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house management, life

Ovens, Ugh!

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One of the few things I really disliked about this house was the fact that the oven was a manual clean. We could have upgraded but it wasn’t worth mortgaging it. But I have dreaded cleaning it. Dreaded it to the point I have waited 3 1/2 years! But I figured when you smell something burning on the bottom of your stove, the time for procrastination is over.

It was sad. That oven was so dirty that I went through the process twice. You know, warm up the oven and spray it down. Then let is sit a bit and wipe it down. Even after I went through the process twice it was still dirty.

But it was better than what it was. What a sad tackle it was, but at least it is better;).

education, Homeschoooling

Books and Stuff

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As we rush hurling towards fall it is time to talk curriculum. While I love looking through curriculum, I don’t like the word. It makes it sound like some stuffy, binding time keeper instead of the liberating, educating tools that open a world. But none the less, onto what we are using this year;).

Math: Over all we are sticking with Singapore Math. For the Nerdster we are starting with a throw away workbook to help him actually write readable numbers. Then we will start him in Singapore’s 1st grade workbooks. NerdBug and NerdPie will continue on their Singapore path with probably 3 workbooks each. NerdBug is just about done with the 4th grade books (about a week left) and NerdPie is almost done with the 1st book of 3rd grade (2 weeks or so left).

Grammar and Spelling: We are doing a grammar 5 a day with the older 2. Then spelling is just going to be home made. I am making lists of words they either need to learn or are having problems with.

History: We are going back to Ancient History this year! We will be doing Susan Wise Bauer’s The Story of the World. I am also going to be using the Activity Guide quite a bit!

Latin: We are going to voyage into Latin this year! I will be using Prima Latina.

Bible: Our book study is going to be Memoria Press’s Christian Studies Book 1 . All 4 are also going to be participating in Awana too.

The older 3 are doing Choir and Celtic Dancing. And then just the older 2 will be doing a science class that is focusing on biology.

Other than that life will be our teacher! If you homeschool, what are you using this year to educate your kids?
Not Back to School Blog Hop

Food

Custom Cake with Non-Custom Ingredients

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The Nerdster wanted a Batman cake for his 5th birthday this last week. And as you see, he got one;). But it was a bit of a process to get there. Now, as usually, I started with a box cake mix. But, I had planned on using homemade butter cream. Genius me forgot to get powdered sugar (which I thought I had) but I had 2 tubs of chocolate icing with chocolate chips and 1 tub of white cream cheese frosting.

So I started by frosting in between the layers and the edges of the cake with the chocolate chip frosting. Then I took a bat image that NerdDad found online. I cut it out.

Then I buttered the edges lightly with chocolate frosting so it would stick to my cake top. Then I mixed yellow gel food coloring into my white cream cheese. I frosted the top of the cake with yellow frosting but was careful to stay off the Batman image.

Then I used 2 strips of duct tape to remove the Bat symbol. Then I filled in the image with more of the chocolate frosting!

So there you have how I made fully custom cake using totally non-custom ingredients! Just a box mix, canned frosting and picture of a bat!

Food

Peach, Peach, Peach

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I love peach season but once you bring them home they just don’t seem to last all that long. I got some from my friend Bethany’s tree on Monday and decided to make some peach puree to freeze. Why? Well, you can use it to flavor oatmeals, make smoothies and so much more! So how?

First, put a pot of water on to boil. Then, cut an X into the bottom of each peach. Once your water is boiling, drop your peaches in for 1 minute.

Then pull your peaches out and plunge them into an ice bath. An ice bath is literally a bowl of water and ice. You put the fruit into it in order to stop the cooking. This is a technique called “Shocking”. The peaches only need to be in there a little bit until they are cool to the touch. Then so to your slit in the bottom and use a knife to peel them! Chunk them up and put them in a bowl. I added a little honey because these are just a touch tart and the kids would prefer it sweeter in oatmeal.

Then take a stick blender to it and blend away! I took the puree and put it into an ice cube tray. Then I popped it into the freezer. Tomorrow I will put them into a zipper bag and take them out as needed.

This is super easy and a great way to extend the season! You can use this technique for just about any fruit!

So what all would you use fruit purees in?

Fresno, Homeschoooling

Free Opera in Fresno

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Ok, so did everyone else know about the California Opera Festival? The California Opera, that is here in Fresno, does a huge Opera festival here in Fresno every summer! They also do the kids’ shows in the winter like Hansel and Gretel! Where have I been, oh making babies for 6 years straight;).

An awesome thing about this festival is that the performances are all free! There are shows this weekend at the Fresno Met and next weekend at the Mercedes Theater in Clovis. I am eyeballing The Telephone this Saturday for myself, NerdDad and some of the Nerdlings. It is a comedy and in English so it is a great 1st time opera. But next weekend’s La Traviata and Madame Butterfly look great too! I think the kids would get a kick out of all the costumes of Madame Butterfly. Oh, to have more time!

This would be my first live opera! My heart is broken that I didn’t know that they have been doing this for almost 10 years! Have you been to any of California Opera’s shows? I can’t wait to attend one myself. I just hope I can squeeze it in this weekend!

Another Fresno treasure! Get out there and part take! Who says there isn’t any culture in Fresno?

child rearing, humor, life

When They Grow Up

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So last night we were watching a tivo’ed Jeopardy during dinner. It was an episode from their Kids Week and as they were introducing the children the announcer said what each one wanted to be. NerdBug said he didn’t know what he wants to be when he grow up. I did the good nerdy mom thing and suggested that he become an engineer;). Then my Nerdling (who will be five) piped up. He said he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got older. He wants to stay home and be with Mommy all day. Well, of course that didn’t go over to well with NerdDad or myself. We informed him that he would have to get a job and move out.

Then NerdPie pipes up and says that Nerdling can’t hang out with me all day when he grows up because I will be busy. She says that I am going back to school when they grow up. I said that we would see what God has for me and maybe I would just be a happy grandma and help them out with their kids. She then exclaims, “You already are a happy grandma!” Whoa! What did I miss? Then she says that I am grandma to all her dolls. Nerdling then included his stuffed animals. Crazy kids;).

Oh, we found why Nerdling thought he could hang out with me as a grown up. We later were finishing an episode of Wipeout. One of the contestants was a stay at home dad. Nerdling thought that he stayed home with his mom for his job. Once again, Crazy Kids;).

house management, organization

Shoe Clutter: Shoe Guilt

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Ok, no matter what my husband says… I do not have a shoe problem. But between my 4 kids in the last 9 years, I have lots of shoes that have quit fitting right. But rather than getting rid of them as soon as they started hurting me I have kept them all. I kept hoping that if I lost a few pounds here or there they might be all better. Well, none of them have gotten any better. Add to those that I had shoes that I actually was wearing holes in. None the less I needed to get rid of shoes.

These are all the shoes I am getting rid of! I am donating 15 pairs of shoes and throwing away 4 pairs. I feel so guilty! Part of me thinks maybe I should hold onto these shoes. But lets get real, they hurt or are wearing through;). It might get better but how long am I going to wait? And what are the chances that they would ever actually get better?

I need to get rid of all the clutter that is holding me down! So out they all go! 2 boxes of clutter out of my house! That is my Tackle for this week!

gift worthy, giveaway, kids, video games

WooHoo! PE And a Giveaway!

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For those of you who have been around NerdFamily Things for a while, you know that we love Jumpstart software. So I was very stoked when we were approached to review their new Wii game, Jumpstart Get Moving Family Fitness Wii (just hit stores June 15th). I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how crazy everyone would be about this game because we just got a Wii Fit and it has been a huge hit over here. I wasn’t sure how a non-balance board physical activity game could measure up. But since it was rated E for Everybody, I figured I couldn’t go wrong. But I shouldn’t have been concerned at all! All 4 of my children loved it!

So here is the basic layout of the game. There are 15 different sports games in 11 different arenas. Brooke Burke takes you through playing different sports using the Wii remote and nunchuck. Before you start any sport she has a little instructional video that she explains how to work the controls and it does a close up on her hands actually doing it. I love that it repeats until you choose to move on to the actual game (what can I say, my kids sometimes need the repeats;).

Then they play fun games with Brooke Burke encouraging them. The games themselves are animating in fun environments. The kids get to pick out which one they want to use. They get choices like a Bug’s View, Outer Space, Volcano, and lots more. When they are done with each game they get a score and a count of how many calories they burned. Let me just say, these games can really give them a workout. My 7 year old was sweating after she did a race!

One of my favorite things is that they get exercise but they don’t have to use the balance board. When my kids get real wrapped up in sports it is hard to make sure they don’t jump on the Wii board. But with Jumpstart Get Moving Family Fitness Wii they can jump and run without hurting themselves or the equipment (and it is good for them!). Now like any video game, it takes some practice to get the hang of the controls. My 9 year old had to practice a bit to throw the football just right, etc.

My 1 real problem, you can not have someone playing this anywhere children who are supposed to be doing homework are;). They all start rooting for each other and get sucked in. But the up side is that when we are playing, the kids don’t have trouble waiting their turn!

Oh, new part of my reviews. The kids each want to have their favorite part listed;).

NerdBug (9): Likes the Football Throwing game because you get to throw and avoid defenders.
NerdPie (7):  Likes the Bug’s Life View because it makes the running race very fun.
Nerdling (5): Likes the boxing because he gets to use both the remote and nunchuck (though you can will all the games;).
NerdPud (3): Likes that she gets to run.

We are going to be using it as a guaranteed PE! It is a great “recess” activity for when they need a break from sitting so they can come back and concentrate! So we loved it, and for about $30, we think it is a great family present, especially for us homeschoolers!

Win it!
JumpStart has graciously decided to give one of my readers a copy of Jumpstart Get Moving Family Fitness Wii
To enter:
* Just leave a comment telling me what challenges you have about getting your kids enough exercise!
* A random winner will be selected and notified on August 9th.
* The winner will then have 3 days to claim their prize.
To earn extra entries, you may do one or all of the following. Each one counts as an extra ticket but you must leave a separate comment for each one.
* Subscribe to my feed (if you already do, that counts).
* Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back here.
* Subscribe to my Twitter and then Tweet about this!
* You can tweet everyday for an additional entry, just make sure to leave a comment for each time!
If you want to see more giveaways pop over to Making Money Keeping Money to see more giveaways on Contesting Monday

Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of JumpStart Get Moving: Family Fitness at no cost by Knowledge Adventure in order to test the products’ abilities and give my own personal opinions on it. The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.