Skip to main content

Weekend Check-in: March 7

What I'm Cooking
Quick cinnamon biscuits. Very tasty. I subbed white whole wheat flour, as usual.

Glazed orange scones. Because we needed some bright citrus on yet another snowy morning!

Slow cooker cheesy spaghetti with turkey sausage. This was a huge hit in my house. It has the creamy comfort food feeling of lasagna, but with a fraction of the work and even fewer calories (thanks to cottage cheese and ground turkey). The recipe calls for only 8 ounces of pasta, but I think I could have used a full 12-ounce box. It was very saucy.

Pizza using this crust, but with white whole wheat flour. I do not love whole wheat crust, but this was one of the better recipes I've tried. I use Ragu pizza sauce, because it doesn't have any sugar, and pizza sauce is one thing I still haven't gotten around to making myself.

Poor man's steak. I really liked this -- an interesting twist on traditional meatloaf. Plus it made enough for four meals, for our little family! I used homemade cream of chicken soup for the topping, and bread crumbs from scraps of bread we keep in the freezer in place of the cracker crumbs (since I didn't have any crackers on hand).

Peanut butter and jelly popcorn. We often have popcorn for dinner when Isaac is gone for some reason, and I like finding ways to sneak in some protein. It's made with white chocolate, so not at all healthy and much sweeter than one ought to consume for dinner, but it looks fun. Levi and I agreed that the jelly popcorn was way too sweet, but the peanut butter was delicious.


What We're Reading
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Clearly. This has been our lunch-time read-aloud for a few weeks now (since we only manage to read a few times a week), and we only have one chapter left. They've all been interested, but this week for the first time Levi and Owen were really engaged and asked for another chapter. It's fun to watch them get excited about the story, and we already have the next book in the series on hold at the library!

My e-mail inbox. I have long subscribed to a newsletter from the MOB Society (Mothers of Boys), but don't often end up reading the e-mails. I finally got tired of the 100+ unread messages in my inbox and decided to start going through them while I wait for the next Alaskan Courage book to become available. :)

What I'm Doing
Surviving. Chasing Silas and Toby all morning (they're both into EVERYthing), schooling Levi all afternoon, trying to make time for Owen in between, and then all of the meal prep and housework and laundry. Nothing's bad, and I don't actually feel overwhelmed. On the contrary, it feels good and right to be busy in this way, not idle (or not often, anyway), working with my hands to keep my household running. But it is tiring, and I wish Toby would sleep through the night, and I wish I had more time and energy to serve people outside my household, too. This is my season, though, and I'm grateful to have a spirit of contentment (for the moment . . . it can slip away so quickly, you know).

That's all I've got for this week. I might just try to sneak in a nap before the time change. :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Naaman

This week's Bible story was that of Naaman the leper, from 2 Kings 5 . Short version: the prophet Elisha tells Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times, and after a bit of moaning and groaning, he does and is healed. I modified this craft , which I found through our preschool curriculum .  We didn't have any blue plastic cups, so first we painted styrofoam cups. Owen had no interest in painting, and as he was playing happily by himself, I saw no reason to make him participate. Painting the outside of cups is actually really easy. Just stick your non-dominant hand inside the cup! I googled "man outline" and searched until I found a workable face, then printed it twice. Levi had the rare treat of using a marker to put red dots ("leprosy") all over the face.  Painstakingly drawing leprous sores on Naaman's ear.  Then I taped Naaman's face (one clean side, one spotted side) to a popsicle stick (which I just now realized y...

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...

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...