A Brief Explanation

Good Morning.  It's me.  I'm still here. 

Sorry for the sudden departure but things have been really crazy around our house.  Two and a half weeks ago my husband interviewed for a job in Shreveport, Louisiana and last Wednesday he was offered the position.  He has to take a test on April 24 and, if he passes the test, he will have to be in Shreveport by June 1.  Which means we have a short time to pack up and relocate from Michigan to Louisiana.  Crazy, huh?

We are very excited about this move but also a little overwhelmed.  This is a fantastic job offer for my husband and he is certain that this is where the Lord is leading.  We have been in this house for 8 years and I have a lot of cleaning/sorting/purging to do.  Our goal is to have our house on the market on May 1.

So, I am going to be a little random here over the next few weeks.  However, if you stick with me I promise I will be back to a more faithful schedule as soon as I can.

Have a fantastic week!

We are experiencing technical difficulties...

Our computer died suddenly this weekend. Taking my notes and internet access with it. I hope to be back up and running by the weekend. Sorry all! Please check back with me next Monday when I hope to be back to routine posting.

Stuff I Like…The Oh-My-Goodness-Has-It-Been-Two-Weeks Edition

Wow…I have really, really, really fallen behind in blogging lately.  I blame this blog.

For a while, I was maintaining two blogs that were virtual carbon copies.  Since I posted exactly the same thing on both blogs, this blog didn’t take any extra time or energy.  Recently, due to a combination of guilt and divergent interests, I decided to change the format of this blog so it included posts that are different than the posts on my other blog.    Those of you out there with more than one child may be able to relate to this.  Remember when your second (or third, or fourth, or…) came along.  That new baby required so much time and energy that you may have felt like you were neglecting your older child(ren).  That’s how I feel now.  I have been very lax in posting about homeschooling and all other aspects of our life while I worked on devotionals for this blog.  Between you and me…I’m pretty impressed that I was able to get the kids’ day books posted two weeks in a row.

I also realized that I haven’t posted a Stuff I Like for two weeks now.  Since I know you are all sitting at home desperate to find add to your knowledge of MamaMi’s favorite things, I offer you this extra-long-winded edition of Stuff I Like.

What’s that sitting on the counter?  Could it be the makings of one of our family’s favorite goodies? Let’s see…there’s flour, yeast, and sugar.

 And what’s this?  These seemingly innocent ingredients are positioned right next to my stand mixer, scale, and measuring tools.

 What’s this?  A willing helper who desperately doesn’t want her picture taken?

This is looking promising.
Let’s see…I’ll bet I can find 3/4 ounces of that yeast…

 …and 2 Tablespoons of that sugar.

 Hopefully the yeast and sugar was added to a cup of hot water.  What’s this?  I think that cute little helper found 2 pounds of that flour.

 Now, I wonder if that adorable little helper dumped the flour into my stand mixer and then added the water/yeast/sugar combination?

 Yes!  She sure did.  It also looks like she started it mixing on low and added up to a cup of additional hot water until it formed a pliable dough ball.

 At this point, my sweet, lovely helper got bored and left me in the kitchen.  Good thing I knew to put that dough ball in a greased bowl.

 And that I knew to cover the bowl and place it on my stove for around 40 minutes while my oven preheated to 425 degrees.

After letting it set for 40 minutes, I punched the dough down and shaped it into two loaves which I placed on my baking stone to rise for another 20 minutes (sorry – no pictures of this step – pilot error).  As a totally optional step, I brushed the loaves with olive oil and sprinkled on some salt after the second rise.  Then, I tossed the stone in the oven for around 20 minutes (which will, of course, vary oven to oven).

Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for…stuff the whole family likes…homemade bread…

 Thank you for indulging me in this extra long Stuff I Like.  Hopefully the bonus recipe was enough to keep you following along!  As a side note, this recipe is super easy and can also be used to make rolls, breadsticks, and pizza crusts.

Quick Organizing Post

Just a quick post today.  Last month I saw a solution at Complete Organizing Solutions that I loved.  One of the contributors added a hanging rod in her laundry room and I loved the results.  I spent a little time yesterday reorganizing my laundry room (and adding that hanging rod) and I thought I would share my progress.

 My laundry room - obviously the lack of a hanging rod is not the only problem this room has!

 The gap between my cabinets - the perfect place for that hanging rod.

 Clothes hanging from the door knob and the towel rack

 My clean and organized counter

 Yeah, a place to hang our line dry clothes

 The perfect spot for my husbands compression shirts - no more hanging them on the door knob to dry!

Remember My Messy Office/Sewing Room??

Last month I wrote about the disaster area that is our Office/Sewing Room??

**Does this photo help your memory**

Anyway, you may also recall that I entered this room in the Mabel's Labels My Messy Room Contest on Facebook.  I promised you an update on the contest.  The winner was announced today and while I didn't win the contest, I did learn that I am not the only person with a very messy room!

You can check out pictures from all the contest entrants by visiting the Mabel's Labels page on Facebook.  While you are there, you can also check out all the cool labels you can purchase to organize your home - so you don't end up with a lot of rooms that look like the one in the photo above!  You can also click the Mabel's Labels link on my page to go directly to their site as well.

Oh yeah...the room still isn't finished yet, but we are making progress.  Hopefully by the end of the month I will be ready to post a set of "After" pictures showing our completed workspace!

Blog Format Change Update

Last Week, I posted about my virtual carbon copy blogs and that I will be making some changes to my blog formats.

I am now ready to provide more details about the changes that I will be making.  Starting Monday, February 15, this is what you can expect:

Home School Mama (This blog, my Blogspot blog) will become my primary forum for devotional posts.  My goal is to post a short devotional each weekday directed toward a common theme for the week.

Home School MamaMI (my Word Press blog) will continue to be my primary forum for posts about our home schooling adventures and our family.  This blog will remain largely unchanged from it’s current format.

As I said before, there will be some overlap in content between the sites from time to time, but they will no longer continue to be near-identical sites.

Geaux Saints

Sorry to get all Football on you guys, but it is almost Super Bowl Sunday!!

I grew up in West Virginia in the 1970s, about an hour and a half from Pittsburgh.  Needless to say, I watched a lot of Steelers growing up.

In 1990 I moved to Indiana for college and lived there for over a decade.  I was never really a fan of the Steelers, so when I moved to Indiana I decided to throw my lot in with the locals and start following the Colts.  I have considered myself a fan of the Colts now for almost 20 years.  I followed them through the bad years: 3 and 13, NOT selling out a Monday Night Football Game (ABC bought thousands of tickets so the game wouldn’t be blacked out), and Coach Mora’s infamous rants (Playoffs, anyone???).  But then along came Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy and the Colts started winning some games.  Of course, they couldn’t seem to win playoff games, but at least it became a little easier to be a Colts fan.  And then in February 2007 the Colts won the Super Bowl.  We even let the kids stay up late to watch the game!

But wait a minute, did you catch the title of this post?  Did I mention that in the early 1990s I attended Purdue University.  I was a student B.T. (Before Tiller).  I am pretty sure we didn’t even win 10 games in the 4 and a half years that I was a student there, but maybe I am misremembering.  Anyway, just like I cheered for the Colts all those miserable years, I have always been loyal to my Boilermakers.  A few years after I graduated, enter Drew Brees and Joe Tiller and my Boilers were actually playing football like a football team.  When Brees graduated and was drafted by the Chargers, my husband and I continued to be Colts fans, but my husband and I started following the Chargers as well.  Then when he left San Diego for New Orleans, we traded in the Chargers duds (except the powder blue jersey, which is just fantastic) for Saints Black and Gold.  Once again we were fans of the underdogs.  For a while anyway.

Fast forward to fall 2009.  Both the Saints and the Colts kept winning.  In our house we started dreaming of how much fun a Colts-Saints Super Bowl would be.  Needless to say, we can’t wait for kickoff on Sunday!
I have had a number of friends ask me if I am conflicted about this game – what with the team I’ve followed for 20 years playing the team I’ve followed for 5 years.  Let me just say this – not at all.  I will, of course, be happy if the Colts win Sunday – I am and always will be a fan.  However, when we get home from church Sunday evening I will be throwing on my Brees jersey and cheering for the Saints.  Peyton already has his ring.  I want to see Drew Brees – the man all the “experts” said was too short to ever be a factor in the NFL – win a Super Bowl!

Geaux Saints!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I believe I mentioned in a prior post that I am currently maintaining two blogs.  I wanted to try out two different blog hosts (both wordpress and blogger) so I decided to run basically the same blog on both sites.  My original thought was that after a trial period, I would close one of these blogs and just continue on with the other.  Recently I have been doing some rethinking of that plan.  I think I am going to keep both blogs but stop making them virtual carbon copies of each other.

I am going to continue to use one of my blogs as a primarily homeschooling and family blog.  That blog will still have updates on our family goals and our homeschool adventures.  The second blog will be primarily for my devotional posts.  I have several devotionals that I am working on, including a series that I hope to turn into a book, and I think I would like a site devoted primarily to my devotional and Christian writings.  Of course, there will be some carry over from time to time - neither site will be completely devoid of the content of the other.

My primary motivation for this change is to simplify things for my readers.  I know I have some readers who come here for the homeschooling posts, but don't really care to read my devotional material.  Likewise, I know there are some readers who want to read my devotional musings but really aren't interested in our homeschool updates.  As I said, neither site will be completely lacking in themes or material from the other site, but I think this is the best course of action. 

I will, of course, let you know when this change is taking place.  I will also continue to have a link to my sister site for all those who would like to follow both blogs.  As always, thanks for reading!

Stuff I Love, Week 2

Let's see, last week I talked about my hopelessly dry skin.  This week I think I will switch gears a little!

Between grading, writing cards, working Sudoku puzzles (guilty pleasure), making lists, and countless other activities, I do a lot of writing.  I have tried countless different pens in all shapes, sizes, and tip sizes.  Recently, I found one that I absolutely love.  (Is it wrong to love a writing instrument?  I hope not!).

Foray Pens - Gel Ink style

I love everything about these pens.  The body (shell? case?) is contoured and fits perfectly in my hand.  These are a .7 mm tip, which suits my writing style perfectly.  The pens pictured above are the gel ink version, however, I also love the roller ball version.  These pens are sold by Office Depot - Foray is their house brand.  Which reminds me - just to keep things honest here - I have not received any free pens or other compensation for this little product plug.  However, if anyone out there from Office Depot is reading, I would certainly not turn any free pens down! (Just kidding.  I think.)

And now for something completely different...

I never leave the house without at least a little make-up.  If nothing else, I always wear foundation, mascara, blush, and lipstick.  Because it is part of my every day routine, wearing make-up doesn't really make me feel particularly girly.  So, when I want to feel a little more feminine, I turn to my jewelry.  When I add a fun necklace and earrings to an outfit it definitely makes me feel happy and pretty.

This photo does NOT do these justice!

This is my (current) favorite set.  Trust me when I say they look way better in real life.  This set is sold by Premier Designs - it is the Allegro necklace with the Classical pendant and the Classical earrings.  Six months ago, I had never even heard of Premier jewelry, now I am a big fan.  Their pieces seem to be of good quality and I love the fact that their earrings are not too heavy.  I really like the above necklace because it is so versatile.  I can wear it with a fancy dress (because I am simply always going to fancy dress parties!), or with a sweater and jeans.  I love the length too.  I have a sweater that has a neckline that is a little lower than I like.  It's not immodest mind you, just a little lower than I am used to.  This necklace is just the right length to draw the eye-gaze back up a little!  I have a Premier jewelry lady that I love.  If you are interested in learning more about the company or the jewelry you can check them out on-line.  I think you can even search for a jeweler near you.

Corn Tortillas

I was going to post this last night, but we lost power for several hours.  We learned a few lessons during the power outage, which I will summarize later, but I wanted to share my (very comical) first attempt at making corn tortillas.

We bought a bag of masa a couple months ago to make tamales, but never made them.  Last night was chicken taco night so I decided to drag out the masa and make homemade corn tortillas.  I decided to just make a few, since I had never tried them before.  I think we can all agree from the pictures below that I need a little more practice.

It looks a little more like a lily pad than a tortilla

 

I have no idea where the rest of this one went

  

They say no two snowflakes are alike...apparently that goes for tortillas too!

  

The first few (very artistic) tortillas

Fortunately the tortillas tasted a lot better than they looked!  I definitely think I need a little more practice.

Stuff I Love

I thought about calling this “Stuff I Can’t Live Without,” but I was a little uncomfortable with that hyperbole.  After all, there are lots of things we can live without, if we must.  Anyway, for the near future, my Saturday posts will focus on things that make my life a little easier, brighter, happier, or just plain fun.

I have incredibly dry skin.  I am constantly fighting to keep my dry, itchy, flaky skin hydrated (TMI??).  Because this is a daily struggle for me, I thought I would highlight two of my favorite dry-skin-fighters in my first “Stuff I Love”.

I love this stuff.  When I buy lotion from Bath & Body Works, I always go for the Body Cream, because it is thicker and a single application in the morning keeps my skin hydrated all day.  I especially love this scent, which is warm and subtle and not at all perfumy.  That last quality is a bonus because my husband has terrible allergies and they act up whenever he is subjected to strong scents for very long.  This seasonal scent has been around for the last few Christmases and I each year I try to stock up so I have enough to get me through until the next holiday season!

When this product first came out, I really didn’t want to like it.  Even though I love trying new Mary Kay products as soon as they are available, I resisted trying this one for over six months.  I already had a Mary Kay moisturizer I loved, which I had used for years, and I see any reason to try anything new.  Besides, I knew that my old moisturizer worked just fine to tame my incredibly dry skin.  Anyway, about a year ago I ran out of my tried-and-true moisturizer and (of course) didn’t have any more on hand.  I did, however, have one of the tinted moisturizers on my shelf in my shade (surprise).  I gave in and tried it and never looked back.  I absolutely love this.  I love the moisture, I love the sunscreen, and I love the way it blends with my foundation.  I love the fact that on days when I am in a hurry I can just skip the foundation all together and rely on this for my base.  I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, I really like this moisturizer.

There you go, two products that make my days a little easier!
 
Yet another disclaimer – when I decided to do this post, these were not the two products I wanted to feature.  However, my camera battery is completely dead and someone (most likely me) did not return the battery charger to its home.  Rather than spend all morning looking for the charger so I could take pictures of the products I WANTED to write about, I decided to just do this post featuring products I had already photographed.  My pens and my kitchen gadgets and everything else will just have to wait!

Winter Blahs

The Christmas decorations are put away. The kids are back in their school routine after a two-week break. Everything outside is covered by a blanket of snow several inches deep. Yep. Here they come right on schedule – the winter blahs.

We have lived in Michigan almost 9 years now – wow is that hard to believe. I typically love the summers here. Lots of sunshine and warm days with very little humidity. This past summer was a little cooler than I would like, with only one day in the 90s, but usually, I love Michigan summers. Fall is beautiful in our town once the leaves start to change, showing off all the colors in God’s paintbox. Spring is a little cold for my taste, but new life can be seen everywhere you look. Grass starts to peak out from under layer upon layer of snow, trees start budding, and my roses awaken from their slumber.

Winter is another matter altogether. The ground is covered with snow for weeks and sometimes months at a time without melting away. It is cold and windy. It is not uncommon for us to go an entire week without seeing the sun through the clouds here. Not even a hint of blue sky during these times. A doctor once told me that our area is the second most cloudy area in the continental United States. I never bothered to fact check that one for fear that I might find out we were number 1 instead of number 2.

For the last few days, I have had very little energy. This weekend I let dishes sit in the sink and laundry go unfolded for a lot longer than I care to admit. I caught myself staring out the window for at least 5 minutes this morning before I snapped back to reality. I dislike feeling like this, quite the opposite of my usually joyful and energetic personality.

I need a cure for the winter blahs, or at the very least a good treatment. I thought relocating a few thousand miles south seemed like a good idea. My husband was not “on board” with this suggestion, however. So for now I will have to look into alternative treatments to snap out of my funk. My (admittedly short) list of alternatives includes:

• making some chai tea and starting a book
• going down to our basement office/sewing room and starting that quilt I need to make for my daughter or doing some long overdue filing
• picking out paint colors and finally painting my dining room or bedroom
• making plans to take the children to the next homeschool day at our local indoor water park

Swimming and fun with the kids might be just what I need to bust through these blahs and get moving again. Perhaps one Friday in the not to distant future we will hit the water park for some splash therapy. I’m feeling better just thinking about it.