Riley's Reviews - Almost Home

Almost Home by Wendy Lawton is the story of Mary Chilton, who was one of the 1620 Mayflower Pilgrims. Mary wants to find a place in the world to belong.  When she was a young child she moved from England to Holland and then from Holland to the New World.  In the beginning, Mary thought home was a place with stuff.  In the end, she came to realize that home is where you can be closest to God and where your family is.  I thought this book was a very good story, teaching that material things are not all you make them out to be.  I highly recommend Almost Home because I thought it taught good moral values about material things not being very important. Almost Home is part of the Daughters of the Faith series. 

By RileyAnn

Microfiber Sofa Protector.....

I'm normally not a shopper.  I live for thrift sales, auctions, and second hand stores!  I have a really hard time going into a regular retail store and paying full price for an item that I know I can find for much less if I wait patiently.  We live on a very tight budget and I've grown to despise waste.  If I can't find it used, I probably don't need it. 

I particularly don't care for Black Friday shopping.  (And, I am appalled by Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving Thursday!)   I would normally stay as far away from the stores as possible on that Friday.  However, this year, the Microfiber Sofa Furniture Protector that I'd been eying up for some time was on a MEGA Black Friday sale, originally priced at $49.99, but for 7 hours only, just $19.99! 

Our sofa was given to us approx. 8-9 years ago by my mother before she passed away.  She purchased it at an auction and used it for a couple of years before passing it on to us.  It was a perfectly lovely sofa at that time.  However, the wear and tear it receives in our home on a daily basis has caused the upholstery to become threadbare.  And of course, any little hole is just too appealing for Levi's little fingers to dig in and pick at.  Unfortunately, we now have several large holes in the upholstery.  Even with the holes, the sofa still sits perfectly well.  Many guests comment on the comfort or our sofa.  We can't afford a new sofa at this time so I got up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday, wandered out into the cold and made the Microfiber Sofa Furniture Protector purchase. 

The picture in the advertisement looks so appealing...  
The kids were very excited when I brought it home.  They immediately helped me put it on the sofa. Then they laid on it and rolled on it exclaiming how wonderful the fabric felt.  Unfortunately, the love soon wore off as the cover does not stay in place and looks very sloppy.  I think it has to do with the arms on our sofa not coming out square.  The advertised photo does not show the straps that hold the cover in place and it actually looks like an all together different fabric.  I am thankful it covers the holes and the color totally matches our other decor.  However, I am very disappointed with the fit.  I could have just as easily draped a sheet or throw over the sofa and saved my $20!  Live and learn..... 

Thursdays of Thanks.....

Christmas caroling at the nursing home; Failed attempt at Levi's Christmas photos (see above); Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret Pumphrey; RileyAnn's face while at American Girl store; Ruben's delight at JM Cremp; Thankful kids; Helping neighbors.....

Venison Jerky...

The Farmer had a successful deer hunt this year and we were blessed with venison.  Aside from the tenderloins and a few roasts, we had most of the meat ground.  I take it to our local butcher and he grinds the venison with pork, about 1/3 of the weight of the venison.  I  usually then freeze the ground meat and use it for chili, hotdishes, seasoned sausage patties, tacos, etc.  This year, after adding pork, we had about 70lbs of ground meat.  I froze approx. 50lbs. in one pound packages and the other 20 lbs., I intend to make into venison jerky. 

So far, I've made 10lbs of jerky.  Here's how it's done.  I divide the ground meat into 2lb balls.  I mix the seasoning and cure with each ball.  Then refrigerate anywhere from four hours to overnight. 

I then place the seasoned ground meat into the jerky gun. 

When the gun is full, I pump strips of ground meat onto dehydrator trays.  I have an older American Harvest Dehydrator that came with four trays.  It took about 2 1/2 lbs of meat to fill all four trays. 

I then dehydrate the meat for approx. 2 hours.  I'm sure each dehydrator is different so either follow your dehydrator manual or experiment.  The meat should be stiff and dry with a jerky like consistency.  One of my batches didn't seem quite done after two hours.  It was soft and limp, so I ran it an extra hour to be sure it was done.

I store the jerky in Ziploc bags in the refrigerator.  Although, I'm not sure how long it will last.  The kids were eating it faster than I could bag it :)

Thursdays of Thanks....

Children skating on the pond; Venison for winter; RileyAnn surprising her aunt with a birthday cake; A boy building a nest on our bedroom floor during the night; Psalm 49 "Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough to live forever and never see the grave."; Freedom to worship; Beginning of Advent....

Starting Second Term 2013-2014....

We wrapped up our first term (12 weeks) a couple of weeks ago.  Then took off for the week of Thanksgiving, which also happened to be deer hunting here in WI.  Yesterday, we started back in, beginning our second term.  Riley Ann finished her final book of Pictures in Cursive.  She's got a good foundation in the art of cursive writing.  She will continue this term writing the first 27 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation, by George Washington, in cursive.  This fit right into our history study this year since we are studying exploration, colonization, and the revolutionary war.

I am really LOVING our history study!  I'm using a conglomeration of things as you can see pictured above.  I pull book lists and use commentary from TruthQuest American History for Young Students I.  I use some of the lessons and copywork from Beautiful Feet.  Then I use activities from Time Traveler CD-Roms and History Pockets.  Riley can't wait to include parts of the Portraits of American Girlhood Unit Study when we hit those time periods.  Now this may seem very overwhelming to some and I don't recommend going out to purchase all these different programs just to study history.  I happened to have them on the shelves from years of accumulation.  If I had to settle on one, I would pick the TruthQuest History Guides.

These guides are chuck full of lists of wonderful living books to make your history study come alive!   I like some of the other resources for activity ideas and notebooking pages.  But, you could research and find plenty of things online or by using library books listed under the activity section of the guide. 

I have divided our year into three sections to correlate with our three terms.  The first term, we studied exploration covering everything from what is an explorer, to the life of an explorer, to parts of a ship and navigation tools.  We also covered twenty different explorers starting around the year 1000 AD with Leif Eriksson and ending in the early 1600's with Captain John Smith and the Jamestown settlement.  Below are some photos of the kids completing various activities as well as some sample notebooking pages.....

 Baking Spice Cookies....

Baking Hard Tack....

 Tying Ship Knots...

 Studying the Anatomy of a Ship....

 

Notebooking...

and Painting Shoals....

You can also read about some of the amazing books we read here....

The Vikings

Roanoke

Jamestown

This term, we'll be studying colonial life starting with the Pilgrims and Native Americans through all thirteen colonies, then to a few missionaries and some frontiersmen.  I'll try to post again towards the end.   How's your first term going?

Thursdays of Thanks.....

A boy and his fort; A girl who loves to bake; A happy, healthy baby; A man who takes time for his children; A child asking me to read aloud; God using the Pilgrims to found this great nation; Psalm 100......

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 
Enter his gates with thanksgiving: 
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name. 
For the Lord is good. 
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation. 
                                                                             ...Psalm 100 

May you have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving....

Melissa