Kreativ Blogger Award

Kathryn over at The Bookworm has honored me by nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger award because, as she puts it, I'm a "knitter extraordinaire" -- well, after almost 40 years of doing something, it becomes pretty easy! But it makes me feel good that she thinks of me in the creative realm, especially as I just finished writing a new book (which will be published this Spring by Hillside Education) titled In His Image: Nurturing Creativity in the Heart of the Home. How timely is that?

Kathryn is one of those people I "know" through the internet only; we've NEVER met in real life and yet I've known her for 10 or more years. One of these days, I'll go visit her in England!

I love awards like this ... not just because they make me feel warm and fuzzy inside ... but also because I find out about tons of really cool blogs that I didn't know about. And it seems that many of the ladies linked through Kathryn's (going backward) are actually knitters! Very cool!

The rules for acceptance of this award are ...

1. Copy the award to your site
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers
4. Link to those on your blog
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominated.

This is going to be hard as I know so MANY really creative types ... and most of them blog! So, altho this list is not definitive (nor in any set order), it does cover the spectrum of creativity:

1. Mary at Our Domestic Church is my old crafting cohort and is an amazingly creative woman in many, many ways! Someday we may be physically close enough again to craft together; till then, I feast vicariously on her work!
2. Jennifer at As Cozy as Spring has some of the most amazing projects and homeschool ideas; besides, she likes my jokes and is always polite even when I'm wrong.
3. Alice at Cottage Blessings is amazing (and probably getting ready to deliver a baby any day, so may not get this for a while). We still talk about her Lenten Tea and her Advent blocks and other wondrously creative items we use all the time around our home ... all from Alice's creative spirit.
4. Elizabeth at In the Heart of My Home is another of those women that I've known for a long time and finally got to meet this year. Her creativity flourishes in her home and her family ... and she's always willing to share her knowledge and gifts with those around her.
5. Crafty Crow is one of those blogs I check daily (if not more often). She maintains a clearing-house or collective of all kinds of cool, crafty things for kids (and their grown-ups) to do ... from cooking to sewing to collaging ... it's all there! She also maintains her own designer blog at Bella Dia.
6. Joanne at Yarn Spinner is a knitter, designer, spinner and all round wonderful lady to read! She lives with her professor husband and two dogs and still can produce gorgeous stuff. And her blog is just plain fun to read! An interesting side-note is that she and her husband bought my house in Durham when I got remarried 11 years ago! Now, that's a small world.
7. Anne at Under Her Starry Mantle makes Catholicity creative in her love of the Church and the creative ways she shows her devotions. Her craft projects are wonderful, but so too are writings and meditations and just love of life!

As you can see, this is an eclectic mix ... but it's a fun award; don't forget to click backwards to Kathryn's post and so-on. This is like a blogosphere chain-letter where you actually get to "meet" the receivers!

Diliberate Family Living

Lisa over at Hopewell has a great way of keeping track of how she is doing with her goals for living in her family.

Here's how our family has done this week --
Family Prayers:
We've done great with this because we're in such a rhythm. We do our "Priests for Life" Novena each night before Grace and then a family rosary at the end of the mail to pray for the sale of our house as well as prayers for all who have asked us to pray, all those for whom we should pray, and all those who stand in need of prayers. We also do a Morning Offering every morning in the car. I'd like to try adding the Guardian Angel prayer for the littles. Grade: B+

Family Time:
Lots of that lately as we've got a house guest and we're doing tons with her. We've also been watching the NGA art videos every couple of nights to get cultured as a family! Grade: B+

Household Routines:
Wow -- do we stink at this ... this week particularly! Granted, we've had company a bit ... but I have grand plans for really, really sticking to routine ... but then life interrupts in various ways. Grade: D+

Meal Preparation:
I just can't seem to get in the rhythm of meal-planning further than a day or two out. I can do the special meals ... but day-to-day, forget it! (If anyone has some advice, please leave me a comment!)
Lately, we've been doing a lot of seat-of-the-pants meals ... eggs and bacon for dinner last night, St. Teresa Bread the night before (but not anything else I'd planned!). Frustrating, but that will settle now that Fall weather is coming and we can focus more at home (that's the thought anyway!). Grade: D+

Schooling and Kids' Commitments:
Pretty good altho, again because we've had (and are having company) this is going a bit haywire. But then I LOVE that we're taking the time to do field trips and get around and about .... which is such great learning for the kids ... so yes, "school" can wait, but the learning never stops. We've also been good about attending daily Mass this week -- a new record of three this week! Grade: B+

Outside interests (knitting, writing, etc):
Not much done this week but we've been on field trips and entertaining and keeping up the various activities so I don't feel bad these personal things have been pushed out a bit. But, never fear, the knitting will come out tonight when we all sit and chat and RELAX! Grade: D-

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This is a fun way of keeping track of what I want to do vs what I do .... thanks for Leonie's post that brought me to Lisa's blog ....

Tasha Tudor DAY!

OK, this is one of the reasons why I LOVE the homeschooling community. One of our family's all-time favorite authors, Tasha Tudor, died this June. But her memory lives on through all of us ... and some wonderful ladies have decided to celebrate Tasha's work on a special day.

Get more details at Cay's Author Fiesta site and come join in the fun ....

HT to Lissa at Bonny Glen for mentioning this in time for me to actually get organized!

Books: Another giveaway!

Maureen is the author of some excellent Catholic homeschooling books. She is also a frugal homeschooler and always has lots of great tips about saving money. On top of all that, she loves books and has great recommendations that I've used to make my homeschool just a bit better.

Well, seems Maureen is giving books away -- FREE -- ala Cay's Book Walk, so head on over to Maureen's blog and find out how to get involved. BTW, Cay's doing another book walk this week -- the last before Christmas -- so head on over to her blog and get in on that one too!

Don't you love FREE books? And by the way, the actual cost of these books isn't too bad, so if you don't win, go ahead and buy a copy of Maureen's For the Love of Literature or Cay's Christmas Mosaic -- both destined to be classics in the literature-rich homeschool curriculums!

New Banner

So, do you like the new banner? Blogger now makes it much easier to rid my blog of the standard template banner and create my own, unique banner. So do you like the colors? Does the heading say what you think of this blog? Any comments, criticisms, advice would be lovely -- just leave me a comment.

THANKS!

Catholic Moms Blog-roll

So, I have a bit of time yesterday and I stumble across the coolest thing in the blogsphere -- a Catholic Mom Blog-roll run by Angie. Now how cool is that? See the beautiful picture of Our Lady and Jesus on my side-bar. That's the list of all the Catholic moms on the blog-roll -- and some of them are old friends whose blogs I check all the time. But some of these ladies are brand-new and I'm quite excited to check out their blogs.

Seems there is one who is a knitter -- something VERY near and dear to my heart -- and now I've been linked to a group of Catholic knitting moms that I didn't even know existed. Now that makes the blogosphere even more fun for me!

If you're a Catholic mom and have a blog, go ahead and join the "in crowd" and sign up!

Thinking Blogger Awards

Leonie, the unschooler extraordinaire and owner of Living Without School, tagged me for the Thinking Blog Award:

I love reading Leonie's blog -- it's always interesting and often makes me think, smile, and most importantly makes me want to do more unschooling with my own kids. Not only all that, but her blog makes me wish she weren't down-under but rather, down the street so I could go have coffee/tea with her on a daily basis. Now, that's a great blog!

So what does one do with a Thinking Blogger's Award?Well, if you get tagged with a Thinking Blogger Award, you are then supposed to do the following:

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

So here's my list of Thinking Blogs:

1. Kathryn's The Bookworm always has great links to home educating, CM, living books, and just generally sensational insights into how to live, love and learn the little (and the big) ones!
2. Jenn's As Cozy as Spring is just a joy to read -- we're very sympatico! Altho, she does much more nature study than I (but she makes it sound so wonderful, that I'm getting closer to taking the leap)! Her thoughts are truly a joy to read and motivate me so much.
3. Cay's Cajun Cottage under the Oaks always has me running to my library web-site to request books, books and more books. Her philosophy of home-learning is exceptional and I love the way she incorporates her kids into her blog -- discussing how and why and when she does what she does. Plus, I'm learning so much about cajun culture which is extremely important as my eldest heads off into the sunrise in early June to attend LSU!
4. Alicia's Studeo: My Thinking Spot is another daily stop on my blog rounds. Alicia has a way of getting to the heart of the issues and writes so well. And her grasp of catechesis keeps me on my toes! Check out her other blog (of which I am fortunate to be a part), Love2Learn.
5. And last, but most certainly NOT least, is one of my favorite blogs .... and a relative newcomer to the blogosphere ... MaryM's Our Domestic Church goes into great detail abut all things Catholic -- living the liturgical year, growing up kids in the faith, and living/loving/and learning in the heart of the home.... I just wish she would write more...

There are SO MANY OTHERS that I could tag, but these are five of my absolute favorites .... enjoy visiting them and let me know if you agree ....

Homeschool Blogger Awards

Here's the link to the list of all those who won awards -- many of these blogs are 4Realers, so it's quite fun that they won ....

But there are MANY blogs out there that didn't win or weren't nominated, but are still great fun (and VERY HELPFUL) to go check out. Thanks to Susan at 4Real, I've got a 4 Real Learning Blog-roll on my left side bar as well as the Blog Ring .... so grab a cup of coffee or tea and go read some wonderful thoughts, hopes, prayers and advice!

The BEST and FASTEST Bread recipe ever

Thanks to Jenn at Family in Feast and Feria who started it and Mary at Our Domestic Church who passed it on to me, I got involved in one of those crazy, recipe exchange, chain letter things where you have to get 10 of your friends to cooperate otherwise it's your fault the chain is broken. Oh, the STRESS!

Anyway, I went ahead with it all and don't tell the ladies, but I'm so having fun getting recipes in my email box! One friend actually emailed me her 86-page collection of tried-and-true recipes -- and she's a great cook.

But there's one I want to focus on today. A while back 4real friend, Lissa, started a blog to talk about making bread with her daughters. At the time, she asked for recipes and assistance, I didn't have any to give. Well, Lissa my friend, here's a bread recipe that would be great for you and the girls.

I'll call this one Kristie's One-Hour Whole Wheat Bread, as a friend from South Carolina named Kristie sent it to me (aren't I creative?). Enough chit-chat, here's the recipe:

Kristie's One-Hour Whole Wheat Bread
Heat to body temp: 1 c milk + 1 c plain yogurt
meanwhile prove yeast: 1/2 c hot water + 1 T yeast + 1t sugar

Transfer liquids to a large bowl and blend in: 2 c whole wheat flour + 1 T honey

Cover and let rise 15 min in warm spot. . . . .
While waiting, sift into a separate bowl
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 t salt
4 c white flour

When the bowl of batter has sat for 15 minutes (should be bubbly or frothy), then add: 1T oil and the sifted dry ingredients, 1 c at a time, until you have a nice, stiff dough.

Divide into two and knead into 2 stumpy footballs and place on baking sheet.
Cut slashes across the top with a knife and allow to rise another 10 minutes in a warm spot. Bake 400 for 25 minutes.

This makes the BEST wheat bread! One loaf was GONE at dinner and I tried to hide the other loaf, but dh found it and had some for breakfast! It is great with a bit of butter and honey, plain or toasted. And it's so fast to do!

THANKS so much Kristie for this bread recipe! And to all the other wonderful folks who passed on their favs -- my family will be eating really well for a long time!