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We have some exciting things in store.  Please join us at

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where we are passionate about the priorities in our life.

Concentration science experiment

My 9th grader is doing Apologia Physical Science this year.  We have been really pleased with Apologia products in the past.  This experiment was on concentration.  Concentration is the quantity of a substance within a certain volume.  

Here he is set up and ready to begin the experiment.  His little brother is watching on.

dropping the Tums tablets into the vinegar

Watching the results.  This was not one of the more exciting experiments but it was still a good lesson.

If you are still looking for a science course, I highly recommend this one.  We have done Apologia astronomy, general science and are currently working through botany & physical science.

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

I wanted to show you the easiest peanut butter cookie recipe ever.  They also taste delicious too :-)

You will need:
     1 cup of creamy peanut butter
     1 cup of flour
     1 egg

That's it.  Really.  You will mix all of these together in the bowl like shown below.  You might want to double or triple the recipe so you have lots.  They taste great straight out of the oven.

Next you will drop them by teaspoon fulls onto your cookie sheet.  Then I like to sprinkle the tops with sugar.  Use your fork to smash the cookie flat and at the same time give it that criss cross look.

Bake them at 350 for 10 minutes.  You may have to adjust this temp/time to your oven.

Enjoy your delicious warm cookies.  Make sure to grab a glass of milk because you WILL be thirsty after these.

Apologia Science Project

My 6th grader is working through Apologia's Botany course this year for science. This is the first big project we have made this year (all 3 weeks of it so far).

He had to make a light hut from scratch and then plant seeds to try and force them to grow indoors. He planted 3 different types of herbs which we will use after they grow to make homemade soap.

Here here is in the middle of building his light hut.

Here he is showing the inside of the light hut covered in aluminum foil.

The seeds for planting


Here is the completed light hut with the herbs inside

The cute little pots of herbs

He has been taking such good care of his plants so far. He has to mist them with water several times a day so they don't dry out. I will update when his plants start growing so you can see the results.

Book Review: The Thorn by Beverly Lewis

This book is the first in the brand new Rose Trilogy series. Follow along in the life of two sisters, Rose & Hen. Rose has a close friendship with the Bishop's son but is being courted by another. Her sister Hen has married outside her people and is concerned for Rose.

I will confess, this was the very first time that I have read a book with Amish as the characters. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not but was willing to give it a try. I must say that this book was really good. I almost couldn't put it down until I was finished with it. The story was gripping and kept my interest until the last page. The only negative thing about this book is I have to wait until April 2011 to read the next installment. Beverly Lewis is one of my new favorite authors.

Bethany House publishers graciously provided this book to me for review. I was not compensated for the review and the opinions are my own. I was not expected to give a favorable review.

First day of school

Even though we actually had our first day of school on August 23rd I decided to go ahead and post these pictures now. I know I know, I'm really late at posting them.

How do you do school?

Here is my oldest, the thinker, reading on the front porch. Something about those rails called to him.


Here is my youngest, doodlebob, putting together a new desk for our laptop that we will use for math (Teaching Textbooks), spanish (Rosetta Stone) and typing.

Where do you do school?

The great Coke experiment

WARNING - If you love soda and don't want to be grossed out then don't read below.

The great Coke experiment

This was the first of one of our fun experiments. I had heard about all the bad things that soda does to your teeth so we decided to see for ourselves.

We started with a bottle of Coke (no offense to Coke, all cola products will do this) my sons tooth that he offered up for experimentation and a small bowl.

Put the tooth in the bowl and slowly pour the soda in.

The tooth sinks to the bottom and starts fizzing at this point.

Here is my son, Doodlebob (his nickname) checking on the progress of the tooth.

What else do you do with the leftover soda but drink it.

The tooth 2 days later. Lots of chuncks of the tooth broke off and were in the bottom of the bowl. The whole tooth turned a nice shade of cola brown. We decided it was pretty disgusting. Maybe we won't drink soda for awhile now. Ah, who are we kidding. :-)