The Quangle Wangle Hat and St. Kevin

This summer, we are working our way through the various books we haven't read on this list.

We are also starting our Catholic Mosaics, but we're reading the books and doing the discussions as the saints appear chronologically in history. This week a common theme emerged -- animals building houses on people (or bears or whatever a quangle wangle is). The boys got a kick out of the similarities (and we LOVED the quangle wangle and will read the rest in the series!).

A good time will be had by all!

I've been helping friends (many people from my homeschool support group) put on the Lapas Family FUNdraiser these last few months and the date is swiftly approaching. THIS SATURDAY (June 28th) our family will be there with many others (hopefully!!) to raise money to help with the medical bills for our friends who have been through so much. It should be plenty of fun to boot!! A big room with games for the kids, music, raffle prizes and dinner. And...and...and...and... Emilija's going to try and make it!! She JUST finished her last radiation treatment (her last for the rest of her LIFE, God willing!) and will be feeling well enough to come!

I'm helping with the food so I can tell you what we're serving : shredded BBQ pork, chicken, hot dogs, chips, pretzels and brownies for dessert. My kids are really looking forward to it (and would have so much more fun if your kids came, too!!)

The website (done by some lady who thinks she's a website diva - NOT!) is www.supporther.info and has lots more specific info. (get it - the dot info)

There are some SERIOUSLY KEWL auction & raffle items! I think I'd like the Mackinaw Island Vacation Get-a-way, or DeBrand's, or cookies from the Cookie Cottage -- heck, I'd be happy with Dairy Queen coupons!

Shepherd's Pie

I was thinking about this recipe, because a friend had a baby and this is what she'll get tomorrow night.

Shepherd’s Pie 45 minutes @ 350 Jenn’s Mom

1 lb. Hamburger, cooked
6 C Mashed Potatoes
1-2 can Green Beans
2 C Shredded Cheddar, or Mozzarella Cheese
1-2 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

Layer, in order, in a casserole dish. Bake uncovered 30 minutes at 350 until bubbly. Sprinkle cheese to cover. Bake additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted.

This is my all-time favorite dish. To freeze for cooking later, layer all but cheese in a foil disposable dish, cover with foil. Attach cheese in a ziplock baggie with masking tape. Then thaw it for the day on your counter and cook as described above.

Once we learn to count our blessings they increase. -Stella Terrill Mann

Edited to add : Sorry, Anne, after your comment I reread what I wrote -- you're right, the layering goes :

• hamburger on the bottom (I fry mine with chopped onion to add in more veggies)
• green beans
• spread a thin (and uneven) layer of canned cream of mushroom soup
• then mashed potatoes
• and last cheese (after it's almost done baking, just to melt).

My friend liked it just fine.

Prayer Intention Poster

I've been trying to think of a way to keep the people we promise to pray for in the forefront of our minds. This is what I came up with. I think it's missing something, visually, but the kids each decided what prayer intentions we needed to put down and we have extra sheets for new intentions. Rather than taping them to the poster, we used a poster putty. The idea is our prayers rising to Christ while the love in his heart stream down to answer us.

Spring Flowers

I'm always so excited when my peonies bloom. I have them on the side of the house, too, but only took some backyard photos last week. This isn't even the half of it --- I sure do love them!!

Norse gods

A lack of dress code enables a little extra fun -- Norse Gods tatoos. When Dave saw the kids he asked me if I paid for Nordic tatoos. Are you kidding? Do you think I can just find these anywhere???? I was THRILLED to find them at Dover!!The kids completely dug them while we're reading Nordic Gods and Heroes by Padraic Colum The kids are definately enjoying this part of history more than I am -- I can't quite get into these characters, but my kids sure are!

An unnamed girl in the picture allowed me to take the upper half of her face and post it on my blog, but asked that her name and number not be included.

School Planners for the Teacher

Anne left me a comment, I thought I'd answer here (I've gotten this question a few times) -

Yo, Jenn! I have a question for you about these planners... what's the difference between the elementary and the primary teacher's planner? which one would I need for second grade/preschool?? I thought primary and elementary meant the same thing... couldn't seem to figure it out from the website. thanks!!!

Anne, The primary student planner has 2 lines with dots in between for the kids to write their own assignments for the day. http://www.goodnewsplanners.com/images/products/pdf/JSD.pdf
The elementary planner has boxes with smaller lines for assignments. http://www.goodnewsplanners.com/images/products/pdf/JSA.pdf
The jr. high planner has blank sections for assignments. http://www.goodnewsplanners.com/images/products/pdf/JSE.pdf

The TEACHER PLANNER has all the teacher stuff PLUS an elementary student planner in it. There's a great description on the 4Real Boards - http://4real.thenetsmith.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=20377&PN=2&TPN=2, go all the way to the bottom and it's 4 responses up from the bottom of the above link.

This is from the Goodnews Website :

Both editions are FULLY COMPATIBLE with all three editions of the Good News™
Student Planners!

The Primary version of our Teacher Planner offers kindergarten and primary
teachers all the information contained in the Elementary Planner supplement
PLUS:•An ADDITIONAL 70 pages of ideas and reproducible artwork JUST FOR
YOUNGER CHILDREN. 150 pages in all!

I ordered the Elementary Teacher Planner and I don't have the reproducible artwork (just a few pages of them).

Doctors of the Church

To go along with the project in the Good News Teacher's Planner, I made a poster of the Doctors of the Church so while we're doing history this summer we can cover the Doctors as they appear in history. We'll also follow along with celebrating their Feast Days as they hit in the liturgical year.

A friend commented that it seems a little soon to make a poster for next year -- I have to work when inpiration hits and since I just read the planner, now is the time! I also bought green candles to put out for feast days of a Doctor of thr church. I saw an idea of putting a picture in a CD case ( so it will stand up) -- maybe I'll do that with the candles...we can call them "Dr. days?" We'll see...

Wipe-off boards

They are my friend. We use them for science projects, art projects, lists for school, a different way to work math problems or to enhance our religion lessons.

Some people call them white boards, or dry erase boards -- I refer to them as wipe-off boards (I doubt I'm supposed to hyphenate them, but I do).

At Lowe's you can buy 'white panel board', 'shower board' (if you call them or stop by and tell them that you're going to use it with dry erase markers they'll know). It's about $10 for a 4'x8' sheet! My Lowe's will make 6 cuts for free, so they'll slice it down into the sizes you need. I have 3 large wipe-off boards for $10 and we use them ALL THE TIME! The kids like them for pictionary.

For more advice you can read through http://digg.com/mods/DIY_Dry_Erase_Board

I thought this idea of using a foil for a wipe-off for the kitchen was interesting, too!


My FAVORITE thing to use them for is Chalk Talks from the Faith & Life books!!

Pretty food

This looks like too much work for me, but sooo cute!!



Creative lunches



I like the giraffe best!

Liturgical Wheel

To go along with keeping organized with our new planners (can you tell I like my new planners?) We made Liturgical Wheel Calendars. Each person worked at their own level. My Dear Sons both traced circles, used rulers to make evenly spaced pie divisions and colored in the liturgical season. My Dear Daughters both used protractors to draw their divisions and Dd#1 had the biggest job of all dividing it into 52 weeks (6.9 degrees per angle) and filling out the weeks.

I know May and June seem a little early to make a Liturgical Wheel, but November rolls around and we can never get it accomplished -- so I thought we'd make it for the year ahead during a slow craft month! Now it's done for next Advent!