FHE in the Canyon

This is Ivan's superhero pose.

 Our goal was to have Family Home Evening up in the canyon, and enjoy the leaves, etc. We went a little too early in the season to see many leaves changing, and we went a little to late in the day to be able to enjoy it very long before it got dark. But we tried. We'll have to go again.

We're still dealing with Ollie's Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Yuck. What a nightmare. My older boys had it when they were little, but they didn't get it very bad. Ollie got it really bad. Blisters all over the outside and inside of his mouth, blisters on his hands and feet, and up his legs, and on his bum. Poor baby. He wasn't eating or sleeping very well. I felt so bad for him. Mostly he just wants either Aaron or I to snuggle him, So we've been doing a lot of that. But I think we're over the worst of it. I think we'll try to keep him away from everyone again this week, and then hopefully that will be that.

Thee Best Homemade Tomato Soup

I had a giant bowl full of different varieties and sizes of tomatoes that we picked from the garden this weekend that needed to be used asap. I thought I'd make some more salsa, but when I sat down at the computer to look up recipes, I came across one for tomato soup. The rain was beating down on the windows, and the thought of warm, delicious soup was too tempting to pass up. It is fall after all. So let soup season begin! And what a way to ring it in. This is thee BEST tomato soup I have ever tasted in my life.

Thee Best Homemade Tomato Soup

Ingredients

8 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 Tbsp minced garlic
2 medium chopped onions
8 whole cloves
4 cups chicken broth
3 Tbsp fresh chopped basil
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp pepper, or to taste
2 tsp white sugar, or to taste
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. In a large stock pot saute garlic in olive oil.
2. Add onions and saute until tender.
3. Add chopped tomatoes (with skins and seeds) and bring to a boil.
4. Add chicken broth, basil, and cloves and cook for about 20 minutes.
5. Run everything through a blender, then place in a large bowl and set aside.
6. In the now empty stock pot, melt butter over medium heat.
7. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture, so that no lumps form, then stir in the rest, a bit at a time.
8. Stir in sugar, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, balsamic vinegar, and cream. Heat through, and serve.

*makes about 12 servings

And the Weekend...

Thursday night Ollie was up every two hours, poor kid. He wasn't screaming, but more whimpering. He had a fever, and just seemed all around miserable. Friday morning we noticed that he had a blistery rash all around his mouth, on his hands, feet, legs, and bum. We decided to take him in to see the Doctor, who confirmed Aaron's suspicions that it was Hand Foot and Mouth. (I kept trying to deny it all the way to the Doctor's office, because HMFD is awful and I really didn't want it to be that.)

Friday night Ollie was up a lot again, and not wanting to eat much but liquids all day Saturday. I felt so bad for him. He just wanted to be held all the time, and he couldn't get comfortable enough to sleep. :(  Luckily, Heavenly Father blessed me with a LOT of patience and sympathy. I knew Ollie needed me in the night, and that made it a lot easier to get up and take care of him. (Don't worry, Aaron took his fair share of turns getting up as well. We are a team, and I love him!) And I wasn't exhausted during the day-time like I thought I would be either, but was able to manage all the kids, and their school work, while taking care of my baby. I'm very grateful for that.

Ollie started to perk up a little Saturday, which was great. He's such a happy, easy going kid anyways, but it was nice to see him smiling and teasing again. Since we can't take Ollie anywhere for awhile because he's super contagious, we had to tag-team Saturday for the older kids' soccer games. And actually, Ivan said he wasn't feeling well in the morning, so I took just Adelia to their last soccer game, and she brought his medal home for him.

Aaron took Lincoln to his game in the afternoon, (it was not his last game, he still has another one) but they ended up leaving at half time because Lincoln wasn't feeling well. By the time he got home, Linc had a fever. Yikes! Well, at least half of us won't be going to church tomorrow I guess.

Saturday evening I went to the General Women's Broadcast at my stake center. It was so good! I thought all the speakers were wonderful, but I especially loved the lady with the southern accent (I think she's a counselor in the Young Womens?), I really appriciated her testimony about the answers she received in the temple about needing to do better and use the atonement in her life; I really related to her, because I feel like often in my life when I go to the Lord thinking that what I'm seeking is comfort, I often get the answer 'Buck up buttercup. You are the one causing yourself grief, straighten out, seek the will of the Lord, and use His strength to guide you and to fill in the gaps.' And of course, I loved President Uchtdorf's message as well. Who doesn't? I am always glad when he gets assigned to speak at the Women's Meeting. :) His message was similar. He reassured us that the Lord loves us always. Which is something I think we need to understand, and which is a doctrine that can bring much hope and comfort sometimes. But he also reminded us that just because we have a Heavenly birth certificate, that doesn't guarantee us a place in the Celestial Kingdom at the end of this life. We still have work to do and choices to make to qualify for those blessings. I love that! It's so motivating. I feel like sometimes I get caught up in the "God loves us no matter what" phase. And although that is absolutely true, the reminder that I also have to work for my salvation and do my best with the time I have helps give me a purpose and a goal, and provides a meaning for this life. Anyways, the meeting was so awesome.

And here is another picture of my Delia girl. I think I took this while we were waiting for Aaron and Oliver to come out of the Doctor's office on Friday.

 
Can't you just see the personality emanating from her? Haha! Sometimes I'm not sure where she came from. She is probably the child who challenges and stretches me the most, she goes at her own pace, and does things her own way, but she brings so much joy and light and laughter to our home.  You can't help but love her. She's so excited to have a baby sister, she can hardly stand it. And I am excited for her. I always wanted a sister to have a close relationship with, and I never got one. So I'm happy for Del and this baby that they will (hopefully) have that.

3D Roller Coasters

Lincoln and Ivan and I had a really great school day today while Adelia was at preschool. We got all the normal things done super quick, and even had time to do a fun 3D Roller Coaster art project from our At Home Art Studio curriculum.

The boys got really into their Coasters. Ivan named his The Terror, and Lincoln's is The Fainter. They talked all day about how people would be so scared to ride them if they were real. :)

I like when they get into their projects. And I'm really happy to be starting up At Home Art Studio again. It's one of my favorites. This year we are doing the First Grade level, which is themed Art From Around the World, and looks like a ton of fun. I might even have to do some of the projects.

Rock Cycle and Homemade Butter

We had another awesome week of Science and History this week! I love that Wynter and I do this together, it's more fun to learn with friends, and it's very motivating to me as a teacher to have a time and a place and a lesson I need to prepare. :) 

This week I taught about the rock cycle using Starburst candies.

I found the idea on Pinterest, and I was so happy with how it turned out. Here's what you need to prep for this lesson.

-3 squares of wax paper big enough to wrap around three Starbursts
-3 squares of tin foil big enough to wrap around wax paper that's been wrapped around three Starbursts
-9 Starbursts, in three colors. (ex. 3 purple, 3 yellow, and 3 pink)

Each phase of the "rock cycle" starts the same. stack three different colored Star bursts on top of each other. (ex. purple, yellow, then pink; the more the colors contrast each other the better you'll be able to see your results.) Wrap the wax paper tightly around the Starburst stack, keep track of which side is the top. Then wrap the tinfoil tightly around the wax paper, make sure no wax paper is showing.

To make a Sedimentary Rock, have the students apply pressure with their bodies. We ended up needing to stand on our to get them nice and flat. Then unwrap. You should be able to see the different layers squished together.

To make a Metamorphic Rock you need to apply heat and pressure. Turn your oven onto Broil. Put the tin foil wrapped Star bursts onto a cookie sheet and broil on high for about a minute. You want the Starbursts to be slightly squishy, not melted. Take them out of the oven, and remove the tin foil only. Now have your students use their hands to apply pressure. You really want to squish the Starbursts together and move them all around to kind of "blend" the colors somewhat, but not all the way. Then remove from wax paper and roll into a ball.

To make and Igneous Rock you need melting and cooling. Turn your oven onto Broil. Put the tin foil wrapped Star bursts onto a cookie sheet and broil on high for about 5-7 minutes. You want the Starbursts to melt all the way. Remove from oven and remove the tin foil. Careful, it'll be really hot! Open the wax paper up, and let the melted Starbursts cool until they are solid again. Then you can pull them off the wax paper if you like.

Wynter's History lesson was equally cool. I wish I'd taken more pictures, or that the pictures I did take had at least turned out better.

She taught about how the pilgrims had to make their own food when they got to the colonies, and how hard it was. The crops they grew in England didn't grow well in America. And the plants were all new and strange. With the help of the Indians, specifically Squanto, the pilgrims were able to learn how to grow and harvest food in the new world. Wynter fed the kids popcorn and apples, (corn and apples being things that grow well in America), and then she showed them how to make homemade butter but mixing cream and salt in a jar and shaking it. The kids took turns shaking the jar, and then got to have toast with the butter they'd made. Cool. I wish my pictures didn't suck. But here they are.

Beautiful Mountains That I Love

Utah truly is a beautiful place. The picture I took on the way home from Hooper of the sunset doesn't even do it justice. (Don't worry, Aaron was driving.) I will always love the mountains.

Since I was gone all weekend, I decided the kids and I needed a fun activity to do together. That morning we'd collected one more egg than would fit in our carton in the fridge, therefore I was determined to bake something that took a few eggs. So when Lincoln got home from Harmony on Monday we made sugar cookies to have for Family Home Evening treat. It took five eggs. Score. The kids were excited to help, and had fun picking out all the different shapes of cookies cutters they wanted to use. Ivan even rolled his dough into balls and made caterpillar cookies. Ollie mostly just ate the raw dough.

On Tuesday morning Adelia's preschool class took a field trip to the library, so the boys and I went along too. We went to story time, and then got a fun tour from one of the librarians, who actually pointed out some things (particularly the art work) that I've never noticed about our library, even though we go there all the time. Then, of course, the tour ended with a peek inside the room that holds the books sorter. That's always a hit.

In the evening Aaron and I had to tag team, he took Ivan and Adelia to their soccer game, and I took Lincoln to his soccer practice. I was grateful for the opportunity to sit in my camp chair in the shade, and gaze out at the mountains that I love. Aaron had Ollie as well, so it was just a peaceful, thoughtful hour for me. I have to take those moments when I can get them.

The Great Escape: Time Out For Women 2014

Thursday afternoon I abandoned ship, and hopped a train to Hooper. :) It was time for The Great Escape. Every year I go with my mom and a few other awesome ladies to Time Out For Women, which is put on by Deseret Book. Basically it's a mix of really cool, uplifting motivational speakers, and musicians, that encourage you to be a better person, and make you laugh along the way. This year we attended the Logan event.

I look forward to this every year, not only because the conference is so good, but because the ladies I go with are some of my favorite women in the whole wide world.

 Me, Mom, Shirl, Tammy T, and Buff

During one of our breaks, we went and toured the Gossners Cheese Factory. Of course we got curds, and I also got a couple of root beer flavored chocolate milks to bring home to my kids for souvenirs.

Mom, Tammy T, Buffy, Shirley, and me

We got back to Hooper Saturday night. Aaron and the kids drove up and stayed overnight too, so he and I could go to one of the sessions of the Ogden Temple Dedication while the kids stayed with Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry. 

Such a great weekend. I don't know if I'm ready to go back to reality. 

Crystals and Cabins

Today for science, I taught about crystals. I wanted a simple way to explain the relationship between rocks, minerals, and crystals. I found this information online, comparing rocks to a chocolate chip cookie, and minerals to the ingredients that go inside, and crystals to our human DNA that makes each mineral what it's supposed to be. Using that info, I created this worksheet. I made all the pictures and descriptions separate, so the kids had to cut them out and glue them in their notebooks. When they were done it was supposed to look like this picture below.

I thought my analogy was so great, and so simple...but it was totally lost on the kids. :) Oh well. Some day they'll flip back through their notebooks and read about it, and maybe it will make more sense then.

Then, using gumdrops and toothpicks, we built a couple of the more simple crystal structures, like salt.

And to finish off the lesson, we made our own, real live crystals, using borax and hot water. Basically, you take a mason jar, and fill it with boiling water. Then you stir in about 1/3 cup of borax (which you can find at WalMart in the laundry soap isle). Then you take a pipe cleaner and twist it into a cool shape, tie it to a string, tie the string to a popcicle stick, and hang the pipe cleaner into the borax water mixture. As the water cools, the borax will turn back into crystals and stick onto the pipe cleaner. It takes about 24 hours, so I'll have to get some pictures of the finished product tomorrow.

Next up, Wynter taught History. Today she taught us how many of the colonist got to America and knew very little about how to build a house for themselves, but that they had to do the best with the materials and knowledge they had. She gave the kids pretzel sticks, graham crackers, and frosting, and told them to go for it! It was definitely a trial and error process, which was the point, and which I also thought was SOOO good for my kids. They started out trying to make huge houses, but the frosting wouldn't support the weight. Eventually, the decided to break the pretzels down to a more manageable size and use the graham crackers for supports.

Monday

I had a doctor's appointment first thing this morning. Aaron stayed home with the kids, and I took the truck. The sun was shining, the air was fresh and cool, so I rolled down the windows and cranked the volume up on the radio and sang to myself at the top of my lungs all the way to the doctor's office. I wish I could start every morning like this, it put me in such a good mood. Not even a glucose test, having my blood drawn, and a shot to vaccinate my baby for whooping cough were able to ruin it. I highly recommend driving a truck. :)

Baby is doing well, growing like she should and all that. I go back in two weeks. Yikes! We're already down to the "appointment every two weeks" time frame. Kind of hard to believe.

In other news, Ollie is rockin' the toddler bed. Normally we don't do toddler beds, we just go straight to the twin bed; but this time around we really weren't ready to fork out money for a twin bed, and we couldn't figure out where we'd put one if we did. One of my awesome friends has a kid who has recently outgrown their toddler bed, and she gave it to us for free. Awesome! It seemed like a great temporary solution until we can agree on how to rearrange our children's bedrooms to promote optimum sleep.

Anyways, I thought we'd better put him in it right away, because it took Adelia ages and ages to learn how to sleep in her bed when we took her out of the crib. And I wanted Ollie to be used to his bed by the time Baby comes.

The very first night I did our normal bedtime routine, and layed him in the bed. He got out of the bed once, and got nervous in the dark and started to cry. I came up and put him back to bed. He cried a couple other times, because he'd kicked his blankets off, and wanted me to fix them, but never got out of the bed again. Then he fell asleep and slept all the way through the night, and has every night since. Sweet. I still put him in the crib for naps though. We'll figure that one out later. Right now I still very much need him to take naps during daytime without a fight.

And this happened at dinner the other night: "Show Mommy how the piggies eat!" (I didn't really say that, but I totally thought it when I saw him doing this.)

And Adelia is cute. So much personality packed into one small girl.

Homeschool Showcase: Getting to Know You

Today the kids participated in our homeschool group's Homeschool Showcase. Basically each month our group gets together, with a certain theme in mind, to allow the kids to get up in front of each other and present something that they've been working on. In my mind it's the perfect thing, I don't have to teach a class, or do anything extra, but my kids still get the opportunity to practice speaking in front of people, and explaining about a project they've been working on.

This month's theme was Getting to Know You. So, each kid got up and introduced themselves. I loved seeing the variety of creative ways everyone came up with to do this.

For my kids we turned it into an art project. I took our lamp from our nightstand and shined it at the wall, then I had the kids sit in a chair, so that their shadow projected onto the wall, and I traced the silhouette onto a piece of white paper. Then I had each kid tell me some things about themselves, and we looked around on the internet to find a clip-art that could represent that thing. Each kid colored and cut out their clip-arts, and glued them inside the silhouette of their head. Then using water colors, they painted colorful patches onto the remaining white space. Then we cut out their heads and glued them onto a black card stock. I think they turned out awesome.

Adelia: "My name is Adelia Swan. I like my name, Adelia, because it is my favorite name. I am 4 years old. I like to pick flowers for my mom. I like to cut things. I like to play soccer. I love everyone and I am good at making friends. I like worms. I put them in our garden. I know that princesses really exist, because there is one in England. I like to help my mom bake cookies. This year I am in preschool." 

Ivan: "My name is Ivan Swan. I like to build Trio castles. I like learning about scorpions. I like to learn about acting in my Triple Threat class. I also like to ride my bike and go camping. I like to exercise, and my favorite way to exercise is to pump weights. My favorite food is pizza. I like to look at books. I am really good at helping my mom unload the dishwasher, and going outside to check for eggs from our chickens."  

Lincoln: "My name is Lincoln Swan. I like snakes. When I grow up I want to be a scientist. I like to go hiking. I like to draw and build things. My favorite sport is tennis. I like to build robots. Some of my favorite things to do are read books, draw maps, and play the piano." 

My Last Post About Peaches (this year) I Swear!

I finished canning the last of my peaches. There are 3 or 4 still ripening on the tree, but I think we'll just eat those. :)

I've had a lot of fun with my peaches this year. I wasn't quite ready to quit. It's been really fun trying a bunch of new things.

My favorite peach concoction this year was the Pickled Peaches, but coming in a very close second is this Peach Rosemary Lemonade Concentrate. OH. MY. It is sooooo good. I canned 14 quarts of it. It'll be perfect to whip up quick for a party. I already have big plans so serve it at Baby #5's baby blessing dinner. It pretty much tastes like summer in a glass.






Peach Rosemary Lemonade Concentrate

*Makes 6-8 pints or 3 quarts of canned concentrate

Ingredients

6 cups peaches, frozen then thawed or fresh
4 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
5 cups sugar
6 stems rosemary

Directions
In a food processor, blender or bullet puree peaches.  
Transfer peach puree to a stainless steel saucepan over medium-high heat. DO NOT BOIL. Add lemon juice, sugar, and  rosemary and stir to combine. 
Using a thermometer heat to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring occasionally. Because this recipe has sugar it will get to temperature rather quickly so keep your eye on the thermometer. Remove from heat. Remove rosemary before filling jars.
Ladle mixture into jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim, add hot lids and tighten rings just finger tight. Process in water bath canner at a boil for 15 minutes.
To reconstitute, mix one part concentrate with one part water, tonic water or ginger ale. Adjust concentrate to suit your taste.

My sister-in-law Esther gave me some vanilla beans, so I made a few batches of Vanilla Peach Butter. It turned out good. It's really yummy on pancakes. I don't like it as much as I like the Apple Butter though. I think prefer making fruit butter, as opposed to fruit jam, because there is a lot less sugar in the butter, and you don't have to buy any pectin.

Crockpot Vanilla Peach Butter

Ingredients
8 Peaches
2 Vanilla Beans
1/4 Cup Sugar

Instructions
1. Peel peaches, remove pit and cut into chunks or slices and place in crock-pot.
2. Cut each vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrap out the vanilla bean seeds with a spoon and put seeds and the pods into the crock-pot with the peaches.
3. Add the sugar and stir to combine.
4. Cover and cook on low 4 hours.
5. Remove the vanilla bean pods.
6. Pour cooked peaches into the jar of a blender and cover.
7. Carefully (the mixtures will be hot!) blend the peaches until smooth.
8. Pour pureed peaches back into crock-pot and cover, but prop up the lid of the crock-pot with a chopstick or other heat proof utensil to allow moisture to escape.
9. Continue cooking on low for 1-2 hours, stirring every now and then to prevent peach butter from burning.
10. Pour into jars or containers and refrigerate for up to 2 months, freeze for up to 6 months or process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes.


So huzzah for peaches. We have really enjoyed them (if you hadn't noticed). So much so, that I've even convinced Aaron (and it wasn't very hard) that we want to plant a second peach tree next year. Maybe one that ripens a little earlier. That way we can enjoy the peach love all summer and fall long. I can can them to my little heart's content, and then when I'm sick of it, we can always give the rest away, or feed them to the chickens, or let Lincoln try his hand at setting up a fruit stand and selling them to the neighbors at an exorbitant rate. ;) (Remember when he wanted to sell gallon bags of spinach to the neighbors for $10 a bag? Ya, that's what I'm referring to.)

Science and History Kicks Off

Wynter and I are teaming up again this year to teach our kids Science and History. This arrangement is so awesome, and adds a fun and social aspect to our learning each week.

First semester I am teaching Science and focusing on rocks and minerals, using the book Explore Rocks and Minerals with 20 great projects. To kick off our topic, we learned about the Earth and it's layers. First, I read them the book Under the Ground, to introduce the layers, then we made a paper diagram, similar to the ones my kids and I did for our volcano unit. Only instead of having the kids draw it free-hand, I made up the diagram on the computer and printed it out for them to color and label and glue in their notebooks. Then we did the fun part. We made the earth and it's layers out of Play-Doh. We started with a small red ball for the inner core, then an orange layer around that for the outer core. Next a yellow layer for the mantle. Then blue with green spots on top to represent the oceans and the continents for the crust. Once everyone had finished their Earth balls, we used a butcher knife to slice them in half, to show the layers.

This semester Wynter is teaching History and focusing on Colonial America using the book Explore Colonial America with 25 Great Projects.  Today she taught the kids about why the pilgrims decided to leave England. They colored a map of the 13 Colonies in order of where the pilgrims landed first. They will glue the maps into their notebooks as well. Then they carved boats out of bars of soap, and got to float them in the "ocean" (a bucket of water). How cool and fun! I was impressed.