Enjoying the Chaos

School finished early today. We  decided that it was a perfect day to play outside. The snow was not the regular dry kind but the damp and stick together kind. (The kind we used to get in England). Perfect for snowballs and snowmen. Boo climbed our tree thinking she was safe from the snowballs. It didn't work out that well.

We have the second snowstorm they promised. It looks bigger than the first. The kids have a huge incentive to finish their work today.

I was dreaming about my favorite soup 'Chicken Gnocchi' as the snow was falling this week. Luckily I happened to have almost all the supplies in before the big snow storm. My husband was working from home because of the snow...and I have to admit he did the cooking. However I do use 'we' as I bought the ingredients, chose the recipe, and searched the internet to find an alternate for 'half and half'. That has to count for part of the work - right.  We doubled the recipe and substituted the half and half with evaporated milk (the only ingredient I was missing - and I wasn't going to brave the 12-15 inches of snow to nip to the store.) I hunted online for an alternate ingredient and found that you can use evaporated milk - which thanks to my pantry I had plenty of. You can substitute it 1:1 and it works great.   Chicken Gnocchi 1 tsp olive oil  4 tablespoon butter 4 tablespoon flour 1 quart half and half (We used Evaporated Milk)...

We have been using Artistic Pursuits. Jam is loving it. Full review coming soon.

Boo and I have been reviewing an excellent online program for fourth grade math. The company as you can tell from the banner above is A+ TutorSoft, Inc . The product we have been working with is the online version of A+ Interactive Math . It is available for grades 1 - 6, pre Algebra and Algebra. This is a screen shot from the online edition. To set the stage for this review I have to tell you we have been homeschooling now for two years and have changed math programs about that many times (or more). So when I told Boo about the chance to review a program she groaned - yes literally groaned and rolled her eyes at me. If you have a girl you will know exactly what I mean. I never made Boo do the placement test (partly because of the eye roll) but also because I knew that Grade 4 would work fine for us. However if you are unsure then I one is available. This is how we have used it. Boo used this program every day (and will continue to do so). We aver...

  When I was given the opportunity to read and review this book I was very excited. Although I am not yet a citizen of this amazing country. I did make the personal choice to live here and I love this country.  There are three main points that are very important and they are the main focus of the book. In the authors own words I quote- 1. The United States of America was and is the greatest country on earth. 2. Today the United States of America is in serious trouble. 3. You will inherit the United States -and its problems- in just a few short years. I wanted to read this book to my children especially my 12 year old son Jam. However I wanted to read it first so I could be prepared to discuss it with him. Whenever I put the book down and then went to pick it up again I could never find it. Then it would appear again on my table as if it had never been gone. Eventually about the second or third time this happened I decided to find out who was rea...