Fools Rush In

A few weeks ago, my daughter asked me when she could start reading romance books.  What?!?  Smut?!? Never!!!

So now I'm on the search for romance books that are appropriate for young teens.  She is beyond reading youthful books, she likes fat novels.  I'm a big reader too, when I have the time.  I have to pay extra attention to what I read so that I can say whether she can read my books or not.  Her friend told us about the book Fools Rush In by Janice Thompson and said it was really good.  It is not the same as the movie with Salma Hayek, totally different. This trilogy is the Weddings by Bella series and Fools Rush In is the first book.  It is a christian romance and for the most part I found the series to be appropriate for my 13 year old.  There is kissing and swooning and some insinuations about the honeymoon, but still very clean.  We both thought the book was funny and well written.

My daughter liked the first book best, but thought the second book, Swinging on a Star, was the funniest.  The third book in this set is It Had to be You.


It's  about an Italian girl who runs a wedding facility and she falls in love with a Texan.  Their two worlds come together in a funny christian love story.

Currently, you can get Fools Rush In for free on your Kindle.  Not sure when or if this will change so get it now.  Unless you are like my daughter, she opted for the hard-copies.

Are there any books you can suggest for my teeny bopper to read?

*post contains affiliate links

Standardized Testing

I had mentioned on Exam Day that my kids were taking their exams, but I didn't really go into specifics about it. As homeschoolers, WA law states children ages 8 and up must take an annual exam.  The standardized test must be given by a qualified individual.  Another method is the Non-test Assessments which is an assessment made by a Washington State Certified teacher.  These records are part of our private homeschool records and are not given to anyone, unless our children attend a public school later on.

The testing source we use is EduGreat.  They have many locations throughout the spring to serve homeschoolers.  They also have parent qualification classes to qualify parents to homeschool.  The tests we take only covers Reading, Language, and Math.  We (my family) don't test history or science because we don't necessarily follow the states curriculum for their grade levels.  It's about a 3 hour timed test and the results show where they are at compared to the national level of kids in their grade.  If you do want to test history and science there are places that have all the tests and I believe it would be a 2 day process.

There are a lot of testing resources.  Some parents in my homeschool group order the test, administer it to their children and then send it back to be corrected.  What I like about using EduGreat is that I get the results on the same day.  I can even look through the exam booklet with their test to see which problems they got wrong.  This way I can immediately know why they may have gotten the question wrong.  Have they actually learned how to do a certain math problem?  If I know they haven't learned it yet, then I can't fault them for getting it wrong.  There have been times when I knew they should have known the correct answer, but somehow got it wrong.  These tests allow me to know what we need to work on or what they are excelling in .

I was very nervous this year because I didn't feel we prepared enough for the exams.  In the past, we would cram for a few weeks using practice test booklets to see what they should know in their grade level.  This year we barely did that.  My DH doesn't really know what they are learning, so these tests are also a reflection on me as to how I'm doing as their teacher.  So I think I was more nervous than they were.

The test results show the total items in the subject, how many they got correct, stanine score, and percentile rank.  The stanine score tells where they are at compared to the average kid in their grade level.  1-significantly below average, 2-3 below average, 4-6 average, 7-8 above average, 9 significantly above average.

The percentile ranks also tell where they are on the national percentile scale.  These tests are made so that 2/3 of the children taking them should get an average score.  My daughter was 98% on the Math percentile rank which means she got more right than 98% of the children who took the test. It doesn't mean she got 98% of the questions right.  It gets kind of confusing.

Both my kids did great and got 8's and 9's for their stanine scores.  They also ranked in the 90's and up on the percentile rank.  I'm very proud of them for doing so well.  I worry throughout the year, sometimes, if they will remember what they learn or if the information they are given is actually sinking in to their brains.  So far, so good!

Finishing the School Year

Well, another year gone and my kids are moving up in their grade levels.  My daughter will be entering 8th grade and high school is getting closer.  I have been homeschooling our kids for 5 years and have 5 more years left with my daughter.  Although it seems like the last 5 years has taken a long time, right now it feels like the next  5 years are going to fly by.  How sad it's making me right now!

I don't know what God's plans are for our future.  Does he intend for me to continue homeschooling for the next 7 years?  For now it seems that way and I happily oblige.

We didn't quite finish everything we wanted to this year, but that's okay.  I always seem to try to do too much because I want them to learn everything they possibly can, but we don't have enough hours in a day.  Now it's time to go through all of our school materials and figure out where to put them all to make room for next year's books.  I've learned a lesson the hard way, don't sell or donate books unless you are really, really sure you don't want them.  I wish I had kept our books from our first year with Sonlight, but I sold them.  Last night I was watching both my kids go through all the books from a couple of years ago to pick out which ones they want to keep for their personal library.  I thought it was so funny.  My son is a good reader even though he doesn't enjoy it much, but when we went to Goodwill yesterday, even he walked away with a few books.  Now he wants to start a collection of all the Magic Treehouse books.  The major bummer part is, we had most of them, but we donated them to the library.  I don't know if he'll ever really read the books he's putting in his room, but it still makes me happy that he wants them.

Now that most of my day has freed up, I really plan to get organized and do some deep cleaning around the house.  Hopefully, finish projects that I've had to put on hold.  I have some quilts to finish and scrapbooking to catch up on.  My kids will probably still do a bit of learning through summer.  My daughter wants to read a bunch of classic literature, so that will keep her busy.  Typing and piano were pretty much put on hold during the year, so I may have them work on that some.  I will also teach them more cooking skills, that's another thing  they haven't done much of this year.  Mostly we'll just take it day by day.  I want them to feel like they are getting a break.  They definitely deserve it!

Check Mate

This is the first year my son has played chess.  I didn't realize he would be so good at it or even have much interest, but he loves it.  I should have known because he's always liked puzzles and strategic games.  A few months ago he played in a chess tournament and won 2 out of 5 games.  His teacher was actually impressed he did so well for his first tournament.  He even earned himself a medal.  It was a medal for being a first timer, but still, he got something. :)

His chess class is right before lunch and he was taking a long time to get to our table.  I was actually getting worried and was about to go looking for him until I saw him walking towards us with a big smile on his face.  He knew this was our last day with the homeschool co-op and he had a goal to be at the top of the chess ladder before the end of the school year.  He was playing against the best kid in class, who happens to be the teacher's daughter.  He said he was falling apart, but fighting hard.  Too funny!!  Finally he got check mate and beat her for the win.

He wants to play in more tournaments, so we will be looking into that.  This year he was in the Beginner's class, but he's excited to start the Intermediate class next year.  And to think, we almost didn't let him take the chess class because we wanted him to do something more academic.  I now think chess is academic because it makes the brain work hard to think strategically.  What ever makes him use his brain is good enough for me!

DD's Day

My daughter's day started off by dissecting a sheep's heart in biology class.  Which is ironic because we had an appointment with a Cardiologist that afternoon because my daughter had been having chest pains for most of last week.  She said it hurt to breathe, especially taking a deep breath.  We took her to the Pediatrician, but the Dr. didn't hear anything wrong in her heart or lungs.  She referred us to a Cardiologist just to make sure something wasn't going on with her heart.  It was hard to tell if her pain was coming from her lungs, heart, or chest muscles.  By the time we saw the Cardiologist, her pains were gone.  They did an EKG and saw that everything looked normal.  Her heart and lungs sounded normal.  The Dr. decided against doing an ECHO test because the pains were gone and everything looked and sounded good.  Turns out her pains are probably due to slight inflammation of the muscle around her ribs that connect to the sternum, since the pain was along that area anyway.  The Dr. used some medical terms that my daughter understood because she had just dissected a sheep's heart that morning.  For instance, "pericardial".  The Dr. said she didn't have pericardial effusion, which is an abnormal accumulation of fluid around the heart sac.  DD knew what pericardial was because she had just learned it.  She should have told the Dr. she dissected a heart, I'm sure she would have been impressed. Good news, my baby girl is okay.  The Dr. said to look for signs like facial pain or feeling of sickness when having chest pains.  Or even loss of color in the face.  Those would indicate something more serious with the heart.

I thought I'd gross you out with this picture of the heart. :)

After the appointment, we went to Goodwill.  I hardly ever go there because I just don't think about it, but my daughter has been wanting to shop for clothes and I figured we'd take a look.  We didn't find clothes, but she found books.  My girl is an avid reader and she likes thick novels.  She is almost done with The Hobbit and wants to start on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  She got so excited when she found the whole set there.  She also found books to add to her growing collection, like a few of the Harry Potter books (she finished that series) and some other classics.  She wants to build up her own personal library of hard copies, not digital.  She'll be reading a lot of classics over the summer, which means I'll be reading them too, so we can discuss them.  I actually haven't read a lot of the classics, just a few in high school.

DD's purchase today

My daughter also had her first golf tournament today.  She takes golf through the middle school.  She kind of wanted to play golf and kind of not, but we decided she should because she really doesn't have any other physical activities.  Both my kids are quite good at golf and she did well enough that her coach encouraged her to play in the tournament.  Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative and we had serious rainfall today.  But I prayed the rain would hold off during the tournament so she wouldn't get soaked.  Guess what?? God paused the rain!!!  But the ground was still really wet and the kids didn't play very well.  They played in foursomes.  DD and her friend were paired up with two boys from a different middle school.  The boys beat the girls, but out of the foursome, my daughter came in third.  She knows she could have played better if the weather was nicer. DH took some photos while watching her play.

How cute is this?

Recipes from 5-19

These are meals I have made this past week.  Some images may be from the original source on Pinterest.  If you would like the recipe from the Pinterest source, click on the picture.

Autumn Chopped Salad

Source: espressoandcream.com via Cheri on Pinterest

This salad was so yummy.  I could eat this salad in spring and summer, not just autumn. :)  For the dressings, I bought the Newman's Own because they don't contain high fructose corn syrup.  The combination of flavors were really good.  The pears and dried cranberries add a nice texture and sweetness.  I used the salad greens I already had and the next day I made it again, but I was out of pears and used an apple.  It was still good, but I like the pears better.

Mexican Stuffed Shells

Source: thewaytohisheart.wordpress.com via Cheri on Pinterest

I made this dish a while back, and we all really liked it.


Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Cole Slaw

It seems my son has been super picky lately with the meals I've been making.  He finally liked this sandwich, without the cole slaw, but he ate two of them.

Super easy: 3# pork shoulder in a crockpot for 8 hours, shred or pull apart pork, pour out some of the juice from crockpot and place meat back in crockpot with half a bottle or so of your favorite barbecue sauce to warm through.  I like Sweet Baby Ray's Hickory Brown Sugar.  Too bad it has HFCS.





Barbecue Chicken with Rice, Corn, and Cheddar Biscuits

Cheddar Biscuits

This recipe is similar to the Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster.  The ingredient most commonly used in biscuits like this is milk.  I use club soda and it gives the biscuits a light and fluffy texture.

Cheddar Biscuits

2 cups Bisquick or Homemade Bisquick
1 cup shredded cheddar
3/4 cup club soda
2 T melted butter
garlic salt, to taste
dried parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Lightly grease a baking sheet.  In a mixing bowl, combine bisquick and shredded cheddar.  Add 3/4 cup club soda and gently stir until completely moistened.  Place big spoonfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheet.  I usually get about 7-8 biscuits, depending on how big my dollops are.  Space them about an inch apart.  Bake for about 12 min. or until lightly golden.

In a small bowl, mix melted butter with garlic salt and dried parsley.  Brush on biscuits right when they come out of the oven.

Detox Update

Okay, I totally stink at detoxing.  I can not do it.  I succumb to temptations.  But like I said before, life gets in the way of detoxing.  My husband still wants to continue, but even he can't stick to it 100%.  He just went to a business dinner meeting the other night and ate things he wasn't suppose to.  So, I consider us to be done with it at this point.

Yesterday, we were supposed to cut out dairy.  And a few days ago we were supposed to start eliminating caffeine.  This is a double whammy for DH, as he drinks multiple iced lattes a day.  Today would mark day 16 out of 42 on the detox, I'm not including Mother's Day.  So much for this blog keeping me accountable, I can't even finish a 6 week detox.  I started off pretty well the first few days.  I was able to stay off the sugar and most processed foods.  I really do think it's a good idea to cut out sugar a week or so at a time during the year to help your system heal itself from the evil doings of sweeteners.

I did notice one thing that was common between doing this detox now and a few months ago.  I was unprepared for dinner last night and asked DH to stop at the store to buy a rotisserie chicken.  When he got there it was late and everything was either sold out or they were closing up.  Unfortunately, he suggested we order some Domino's pizza.  It's cheap and nearby and sadly, I agreed.  So much for cutting out the gluten.  For one thing, I don't like Domino's pizza.  Especially after detoxing and eating pretty clean lately, it tasted extra bad.  All I could eat was one slice of pizza.  Then my stomach started making weird noises.  Like it was saying, "What the heck are you feeding me?"  The same thing happened a few months ago when I ate this pizza after detoxing for a couple of weeks.

Even though I'm a total detox loser, I still think the Spent detox is a good one.  I wish I could report to you after a successful 6 weeks about how much better I may or may not feel.  But I'll go over what you would expect to be doing over the course of the next few weeks on this program.

So far we would have cut out sugar, processed foods, gluten, caffeine, alcohol, and dairy.  For dairy, we could still have feta and goat cheese.  Replace the milk with almond or rice milk.  Almond milk in an iced latte does not taste good! Spent does encourage raw milk if you can't live without cow's milk.  We would add in adaptogens, which are herbs that help the body deal with stress, increase stamina, and strengthen immunity.  I have Ashwagandha, which I've ordered from Dr. Mercola.  This herb helps increase vitality, energy, endurance, and stamina.  Spent explains so much more about why it's good to take this herb for people who are "spent."  Asian ginseng, Eleuthero, and Rhodiola rosea are also recommended.

Day 19 encourages eating organic, grass-fed, free-range meat, poultry, and eggs.  Next you would stop eating unfermented soy and genetically modified (GMO) corn.  We already are trying to eliminate as much GMO and soy, as possible.  Anything that is certified organic cannot come from a GMO source, so it is safe to eat.  GMO foods are a big discussion right now.  It's possible that it can cause birth defects, cancer, infertility, ...etc.  Dr. Mercola has a lot of articles about GMO.  He also has a Non-GMO shopping guide to help you buy safer foods.  The big GMO products are soy, corn, alfalfa, and canola, to name a few.  Soy has it's own set of problems, which was once considered to be a healthy food source, turns out to be "not".  I don't know about you, but I would like to be a grandmother someday, which means I need to be careful about feeding my kids these foods.  Studies in rats have shown that for each generation there are fewer babies until there are none, just from eating GMO foods, according to one of Dr. Mercola's articles.  It's really something to read up on and it could be due to a lot of couples having a hard time getting pregnant.  Diet is very important to fertility.  I've heard of women with fertility problems, changing their diets to eat whole foods and, voila, they get pregnant.

Next we would restore our guts with probiotics.  These would replenish our intestines with healthy bacteria.  Also limit exposure to chemicals.  This is a big one because there are chemical toxins everywhere.  Chlorine is a big one because it is in our local water source.  Even in our spa.  We are told it's such a small amount of chlorine that it's okay, but it's not.  I was tested with high chlorine, so we bought shower filters to eliminate the chlorine and chemicals from our water.  The price has been raised since I bought this one.  Eventually, I would like to get a whole house filter and our next spa will be a salt water one.  Apparently, you don't need any chemicals in a salt water spa.  I've also stopped buying certain household cleaners and started making my own.  Spent also gives you tips on cleaner living.

Eat low mercury fish and take omega-3 fish oil.  Krill oil is best.  Clean out medicine cabinet.  This means looking at your beauty supplies and what chemicals are in them.  Parabens, Sodium Lauryl Sulfates, Petroleum, and Mineral Oil.  There are so many chemicals and reasons why you shouldn't be using them.  Spent discusses them in more detail.

In between doing all these things, Spent teaches you how to meditate or do some yoga poses to help you relax and/or sleep better.  Whether you do this detox or not, I recommend you at least read the book, Spent, by Frank Lipman, M.D and incorporate some of it's program into your life.  Even though we couldn't handle six weeks of cleansing right now, we still have been doing some, if not most, of these things in our daily lives.  As I write along on this blog, I'll be sharing things we are doing as far as trying to get healthier and reducing toxins in our home and on our bodies.  Homemade is the way to go.  Homemade foods, homemade cleaning solutions, and homemade body products.  Of course using wholesome ingredients in all these homemade things.

Have you used this program successfully or done another type of detox successfully?  Did it make a difference for you?  Leave a comment to let us know.

Coho Cafe

We recently visited this restaurant, Coho Cafe.  There are only two locations here in Washington-Redmond and Issaquah.  If you find yourself in either of these areas, you should give this place a try.  They have a very diverse menu, but I would say that it is a Northwestern style cuisine.  Their website has their menu, so you can peruse it before trying it to see if anything sounds enticing to your taste buds.  We try to order something different everytime we go.  I'll show you what we enjoyed on this trip and make a side note of dishes we've had in the past.

*They also sell movie tickets at a discounted price.  So make it a dinner and a movie date night!  Leave the kids at home, it's too expensive to take them out to dinner. :)  Well, mine anyway.  They no longer order off the kid's menu. Their website also has a recipes link and the recipes look yum. Join their email dining club.  You will receive a coupon for a free entree with the purchase of another entree. They will email you specials and discounts.  They have chef specials, which probably change, and half wine Mondays.


Our favorite appetizer is Fiery Sambal Shrimp-$9.99.  It has a tiny bit of heat and packs a lot of flavor. It comes with a creamy slaw that compliments the shrimp really well.  I could eat this all by myself, but I had to share with my husband.  And my non-seafood liking daughter actually tried this and liked it so I had to share with her too.

Other appetizers we liked:

Roasted Green Chile Cornbread Waffles-$3.25 The butter this comes with has agave.  I don't eat agave sweetener, so I may not order this again, but it is really good. They probably have regular ole butter, if you don't want the sweet agave butter.

Edamame with Spicy Sambal Sauce-$3.99 These were quite tasty, but edamame is a soy bean and I'm leary of soy.  Unless it's fermented, like soy sauce.

We ordered this Black Cherry Soda, which tasted delish.  We are trying to control our soda intake, so 1 bottle was split between my husband and two kids.  Their iced tea is really good, but it's a passion fruit type of flavor, not your regular black tea.

My husband and daughter both ordered the Baja Style Soft Tacos with the Mack & Jack's Battered Cod-$11.99.

They both really liked it, especially with the chipotle-lime mayo.  They also have seared Ahi or grilled chicken, if you don't want battered and fried fish.

My son ordered the Caesar Salad with Garlic Croutons and Asiago-$8.99.  He loved it the first time we visited, but this time around he seemed more picky.  Maybe it was just him, I'm sure their Caesar Salad is good.  You can add chicken or seafood to this dish to make it more of a meal.

I ordered the Northwest Seafood Fettucine with Parmesan-Basil Cream Sauce-$18.99.  Stickin' with my Northwest theme here. :)  I thought this dish was very tasty. I ordered mine without the roasted red pepper, that's a flavor I have to be in the mood for.  I would have liked more prawns and scallops, I think you only get two of each along with some bay shrimp and lingcod.  It looks like a small entree, but I was pretty full after eating this and the appetizer.

Other dishes we've tried:

Peanut Crusted Petite Beef Tender- $16.99 This has a Thai flavor with the peanut sauce, but this dish packs a punch of flavor.  It's really good.

Seafood Mixed Grill with Potato Gratin-$19.99 This one was pretty good, but I like a dish that is more hearty.

I'll have to get better at describing and reviewing food.  I'll work on that.

Recipes for 5-07

These are some of the recipes I made last week and my reviews.  All images are from the original recipe source and/or linked through Pinterest.

Balsamic Chicken, Spinach and Tomato Pasta Salad

Source: multiplydelicious.com via Cheri on Pinterest

This was so delicious. I would definitely make this again. I will try making my own balsamic vinaigrette though to eliminate the sugar in the dressing.  Yum, Yum, Yum!

Mango Blueberry Quinoa Salad

Source: dashofeast.com via Cheri on Pinterest

This quinoa salad was so yummy.  I like cucumbers, but it didn't work for me in this dish, so I plan to leave it out next time.  Because of my detox, I didn't add the orange marmalade in the dressing and I did not miss it. I just added a little more olive oil to cut the tartness of the lemon.  I let the dressing sit for a couple of hours before mixing it into the salad.  My daughter and I really liked this, but my husband and son won't even try it because they don't like quinoa.  I would definitely make this again.  I felt healthy eating these superfoods.

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Source: pinchofyum.com via Cheri on Pinterest

My daughter and I also liked these Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes.  My husband thought something tasted funny in them, like the sour cream didn't work.  I found them to be delicious and I even liked the garbanzo beans in them.  If you make this dish, let me know if you found a funny taste. I didn't eat the skin, but he did.  I wonder if that affected the flavor.  I served this with a side salad and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.


White Chicken Enchiladas

Source: joyful-mommas-kitchen.blogspot.com via Cheri on Pinterest

I like that this recipe doesn't call for canned soup like another recipe I usually make does. Turns out my husband and son are not into shredded chicken, so I'll be sauteing them next time. I thought the chicken was good and tender, myself.

A tip I saw on Pinterest for shredding chicken. ( I don't know the source)  Boil 2 chicken breasts until done, about 20 min.  Place in bowl of kitchen-aid mixer with a paddle blade.  Mix on low until chicken is shredded.

Greek Marinated Chicken with Orzo

The recipe doesn't call for it, but I sprinkled some sea salt on top before sticking in the oven.  I baked at 350 for 40 min. but it wasn't really browning so I turned up the heat to 400 degrees for another 10-15 min.  You can also put these on the grill.
For the orzo:  2 cups of orzo in a pot with 4 cups chicken broth. Bring to a boil and simmer while stirring until orzo is tender and broth is absorbed.  Add a couple handfuls of baby spinach and stir until spinach has wilted.  Season with salt and pepper, if needed. Top with sliced cherry tomatoes and feta.

We liked this chicken.  It was tender and flavorful.  I especially liked going out to my backyard to collect all the herbs I needed for this recipe.

To get these recipes, click on the picture and it will take you to Pinterest where you can re-pin or go to the original source.

Mother's Day 2012

My day started off with breakfast in bed.  My dear children got up at 6am to bake me up some buttermilk scones with devonshire cream and lemon curd.  They knew we planned to go to church at 9am, so they made sure to wake up early enough to make me breakfast. They did such a great job with the scones.  They were able to read and follow the instructions and actually make the scones perfectly without any help.  The scones were delicious.  The devonshire cream didn't set up for some reason, but it still tasted really good.  And as far as our detox goes, we took today off and will continue tomorrow.  They did, however, leave me a mess in the kitchen.  Oh well, it was worth it.

They ordered me a beautiful arrangement of flowers.  Except it apparently looked nothing like what they had ordered.   Red roses are my favorite, but we consider them for romance and Valentine's, so they wanted to get me yellow roses for mothers.  They originally ordered yellow roses in a pitcher.  Nothing close to what I received.   I wonder if someone else got my flowers, but I thought these were beautiful anyway.

My darling children each wrote me a poem.

DD (13):

You've taught me academically since 3rd grade,
but you've taught me life lessons from the beginning.
Because of you, I know not to stick my hand in a fire
or go out into the snow barefoot.
You comfort me when I'm sad and help me when I need help.
But most of all, you love me.
And that's all I could ever ask for.


She is so funny. Where does she come up with this stuff?

DS (11):

Oh, Mother I love you dearly
Cause you feed us, clean the house
And you always look so pretty
You do stuff perfectly
Your as colorful as a rose
Especially in your clothes
And I know you love us more
I promise we will never get torn apart

Oh, these two make me laugh.  DS was trying to rhyme and he only sees me in my clothes, in case you're wondering.

For dinner, we decided to pick up some crab and steaks.  At the fish market, we had to make up a Mother's Day Haiku to get 10% off.  A Haiku is a Japanese poem that is 3 lines long.  The first line is 5 syllables, second line is 7 syllables, and third line is 5 syllables.  DD recited it for our discount:

Happy Mother's Day
To my beautiful mother
I love you so much

I helped her with that one because she couldn't think of anything.  Sheesh!

Then we had to stop at three different stores just to find some good steaks.  We decided all the pre-shopping for days like these needed to be done in advance because a lot of people were out.  I made my husband go to Home Depot to get me some compost and it was a madhouse.  He said to write DHSO on this post.  Dear Husband Stressed Out!  He did pick up a beautiful geranium plant for me, too.

Our Mother's Day dinner:

Rib eye, corn, baked potato, crab, and brazilian cheese rolls.  These brazilian cheese rolls are so yummy, easy to make, and gluten free.  Delicious dinner!!! Cheaper and better than a restaurant, in my opinion.  The only problem was, I had to cook (DH manned the grill) and clean up.  I did get help with the clean up part, fortunately.

I really had a lovely day, especially when my wonderful husband kept telling me what a great wife and mother I am.  It's always nice to hear that from him.  I love my family!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, especially to my mom and my mother-in-law.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Exam Day

As homeschoolers, we must take an annual exam to see how our kids are doing on a national statistical basis.  In our state, we don't need to show it to anyone, but just keep it on file.  I started my day by praying my kids would do well on the test. This is a reflection on me as their teacher and on them, as far as retaining information and actually learning what is being taught.  I really felt like we were behind all year and I didn't feel ready for the exam, but that couldn't be helped at this point.

After dropping them off, I headed to Seattle to have a breakfast date with my hubby.  Because of our detox, we had to go somewhere that had gluten and sugar free options.  We went to Portage Bay Cafe.  Their menu looked really good and they had a big selection of omelettes and scrambles.  They also have a gluten free section, but it wasn't sugar free.  I opted for the Spring/Summer Hash with Wild Salmon and DH ordered the Chorizo Scramble.

This was the Chorizo Scramble.  It comes with Queso Fresco (I think), Creme Fraiche, Roasted Potatoes, Tortilla.  I really liked this dish.  It had so much flavor and the Creme Fraiche was really tasty.  It tasted like sour cream.  I've always heard of it, but never tried it before.

This was the Hash with Wild Salmon.  I didn't know what vegetables would come with it, but carrots and snap peas for breakfast is not appealing to me.  You basically get whatever vegetables are in season or what they have at the time.  Unfortunately, I did not like my dish.  The potatoes were soft and bland and there really wasn't any flavor to be had here.  I didn't even eat half my dish, I should have returned it, but I didn't.  I ended up eating some of my husbands food to help fill up my belly.  And yes, DH ate his tortilla and I ate half my toast. 

I would try this restaurant again, especially after the detox.  Their menu did look good and I would like to try some other dishes.  I'm not really an egg person and that's really all I could eat off the menu.  Although I did enjoy the Chorizo Scramble and I would order that again.

Time to pick up my kids and see how they did on their exams.  They both scored really, really well.  They did better than last year and scored Above Average and Significantly Above Average on their subjects.  Unfortunately, we can't wrap up our school year with this.  We'll need to work for a few more weeks before we can start summer vacation.

To finish off our day, we were invited to dinner at a friend's house.  The guy used to work for my husband and he is Indian.  He just got married less than two months ago after waiting for 2 1/2 years.  Apparently in their culture, they had to wait for his bride's older sister to get married before she was allowed to get married. So they waited 2 1/2 years and finally the happy couple were wed.  During this whole time, she was living in India and he lived here.  The invite was perfect timing, as the kids are learning about India right now.  We are learning about their religion and culture.  I wanted to pepper them with questions, but I didn't want to be rude. :)  They were very considerate and even ordered a couple of pizzas for my kids, in case they didn't like Indian food.  But my daughter does like Indian and my son was polite enough to try everything. (Because I told him to. :) )  He is also starting to like spicy foods.

 I also thought they were vegetarians, but they made Tandoori Chicken for us, which was spicy and good.  My son even liked it.  Apparently they'll eat chicken or at least the husband recently started to, but not sure about his new wife.  They also made Fish Biryani, which was super super spicy.  I had tears from heat coming out of my eyes and our faces were turning warm and red.  But we kept eating because it was so good.  They also made a couple of other dishes like curry potatoes and egg korma, which was boiled eggs in a korma curry sauce.  

I guess Indians eat dinner pretty late.  We were invited to come over at 8pm.  This was fine since we've been eating late dinners because of little league baseball games.  Our hosts didn't eat anything the whole time.  I think because their custom is to make sure their guests have food on their plate.  There needs to be someone to continually serve.  We left about 10pm and I hope they dug into what was left over.  We ate a lot and they sent us home with a big container of biryani.  

There was another Indian family there, which the guy currently works for my husband.  They had the cutest little baby girl.  She was 8 months old and had such beautiful eyes with long curly lashes.  The men mostly talked "work" stuff and made us laugh.  They were really nice people and we had a good time.  

You can see the spice on the Tandoori Chicken pictured with the Fish Biryani.  Everything we ate was delicious and spicy.  

Let me tell ya!  Life gets in the way of detoxing.  It's hard to be 100% committed.  But I think the majority of the time we've been pretty good and I'm trying not to feel guilty when we do eat something we are not supposed to.  I think the Indian food fell into our detox category, except for the Roti bread we ate and we did skip dessert.  So not too bad.

Busy fulfilling day, with great exam results!!!

Pacific NW Geology/Geography

One of our homeschool group moms, was kind enough to offer to teach our kids about the Pacific Northwest Geology/Geography.  In our state, it is a requirement to learn about Washington and it's history.  Even if it's not a required curriculum for your kids, I encourage you to teach them about the Pacific Northwest.  We learned so much valuable information, particularly how the glaciers from the ice age formed amazing landscapes in our region.

This class took us almost a whole school year, meeting once a week, approximately 3 times a month.  We just finished up the course last week.  I must say, my friend did a fabulous job teaching our children this course.  She worked hard putting together the books, worksheets, and looking for you tube videos pertaining to the material.  She also put together a jeopardy game a couple of times during the year to test the kids' knowledge.  They had a lot of fun playing that game.  If it were just me and the kids, I would not have put in that much effort as she had.  It was really fun for them to learn this as a group. The two books we used were:

Geology of the Pacific Northwest by Cynthia Light Brown.  This book has chapters and activities for the kids to do.

Washington Adventures by Ruth Pelz

During the course, the kids had to track earthquakes and volcanic eruptions for a few weeks.  They each wrote an essay on a different region of Washington to share with the class.  They had weekly reading assignments with youtube videos to watch.  They also put together a lap book on a topic they learned during the class.  We started with Geology of the Pacific Northwest then moved onto Washington Adventures.  These books have chapters to break down the lessons.  If you would like to put together lessons for your kids on this subject, get these two books to build your curriculum on.

Cheating on my Detox

We have been pretty good so far on our "Spent" detox.  We may not have been perfect, but we haven't been too bad.  Except for today.  My son made me a Mother's Day Apple tart during his Boy's Club class.  Of course, I had to eat it!!!  And it was delicious!!! I don't feel one bit guilty. :)  I did share it with my children and  I thought I would be nice and save a small piece for my hubby to cheat with too.

Tomorrow will be Day 9 and we will then have to start taking gluten out.  I've been doing okay, except yesterday I was pretty crabby, with no real reason why.  I've also been feeling bloated.  Maybe it's some sort of adjustment my body is going through.  I know I've been snacking a lot on nuts and drinking a lot of coffee because I want something to curb my sugar craving.  It is difficult to come up with meal ideas when you have to eliminate certain foods.  Not everyone is happy with the "healthier" meal options I have come up with.  I'll be sharing what we've been eating so far, soon.  This weekend will be tough.  My kids have planned to cook something for me on Mother's Day, so whatever it is, I will eat it.

Poems for Mom

Mother's Day is coming up soon and I was reflecting on what my kids did for me last year.  Well, every year they usually make me a card and write something sweet.  Last year, they each wrote me a poem, as well as made me breakfast in bed. I wanted to share the poems they wrote me because they were so precious.

DD (age 12) wrote:

You are a mother

Like no other

I love you with all my heart

I have from the start

There is nothing you can’t conquer

DS (age 10) wrote: 

Dear Mother

Your knowledge will someday help us in college

And together we can do anything

But you yourself can do more than everything

Cause my love for you is more than you can imagine

Cause without you our house wouldn’t be a home

They made me cry with such precious words.  They remind me how blessed I am everyday.  No matter what is going on in my life, whether it be serenity or chaos, I just look at my family and know that everything will be okay.


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Curry Chicken Salad

These little sandwiches were served at the Women's Tea I went to.  They are made using the mini croissants or cocktail croissants.  You should be able to find these little croissants in the bakery section of the supermarket.  In my area, I didn't see them in Safeway, but I found them at our local IGA and Albertson's.

Curried Chicken Salad

2 cups (or 2 cans Costco chicken) or shredded chicken
1/2 c. thinly sliced celery
2 T. sliced green onion
3/4 c. mayo
2 t. lime juice
1/2 t. curry powder

Combine first 3 ingredients. (If using canned chicken, chop the chicken a bit with a food chopper, or break it up with your fingers.)  Mix together mayo, lime, and curry.  Add to chicken mixture.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  You can put this on bread and cut into triangles or use the mini croissants.

*If using canned chicken and you don't have a Costco, buy the large size canned chicken rather than the small, where you find the canned tuna.

I really don't remember how many croissants one batch of this salad uses.  These are so delicious and easy to make.

Detoxing with Spent

My DH and I started a detox plan last Wednesday.  This program is from the book Spent: End Exhaustion and Feel Great Again by Frank Lipman, M.D.  We did this program a few months ago, but only made it 2 1/2 weeks.  Superbowl came and we ate what we wanted and felt horrible afterwards.  It was hard to start back up.

What I like about this program is that it doesn't take away all your normal foods at once.  It's a six week program and each day you do something different.  The first day you take out sugars.  A few days later you'll take out processed foods, then a few days later take out grains, etc.  In between the days of taking out certain foods, you'll do certain exercises like yoga positions or breathing techniques.  You will also add in certain nutritional supplements.  There are also tips on what to do for a better night's sleep.  Smoothies with whey protein will be a major food source, especially for breakfasts.

So now we are on Day 4.  Since Day 1, we had to eliminate sugars from our diet.  According to Nancy Appleton's Lick the Sugar Habit

Sugar can suppress the immune system
Sugar feeds cancer cells and has been linked to breast, ovarian, prostate, and rectal cancer
Sugar can weaken eyesight and cause premature skin aging.
Sugar can cause premature aging in general and increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Sugar can cause autoimmune diseases, arthritis, asthma, heart disease, migraines, and multiple sclerosis.

This info. I took from Spent.

The book has a lot more details about sugar and what specifically to take out of your diet for Day 1.  Aspartame is dangerous and toxic.  Splenda is made by chlorinating sugar, so if you use splenda you are ingesting chlorine.

Sugar is really hard to take out of a diet, but for the past year, we have substantially lowered our intake of refined sugars.  I am now using natural sweeteners like: raw honey, 100% pure maple syrup, rapadura, or sucanat.

For Day 4, we add a breathing exercise.  We actually forgot to do Day 3: Neck and Shoulder Release.  We can do it today.  Tomorrow will be very difficult.  We'll be taking out processed foods.

This is where we are at on the detox.  We probably have eaten some things we shouldn't have in the last 4 days, but for the most part I think we've been pretty good.  It's going to get more difficult in the days to come because I still have to feed my kids normal, although they too will be eliminating a lot of the junk from their diets with us.  Just not as drastically as we are on this detox.

Why detox?  Are you tired most of the time, achy, gassy, depressed, lack motivation, get sick easily, need to lose weight, constantly need caffeine and sugars to get going?  These are some symptoms of having a toxic body.  There are a lot of detox programs out there, but read this book and see if it's something you would like to try.  I got this copy from the library, but I may purchase my own.  It's something worth doing at least once a year to keep healthy.  My DH has purchased another detox program which he'll do after this one.  I'll talk about that one once he starts it.  I guess he wants to be extra, extra clean.

Have you ever detoxed?  What program did you use?

Butter Beef

This is a great crockpot dish.  I usually add baby carrots, but I didn't have any at this time.  I'll update the photo the next time I make it with carrots, it will look better.  I have also added mushrooms the last 30 minutes of cooking.  I am not really a big pot roast fan, but my family really likes this dish.  I also use the Homemade Onion Soup mix from Heavenly Homemakers instead of the store bought onion soup mix.  It's less salty, no msg, and tastes good.

Butter Beef from Allrecipes

3 pounds beef stew meat
4 T. homemade onion soup mix or 1 packet dry onion soup mix
1/2 cup butter

add ins: baby carrots, mushrooms

Combine all ingredients in a crockpot.  Set on high for 4-5 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes, rice, or egg noodles.

*When I used to use the dry onion soup packet, I would use half stick of salted butter and half stick unsalted.  Otherwise, it's too salty using 1 whole stick of salted butter.  I only use the homemade mix now because I keep all the spices in my pantry and it saves me a trip to the store or the couple of bucks it costs to buy the packet.  When using the homemade mix, I use 1 stick of salted butter.

Easy Italian Pasta Bake

I got this recipe from Heavenly Homemakers.  What I like most about it is that the pasta is cooked in the tomato sauce, so you skip the extra step of boiling the pasta in water.

 To get this recipe visit this link: Easy Italian Pasta Bake by Heavenly Homemakers


*You must stir the pasta often while it's cooking in the tomato sauce or it will start to stick to the bottom of the pot.

This is a great dish to make for company or potluck.  I don't usually add salt, once I did and it turned out too salty.  So now I go without it or just add a dash.  Easy, inexpensive, and delish!  Just add some garlic bread and a salad.

You can also make this dish up ahead of time and freeze before baking. Then thaw and bake like normal.

Impacted Canine Tooth

Today my daughter had to have oral surgery.  It's the first time she has had to undergo general anesthesia.  She is 13 and her last baby tooth-canine-had not yet come out.  Orthodontists say she needs braces.  We went to three different Orthodontists to get varying opinions and prices.

First:  "We need to get her into braces, like, yesterday.  We need to make room for her canine tooth to come through."

Second:  "We need to get her into braces and start the process.  Her adult canine might be lost up there and we will need to pull it down."

Third:  "Her baby canine hasn't come out yet?  We should take an x-ray and see where it is.  We will have to wait on braces until she gets her canine tooth taken care of."  Apparently, her adult canine was sideways in the roof of her mouth and wouldn't come down on it's own.  The surgeon needs to get the tooth exposed, then miraculously the adult canine will make it's way to its correct spot.


The third doctor was the only one not rushing us into braces.  He was also the only one to take an x-ray to actually see what the situation was.  Orthodontist exams including x-rays are complimentary for kids.  The other two doctors didn't seem to want to take the extra steps necessary to find out what kind of work we needed done.  They wanted us to commit to their program and pay for the records fee in order to do the x-rays and such.

Needless, to say, we are going with the third doctor.  He even charges less and the time frame my daughter will be in braces is less.  Her teeth aren't really that crooked, just a little crowded.  Once we actually get into the braces, I'll post about the method he uses.

Because the orthodontic exams are free (double check that when you schedule appointments), I highly recommend you get 2, 3, or 4 different opinions and prices.  Check out your comfort level with the doctor.  Do they give you options or are they pushing braces on you or your child?

My daughter pulled through the surgery and did very well.  I was nice and didn't make her do schoolwork when we got home. :)  She is getting babied and getting treats like smoothies and shakes, so she doesn't have to use her mouth much.  My son was being very helpful in the car with her on the way home.  He was sitting in the back seat with her and would hand her her drink and take it from her.  He'd help to refreshen her gauze pads and make sure she was comfortable.  What a sweetie!!

She'll be sore and out of it most of the day. But part one is done.  Braces will be in a couple of months, or so.