Yummy baked goodies

I loooooove to bake. Not just the occasional batch of cookies. I'm talking every day- cookies, cakes, brownies, anything!

I say every day but that is really my wishful thinking. My husband has limited me (meanie). He would be happy, as would his waistline, if I baked only once a week. I can usually squeeze in a good 3 desserts.

When one loves to bake and one has a limit on the number of times this hobby can be practiced, one has to be more creative than baking the nightly dessert . So, this morning I made homemade pancakes with homemade chocolate syrup. So lovely.

None of that Bisquick bunk. Bah! Would I dare lower myself to buy Hershey's chocolate syrup. Nay!

Only real sugar in this house lol.

Being a lover of all things baked I tend to be a bit selfish. Not just in eating the goodies but sharing my kitchen to create them. I've had to pray that I will be more open to allowing my children to bake with me.

Like many moms, that thought "I can get it done quicker if I just do it myself" always infiltrates my mind. But this morning when Cha-hisser said she wanted to make the pancakes because she "loves to cook", I was happy to indulge her desire.

They turned out fabulous if you don't count the fact that I couldn't remember the exact oil measurement so they were a tad dry. But who the heck cares when you have homemade chocolate syrup!

Along with the chocolate syrup I pulled out the honey (what we usually use). When Einstein asked everyone what they wanted I laughed at the thought of anyone refusing chocolate!

The chocolate syrup recipe I used was from Hillbilly Housewife. The pancake recipe is one my mom taught me and if I shared it with you I'd have to ... well maybe if you beg I'll share. After all, every kid deserves real pancakes ;)


Cooking with your children is an excellent way to incorporate learning into everyday living. Cha-hisser understands that 3tsp make a tablespoon**, 4- 1/4 cups equals a cup, and so on.

It is so much more impressionable when a child learns measurements and fractions in a fun setting as opposed to sitting at the table with felt pie pieces (just an example).

**Cha-hisser did not learn this lesson until she made homemade cornbread the other day. I told her to put in 2tsp of baking powder while I went out to do laundry. Afterwards, I asked her why the Tablespoon was out. I made her figure out how many teaspoons she actually put in. The cornbread was still plenty good!

Who's teaching your kids life lessons?

Homeschooling isn't just sitting down with your children and teaching them math, reading, science and history. As a matter of fact, in our schedule there is no math. Nature is our science. And reading and history are combined in a fun way.

Homeschooling means you, the parent, want to be the one to teach your children about life. Not letting them wander aimlessly into a large classroom with 12-18 other children under the supervision (hopefully) of a teacher that may or may not be a pagan, homosexual, or a pedophile yet to be "caught".

Oh, I know, not all teachers are bad. True. But, I'm not willing to take that chance especially when I don't have anything better to do ;)

Besides, you can only ask so much of a teacher who is paid between $30k-$60k to work ALL day with a bunch of children (some prepubescent, some rebellious teenagers, some drugged up, some who have never been disciplined, some abused... you get the picture). I can imagine it's hard just teaching them one little concept, much less valuable life lessons.

I went to public school. Where did I learn life lessons? Where did I learn about modesty? sex? drugs? money? honesty? integrity? character? logic?

Sadly, I learned them from the world (or didn't learn them). Now, I had great parents. So, this isn't a "poor me, I was cheated in life" blog post. I feel that my parents did the best they could with the knowledge they had at the time.

Now that I have children of my own these life lessons are approached with extreme care. You only get one chance to expose them to something for the first time. I'll never forget when Cha-hisser was reading a history book to me and came across the Scopes trial. Before Scopes, creationism was taught in schools and after evolution was.

Cha-hisser had never heard of the word evolution before. When I explained it to her, a confused look came over her face and she said, "that's silly." Yep.

I can't imagine Cha-hisser coming home from school saying, "today, my teacher told us that men should be able to marry men." The stress and emotion that would arise from that situation is crazy to even imagine.

How about modesty? Is that something I'd want Cha-hisser to learn from "the real world"? NO! Please, Lord, protect her eyes!

A month or so ago our family was convicted of our modesty. The Lord placed it on our hearts that myself and our girls would wear skirts only. Wearing skirts has been a huge blessing to our family. Sounds strange, I'm sure. But, it has helped teach our girls about being feminine. And it has helped me be more submissive to my husband. For me, wearing jeans made me feel equal to Einstein therefore I saw no need to submit.

Our family does so many things against the norm (really now, who wants to be normal? normal is abuse in every other household, over-medicated kids and parents, spending more than you make...) why add one more battle? Why choose to be on the defensive when you can play offense?

Homeschooling has already created an unbreakable bond between our family- and we've only been doing it for 3 years. Every thing we do is a learning experience.

My goal is to not have moms around me praise me as being some kind of super mom. HA! I only wish they understood that homeschooling is choosing to live ALL your life with your kids. That's it! Yes, you have to spend a little time formally teaching but trust me TRUST ME, if I can do it anyone can.

If you aren't currently homeschooling, here is my challenge to you: Write down the top 5 reasons why you don't want to/don't think you can/refuse to homeschool. Pray about those reasons. Ask the Lord to place people, magazines and blogs in your life that will either negate or solidify your reasons.

I pray this blog post motivates all moms to protect the eyes and ears of their children. It's much easier to teach them the right way first than having to undo bad influences.

Wordless Wednesday

School Pictures

Sometimes I'm a little slow *blush* Last week I saw a blog hop that looked fun. It was hosted by Life With My 3 Boybarians.

The name of the blog hop was Not Back-to-School Hop: Student Photo Week. So, as they say, better late than never :)


Cha-hisser: If you need a poster child for all that is good in homeschooling she's your girl. Very sociable ;) Extremely intelligent. Loving. Creative. Perseveres until you force her to stop. Just a complete blessing.






















Jack Jalapeno: Funny. Observant. Emotional. Active ALL THE TIME.





























Grace: Quick learner. Lovable. Compassionate. Independent. Witty.

Are you smart enough?

You are not required to have a degree to homeschool your children.

Having said that Einstein and I have quite a bit of advanced education. Einstein is a doctor and possibly the smartest person I will ever meet (say any ancient civilization or geographic region and he will give you an in-depth explanation in 10 minutes that will surpass all your years of schooling!). I have a lot of 1/2 advanced degrees :P plus that little bachelor's.

Now, you'd think with all of that we'd know the answer to just about every question our children would ask us. Nope.

"Is a whale a mammal?" Einstein really could not fathom that a whale nurses. I assured him that I had seen videos of this occuring.

"When did dinosaurs live?" I still don't know but Answers In Genesis is teaching me :)

"Who won the Civil War?" *sigh* I'm sorry. I blame my ignorance on the public school system.

"Do dirt daubers sting?" I don't think so but that's just what my mommy told me.

"What is the definition of truth?" Ah, my sweet Cha-hisser. So deep. But, really try to articulate this simple, yet profound word.

"Who wrote (insert any book of the Bible)?" 3 months ago I couldn't have answered 90% of the books. But, after much study I can quickly answer!

There are so many more that I can't recall. The point is no amount of public education is going to give you the answers to your children's questions. Homeschooling isn't just for the children.

I've learned SO much by homeschooling. I'm learning Greek for crying out loud! I can recite Psalm 23!

Recently I listened to a Vodie Bauchum (the one called Answering Objections..) audio and loved what he said about teaching your children the catechism:

...when a father gasped at the vast weight of teaching ALL of these to our children Vodie said he whispered the secret to this father..."you just have to stay one day ahead." (I butchered the quotation but you get the point!)

Basically, learn it the night before and the next day you look like genius to your children. We don't have to know it all.

Can't wait to learn something new tomorrow!

Greek, anyone?

Since June our family has been learning how to read Greek (Biblical Greek). It has been such an amazing experience! It's something we ALL do together. Yes, even the 2 year old!

We do everything else together so why not Greek?

When we started out we simply made notecards and memorized the symbols. After we had a good knowledge of them we began with the worksheets. We use the system by Harvey Bluedorn. Besides disagreeing with Harvey on the pronunciation on many of the English words, I am very pleased with this program.

Einstein prints out the appropriate pages for him, me, Cha-hisser and Jack Jalapeno. I then change the Greek letters to a corresponding English letter for Jack Jalapeno. That way he is involved and learning English first ;) Grace "writes" her ABCs on paper while begging for her own praise.

We are only up to Lambda, but already we feel so intelligent! There is something about learning a foreign language to boost your self-confidence.

As far as schedule goes, we were doing Greek after dinner and before family worship. But, that was making the evenings so crunched. We've moved it to after breakfast (and the reading of Proverbs) and it really sets a great tone for learning with all the kids.

I am so proud of Cha-hisser. She is the most brilliant 7 year old I've ever spoken with. She keeps right up with Einstein and I and often corrects me.

Our long term goal is to read the New Testament in Greek. I can't wait!