Skip to main content

Weekend Check-in: May 24

What I'm Cooking
Homemade pizza. I used the whole wheat pizza crust recipe out of the Bread Machine cookbook, using all freshly ground flour but sifting half of it, and this method for cooking it in my new (birthday present!) giant cast iron skillet. I thought for sure it would stick horribly, since it's my understanding that everything sticks horribly to cast iron the first few times you use it, but Isaac seasoned it well and I buttered it well and the whole pizza just slid right out! I rolled up cheese sticks in the crust to make stuffed crust, then topped with pizza sauce (I'm a Ragu girl), sausage, pineapple, and a generic pizza cheese blend. It's the first time I've been pretty happy with my homemade pizza!

Pancake-sausage muffins. Actually, Isaac made these a few weeks ago for his father's group, and I pulled the extras out of the freezer.

Creamy chicken and rice casserole. Also pulled from the freezer. It's okay. Needs a lot of salt.

Baked ziti, a recipe from a friend (TMM folks, you can find it in last year's cookbook). Except I added a pound of ground beef and used rotini instead.

What I'm Reading
Confessions of a Cloth Diaper Convert (included in the homemaking e-book bundle I purchased a few weeks ago). Most of it was not new information to me, but I did pick up some helpful hints, and I was encouraged to try cloth overnight again. It's working great for Levi, but Silas seems pretty sensitive to having wet cloth against his skin, even with a fleece liner.

Weekly Snapshot
One of the outtakes from my attempt to get a nice picture on the last day of BSF. I love the pile.

Favorite pin: DIY Skin toner. Breaking news: I finally started washing my face semi-regularly. (About time, hmm?) But I know it's best to follow cleansing with a toner and moisturizer. I have all of the ingredients for this one except glycerin, but since that's optional anyway, I might go ahead and give it a try!
Favorite blog post: Real Food for the Spirit. A good reminder in this busy season of young motherhood. Levi and I started doing a Bible study together this week, and I'll blog more about it next week.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vanilla and Snowflakes

You may remember from my Goin' Crunchy 2011 post that I started a batch of homemade vanilla back in May. It's all ready for use now, just in time for Christmas gifts!  I bought these little bottles  and a pack of winter-themed address labels on clearance at Target, dug through my craft boxes to find some old ribbon, and ended up with this: (You can't see it, but there is coordinating ribbon around the sugar jar, too.) As you can see, after I was done using my vanilla beans for extract, I cut them up into 2-inch pieces and covered them with white sugar in baby food jars: after about a week, the sugar is delightfully vanilla-flavored!  I haven't used it yet, but hear it's great for sprinkling on baked goods or oatmeal, or stirring into coffee or tea.  Packaged together in a little gift bag, they're making a nice small (and frugal!) gift for . . . those people who need nice, small, frugal gifts.  :)   In other news, I picked up a $1 sheet of snowfla...

More Pom-pom activities

That dollar or so I spent on a bag of fuzzy pom-poms might have been the most useful dollar ever. Both boys continue to be entertained by pushing them through the lid of an old peanut container , an activity I pull out whenever there is an emotional crisis mounting. I've been collecting toilet paper rolls in hopes of doing this stick-counting activity , but I have yet to gather enough suitable twigs.  So I created my own conglomeration of several activities I've seen: Levi used small tongs to put the pom-poms in the tubes, counting to match the number on the tube.  He recognizes the number words one, two, three, and six, so I opted to leave the numbers off and let him figure out which tube "said" which number. Like my lazy masking-tape construction? :) I belatedly remembered that we've done a similar activity before to practice colors: I've got a set of toilet paper tubes with colored paper around them!  Not surprisingly -- that was six months ago -- ...

Homeschool Curriculum 2025-2026

Given the ages of my children, I will only have two years when I am actively homeschooling all six kids, and this is the first. I have more spreadsheets going than ever before, four student paper planners, one kid using Google Classroom for assignments again, and a giant schedule on butcher paper so that everyone knows whose turn it is in the living room (for instrument practice) or on the laptop. BRING IT ON. Pretty sure we've only gotten all six kids awake for family devotions once in 8 days of school. LEVI: 11th grade Math: linear algebra and multivariable calculus through PSEO at University of Minnesota (online) History: AP world history at Sartell High School, second semester Science: AP physics C (one each semester) online English: World Literature: LLATL gold , Advancing Through Grammar Language: self-study German, with plans to take the AP German test next year Bible: Dust to Glory (Ligonier online) New Testament Extracurricular: piano first semester, wind ensemble at Sarte...