Breastfeeding Photo Shoot

Breastfeeding is such a special time for mom & baby. I've had the privilege to nurse all my children (including my twins exclusively) yet rarely do I have any pictures of me feeding them. I take that back, I think I have one picture of when I was in the hospital nursing both my twins at the same time.

Sorry, not posting THAT picture!

Recently, my friend over at Still Playing School held a giveaway for a breastfeeding photo shoot to be done by Ronice Kay Photography and I was ecstatic to have won it!

Ronice asked if I had any specific place I wanted it held at but I really didn't have a certain location in mind. She suggested a memorial park about 10 minutes from me where ironically I had a few of my senior pictures taken there many moons ago.

Nope, not showing you those pictures either! haha

Anyway, our schedules finally lined up last month to meet for my much anticipated shoot. Of course, I was agonizing over what Ava & I would wear. Ronice gave me some websites to check out on tips for dressing for pictures which helped.

So with Ronice's permission, I am sharing with you a few of the photos she took. I seriously loved them all and can't choose a favorite.

*note, because I watermark all photos shared here but I didn't take these pics, I am putting Ronice's name on them. This isn't her official watermark.

haha check out the thumbs up Ava was giving! Guess she loves her mama's milk!

Love how Ronice captured a piece of Noah with Ava <3

 Ronice was SO sweet to surprise me by offering to take a picture of me with all 7 of my children! 

 I am always the one behind the camera so this was a rare treat to have one of them with me!

If you are local, go check out Ronice Kay Photography. She was wonderful to work with and captured some great shots! Thanks again Ronice for these priceless photos! 

Butternut Squash Cupcakes w/Maple Cream Cheese Icing

The theme of the cooking class I teach this semester is entitled "Fresh Foods", meaning the main ingredient I use has to be something in season. Thankfully I live in an area surrounded by farm stands now that my garden is done producing. This week I wanted to change things up and make a dessert using an unusual ingredient, butternut squash. I know, say WHAT!?!?!

This orange beauty is often overlooked for it's cousin the pumpkin but did you know, you can often substitute butternut squash for pumpkin in recipes? It tastes very similar and it's also cheaper to buy than pumpkin, especially right now as it's in season and super inexpensive!

Today, we made butternut squash cupcakes with a maple cream cheese icing and let me tell ya, it was a hit! The cupcakes are moist and the maple flavor takes the cream cheese icing to a whole new level.

I actually made half a batch of these cupcakes the night before my class as I knew the moms would want to try them. I used my mini muffin pans with success so I added those instructions. If you don't have maple syrup, try adding a 1/2 tsp of maple extract. If you don't have that, no worries, regular cream cheese icing will still taste great on these!

I'll give you a little hint on making those cute little icing swirls. . . it was late evening when I made these & I didn't feel like dealing with my pastry bag and tips so I took a ziploc bag, put the icing in it & snipped a small piece of the corner off, wa-la, mess-free way to dress up the cupcakes!

For those who never made butternut squash puree, what you want to do is cut the squash in half lengthwise, scoop out the pulp & seeds (save the seeds and read down further what I did with them). Place the squash inside face down on a pan & roast for 45-60 minutes at 400 or until the inside is soft. Scoop out the inside & put into a food processor to puree (a blender would also work). Leftover squash can be froze.

Cupcakes

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled

4 egg

2 cups butternut squash puree

Frosting

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese room temp

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter room temp

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3-4 cups powdered sugar to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in squash puree.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed (15-20 minutes if using mini muffin pan). Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely before frosting
For Frosting:
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add maple syrup, vanilla, and powdered sugar; continue beating until well combined and smooth. frost cupcakes and drizzle with maple syrup if desired.

Yields 24 regular size cupcakes or 48 mini cupcakes

I am tickled to say I now have a way for you to easily print off this recipe by clicking on Printable Recipe Here!!! As time allows, I will slowly go back over my archived recipes and add a printable link to each recipe.

Bonus! If you clean off the seeds you scrapped from your butternut squash, you can roast them like pumpkin seeds! So while I was working on the cupcakes, I roasted my seeds at 375 for about 20-25 minutes. After rinsing them in water, I let them dry off on a paper towel. Then I sprayed them with olive oil spray & sprinkled on some old bay seasoning & salt (you can use any seasoning, garlic salt, cinnamon/sugar, etc) After about 15 minutes, I tossed the seeds around. And yes, I ate them all up while baking! ;)

Also, stayed tuned for Treasuring Life's Blessings 2nd annual virtual cookie exchange coming up! Starting Monday December 2nd thru Saturday December 7th, come link up your blog posts (new or old) that highlight some of your favorite Christmas cookies, candies or treats. Don't have a blog? That's ok, just stop by to check out the recipes posted. This is a great way to find some new recipes to try out! And feel free to spread the word, the more who participate, the more yummy recipes we'll have!

Capture Your Grief- Sunset

Sunset:

 To close this project and this month of Baby Loss Awareness I thought that we could all photograph the sunset from wherever we are in the world.

I saw this sunset from my back porch, barely peeking through the trees. I was in the middle of making supper, but I stopped what I was doing, grabbed my keys & camera and ran out the door with barely a word to the family. I knew I had just minutes to quickly drive around the corner to try and capture this magnificent sunset. This picture doesn't even do it justice. It was breathtaking. 

I sat in the middle of the quiet, abandoned road with my car in park as I tried to capture the beauty of God's hand-painted picture. As I sat there completely alone, I cried for all I was missing. 

My son. 

My Noah.

Oh how my heart still breaks in a million pieces even 3 years later. 3 long years. How can this possibly be? How am I still here, functioning?? I honestly have no idea. I don't know how I got to this point, still standing. Only by the grace of God is all I can figure out. That & a few caring people who have stuck by us.

I still have my days I can barely function. Oh, most wouldn't know anymore around me because I've gotten better at hiding it, or maybe they just don't want to recognize it anymore. It's easier for others to forget my son & my grief.  I think that's more what it is. People think after a few months you should be "all better". I won't ever be, not until the day I die. Blessed are those who realize this & still love me. Still stand by me. Those who ignore or forget my son intentionally, I have no words. I can't imagine treating others like I have been treated by you. May you never experience this gut wrenching ache.

This is a hard, lonely path as I've come to discover. But there have been amazing blessings along the way. Many of which I can't put into words. I've had some amazing people brought into my life because our heavenly babies brought us together. I've learned what true joy means & have a deeper appreciation of life. I've learned to ignore the petty things & embrace who & what truly matters. I have become a better mom to my living children.

All because of Noah.

My dear son, you have taught me a lifetime of lessons in your brief life. I still continue to learn and will until the day I see you again. I love & miss you more than you know!!!

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

Matthew 5:4

Apologia-Exploring Creation with Chemistry & Physics

When it comes to the world of homeschool science curriculum, we are no strangers to Apologia Educational Ministries. Being that we are in our 9th year of homeschooling, we have used many of their homeschool science resources and have loved each subject we've studied. We heard almost a year ago, that author Jeannie Fulbright was coming up with yet a new volume to add to their science line, Exploring Creation with Chemistry and Physics that was just released this past September. We had the privilege of being amongst the first to receive this brand new curriculum to review.

We received both the  textbook and notebooking journal and were pleased as usual with the quality and information presented. The textbook is a hardbound book and the notebooking journal is a spiral bound consumable.  All the curriculum in Apologia's science line are presented with a Biblical worldview which is important to me. There are 14 lessons broken down into 28 weeks. In the beginning of the notebooking journal, there is a schedule broken down exactly how to cover the entire text, when to read certain pages and do the activities in the corresponding journal. Personally, I love any curriculum that breaks down into a well planned schedule for me so all I have to do is implement the lesson plans, perfect for a busy mom!

The topics covered in this curriculum are:

-Chemistry and Physics Matter

-Moving Matter

-Building Blocks of Creation

-Compound Chemistry

-Multitude of Mixtures

-Mechanics in Motion

-Dynamics of Motion

-Work in the World

-Sounds of Energy

-Light of the World

-Thermal Energy

-Electrifying Our World

-Mysterious Magnetism

-Simple Machines

We have the unique opportunity in that our homeschool co-op is offering this course this year as one of their science classes so I have 2 children taking it. How we use this is my kids take a one hour class every Monday. They go over the material they have read the previous week from the textbook and review any homework that was assigned in the notebooking journal. After that, they usually complete projects or experiments that are listed in the book under the "try this" scattered throughout the lessons.

Lava lamps they made in Chapter 1

After Monday, we spend the next 4 days reading the text for the week, completing different pages in the notebooking journal such vocabulary, crossword puzzles, copywork (printing or cursive writing of scripture) or lapbook style mini-books. We've also done some additional experiments my children didn't cover in their co-op class.

This course is already chock full of information and activities but Apologia also included a website address that contains even more extras if you are looking to supplement this course with even more activities. (this is only accessible to those who have the textbook as it is password protected). On the website, the "extras" are broken down by chapter making it easy to find what you want. Some of the things included are extra experiments, videos, detailed explanations and interactive presentations.

Studying salt crystals

You can do this course with just the textbook alone if you didn't have the funds to get each child a notebooking journal (though I highly recommend the journals!) The textbook is written in an easy to understand, conversational tone and makes you feel like the author herself is sitting with you conversing. She takes these challenging topics and presents them in a way for everyone to grasp and understand. There are questions throughout the text that provoke in-depth conversation and make the students really think about the how & why of what they are learning. Like what a polymer is and how it can be reformed into other polymers (where then they made their own bouncy ball). Or how chemical and physical reactions work (they combined mentos & diet coke. . .outside!!!)

I know it can sound overwhelming to do experiments at home but most of the experiments we've done (and the few I've looked ahead at) contain simple components many of which you may already have around the house or other inexpensive ingredients to buy. In the back of the book, there is a list of needed supplies listed by chapter making it easy to know ahead of time what you need to have on hand. 

This was from chapter 4 the class did as a group

The target age for this curriculum is K-6th grade which again, for a busy family that schools many ages, this can be a huge plus. I appreciate curriculum that allows me to include several of my children together. Not only does it save me time, but my kids enjoy working together on projects and experiments. Since my kids are older that are using this, they sat down together and would read the book aloud then do the book work individually.

 While we used the regular notebooking journal this time, Apologia also has a Junior notebooking journal geared for the beginning writer and younger student. They accidently sent us a copy so I had the privilege of looking this over. I admit I never used a junior notebook before but I was quite impressed with it and plan to use it in the future when my little ones reach that age.

Just as we have been with all the Apologia sciences we've used in the past, we were once again pleased with the quality and content of this curriculum and would highly suggest it to any family looking for an in-depth but easy to implement science curriculum. The only minor change I would suggest would be to make the notebooking journal have perforated pages making it easier to tear out for activities as well as ease of use to put into end of year portfolios.

Textbook costs $39

Notebooking Journal costs $24

Eggplant Pizza

I admit, today was an exhausting day. But after hearing how many people wanted all of the recipes from class today, I figured this was a good time to document them!!

I had my cooking class make honey garlic grilled eggplant as well as eggplant pizza (a "recipe" I came up with). Eggplant is in season now. Seriously, check out the farm stands near you. I got HUGE eggplant 2/$1.

For the eggplant pizza, peel the eggplant if you aren't a fan of the skin (though it's good for you). Slice into thin slices then sprinkle both sides with salt, laying the slices on towels to absorb the liquid (keeps eggplant from getting mushy, look at the last pic, you can see beads of water). After 10-15 min, blot the excess liquid. Place the slices on a greased cookies sheet with oven set around 425-450. Roast for 10 minutes or so then flip for another 5-10 minutes. Then place sauce, cheese and seasonings on the eggplant. Bake or broil till done till your liking.

A month of gratitude

It's so easy to focus on all the negatives in life so I am sharing a challenge, not just for my readers but myself included. Join me on my blog Facebook Fan Page and share something you are thankful for every day this month. It doesn't have to be anything huge, any little gift of gratitude would be perfect. As we enter this coming holiday season that can often be difficult for many (me included), maybe sharing the things we are thankful will help uplift us all!

Capture Your Grief- Support

Support: 

Share about what has been the best support for you since the loss of your baby. Maybe it is a special friend or family member? A pet? An organization? What have they done for you? Where would you be without them?

The word support brings up many emotions for me. On one hand, it brings hurt & disappoint as there were  those who should've been here for us after Noah died yet they turned their back on us for selfish reasons. But on the other hand, we really got to experience people being the hands & feet of Jesus and reaching out to us in so many ways. Even people who we didn't know well or never met face to face.  Some of these dear people have since become close friends! I will always be grateful to those friends & few family members who willingly chose to help us carry this burden of grief & didn't shy away. The occasional phone calls, notes, little gifts or items people give us that reminds them of Noah, photos with his name written out, including his name in Christmas cards, just someone texting or emailing to say they were thinking of Noah & I, etc are just many ways people have supported us these last 3 years. 

Special organizations who also offer great support are 

Sufficient Grace Ministries & Sweet Pea Project

I took this photo in St Maarten 4 months after Noah died

Capture Your Grief- Time

Time: 

How long has it been since your baby died.

It's been 1200 days since Noah died.

3 years

3 months

&

12 days

Seems like it was yesterday, yet it feels like forever.

Rosie's Doll Clothes Patterns- Review

When I was younger, I inherited my great grandma's sewing machine & taught myself to sew. Fast forward to when I had my own kids, many times I made matching dresses for my girls when they were little. Now that life has gotten busier, I haven't had the time to sew like I used to.

Last Christmas, my girls were given an awesome sewing machine & cabinet for Christmas from their grandparents. I have showed them some basic skills but again, haven't had time to get into the nitty gritty with them so I was excited to recently have the chance to review Learn How to Make Doll Clothes Video Course from Rosie's Doll Clothes Patterns.

How to sew doll clothes course is an online video course founded by a fellow mom named Rosie. Her daughter wanted doll clothes and she hated seeing how much they cost in the store so she set out to make her own. Even though she had been sewing since she was little, she found sewing doll clothes was much different than making adult clothes. Hence, her video course was  born so others could learn the simple techniques of making their own doll clothes.

This course is 6 weeks long and contains over 130 videos showing you everything you need to know about sewing. From setting up your sewing area, to how to create a straight & zig-zag stitch, to how to create a casing as well as lots of other tips & tricks; complete all the way up until you have a finished article of doll clothing. The videos are very short & broken down into small steps. Rosie herself narrates and physically shows you how to do everything as she does it, step by step. She also includes tips on serging for those who have a serger.

Also included were 8 free PDF patterns we could download & print out. In addition, to each pattern, Rosie also has a video to go along with each one showing step by step how to complete the whole project. The directions are also available to print out. She also has other patterns on her website available for purchase that also include a video to go along with.

All 3 of my girls watched the videos, a few they skipped over as they had already had experience in some of the areas (and we don't own a serger so those didn't apply to use). Once they felt confident that they could try out one of the patterns, we picked up some inexpensive material (walmart had a bunch for only $1 a yard). Since the dolls clothes don't take up much material, you could easily use scrap pieces you have sitting around.

We printed out the pattern which was easy to do. I made sure my printer was NOT selected "print to fit" as I had read this could alter the size of the pattern. The pattern actually has a measurement on it that you can measure to make sure it printed correctly. My one daughter decided she was going to be the one to make the first outfit, a summer nightie.

She used the kitchen table to cut out the material and had the computer right by her to follow the directions.

When she was ready to sew, she took the computer down to the sewing machine with all the supplies she needed.

All Rosie's pattern that she included for free are for an 18" doll like American Girl dolls which we don't own so we tweaked the above outfit for this doll. After doing this, I saw on her website she offers to send you the cabbage patch doll pattern for free of charge if you prefer that instead of the 18" one.

This was a great course that had very easy to follow instructions. My girls plan to make the rest of the included doll clothes patterns. It would also be a great way for them to make inexpensive gifts or once they get good enough, sell them to earn some spending money!

Rosie's Doll Clothes Pattern Video Course is for ages 8+ and is a year long subscription available for $47.46. There is also an option to buy the course on DVD.

VocabularySpellingCity

VocabularySpellingCity is something we've been using off and on for a few years to work on the kids spelling lists. Except we were only using the free portion of the program at times. Recently, we were given the VocabularySpellingCIty premium membership to review. I always liked what we saw in the free edition but I'll tell you what, everything that is included in the premium membership is awesome and so very worthwhile!

There are many ways to use this program. They have 42,000 words you can use for spelling words to import into lists or you can put your own in. I also want to note, if you input lists while having the premium membership, then let your membership fall to the wayside, if you come back to a premium membership again, guess what? All those lists you entered before will still be there!!!! (yes, I can attest to this first hand! How awesome is that feature!)

 We have a program of words we were already using when given this membership so we decided to continue using those. It's so easy to create your own lists that I had the kids type their own in (I checked them to make sure the spelling was correct before saving them). They thought it was great being able to set up their own lists and it started the learning process from the very beginning.

There are so many ways the kids can use this program. Teach Me which pronounces the word out loud & spells it, Play A Game section which has several fun games to play.

There are also Flash Cards, Spelling Tests and Vocabulary Tests. 

There are even handwriting worksheets you can print out and all the games are printable as well (or you can do them right on the computer). As if that wasn't enough, they also have a free iPhone & iPad app making this program great for on the go. Plus, if you have multiple kids using this program, being able to spread them out amongst different media devices, makes it easier for them to get their daily work done.

Check out the above photo!!! This program is so much more than a basic vocabulary & spelling program! How neat is it that they can incorporate their words for sentence structure testing as well.

VocabularySpellingCity also offer wonderful teacher resources such as training videos, even math, science & social studies vocabulary lists. The best part (for mom), this program automatically scores and keeps track of each student's records and progress. I also appreciated the fact that I go could into the program in advance and give my kids assignments individually. They each had their own login page so once they got to their page, they could see what I assigned & complete it on their own without me hovering over them keeping track.

This program is perfect for all ages! From K-12 grade. You can plug in words for not only daily spelling but words for them to learn the definitions, for example like science or other subjects. My older kids used this to put in their science words to help them learn the meaning of the words. They found they were able to learn them easier by using this program and playing the games than if they had just repetitively read the words over & over. If your kids are learning the state & capitals, you could input that info to help them learn! The ways you can utilize this program are endless!!! Your students can enter words to help them study for the SAT's as they would learn both spelling & the vocabulary at the same time.

My girls in particular said they enjoyed the variety of ways they can learn using this program. They said "it's not boring like just writing out words over and over". They enjoy the games and interaction they had using this and I felt it helped them retain the spellings and meanings a lot more than just writing words out.

The cost for a family (up to 5 students) is $29.99 a year. For classrooms up to 25 students, the cost is $49.99 a year. This is a program that we definitely recommend and is worth the nominal cost.

Bridgeway English

 Bridgeway Academy  is a nationally accredited homeschool company that provides curriculum & online classes for homeschoolers (think virtual teacher & participating in a group class with homeschoolers around the world!) I admit I hadn't heard of them until I was recently asked to review Bridgeway English Book 1 Focus on Grammar (along with the accompanying Bridgeway English Key for correcting the work). 

 

This course is stated to be a remedial english course for students in grades 7-12. I was a little unsure of what to expect by that definition. The student book is a consumable, spiral bound book. The topics book 1 covers are:
-subject and predicate -fours types of sentences -sentence fragments -run-on sentences -compound sentences -noun functions -pronouns -adjectives -adverbs -prepositions and prepositional phrases -conjunctions -interjections -grammar review
It is a self instructional curriculum that follows a mastery approach with each new lesson building on the previous ones. So it's important to make sure the student understands what they are doing before moving onto a new lesson. Each section is called a PAK and there are 6 packs in this book each around 34-43 pages long. At the end of each PAK is a self test that the student takes in preparation for the final tests.
Since I have 3 children that would be in the appropriate grade to use this curriculum, they had to figure out which one was going to use it. One of my 8th graders said she thought it looks like something she would enjoy doing. She worked on it 4 days a week during the review and found it very easy to follow the guidelines & directions in the book.

At the begining of each PAK it lists the objectives the student will learn in that section as well as a short story called "Tremendous Tales". The directions throughout the book are shaded in gray making it easy to see what she needed to complete. At the end of each daily lesson, there is a reminder for them to check their answers, correct the mistakes and then recheck their answers which helps them review anything they got wrong.
The answer key makes grading everything very simple. There is a copy of each page of the student text (2 to a page in the answer key) with all the answers filled in so you only have to glance between the 2 books to correct it all.

We felt that this was a very thorough grammar curriculum. There is no "fluff" involved, it gets right to the point yet in an engaging & understanding way. We also enjoyed the uplifting & encouraging quotes that were sprinkled throughout the text.
There is also a Book 2 that focuses on writing but we didn't receive that. After reviewing book 1, my daughter wishes we would've gotten the second book. (just as a side note, the teachers key book is the answer book for both books 1 & 2). She said that she feels she is understanding grammar much better by using this curriculum and she appreciates the straight-forward approach.
I think the description for this course should be stated as a thorough, in depth review of grammar instead of a remedial course.
Book 1, Book 2 & the English Key can be purchased for $23.33 each. Check out other reviews as others from the crew reviewed the online classes!