We've Moved

We are excited to announce that our blog has moved to our own presence on the web.  We will be posting more often and with a wider variety of subjects. 

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

http://www.passionatepriorities.com/

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. :-)

We survived

Hi all. Sorry for all the posts in one night. I love to review books and was a bit behind on that so I decided to catch up.

Well, we survived our first week of our new homeschool year. This is my fifth year teaching but my first year teaching high school. Our work load is really intense. Our week actually went quite well. We did a fun experiment with Coke and teeth. It was pretty gross. I hope to post pics of that this weekend.

I hope all of my homeschool readers had a great start back to school too.

Have a great weekend!!

Book Review - The Lord's Prayer by R.T. Kendall

This book is about the most known and misunderstood prayer from Jesus himself. The prayer is covered line by line and goes into quite a bit of detail. The author lists versus to support what he is saying which I always appreciate.

I was looking quite forward to this book because I always love to learn more about scripture. I was a bit dissapointed because I felt the book was redundant. I had a hard time trying to get through the book. I felt like I did not learn much from this book after all was said and done. That being said, I plan to pick this book up again at a later time and see if I can learn something from it then.

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.

Book Review - Love is a Flame by James Stuart Bell

This book is a collection of short stories about Love and what happens when it is rekindled. We all know as married couples that it isn't always easy. I think we all go into marriage thinking that it will be a fairytale but soon realize that you must work to keep your marriage healthy.

This book contains true stories of how other couples were not only able to save troubled marriages but to make them wonderful. If you marriage is good you might think this book isn't for you. I confess, my marriage is great so I thought I wouldn't need much from this book. This book however proved to me that everyone can learn something. I was so inspired by some of the stories that I have changed the way I do some things in my own marriage.

I think this book would be excellent if you are struggling in your marriage as well. The author did a fantastic job of collecting a wide variety of stories that are sure to reach out to you.

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.

Book Review - No More Christian Nice Girl by Paul Coughlin & Jennifer D Degler

I love to read books and I like sharing them with you. This is because I love to look at other people's blogs to get a good idea of books I would like to read. That way I can go into the book store armed with a shopping list.

This book has such a cute, fun cover. The title drug me right in. What this book hopes to explain is that being "nice" is not good enough. Being "nice" can hurt your relationships more than you know. They explore how you can become an authentic, powerful woman of faith. Who doesn't want that?

This book was really engaging. I read the book pretty fast. One of the things I loved about the book is that at the end of each chapter you meet CNG (Christian Nice Girl) Nicole. The authors apply what you just learned into the life of Nicole so you can actually see it played out. The chapters end with study questions so you can use this as a stand alone or group Bible study. I can't wait to go back and do the study questions while reading the book a second time. I have more dog eared corners in this book. I would recommend this book to all women. I think it is a must read.

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.

Book Review - Flight To Heaven by Capt. Dale Black

This book is about Capt. Dale Black, who as a commercial pilot has flown all over the world but focuses on the one flight that changed his life. As the front of the book says, A plane crash.... a lone survivor.... a journey to Heaven and back.

I wanted to read this book because like alot of Christians I long for Heaven. I am always interested in reading anything that might offer a glimpse of that. I was a bit hesitant when starting the book because you never know what is true or not. I was pleasantly surprised that the book seemed more about the authors experiences here on earth and how his life was changed. The book was a very quick, engaging read. I was challenged in my own life by a few things the author shared.

I think this book is worth reading, I am sure you will be glad you did. I am glad that I was able to read Capt. Dale Black's story.


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.