The Goldfinch Are Back!

I was very happy last week when I was watching the darling little finches at my bird feeding station. There had been about 4-5 pair of goldfinches for the last month or so, and usually I have a lot more, I have been waiting for the weather to warm up so more would arrive. Well, they have arrived! First there were 8-10, then more and more kept arriving, soon the yard was alive with lots of wonderful little yellow birds, happily singing away. They are enjoying shelled sunflower hearts, and nijer thistle, as well as my dripping bird bath. Watching all my visiting birds is so wonderful. Along with the goldfinch, we have had lots of starling, blue jays, robins, house finch, red headed finch, chickadees, and sparrows. Flying above the garden, the swallows are starting to arrive as well, and a few little hummingbirds have found the new feeder I put out for them last week. Bird feeding is so wonderful, I would encourage everyone to have out some bird food. The dripping birdbath attachment has doubled the birds that come to the yard as well. Here are some great pictures of the Goldfinch arriving.

German Pancakes

I absolutly love German pancakes, as a child my grandma would make them for us when we would come over. Both my mother and grandmother were wonderful homemakers, who I learned a lot from- this recipe has such good memories for me- eating German pancakes at Grandma's was an event. Me and my sisters would eagerly watch through the oven window as the pancake would rise and rise, and were always amazed at how big it got. Always such a delicious treat, we regularly have them for special breakfasts. The other night while the kids and Gary were out late, I decided to modify the recipe for a single serving german pancake for my dinner. It turned out wonderfully, so I thought I would share the recipe- for both the idividual size, and the family size.

Garman Pancake- Family size (serves 4)

Preheat oven to 450 F.

1 c. milk

6 eggs

1 c. flour

1/4 t. salt

6 T. butter

In a 9x13 pan ( I have in the past had a glass dish break during this process, so I use a metal pan) melt butter in the oven until hot and sizzling- while it is heating, with a hand beater, blend well milk eggs, flour and salt. When butter is ready, carefully pour batter into hot pan and bake immediately at 450 f. for 25 minutes, or until puffed and browned. Serve immediately with powdered sugar, and syrup, some people like it with lemon juice and butter, I haven't tried that, or fresh applesauce and cinnamon, or even berries with whipped cream. My family loves it with just powdered sugar and butter.

Individual sized german pancake (pictured above):

Same directions but bake in a pie pan, 450 F.

1/3 c. milk

2 eggs

1/3 c. flour

dash of salt

2 T butter

mix like the above recipe,and then bake it in a pie pan, in this case I used a glass pie pan, I new it was sturdy enough to handle the heat, and then addition of cooler batter, you could also use a metal pie pan if you have one. It turned out perfect, and just the right size for a dinner plate, yummy!

Earth Day 2010

We had a great Earth Day this year, we had a great day out in the garden, Sarah helped me get all the annuals planted in the front yard, Gary and Joe worked on the garden fence more. I also got some of the veggies planted, although I think I was too excited and maybe planted them a bit too early this year- the weather was beautiful and sunny, but it is back to rain already, so I may get over to the garden store today to fashion some sort of greenhouse over the plants. I could not find a tree to plant, so we will have to work on that next week. I really want an evergreen for the birds. I have nearly gotten the garden ready to be registered as a backyard habitat, I still have to add bird houses, and nesting boxes, Gary and the kids will take on that project. I had my first hummingbird in the yard this morning, it was so beautiful. Our old property was a registered habitat, but it was a little easier because the property was so large, it had most of the elements in place, I hope to have the yard ready very soon. We just got back from "Greenstock" the high schools environmental club did a good job, and it was fun, I packed a nice picnic, the weather was very cold and rainy so the kids got some Oregonian training in, and luckily there was a covered picnic area. We will head back later for some more music. We watched half of Avatar, the graphics are amazing, the storyline so far has been interesting and engaging, I look forward to seeing how it ends. Hope you all were able to get outside a little for Earth week, I have included some pictures of my garden, and the fence project.

Spring Projects

I am getting very excited for gardening season to start, although I do garden pretty much year round in some way or another, late spring, and summer are always such an exciting time with so much going on in the garden. I mentioned in my last post that Gary was hard at work building me a fence to keep Cordelia (aka my crazy puppy), who loves to dig, out of my veggie garden. Gary along with my son Joseph have done a wonderful job, the fence looks so wonderful, the gate will be put on this week.

Also the kids have both been hard at work on their school work, the end of the year is always filled with lots of projects, and lots of studying. I was able to snap a candid picture of my Sarah hard at work on a history project, as well as some pictures of the guys hard at work on our fence.

We are looking forward to Earth Day 2010 tomorrow, we will be having a vegetarian day, as well as adding a new tree to the garden ( we are hoping to add a blue spruce, but we will see what the garden center has), as well as checking out the new film Avatar. This weekend we will be attending "Greenstock" a local Earth day concert in the park put on by the high school environmental club. Hope you all have a great Earth Day.

Big Fat Cookies!

It has been a busy spring, lots of birthday parties, Easter was wonderful, the kids are busy with church and school activities, and I am still trying to train my crazy puppy Cordelia. Last week I was making a huge triple batch of our families favorite cookies for my son and hubby to take to their monthly father/son church group called Knight's night. Every time I make these cookies I enjoy how easy they are to make as well as how yummy and big they are. My mom made these when I was younger, and I have been making them since the kids were tiny. The recipe was in an old children's cookbook we had growing up, probably Betty Crocker but I can't remember for sure. Thought I would share the recipe, since it is so fun and easy, perfect for beginner bakers.

Big Fat Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 F.

1 box yellow moist cake mix (the kind with pudding in the mix)

2 eggs

1/2 cup water

bag of chocolate chips

Mix the cake mix with 2 eggs, and the water. Drop by large heaping tablespoons ( I use a 1/4 c. measuring cup) onto a greased cookie sheet ( I prefer to use parchment paper rather than grease) about 6 to a sheet as they get pretty big. Sprinkle a good amount of chocolate chips on the top of each cookie. Bake 8-10 minutes or until no impression remains after light touch and light golden brown on edges. Makes 16-20 cookies depending on size.

These are always a hit, hope you give them a try!

The Musgrove garden is well underway- Gary and Joseph are working on a fence for my garden to keep a certain puppy out, last week I got some peppers planted as well as some lavender and Basil, can't wait to get the rest planted! I will keep you posted. Enjoy the spring!

St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day. This day gives me a wonderful opportunity to share our Celtic heritage with the children. We are teetotalers here, so no green beer or anything like that, we celebrate with nice Celtic music, and maybe a movie with an Irish theme (this year we will be watching The Secret of Roan Inish), but best of all we have one of our favorite meals, Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, and Soda Bread, and some yummy dessert. This is also a perfect opportunity for explaining to children about the Trinity using the same example St. Patrick did- the Shamrock.

This year I had fun making St. Patrick's Day mix Cd's for my friends and family with lots of my favorite Celtic Music. I also thought I would share with you some of my favorite Children's Book selections for St. Pat's day.

First I will start with Tomie DePaola books-He happens to be one of my all time favorite children's author's and writes some wonderful books for St. Patrick's Day.

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato an Irish Folktale by DePaola is a wonderful story about a lazy Jamie O'Rourke whose poor wife throws out her back doing all the work Jamie doesn't do, and has to stay in bed, so Jamie becomes worried about what he'll do about the potato harvest and then has a lucky encounter with a leprechaun. Very funny book, great illustrations.

Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka by DePaola- another story about the lazy Jamie O'Rourke, this time his wife is going out of town and he has to keep up with house chores, but every night he has his buddies over and they make a mess, then a pooka cleans up every night until the last night, and I will leave that surprise for you to find out when you read this fun story , this has a great little lesson in not being lazy.

Fin M'Coul The Giant of Knockmany Hill by DePaola- this is a story about a how the giant Fin and his wife Oonagh trick the bad giant Cucullin. Good classic Irish tale, great illustrations, I will say that some people have commented that they don't like that Cucullin's finger gets bitten off, and that there is some talk of fighting in the book as well as a little magic. This never bothered me or my children since it is in the realm of folk tales, we have always enjoyed this tale, good introduction to Irish lore.

Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by DePaola- wonderfully illustrated book that teaches about who St. Patrick was, and some of the history and lore that surrounds him. Wonderful introduction to St. Patrick. I enjoy this book even as an adult.

Now for three other books- St. Patrick's Day in the Morning by Eve Bunting Illustrated by Jan Brett- this is an absolutely darling story about a little boy up early on St. Patrick's Day morning, and how everyone in town is getting ready for the parade. Great drawings of how it might actually be in a small Irish town on St. Pat's morning. Perfect for young children, when my kids were younger we read this many times in March, it is a family favorite.

This year I added two new books to our collection of St. Patrick's Day Children's Books- the illustrations were so beautiful they books just drew me in- when they arrived in the mail, I read them right away, and was not disappointed, wonderful stories.

First was A Fine St. Patrick's Day by Susan Wojciechowski a story about two towns competing in a town decorating contest, and how one town ended up winning because of their kindness to a stranger. Cute tale about keeping perspective of what's really important.

And last- Fiona's Luck by Teresa Bateman- beautiful book- great tale about how cleverness can be worth more than strength, and how a young girl uses cleverness to help her community when the leprechaun king takes all the luck.

Hope everyone gets a chance to read a few of these books, they are all wonderful, and are a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

Here are my Amazon affiliate links for the books mentioned in this post.

Moses Lapbook

As some of you know I have been a children's Sunday school teacher for the last 15 years. I love coming up with wonderful new ways to teach Bible stories to the kids. Recently, I learned about lapbooks through some homeschool websites I was surfing through for new ideas. For those who are unfamiliar with lapbooks, basically they are file folders folded like shown in the pictures I included, and filled with interactive little crafts, like mini books or other paper crafts. There are tons of websites out there with lots of great ideas for every subject.

I currently teach an all grade early Sunday morning class- ages 5-12- and felt like this would be a great way to teach a multi-week unit on Moses. For the younger kids I pre-cut some of the items, and they colored and glued, and the older kids were able to piece the crafts together by themselves using my teacher's copy as a guide. Our Moses unit took 6 weeks- the stories we learned were Baby Moses, Moses and the Burning Bush, The Ten Plagues, Parting of the Red Sea, Manna & Quail, and The 10 Commandments. It was a lot of fun, the lapbooks turned out really nice, and were a fun thing for the kids to take home and keep. I wanted to do another one for Easter but didn't get it put together in time, so I will save that for next year, next I plan to do a lapbook of either Parables or Jesus' miracles. I have included pictures, for the patterns I used some pattern books I have had for years, as well as mini book printables, and lots of Internet searches.

Update-
For those interested in the printouts I used to make parts of this craft I have included links to some of the places I found printouts.

This website has pictures of the 10 plagues- http://coloringbookfun.com/Moses/index.html

Also a lot of good info can be found at this web site-

http://www.mssscrafts.com/oldtestament/plagues.htm

Here is where I found the crafts for Moses as a baby in the basket, and the parting of the red sea- this site has a lot of good info and printouts as well.
http://dltk-bible.com/exodus/index.htm

As far as the 10 commandments I just drew them out by hand. The pattern on the front of the book of Moses is from an old pattern book I have that they no longer sell- but I think you should be able to find a good picture to use at one of the links above.

This book is where I got the mini book printout- I use this book as well as the one for the new testament all of the time.