Patience

Do you ever have days where you have to stop and pray that God would not give you quite so many opportunities to exercise patience? Today has been one of those days. We've had sibling spats, fits over chores, disrespectful attitudes, and to top it all off my two-year-old tracked Georgia red clay from the front door to the kitchen before I even realized what was happening. Ugh! So I've taken lots of deep breaths, done lots of praying and this is the answer I received: I need to do as I say and not as I tend to do. I need to do what I am constantly telling the kids to do and find something to be grateful for.

Sooo....
I am grateful that my children are healthy and able to run, even if it is with muddy shoes.
I am grateful that God has blessed me with three loving little boys.
I am grateful that He has allowed me to stay home and disciple my children, that I might deal biblically with their heart issues and guide them back to the ways of the Lord.
I am grateful that my children are generally quick to repent when I reprove them.
I am especially thankful that I am never alone in my struggles. My Heavenly Father is always with me, providing a way out, training my heart just like I'm training the hearts of my children.

My Day

Yes, I'm quite prolific today. I guess I'm going through blog withdrawals. I just thought I'd share a bit of what I have accomplished today. Aside from the normal school and housework routine, I have also completed some notebooking pages to use with hymn study as well as copywork pages for our hymn of the month. Our church prints a family worship guide in the bulletin each week which includes a hymn of the month. (If you are interested in using it in your own home, you can find it here.) We sing the hymn each morning during worship and use it for copywork and sometimes memorization. Both documents can be found at my Homeschool Launch page.

Also, I thought I'd share another recipe. We've been working on getting healthier and slimming down a bit (a cruise looming on the horizon is great motivation!). I found a great recipe for Harvest Muffins which are very healthy and practically fat-free. Honestly, I was expecting them to be dry and disgusting, but they are surprisingly moist and delicious. Each muffin contains 171 calories, 1.5 grams fat, 5 grams protein, 1 gram fiber.

Harvest Muffins
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
2 1/3 cups oats processed in blender until finely ground
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/3 cup honey or agave nectar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 jar (4 oz) carrot baby food puree
1 cup grated peeled carrots
1/3 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup water (use a bit less if using agave nectar)
1/2 cup raisins
3 egg whites, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine rolled oats with ground oats, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Mix well and set aside.
In medium bowl, mix together honey, vanilla, applesauce, carrot puree, grated carrots, juice concentrate and water; pour into oat mixture. Stir to blend. Stir in raisins. Gently mix in egg whites. Do not over mix.
Using nonstick muffin pan, fill each muffin cup with batter
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes and remove muffins from pan.

Catechism Bookmarks

The newest catechism bookmarks are up at my homeschool launch site. If you are working through this book in a different spot and would like bookmarks, please let me know and I will create them for you. Enjoy learning!

A Much-Needed Vacation

If you ask me, one of the best ways to relax is on a beach with your family, and we were long overdue! The last few years we have spent our vacation time in Naples, FL visiting with Andrew's mom as she battled breast cancer. Our vacation this year coincided with the one-year anniversary of her passing, so it was a bittersweet time. We spent five days in Myrtle Beach at the Dunes Village Resort. I highly recommend this hotel! We loved everything about it: the room, the staff, the facilities, the beach, everything. O.K., except for the fire alarm and evacuation at 12:30 in the morning. It was stormy one night and the wind blew so hard that it set off one of the fire alarms. We were very thankful that there was no fire but it was a bit scary nonetheless. Other than that, we had a fantastic time.

We spent most of our time on the beach and at the on-site water park just relaxing and having fun. We did venture out to do some shopping, play some miniature golf at Broadway at the Beach, and attend the local Greek Festival. I love Greek food and pigged out on spanikopita, Greek roasted potatoes, loukoumades, and chocolate baklava. Yum!! I was so in love with the roasted potatoes that I came home and tried to find one just like it. This one is extremely close:

Greek Style Potatoes

3T olive oil

1/4 tsp dried rosemary

3/4 cup water

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2T fresh lemon juice

1 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp chicken boullion

ground black pepper and salt to taste

1/2 tsp oregano

6 potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, mix olive oil, water, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, rosemary, oregano, boullion, salt and pepper.

Arrange potatoes evenly in the bottom of a medium baking dish. Pour the olive oil mixture over the potates and stir to coat. Cover and bake 1 hour, turning occasionally. Remove cover and continue to bake until potatoes are tender and most of liquid has evaporated. Yum!!

I am so thankful for the time to get away together and enjoy being a family. It was really a blessing and did us all a world of good!