Friday, June 7, 2013

Random Five on Friday (June 7th): Food Lovers Edition

In My Life This Week . . . 
1.) I have an insane addiction to chocolate and intense sugar cravings with a lack of will power. This is NOT helping me with my weight loss goals. I have gained so much weight since we moved to my in-laws apartment. I know that I am eating unhealthy, not exercising, and I am well aware what I should be doing. UGH!!!! I can't wait to start making some serious changes in my life once we move. I will have no excuses at the new house. The workout room is connected to the classroom. I can fit a quick workout in while Alyssa completes independent work.

2.) We still haven't closed on the house yet. They asked for additional water samples. It's a good thing we canceled our vacation. I pray that we can close quickly without difficulties next week. I am hoping for a smooth transition.

In Our Homeschool This Week . . . 
3.) We received our caterpillar larvae in the mail from Insect Lore approximately a week later. I recently posted about a vendor offering free caterpillar larvae here. The delivery time is NOT guaranteed to be on time from the lady offering them, but it is worth looking into if you would like to discuss life cycles this summer. Be sure to read her page carefully before making a decision to purchase.

My daughter has been reading books to her caterpillar larvae since their arrival. She named them after the main characters from one of the chapter books she is currently reading. The book is from her Poppy Language Arts Unit. Their names are Poppy, Mr. Ocax, Sweet Cecily, Lungwort, and Basil. Basil is the teeny tiny one and the chunky caterpillar is the Mr. Ocax. Yes, she even sings and talks to them. Hopefully, she'll be okay when we release them. The caterpillars are growing sooo fast. Three of our caterpillars are already in the chrysalis stage. We are working diligently through our Moving Beyond the Page Life Cycle unit. We will definitely slow things down a bit and enrich her studies over the summer after the review period ends. This curriculum keeps us very busy! Please check back at the end of the month for my review.
 
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What's Cookin'
4.) I have been experimenting a lot in the kitchen and trying new recipes. Recently, I posted my review for Simplified Dinners which has made dinner time a breeze and less stressful. The first two menu items I made came from her e-book. Menu planning has simplified my life.

I also found out the other day that I will be writing a Molly Crew review for Christi the Coupon Coach: Couponing Made Simple next month. I look forward to saving money on my grocery bills while only purchasing items that I usually use to cook popular family meals.

Potato Hash
My husband has been asking me to make this dish all week. He is a definite bacon lover. I finally made it for him and he LOVED it! The great thing about potato hash is how versatile it can be. You can add anything you want and top it with a fried egg. The bacon softened as the potatoes cooked. I prefer crispy bacon so I may add the bacon later if we make this dish again and use a little bacon grease for flavor. My daughter and husband gave it raving reviews.

Honey Balsamic Fish with Asparagus and Sweet Potatoes
Surprisingly, this dish was tasty. We thought for sure that we wouldn't like it, because we aren't too fond of the balsamic vinegar. It actually made the fish more flavorful. We mixed the butter, balsamic vinegar, and honey with seasonings. My family licked their plates clean . . . well, not really but they finished their meal in record time.

Banana Bread
I also made some delicious peanut butter banana bread. I found a super recipe on Pinterest. My husband LOVES my banana bread, but this was a nice change. I didn't have any mini Reece's peanut butter cups on hand so I used leftover peanut butter chips and a few dark bittersweet chocolate chips. Yummy! It was so good!

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing
5.) We are going to see Freckleface Strawberry: The Musical at the Magik Theater tonight. We will meet our friends at the theater. The theater owners don't allow photographs during the show for obvious reasons, but we hope to snap a few shots of Alyssa and Summer obtaining autographs.  

I will link this post up at Random 5 on Friday hosted by Miranda at The Pebble Pond. Please join the fun and link up your random five thoughts, facts, or occurrences. I will also link this post at The Homeschool Mother's Journal at So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler and Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.


Thank you for visiting A Learning Journey!

God bless, 
Tracey Masters

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