact, the kitchen is open so you can watch them cook from your table and Mamma was the main one cooking in the kitchen that afternoon. You could tell she treated the entire place like her children as she was watching the tables and making sure everyone was happy as she was cooking. She even stopped and went over and closed the blinds when she saw that the sun was coming through on another couple. The food was delicious. I tried their ravioli and Bryan had their shrimp fettucini. Their olive oil dip that they serve you with bread before your meal was delicious too. It's definitely a place to try out if you live locally. If you do go- you MUST try out their strawberry cake! It is AMAZING! One piece is huge so Bryan and I split it. Best strawberry cake I have ever had.


Another fun moment this past week was that some of the kids best friends, Amorie and Jaylen dropped by for a surprise visit on Friday afternoon. The kids were soooo excited to see them again as they moved earlier this year.

A few of my favorite photo(s) from this past week……


For Bryans birthday this past Monday.


We made a snack one day of sliced apples with nutella and marshmallows inside of them and tried to make them look like a mouth. :)

Happy Halloween, friends!
~Jen

Excellence in Literature: English I: Introduction to Literature~ TOS Review

As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew we were sent English 1: An Introduction to Literature to review from Excellence in Literature.

Aimed at grades 8-12, Introduction to Literature is a college-preparatory literature and composition course. Focus works, including novels, short stories, poems, and drama, have been selected for literary quality, and for their place in the historical development of literature. Context readings provide background information about the author, the historical period, and the literary and artistic context of the focus work.

Students will gain an understanding of the development of literature and will practice the skills of close literary analysis through essays, approach papers, and other evaluative writing. Janice Campbell is the author of Excellence In Literature and you can read more about how she chose the books that she has used in Excellence in Literature, HERE.

By the end of the course, students will:

* Understand the process of writing, including the use of tools such as a writer’s handbook, dictionary, and thesaurus.

* Have specific understanding of selected representative texts by major authors of the periods studied.

* Have a general understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of the works.

*Be able to analyze literary texts and present thoughtfully developed ideas in writing.

*Demonstrate competence in essay organization, style, and mechanics.

Unit 1 of the course contains multiple short stories including The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allen Poe, A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett, A Worn Path by Eudora Welty, and more.

The rest of the Units in this course cover two stories. One mandatory and one for honors credit. Their are 9 units/chapters total to the course and the rest of the units cover the following books, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift.

The program offers extra reading for honors students. Some of those items are additional works by authors used in the regular part of the program and other items are context works that will help to round knowledge of each literary period. You can read more about the honors program and what it includes, HERE.

Excellence in Literature is available in print book format for the cost of $29.00 + $4.95 Priority Mail Shipping. The print book is 8 x 11 and 132 pages in length. The program is also available as an e-book for the cost of $27.00 with instant access and is designed to be printed double sided and put in a 3 ring binder.

Who is the author- Janice Campbell?

Janice and her husband Donald homeschooled their four sons from pre- school into college, with an educational philosophy most closely aligned with the Charlotte Mason and Thomas Jefferson schools of thought. She holds a B.A. in English (honors) from Mary Baldwin College, and has worked as a freelance writer, editor, and conference speaker since the 1980s.

Janice has focused on writing and speaking at about things that matter for over two decades. She is the author of the Excellence in Literature curriculum for grades 8-12, Transcripts Made Easy and Get a Jump Start on College. She is also Director of the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (NAIWE). Whether teaching high school students to love literature or teach- ing writers and entrepreneurs how to create multiple streams of income, Janice’s focus is on lighting lamps so that others can more easily find their way. Her websites offer inspiration, resources, and a free e-newsletter. You can learn more about Janice over on her blog, HERE.

OUR THOUGHTS:

I was thrilled when I realized we were receiving this program to review. I can honestly say after looking through the program thoroughly and starting it, that it is a bright and beautiful rose among so many other English programs that are available.

The entire purpose of this program is to help students read and analyze literature. The books do not come with the program, with the exception of links to the short stories used in Chapter 1, but the titles used are classics and will probably be familiar ones for any homeschool parent. I am in fact guessing that most homeschool homes may own many of the titles used in this program. If not, they are titles that should be readily available at your local library. The program is designed to be self-directed, with week by week lesson plans, however, if your student has not mastered grammar well yet or has never analyzed a book before, they will probably need some guidance at first. While this is a reading program, writing is a huge part of it as your student analyzes the titles. This is a college prep program and I personally feel that it digs deeper than other English programs I have seen. Thinking critically is a huge aspect of this program.

In Chapter 1 with the short stories a couple of the links to the stories were broken but a quick search on the Internet made some of them readily available. Janice does state that links are updated often with this program. Your student will be writing a compare and contrast essay for the short stories used in Chapter 1.

One of the things that I love about this program is that for Chapters 2-9, Janice has included background info on the authors as well as links to include poetry, music related to books, and visual images that relate to the stories. It gives your student a better feel for the authors themselves and makes the books all the more personal. The manual suggests that your student read each selected story over a two-week time period but you the parent are free to schedule this program out as you see fit for your student(s). Writing author profiles are expected and Janice has included resources that can be used to further research the authors. Your students are also expected to write essays on specific questions that are given for each title.

If your looking for a challenging, college prep writing course for your middle schooler or high schooler then I would highly recommend Excellence in Literature. Many of you may be familiar with the writing courses from IEW- Institute for Excellence in Writing. Our children use them and we have been highly impressed by them. They endorse Excellence in Literature. In fact, American and British Literature (other units) are co-published with Andrew Pudewa’s Institute for Excellence in Writing.

Excellence in Literature offers reading and writing courses for grades 8-12.



In addition to this course they offer, E2: Literature and Composition, E3: American Literature, E4: British Literature, and E5: World Literature. To see a listing of the books used in all of the above click, HERE.

Thank you to Excellence in Literature for the opportunity to review this amazing program. To view what others on the TOS Homeschool crew are saying about it click, HERE.

Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Homeschool Crew we were sent this program for FREE in exchange for my honest review on this blog. No other compensation was received. All opinions on this blog are my own.




“Reading is a conversation between a reader and an author.” ~ From Excellence in Literature

7 Weeks Past 40: and Still Reflecting on my 30's

My last post left off in June 2005.

I mentioned in a previous post that we were one of the first families to move in our street. It was fun to see other families join us throughout those first 6 months of 2005. By that summer every house but one on our street was finished with being built and various families had moved in. We got to know the immediate families around us pretty quickly. The kids played outside together every afternoon which helped us parents communicate and get to know each other even faster than we probably would have other wise. We were the only homeschooling family on the street but that didn't matter. We came to love our neighbors their in Indian Trail. Within the first 12 houses on our street we ended up with 24 children. Of course 6 of those were ours. :) After we moved away- so did all but 2 of the families though most still remain in NC, yet we have all remained in touch with one another. One of the families directly across from us was a young couple with a son that was 7 at the time. The grandma lived with them. She was home all day long like us and so our family got to know her well. Our kids loved Ms. Pat! I loved talking to her when the kids were out playing. She housesat for us on occasion. She too had Fibromyalgia so we could relate to one another on that level.

That July we invited the family that had just moved in next door to us over for a cook-out. She was a single recently divorced mom with 3 children. They joined us for hamburgers, potato salad, chips, dip, etc. Bryan bought a huge stash of fireworks and that evening when dark hit we all ended up outside with the rest of our neighbors. The kids lined the street and Bryan set the fireworks off for everyone in the middle of our street. This set precedence for a tradition during our 3 years in Indian Trails.


July 2005


The kids made the construction paper flags that are hanging on our fireplace that year.




The kids doing their own 4th of July parade in our house that morning.


With our new neighbors that evening.




Annie




Emmy




That's Maura in between Emmy and Annie. She was their closest friend in NC. Emmy and her stay in touch via facebook now.


Bryan setting off the fireworks in the street.

In NC you could actually buy the big fireworks to set off on your street. You know- the high in the sky ones. We had fun with that. It wasn't allowed in TN or AL in the places we had previously lived nor could we ever do it growing up in CA.

That August we took a trip down to South Carolina. It was our first time to visit the state outside of driving through it.



We went to a children's museum that I had heard really great things about from some of my fiar sisters. The museum was called EdVenture Children's Museum and it was in Columbia, SC. When you first walk into the museum you are greeted by big Eddie!


Big Eddie! Can you see Bryan and the kids by his feet? LOL! Yup- he was HUGE! Three stories high.




You can climb all through Eddie, including his organs, digestive tract, and organs, and gather the foods that are planted their. LOL! That's Bryan with a steak from Eddie's stomach.


A slide winds it's way all through Eddie from the 3rd story to the bottom. Here's Houston coming out on the bottom level.

Edventure was a huge museum, advertised as the largest children's museum in the south and I can believe it. To date it has been the best children's museum we have visited.


Shopping in the recreated grocery store.




Natalie


Checking out












Gardening








Weatherman Houston


Houston was crazy about Australia at this age thanks to Steve Erwin the crocodile hunter. The museum had an entire section on Australia which really excited him!


Seeing how far they can jump compared to a Kangaroo


An Aussie store- this was so cool as everything on the shelves were products you could find only in Australia.


A Cafe










Ally in the music room

While in SC we were able to visit an exhibit for the Children's book, Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World by Anabel Kindersley. It was a fantastic exhibit. Here are just a few pictures from it.












Russian section




India

And that's it for this week.....to be cont.......

"Every man's memory is his private literature." ~Aldous Huxley