9/11/2011

Our Week

We had a great first week of school. It is tradition in our house to have cinnamon rolls on the first day of school. So the night before we made the dough, rolled the rolls and left them in the fridg. I got up early to set them out to rise. They turned out perfect! You can find the recipe here:  http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2011/07/20/sensational-cinnamon-rolls/ 

 The wonderful butter cream frosting!!!!!
 Just out of the oven! The house smelled so good!
 Ready to eat! We ate our fill and sent the rest with our son to his job. The pan came home empty!
 We did fun science this week. Science that helps create good observation skills and warms the brain up after a long summer off. Here we are counting how many drops of water a penny can hold.
 Here we are doing many observations with a bag of M and Ms.

 We also did a Mythbusters Show. This was really much better than I thought it would be. The kids really paid attention and did their observations correctly. Here are some sites for using tv shows and science. http://teachingphysics.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/mythbusters-the-scientific-
method/    http://www.moviesheets.com/

Here are two of our study buddies hard at work amusing one another.

 This proved to be the best home ec assignment yet! I found a wonderful recipe on line for no knead bread. So we gave it a try. Its a keeper! Its like fishermans bread. Hard and crusty on the outside and soft on the inside with a taste slightly leaning towards sourdough. We love it toasted. You can find it here: http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html  I doubled the amount of yeast and may add a bit more next time. So the cool thing is that you just mix an walk away from it for about 20 hours. 
Here is the dough a few hours after mixing. It smells divine.
 This is 20 hours after mixing.
 Still no kneading! Just fold, let rest ( or nap as the author of the recipe says) and bake. Be sure to cover for first 30 minutes of baking.
 Here it is! Golden and smelling amazing!
 Its flatter than I anticipated. But no worries.....
 It has an amazing texture and flavor! The entire loaf was gone in one meal.
 We did a little bit of fall decorating.


We went to our favorite thrift store this weekend. ( Our family won 15.00 worth of coupons!) Got a Lamp, jeans, 3 shirts, shoes, a purse, a photo album, 4 glass kitchen bowls, 2 books and a few other things for only $5.75. The lamp alone is worth over $100.00 brand new. The old book written in 1883 is  The Story of John G Paton.  By Reverand James Patton who chronicled this story about a man who lived among cannibals. The book is valued between 40 and 55 dollars. I think it will be an interesting read!
When we started school this year I really wanted to make sure the kids understood what my husband and I  expect of them. We had some glitches last year and I think a lot of it had to do with lack of proper communication and enough time set aside to accomplish goals.
This year we started with School Rules. Simple but on paper so there is no confusion. We also started the Chore Jar. Each child chooses three chores  per day. This is working fabulously! Kids get different chores every day thus learning to do many different task and not being board by doing the same old one all the time. I chose useful chore. For example: cobwebs in the kitchen, ( they seem to gather there), dust between the stair rails, sweep porch, and so on. All the small stuff that adds up.
 I think our first week went well. I was exhausted though because I am getting up early to accomplish my goals before the family gets up. It is well worth it! I get my quiet time, tidy up things, menu plan and pre cooking, and sometimes even some free reading done before breakfast!
Happy Fall to everyone.

6 comments:

  1. Oh, that is soooooo good, school rules! I need to do that!!! And those rolls, wow! I want to go to your thrift shop. I paid too much at Good Will for "new" fall clothes for Grace, but there is really no other place to go and it is a lot cheaper than new.

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  2. Those roles look very yummy. We have our annual back to school lunch and go over the kids courses, what we expect from them things like that. Sounds like you had a very productive week. :)

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  3. Cinnamon roles...yummmm! Great job with the rules on paper. If the kids don't know where the "bull's eye" is, they can't possibly hit it. You've set them up for success...well done!

    {{{HUGS}}},
    Lori

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  4. Trying again to leave a comment with my blogger account...something wierd going on with it, wouldn't let me leave anything before.

    Have a great week, Tina!
    Lori

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  5. How come your rolls look so pretty? I manage to smear the filling everywhere! Thanks for the links. I am on my way.

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  6. You have such GOOD ideas! I really like the cinnamon rolls idea, science experiment, and the Myth Busters are GREAT. [o= I want to try that bread do you think it would work if I used whole wheat flour? I hope so.

    Ohhh btw we are on the board for Bibles For the Poor which is a mission charity that is giving and teaching to the People who were the cannibals that John Paton went to reach! Check this site out. [o=

    http://www.biblesforthepoor.org/


    And for the reicpe for the ACV Tonic

    1 Tbsp ACV
    1 rounded tsp to 1 Tbsp honey
    In a mug of hot water

    Blessings and ((HUGS)) my SSiC
    In Him<><
    -Mary

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