~ Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed ~

This months theme for Families Create! is Heroes and Heroines and again we have found the perfect book. Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson illustrations by Fumi Kosaka.

"You see, when Mrs. Bishop made muffins from Mary's blueberries, not only the paperboy, Billy Parker, but the other four people, too, made five people smile, and those five did, too, and after a while - in only fifteen days- love was sent to every person everywhere!"

If we were to do one nice thing for one person and that person did one nice thing for 5 people and those five people did one nice thing for five more people, in 15 days 6,103,515,625 people would have something nice or kindness shown to them. Pretty incredible!!

And, to go along with our story the kids and I made blueberry bread. They wanted to make muffins but the muffin papers were gone and all I have is aluminum muffin tins so blueberry bread was the next best thing.

Coconut Flour Blueberry Muffins/Bread

6 eggs

5 tbsp butter or coconut oil melted

6 tbsp coconut milk or whole milk

3 tbsp honey

3 tbsp rapadura

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp bourbon vanilla

1/2 c sifted coconut flour

1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder

1 c frozen blueberries

Whisk together liquids and the add the dry. Whisk really well until all the lumps are gone. Stir in blueberries. Pour into a glass loaf pan and bake at 400 for 30 minutes. Enjoy!!

Lesson Plan for Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deeds

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Fight Back Friday

February brought many heroic crafts to the Families, Create! Carnival. Check out some of the wonderful posts from last month's participants below, and be sure to visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival.

• The Artsy Mama made a personalized birthday hat for her son's first birthday. Learn how to make a Hero's Birthday Hat for your hero or heroine with very few sewing skills.
• Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children found inspiration in books for some I-Spy items in her post, I Spy Items - The Last Olympians and The Lost Heroes.
• Megan at Purple Dancing Dahlias found out how one random act of kindness can shower the world in kindness in the book Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed.
• It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Kieran! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares the Superhero Capes she made to celebrate her son's heroic qualities.
• At Z Everyday Things, Mama G made easy and quick Super Zs!, personalized superhero appliques on shirts, for her children. Easy and quick!
• Lauren at Hobo Mama has a son who loves to dream up stories and one heroic imaginary friend. Read her post about Space-Alien Hot-Dog Monster & Silly Guy .
• Heroes are often everyday people. Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children was inspired by the gift of a sock in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, prompting her to make Dobby's Sock as part of her Harry Potter ornaments.
• Galit Breen at Three Little Waves used the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes as a springboard for a sensitive discussion and a fun origami project for her whole family in her post Families Create: Heroes and Heroines.
• Need a creative gift idea for a toddler or preschooler? Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares a simple Tutorial for a Two-Sided Felt Playmat (one side is outer space, one side is a jungle scene).
• Literature and adventure inspired Mandy @ Living Peacefully with Children to make these Treasure Bags for Imbolc.

Visit Code Name: Mama and Living Peacefully with Children to find out how you can participate in the next Families, Create! Carnival. Our March theme is "Animals" - what animals are your favorites and why? Get creative and share with us how animals are a part of your and your children's lives

~ Coconut Flour Pizza Crust ~

My kids love pizza but if I haven't soaked the flour for crust we can't do pizza. I found an almond flour crust that we really liked but wanted to have an alternative too. I found the coconut flour crust at Food Renegade and it worked out really well. I made some very minor changes(shown in purple).

4 pasture raised eggs 1/4 c + 1/8 c coconut flour
1/4 c organic plain whole milk yogurt
1/2 tsp pizza seasoning
1/4 tsp of garlic granules I mixed everything in the blender and then let it sit for five minutes. You have to let it sit so the coconut flour has a chance to absorb the liquid. Heat up a cast iron skillet with some coconut oil and pour out enough batter to make a 5 to 6 inch circle.

I ended up with eight crusts + a little one. I let them cool on a rack before adding toppings. I put a teaspoon of sauce on each one, finely diced a slice of uncured beef summer sausage for "pepperoni" and a handful of mozzarella cheese. I put them in the toaster oven to melt the cheese until it was bubbly and starting to brown. The kids really liked them and next time I am going to make a quadruple batch so I can have some for the freezer. This post is share at:

Monday Mania

~ Yep, We're Wierd ( and Okay with It) ~

It all started one day when my dad called down and asked if he could have a roll of toilet paper.

My husband told him, "We don't have any".

Dad "You need some too?"

Hubby "Nope"

Dad, "Huh"?! What are you using then?

Hubby, "Buttrags" ( I hate that term by the way but that is what hubs called them when they were diaper wipes for when our youngest was in diapers. I prefer family cloth, but...)

A couple of days later my dad asked again why we don't have toilet paper thinking it may have been a money thing and we didn't have money for tp. It is a money thing, not that we don't have money for tp but that we don't want to spend hard earned cash on tp when we have a large stash of family cloth from cloth diapering.

This idea to most is a bit "off". People will say that baby poop is one thing, but big people poop is gross! Here's the thing, once a baby starts eating solid food, everyone's poop is the same.

I got to thinking about all the other non-mainstream ways that we have adopted to save money which allows us to create a healthier home, buying organic, sustainable, local products as often as we can.

• We have a large stash of bar towels instead of buying paper towels.
• We use cloth napkins. I make them 11"x11" for the kids.
• We used baking soda and apple cider vinegar for shampoo.
• We don't buy cleaning products. Our staples are baking soda and salt for scrubbing, apple cider vinegar mixed with water and essential oils for an all purpose cleaner. If I want it to have some even stronger antibacterial killing properties I add a few drops of grapefruit seed extract.
• We used cloth diapers.
• I use cloth for my monthly cycle.
• We make our own lotions and bath products. My aunt makes awesome soaps and we get the misfits at Christmas time. I love misfits!
• We have two older cars that are completely paid for.
• We don't buy tv and we have prepaid cell phones. Hubby and I both get $100/year and that's it. If we run out, we're out.
• We try and grow as much as we can. For some people that means a couple of tomato plants and/or a green bean plant on the patio or deck.
• We have our own milk cow. (I totally get that this is just not possible for most of the country but added it b/c it is way outside mainstream thinking)
• We have chickens, ducks, and geese. This one is much more doable for people. Four to six backyard chickens are okay with in most city limits. For your neighbors sake you may want to skip the rooster.
• We don't buy boxed foods. Believe it or not, boxed foods are more money in the long run and if it comes in a box the nutritional value is slim to none. 
• We shop second hand. You would be amazed at the some of the things we have gotten at thrift stores. This one is becoming more and more popular. Hooray!!
• We homeschool/unschool. This is also becoming more popular as people are realizing just how broken our education system is.
• We use alternative healing over allopathic medicine.

There are just of a few of the things that we do that cause us to fall out of mainstream living but like I said "We're weird and okay with it"

~ Homeschooling Page ~

Just wanted to send out an FYI that I worked on the homeschooling page today. I went through all of the sites I had favorited over the last few years. There are lots of great free printables for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners.

~ Apple Date Nut Granola (grain free) ~

I didn't have any oats soaked and dehydrated to make granola but had all of my nuts and seeds soaked and ready to go so this is what I came up with.
1 c crispy almonds
1 c crispy walnuts
1 c crispy pecans
1 c crispy cashews
1 c of soaked and dehydrated sunflower seeds
4 Pippin apples, cored and peeled 8 whole dates, pitted and rough chopped
1/4 melted coconut oil

I have a small food processor so I did processed one cup of nuts/seeds at a time. Process them just enough to break them into small pieces. Dump all the nuts into a bowl. Process your apples till they are really small but not mush. Add apples to bowl. Process your dates as small as you can get them. Add dates to apples and nuts. Pour coconut oil in and mix well. Spread on a well oiled or parchment covered sheet pan and bake at 200 for 45 minutes. This turned out so well and because it is all nuts it is protein packed and the kids don't have to eat as much to get full. And, there is no added sugar, which is a bonus for the sugar sensitive people in this house. This post is shared at:

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~ Asa's Homeschooling Materials ~

So, right now this is what our curriculum looks like for Asa, he is doing work in the third/fourth grade range.

Science: Apologia ~ Exploring Creation with Astrology, we are using lap books instead of the note booking method. Asa has tried note booking in the past and didn't like it.

English: Language Smarts level D by The Critical Thinking Company

Spelling: Spelling DooRiddles by The Critical Thinking Company

Math: Mathematical Reasoning level D by The Critical Thinking Company, Extreme Dot to Dots

History: Christian Liberty Press, I wanted to do an broad overview so I order workbooks for kindergarten through fourth grade. We stared with the kindergarten book and are doing a quick read through and overview before digging in to the fourth grade material.

Music: A Young Scholar's Guide to Composers and we are learning to play the guitar.

Art: God and the History of Art, books one and two. We love this so far.

Reading: We go to the library once a week. Both Asa and Zach love the Boxcar Children series, The Magic Tree House series, Little House on the Prairie, Max and Liz series, Treasure Island, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, The Truth Seekers Mystery Series,...we read lots!

Computer: Building Thinking Skills, Critical Thinking Skills for Reading, Math, & Science Level 2

We don't do all of this in one day. We tend to have a rotating schedule and we just pick up where we left of last time. I don't worry a ton about missing a day here and there simply because we get so much done in such a small amount of time.

~ Homeschooling the Loukota Children Part 1 ~

I have been asked several times lately what we do for homeschooling. When we first decided that we were going to homeschool I looked into curriculum online and in doing so found lots of free resources for the 3 to 5 age range. For kindergarten I used a mish-mash of store bought workbooks and fun projects/printable from online. My oldest went to two years of Christian preschool and knew all of his letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. He could also write/draw all of his letters, numbers, shapes, and his name. I found a check list of what a kindergartner is "suppose" to know by state standards. We finished up the checklist before Christmas.

While making my own materials was free it was time consuming. I knew that I would need to order some sort of curriculum for first grade because I had a baby due in January and there was no way I was going to be able to devote the same amount of time to looking for and collecting/organizing materials. After asking many church friends and other homeschooling moms I settled on My Father's World. They offer a complete package, all put together for you. Minimal trips to the library are suggested by not required. Asa and I both loved it. It was simple, had some repetition to it but wasn't so repetitious that it was boring. My biggest worry was teaching him how to read but with their comprehensive phonics program it was no big deal.

The next year Zach started kindergarten so I order the kindergarten package from My Father's World and again was very impressed with the materials. Easy to follow, a bit more time spent at the library but that was good for us, got us out and about more. We are also very lucky that one of our local libraries is part of the community center so we could utilize the library and the gym, a great way to blow off some extra steam in the middle of these Minnesota winters. Asa did the first grade studies from January to September and then went right into the second grade curriculum from My Father's World. This is where we started to have a bit of a problem with the repetition of the program but we still liked it enough to utilize it for all of the second and third grade years. Math and english are ordered separate once second grade is reach.

My Father's World recommends Singapore Math and English Primer. Asa couldn't even make it through the Singapore Math placement test and I had heard from other moms that their kids didn't like the program either. I had one mom give me some books from The Critical Thinking Company and we used them as part of our kindergarten work and really liked them. I order the math and english workbooks to go with our second grade materials and have order them every since. I have ordered several other workbooks and CD-ROMS from them and the boys love them. It also offers me the chance to have them work alone, great for when I need to take care of the little ones or change that load of laundry around.

This year we decided not to go with My Father's World, it just wasn't working out well enough. That is one of the great things about homeschooling, if something isn't working, you change it. I am embarrassed to admit that it took me awhile to figure that out. I was so convinced that if I just followed the program and its schedule it would all work out great. After some serious frustration over the English Primer, I finally realized that if it wasn't working we didn't have to do it.