Recipe: Julia Child Sandwich Bread

 I was feeling a bit perkier today after being ill with pneumonia, and since I haven't made bread in about three weeks I thought it was about time that I made some.

My son was delighted when I first made him his favourite Cheese Breadsticks.

As our student eats sandwiches everyday I thought I would make him the kind of bread that he really likes... white sandwich bread.   That led me to this recipe "Julia Child's White Sandwich Bread".

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp. active dry yeast

1 Tbsp. sugar

6-6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour   - only needed 6 cups

2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup butter, softened  - subbed veggie oil

Directions

Pour 1/2 cup of the water into a bowl (preferably that of a stand mixer) and stir in the yeast and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes, unit foamy. (If the yeast doesn't do anything, toss it out and buy fresh yeast.)

Add the rest of the water and about half of the flour. Stir until well blended. Add the rest of the flour, the salt and butter and stir with the dough hook (or by hand) until well combined and shaggy. 

Continue to knead until it is smooth and elastic.

Shape it into a ball and put it back into the bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let it sit for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, until it's doubled in size.

Butter two 4"x8" loaf pans. Punch the dough down (love that part!) and pat each piece into a rectangle that's about 9"x12" - or a bit bigger than a standard piece of paper.

Starting at a short end, fold it in thirds, like a letter. Place seam side down in the loaf pans, tucking the ends in. Cover with the tea towel again and leave them for an hour, until they puff right up out of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 375°F and put the rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the loaves are honey brown. Immediately turn the loaves out of their pans and onto a rack to cool.

This recipe is originally found here.

Review: The Great Shelby Holmes

This was such an enjoyable read.   Seriously, it was fun.   I am going to get my lad to read it once he's done the series he is on.   Good detecting with good humour built within, and you'll find friendship blossoms in unexpected places.

Using Google Docs to make a slideshow

One of the things I loved about my previous blog A Net in Time Homeschooling that I maintained through Weebly was the ease of making a slideshow.   It was SO easy it was brainless.

BUT I've been running into issue with weebly where I have to clear my cache to post a picture, with my browser disconnecting causes me to do resets, and lately not letting my scheduled posts .. post.   It's been annoying enough that as much as I love weebly I decided to go back to blogger.

BUT what to do about the slideshow option?

I got to thinking.
A slideshow is basically a powerpoint thing right?   So how do I make a powerpoint type thing?   Something that will be easy to load into a blog?

What about Google Docs?   I found a video the supported the idea...I guess it used to be called presentation but now it's called SLIDES.

Did some research and looked into google, where HEY!!!   They have a slideshow option!!!

Open up the slide option, and make up your slide show, your presentation so to speak.

Once you are done, go to the sidebar again and find the publish to web button

That will bring up this window, it will open up on the LINK tab, so make sure you switch it to the embed tab.

I did find a youtube video that recommended changing the width to 600 as that will fit onto most websites properly.  But much of the rest of the video was old.

Once you hit the publish button it will bring you to a new screen that will have the embed code highlighted.

Copy and paste that and you will get this:



Just so you know, if you want to see what the Homeschool Review Crew picked for the all round favourties, you can go here to see them.

 Addendum due to comments: I am pretty sure this will work in any blog program as it's just HTML code.   Give it a try!

STEM: Light Up Planetarium

Since battling illness is the name of the game in this house lately, today I decided to switch things up for the lad.

"Do your reading and then we'll work on a couple of your boxes okay?"   says I.

"GREAT MOM" was the enthusiastic response.  (good to have enthusiasm again)  :)

Over the past year we've been working with kiwi crates, I decided to bump up the the tinker crates, and Light Up Planterium is the first one we received.     Below you will see my son unpacking the box.  It comes in the mail addressed to him.

 

Tinker Creates is a great way to teach and entertain youth from 9-16 years old.   I discovered that the instructions are different, they came as a fold out page rather than a booklet. 

My son had absolutely no problem following the instructions and figuring out where he wanted to go.  He was able to easily look ahead and problem solve before reaching the next stage as needed.




HA!!!   I made my first ever presentation, cool eh?

One thing I couldn't figure out how to show you was how neat all those pin holes stars look against a dark ceiling.  Just couldn't get a good shot regardless of what I did with the camera.

But seriously, tinker crates are a great deal of fun and you can take the learning from them into so many different directions.  Do them as is or put them into a small unit study.  We're studying astronomy this year so this box was an excellent fit.  You can order individual crates from Kiwi Crates from what I recall, so give them a look see and figure out what you can use with your students.  :) 

Fascinating Fungi

 Affiliate links may be used in this post that help to support us.  Thank you.

One of the things that I like to do when out for a walk, particularly if I have my camera is to stop and take pictures of fungi.

My boys shake their heads at me and keep walking, they simply don't understand why I wouldn't rather take pictures of birds and what not.   But Fungi are cool, they are helpful decomposers of the plant world. 

Most of the fungi I find are this lovely white/beige colour.   Aren't they gorgeous?   Just look at all the variety in them, from rounded shapes, to rosettes or jutting out like mini shelves.   They are fascinating to me.   :)

Imagine my delight when  I spotted this beauty.   It's orange!   Every fungus on the tree was this same shade of orange.   I showed it to my lad when I got home and asked "What do you think makes it that orange colour mom?   I've never seen one like this before."

I have to tell you that I don't know a whole lot about fungi, I just know they are helpful plants that are often overlooked.     They come in a variety of shapes and sizes.   Some...are edible, others will kill you.   Others are so small you wouldn't even know they were there.  

Once when we were camping we learned about a fungus that lives inside of plants and is able to figure out the shortest distance between points.   If you had the time and patience, you could map out a number of landmarks, lay out oatmeal in that pattern and that fungus will figure out the best route for you.   Amazing eh?   They are apparently using that to figure out the best ways to lay down a subway system.   Go figure.

Did you know that fungi are not plants nor are they animals.  They have a classification all their own. They are highly variable in their appearance and action. 

I love how you can find one all by itself, just doing its thing, and at other times you see so many of them, you can hardly see the wood it's growing on.    Such variety in what seems an insignificant organism.  They just delight me.

So I heard that Educents was going to have a sale and they sent me a reminder that I have a credit with them and that perhaps I might want to use it up.   This made me wonder... might they have information about fungi?

And look.. THEY DO!!!

They have this bacteria and fungi kit. Young Scientists of all ages will be fascinated by growing bacteria and fungi of all colors and textures in Petridishes. They will discover how antibiotics cure disease. Students finish the kit by “waking”the common fungus called yeast.




Or check out this product: Germs and Fungus Lessons and Experiments.  Learn how to prevent the spread of germs.  Describe the various shapes of fungi and more. 

Oh Ick.  Gives students a chance to do science, including observing fungi growing as they make a mold zoo.   Not only that, there are 114 science experiments to be found at your fingertips, so even if you aren't fascinated by fungi, you are bound to find something that intrigues you.  :)










Just think of the fun one could have working with fungi, growing it, examining, watching it and most importantly...learning about it.   And Educents will give you a discount to do so.  Cool eh?

If you are  first time member did you know you get a discount on your first order?   You can find out the details for that RIGHT HERE. 

For all other discount options, see the image below.

Review: Sunshine, Acts of the United Sceptres, Book One

Four individuals set out to rescue a nation!   Can they defeat Marduk?   Here is my review of Sunlight by Julius Buchanan.

Book Synopsis:

An ancient nation struggles to find hope after falling to the dark spirit Marduk. Marduk covers the nation in dark red clouds to block out sunlight. A spy from the United Sceptres accidentally discovers the Q’dosh children from the village of Beth Shan. They rescue Zoe, Yesh, and Stazee to the safety of Sceptre City, where they learn they have been chosen by the Pneuma to hone their gifts of extraordinary power and return to their homeland on a sabotage mission—break into the Citadel, expel Marduk, and restore sunlight to the land.

My thoughts:
I wanted to read this book as it sounded like it should be a good book.  I enjoy fantasy literature, and reading one that has Christian overtones intrigued me.

I did not read through the whole book, I skipped most of the book to get to the final couple of chapters.  I found the writing choppy, more than one spelling error, and I just could not connect to the story in how it was written, it felt like everyone was kinda on the outside looking in... with the window pane in the way.

On a positive note: each of the individuals involved in the story line grow and develop as people, learning what they are gifted in and what stops them from progressing further.   They learned better how to relate to each other as family and to trust each others abilities.

Sunlight.
Author: Julius Buchanan
Series: Acts of the United Sceptres Book One

Pages: 288
Type: Fantasy, Christian overtones
Reviewed for: Bookcrash. 



Canadian Readers: Sunlight: Acts of the United Sceptres Book One

American Readers:  Sunlight: Acts of the United Sceptres Book One (Volume 1)

Listen, a #fmfparty post

Today's five minute Friday word prompt is LISTEN.

I have to admit that I'm feeling stuck on this word today.
Stuck because I don't want to violate family privacy.
Stuck because listening is a hard one.

But tonight I was having supper at my mom's and she read a short devotional on the verse
"Be still and know that I am the Lord".

Mom and hubby got to talking about that verse and in essence those words "be Still" actually mean SHUT UP.

Usually when a person is told to shut up (at least in my experience), they are being told to shut up because they simply aren't listening.

Think about that a for a moment...

SHUT UP so you can listen.

The Lord God himself wants us listening.
Why?

SO THAT WE CAN KNOW THAT HE IS LORD.

That's what the Lord wants...just for us to know who he is, and sometimes we are just so terminally busy and so busy yapping about minutia, and we need to be told to be still, to just shut up for a while.

Just be still.   Listen.    Hear the Lord and KNOW him, know him full well, and trust in him.
But first
Be still.

Loyal, being Loyal

I am sitting here feeling groggy (due to some pain meds) and pondering this word Loyal.

The dictionary tells me this, the word Loyal is an adjective that has four meanings.

1. Faithful to one's sovereign, government or state.
2. Faithful to one's oath, commitment or obligation.
3. Faithful to any leader, party or cause, or to any person or thing conceived as deserving fidelity. and
4. Characterized by or showing faithfulness to commitments, vows, allegiance, obligation etc.


So have a subject, cause, conduct and vows.  These are all part of being a loyal individual.

I currently have a friend, a mom of one of my son's best friends, who is going through a trial separation, but looks to be leaning toward divorce.

This has lead to some interesting conversations between my lad and I.   He doesn't understand it, and our most recent conversation brought up this thought.

Marriage, christian marriage, is a sign of God's love to us.
When Christian people marry we are showing the world an example of how God loves his people.
Too often folks forget that and they think it doesn't matter if Christians divorce.

God loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us.
So when a husband and a wife set aside their own selves for each other, they are showing love for each other, and by extension they are showing God's love for us to the those around them.

Our loyalty and commitment to each other shows the world something.
It also shows our spouse something.

When my hubby sets aside his own stuff because of a need that I have, he's showing God's love for the world, for his people.  He's also showing me the depth of his love for me.

When I set aside my own wishes and bow to his... I am showing him that I love him and that shows the world how the church loves God.

When we as Christians marry, we make a promise before God and before the church that we will love each other through good and bad.   And marriages.... they are NOT always easy.  They aren't.  We are a fallen people living in a fallen world.  It's not an easy thing.

It is SO hard to curb ourselves in favour of another.
But God did this eh?   He sent his son to die for us.
He curbed his love, his need for his son, so that we might have a right relationship with him.

So our VOWS as Christians mean something.
We show God's love to the world as we work out our marriages.
So be loyal to your vows.
Be loyal to the one you are called to live with.
Be loyal to the higher calling of your marriage as a believer.

It's important.  :) 






 

Review: Ultimate Guide to being a SuperHero

Admittedly, when I first received this book I thought "HUH?   What am I going to do with this one? I have no interest in superheroes, and now I have a book on them?"

Then I opened the book and I was AMAZED!!!   What book you ask?   The Ultimate Guide to Being a SuperHero.

You know what this book is?   This is a
- boys cooking class
- a co-op class with varied activities
- a semester of learning that encompasses phys ed, coding, math, language arts, arts and so much more.

It's a GREAT book, let me tell you all about it eh?

Exactly what is in the Superhero book?

Chapters
Secret Identity 101

•  This section covers topics like your mask, avoiding detection, changing into your superhero suit and choosing your secret identity

Dealing with villians

• Subcategories of fighting evil, knowing your villains, villain weapons, and more.

 Gear & Gadgets

• Items such as supersuits, cape, accessories, specialty gear, secret messages etc

Moves and Maneuvers

•  flying, transportation, marksmanship, smashing, fighting, jumping

Being a Superhero

• topics like: finding your superpower, training,developing your brand, choosing your sidekick, social media, secret hideout, your commitment to the world

 This book is written for children.   It's focused on keeping them safe and letting them have fun learning all the ins and outs of being a superhero.   For instance, capes are great when you are with your friends, or in a parade, but fighting or flying in a cape.. NOT such a good idea.  :)

There is humour found within the pages, as well as seriousness, like the importance of knowing how to code.

Cooking when you learn about Superheros is so much...and you get to play with your food too!
Think about the math and the conversations you could have, and watching science happen before your eyes!

Remember I mentioned phys ed?
Well you do know superheroes have to be in good shape to do what they do right?
Exercise time!!!!   From learning how to eat smart, to how to keep your body in good shape, superheroes have much to learn and much to do.

At 157 pages, the Ultimate Guide to being a Superhero is packed full of activities, from making a mask and the rest of your gear (sewing anyone?), to building your secret hideout, and  making a target, as well as learning good superhero songs... and so much more in-between.

There is so much information in this guide to boggle the mind (it certainly surprised me!)

I am so pleased that Raincoast Books sent me this item to add to my resource pile... so much to do!  :)
As I went through this book I kept thinking how easy it would to turn this into a book on being a superhero for God, or adding to it to turn it into a health unit (or expanding the phys ed section) and so forth...so much potential in this book to do SO MUCH WITH IT.  Seriously.

The Ultimate Guide to being a Superhero,is book that 8.86 x 10.35 and  160 pages long.


It is geared to children ages 6-11 years.

Printed on multi-coloured pages.

The book is a coil book, making the pages easy to turn and stand up if necessary.  It lays flat easily, making it easy to follow instructions when making crafts or cooking.

 This is a hands-on, let get down and dirty and do some learning type of book.    Life skills and superhero skills combined, have fun with your child today.

GET THIS BOOK.  :)

 US Link: The Ultimate Guide to Being a Superhero: A Kid's Manual for Saving the World, Looking Good in Spandex, and Getting Home in Time for Dinner


Canadian Link: The Ultimate Guide to Being a Superhero: A Kid's Manual for Saving the World, Looking Good in Spandex, and Getting Home in Time for Dinner

Five books, five reasons, all about adult colouring.

Have you joined in on the colouring craze?   You know.. colouring for adults?
I have to admit that when I heard about adults colouring, and not just with their children I thought, huh?   What's up with that?

So I went out and bought a book, wanted to see what the fuss was about and discovered something.
I enjoy it.  Not so much that I want to do it every day, but sitting down and colouring when you don't want to read and you don't want to go out for a hike.. it's an enjoyable way to kill some time without watching the tube.

I thought I would take the time today to introduce you to some books that I use and some reasons why it's good to colour.

First book and reason

Peterson Field Guide Coloring Books: Reptiles and Amphibians is a neat book that has colouring images of various reptiles and amphibians and is right up my son's ally for things to draw and/or colour.   It comes with small stickers that you can use as a reference as well.

 This book is actually my son's.  He just grinned when I picked it up.  "Look mom!   It's HalfWay!" (a toad of his).

Reason to Colour: No childish drawing that inspire research into a favourite topic or that simply enhances one's learning about them.  My lad likes the realistic drawings and the colours that match colours in nature.


Second Book and Reason

Coloring Book Be Still


A chance to think on some words of God as you delight in coming up with just the right colours.  A perfect book for rainy Sunday afternoons when everyone is tired and just wanting to chill out.

This book is filled will flowers and birds and words from the Lord.   Not every page contains a verse, or birds, or flowers.   But much of it does.

Reason to Colour: This is my "let's be pretty book" which is not my normal frame of mind, so it's great for Sundays when I NEED to relax and prepare for the coming week.   It's a girlie type book and out of my normal paradigm of thinking and it's good to cultivate that part of me sometimes.  :)


Third book and Reason

Animal Kingdom: Color Me, Draw Me


This book is the one that draws people in when they colour with me.  There is SO MUCH variety contained with the pages.     I've started and stopped with so many pictures as my mood will change with what I want to do.  Eventually I'll get around back to those started.


The pages are thick enough to do pencil or marker.


Reason to colour: Whimsy can take you many different places, and sometimes following whimsy can leave you lost.  In this book, I don't get lost and I can always come back again.  :)


Fourth Book and Reason

Art Therapy Coloring Book Menagerie & More

This is actually one that my hubby picked out.
the pictures in it are mostly just animals, and mostly headshots with clean, clear lines.   No white on black or pictures inside of pictures.   It's a basic interesting colouring.

I find that I start and finish pictures in this book more quickly.  I really enjoy the thick pages and clear images, and hubby is more likely to pick it up and join me in an afternoon of colouring as well.  Which is WAY COOL.  :)

Reason to Colour:  Sharing a hobby with someone I love. The variety of images allows for different tastes in items to draw.



Fifth book and reason

 LIVE LOVED: AN ADULT COLORING BOOK

Admittedly this is my least favourite colouring book.  There are things I like about it, but I find I have to pay more attention to careful colouring with this book.  Many of the lines are quite thin.

What do I like about it?
Mmm... scripture verses that are quite varied.  Blank pages behind each picture means I can rip them out and display them if I think they are good enough for that.  :)

Reason to Colour?
Encourages carefulness and attention to detail, which helps to focus on my mind when I have to do things like planning out a school schedule, or vacation plans.

So do you colour?
Do you have books that are different than mine?
Why do you like them?

Share with won't you?   :)

Five Minute Friday: Team

Join us this week over at Kate's blog as we join together of the word prompt TEAM.

3, 2, 1 Go

Team.
It's hard you know.
To be part of a team.

A team requires working with other people.
I hated team sports as a  child.
Trying to figure out where I fit in best.
Learning quickly that I would always be chosen last or next to last.

I could never figure them out well, and
It seems I am raising a lad with those same lack of skills.
Give us an individual sport and it works much better.
Competing against oneself.

But I have learned as I watched my lad,
that even individual sports have a team component.
The striving to be like others.
The working together to show you have learned a new skill.

I see that and then I look at my own life.
And I see the times when I am part of a team.
When I help at things like Co-op days.
When I have whole families over so my son can play with others.

It's hard sometimes when you'd rather not.
When it's easy just to be an introvert.
and not be part of a team,
But it's a learning growing calling thing.

The Lord calls us to be more than we are.
He promises us his everlasting support.
He promises that he won't ask us to do something,
that won't end up being an okay thing for us to.

Consider this.
The Lord God calls us to be family.
To be a part of a working unit.
A body.   A team.

The strong with the weak.
Weak becoming strong as they
are supported and aided.
A body.  A Team.

That's what we are part of...
even as we remain individuals set on
meeting a standard.
The Team helps.

__STOP_____

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday challenge.  Can I write, without fretting over editing and what not, just write for five minutes on a word provided?   It's a great community and for the most part we support each other, which is a good thing is it not?   It's what makes a community a community indeed.  :)   Why not come join us?   The linky is usually open over the weekend.... so it's not too late.  Come on, join in the fun won't you?

Raising Boys with Purpose

I have a son. He's my joy and delight. And I don't know about you, but having a plan, a long term view, an end vision of what I hope to instill in him is part of how I raise him. I want to raise a boy who knows how to think, to reason, to work, to care for those around him, to be called after God's own heart. That's what I want in my son when he's grown up and not needing his mother so much. BUT how do I plan for that? What types of things should I be considering? To that end, I read two books. Raising Real Men by Hal and Melanie Young, and Raising Boys by Design by Gregory L Jantz and Michael Gurian.

The approach is this, how do you use God's word and God's principles to raise up your boys to be men?

 Raising Real Men by the Young's is a book with a ton of personal examples from life, showing how a principle could be put into action.

14 chapters, divided into two parts.   Talking about the joys and the challenges of raising boys, and the way we need to talk to them, shape them, work with who they are.   Boys are meant to be leaders in their households, to hold down a job, to learn to how cherish their loved ones and to rely on the strength of God.

When talking about how to deal with temptation, we were told of the fist principle.





Dealing with temptation
1. Leave the situation
2. Pray, ask the Lord's forgiveness and help
3. Read your bible
4. Sing praises or Hymns to God
5. Go to your authority and ask for help

These are five ways to make a fist to knock away temptation.

Doesn't that sound so doable?   Easy lessons to teach your son and to apply to your own life!

At 255 pages it is not an overly long book, the text is easy to read and quite personable.   
Recommended reading.  :)

Raising boys by Design.
This is a more scholarly type book, with the science behind how men and boys think explained.     12 chapters, divided into two sections.

The first section is mostly the brain stuff.   The science behind the workings of the male brain and body. In this section you will find chapters such as "what a boy learns from mom", "what a boy learns from dad" "how boys develop differently than girls" etc.

The second section deals with helping boys develop good heroes, to do their best in work and school, to the building of character and self-discipline.    We also learn the importance of marking off stages in a lad's life... giving them good markers to show that they are maturing and not a young child any more.  To the importance of giving a vision of what a strong Christian man looks like.

I appreciated this section "Making Faith Work for Boys"
1. faith must be individual, not merely institutional
2. faith must be flexible
3. faith must be interactive
4. faith must be relevant
5. faith must be muscular
6. faith must include room for questions
7. faith must include room for doubt
8. faith must be active
9. faith must be intergenerational
10. faith must cost something
11. faith must be relational.

It's a meaty book with a less personal touch, but a very good book none-the-less.   It has good examples and stories of how to help a boy become a man scattered throughout it's pages.

I Love the combination of these two books.

The end result they have is the same, the turning of boys into men called after God's own heart.
The approach is different, but the result the same.  They compliment each other very nicely.

I am so pleased that I chose to read them and be able to take the truths contained within it's pages to help me in the raising of my son.

I hope that you will find them useful to you as well.  :)

Great Canadian Sale coming soon

Looks what is coming out way! A sale of Canada based products written by Canadian people! How cool is that!!!!! It runs from August 3-8 (ending on my birthday how great it that eh?) Anyways, history, geography, science, language and more. Tons of stuff for your schooling needs!

ALL Canadian Learning Sale!

To learn about this marvellous sale, made just for us Canadians BY Canadians.  GO HERE.

Caring for Your Pet Bunny Ebook

Available for $5.

Teaches you the basics of caring well for your pet rabbit.
Worksheets as well as information.
Pictures and text written to elementary age level.

16 pages