Fall Fairs All Around

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If I couldn’t tell it was fall by the weather I surely could tell it by the busy. It’s fair season. Each year we submit art work and flower entries in the North Georgia State Fair. When we went this week to enter our flowers, we saw that the children’s chalk pastels had received ribbons [...]

Mamaw’s Cheese Salmon Loaf

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I remember having salmon loaf growing up. I don’t think I realized then that it was my grandmother’s recipe. I surely didn’t know just how frugal the recipe is. And it wasn’t until I served it to my own family that I found out what a hit it would be. I expected them to make [...]

Pears, Apples and Nature Journal Art

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We packed a lunch and went where we knew the pears would be. Over on the family road where we found the queen anne’s lace. We hopped out and ran to the pear tree. We found one lone pear. We played with the kitty. And the fake snake that keeps the critters away from the [...]

Take it Outside

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These fall days before the big, deep chills, take your homeschool outside. Pack it up or pack up your lunch and escape. To your backyard. To the park. Have your family supper outside. Mix it up some. Do it now while you can. Before you have to wear a jacket. Before the harsh wind drives [...]

Coca-Cola: A Pastels Tutorial

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Being from the south, all things that are syrupy and carbonated are called Coke. Especially here in Georgia, around the Coke capitol of Atlanta. Just last month, we went as a family to the World of Coke for Middle Girl’s birthday. All that said, we thought it appropriate to enjoy a Coca-Cola pastel. Nana helped [...]

Aleida’s Challenge: Photos of You with Your Children

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While we were at the beach I got photos of each of the children with Hodgepodgedad. What fun he is! “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.” ~ Ansel Adams (from Eldest Girl’s Digital Photography study) I’d meant to do the same with me while we [...]

Fast Food for Slow Sundays: Slow Cooker Hamburgers

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This is one of those sorta made up recipes. One of those I was scratching my head Saturday night trying to figure out how I was going to fix hamburgers for Sunday lunch. It worked! I put a dozen, warehouse club-bought, pre-formed hamburger patties into the slow cooker. (They were not frozen). Just piled in [...]

Balancing the Needs of the Age Range + Helpful Habit

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Someone discovered he really likes blue kool aid. This week was chocked full. I’m still finding the days fly by as I am aiming to balance the needs of the age range. Preschooler. Kindergartener. 4th grader. 7th grader. 8th grader. Plus I have this little passion for taking pictures. Plus, we have to stay busy [...]

Taming the ‘Wild West’ – Mobile Devices

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In a recent post on Passionate Purposeful Parenting entitled Defense in Depth, I wrote about the methods we use to protect our children from the “wild west” of the Internet.  The techniques I mentioned work very well for our computers and other devices in our home. But what about those pesky mobile devices? You know [...]

Savings with Homemade Hummus at $5 Dinners

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Raise your hand if you love hummus. Yes, yes, lots of folks out there. Me too! Ok. How many of you pay big bucks for one of those tiny tubs of hummus at the store? A few, yes. How many have this little problem of keeping food and snacks stocked in your house? Me too! [...]

Beach Umbrellas: A Pastels Tutorial

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From last summer’s archives…We sat at the coffee table and looked out at the view. The brilliant teal blue water and the colorful beach umbrellas. Yes, we really had made it to the beach. And on this afternoon, Nana showed us how to capture the brilliant colors in pastels. Not only did we learn how [...]

Weeds, Seeds, Insects and Signs of Fall

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“It’s right up here. The field guide. Let’s watch to see if we see any milkweed.” My instructions to the children as we pulled out of the driveway. Milkweed is supposed to be a roadside variety. (I learned this from the pages and pages in a download of the Georgia varieties I found in a [...]